The Nerdy Prince and His Nemesis.

Chapter Nine. Reggie.

Chapter Nine. Reggie.

The small, picturesque cottage, which was nestled between two large oak trees, was shrouded in darkness. The curtains, once again, had remained shut, despite the bright light of the warm summer’s eve. Inside, huddled in the corner, Reggie sat, staring into space. It has been the same daily routine for months. He did nothing, went nowhere, and just sat, not wanting to face the world. His twin sister was gone, and he had known deep in his heart that something wasn’t right. Nobody would listen to him, until finally they realised, he was correct all along. He hated to be in the same room as his pack, they offered him no comfort, despite their best efforts. No, Reggie required darkness and solitude. Gone were the days when he would be a social butterfly. His Irish charm had, made him an eternal flirt, attracting the attention of many a woman. Both, human and werewolf. He had not found his mate, and despite the advice of his parents, Alpha and Luna, had embarked on taking full advantage of the ladies, and the not so ladylike women who made their intentions known to him. No, now he was a recluse, preferring darkness to light, and solitude to being among people.

Reggie would never admit it, if asked, because people would look at him as if he had lost his last marble. But. When he was alone, in the darkness, he felt in some weird and unexplainable way, closer to his twin. His mind wandered, as it often did, to happier times.

He had been a sneaky child, taking great joy out of winding up his twin sister, so that she would lash out and gain a subsequent punishment for her actions. It was his favourite pass time. However, as a now young adult, he felt the sibling rivalry that existed between them was childish and harmful to his sister. Deep down, Reggie blamed himself for her choosing to move away from the safety of the pack, and the love of their family. Despite every sneaky trick he had pulled on his twin, he loved her more than he loved anyone else in the world. Being without her, for over 3 years, was akin to losing a limb. He wanted to see her again, so badly. To pinch her in the side, in the spot he knew she hated the most, and take a punch in the face for his troubles. It was a strange dynamic, but it was his way of showing her that no matter what, he loved her. However, he also knew these actions were what probably drove her away, and now, she was God knows where, with God knows who.

His only comfort was that, both he, and Oscar his wolf believed she still lived. He had confidence that one day Ronnie would return, however, with each passing day, the light of that hope diminished ever so slightly, and he could not help but wonder if she was in fact gone for good, and he was holding on nothing but a pipe dream.

Reggie let out a long, lamented sigh. His father had arrived this morning, to inform him that Prince Hamish, the nerd, was coming to the pack, to help them with the search. Reggie knew the prince only slightly. It had been years since he last set eyes on any of the royals. The prince had been closer to Lucas, his elder brother, and Max the future Alpha of Harvest Moon. When he did visit the pack, Reggie did not really bother much with Hamish. He was too busy being a social butterfly, and the prince was too busy doing something on his computers. If he was honest, he found the youngest son of the infamous Chloe and Zander Colton, a little boring. He was older, and into puzzles, and from what he could remember, Star Wars. Ronnie, however, had loved Hamish, he was just as nerdy as she was, but without her temper. She would follow him around like a lost puppy, until he showed her something he was working on, and teaching her all about how he had made whatever program he had produced work.

Reggie’s father had begged him to come to the pack house, when he had visited that morning. To meet the prince upon his arrival, but he had deemed the whole thing pointless. Nobody knew where Ronnie was, and he doubted the Nerdy Prince would hang around long enough to find her, after all, with the great awakening, and the multitude of battles they had being fighting of late, interest in find his twin would probably be bottom of his list of things he had to deal with. Reggie was in no mood to go smile and play lip service to a member of the royal family, who, he had no doubt had the best of intentions in visiting The Royal Harvest Moon pack, but he found highly improbable, would have the time and dedication required to find Ronnie.

Hamish sat, listening to every single detail the pack had to add on Ronnie’s disappearance, documenting every facet of the information given to him. He determined that he would put together a timeline of events, once they were finished with the interview, then his first port of call would be to find information on Liza. Venus was currently looking through her mobile phone, for a picture Ronnie had sent to her, the night she had told her that she was heading for a club and asking how they had looked. The prince was thankful, that girls always stressed about what they were wearing, and he would have an image of both Liza and the most beautiful girl in the world to work with. Not that he should be focusing on Ronnie’s beauty right now. But now his mother’s visit was over, and he was fully focused on finding her, he found that his eyes were constantly returning to her picture. He needed to lock that strange desire, which was alien to him, having never experienced it before, into a box in his mind and concentrate on the important thing of finding her. He could ill afford to begin hyper focusing and obsessing on what that was about.

Hamish had never understood the obsession girls had with clothes. To him, they had little more than a functional purpose. However, he had closet filled with designer suits, dress down wear, and of course his ceremonial kilts, along with some he wore just because they were comfortable, and it was freeing not to be restricted in a pair of pants, either the US version, or the UK, after all a true Scotsman never wore anything under his kilt. His wardrobe of clothes back at Crescent Moon, was not because of anything he wanted or requested, but because of his sister Becca’s insistence in ensuring everyone was dressed their best. Even his mother had a weird affiliation with clothes. Although hers were more outlandish than anything else, with her own unique sense of style. But she loved to make items different, normally with a pack of safety pins, and ripping holes in perfectly serviceable garments.

However, when his mobile phone pinged with the image from Venus, he was finding the appeal of clothing a lot more interesting. The red haired, wild beauty took his breath away, as she stood in a barely there, green dress, she was wearing which had Kylo his wolf growling in protest, for some unfathomable reason. Alongside his beautiful Ronnie, was a girl with bleach blonde hair, in a white sequenced dress who with one look at her image he didn’t trust.

As his eyes glanced at Ronnie again, he was now grateful for clothes being important to so many people. Not only because it gave him a clue for his mission, but because the image of Ronnie, her red corkscrew curls handing down her back, looking so tempting, as she smiled, directly into the lens of the camera. The image had his heart racing faster than if he had completed a four-hour training session fighting with his mother. Another strange phenomenon to the normally studious wolf.

“I am going to write up a timeline of events. Tomorrow, I will be heading over to Montseny, to the shifter bar. I know you went there Ronan, but they are a closed bunch in that place. They may talk to me or my sister Phoenix,” Hamish informed the group.

“But before I do any of that. I need to go see Reggie,” the prince smiled.

“Good luck with that. He is a recluse and will not answer the door half the time,” Max huffed slightly.

“If you need to speak with him Hamish. I will happily come along with you and Alpha Command him to open the door. I don’t like doing it, but to be honest, enough is enough of his pity party. He needs to help,” Alpha Mars growled, as Davina placed her hand on his chest to calm her mate down.

“No need. If I cannot convince him to let me in, I can use my royal tone. It is not as strong as Asher’s, with him being king, or my parents, but it still is pretty powerful,” Hamish declared.

“Okay. Well, I will walk down there with you anyway. Show you where he is and check on the southern border whilst I am there. We have had a few humans wander over our borders of late, and I am unsure if it is deliberately, or by accident. You can never tell since the great awakening,” Mars sighed, as Hamish nodded his head, closed up his laptop, and placed it, with the printed photo of Ronnie into his bag, before slinging it over his shoulder and following the Alpha, out of the pack house, for the ten-mile hike towards where Reggie had found his solitude.

“I know it is not the best of circumstances, but it is good to see you Hamish. I miss the years when you pups were young and filling the house we had at Crescent Moon with laughter,” Mars turned to the prince.

“Yeah. I remember the jungle gym out the back. It is still there you know, used by pups of new packs. Also, I remember hounding poor Siobhan on how to make a program,” Hamish grinned back at the Alpha.

“That was only for a few weeks, when you surpassed her talents. It made her feel a little lost at the time,” Mars chuckled at him.

“However, it was good preparation for Ronnie, because she was a whizz kid much like you were. However, she would still spend hours with Venus locked in her bedroom, talking about boys when they thought we were not listening to them,” Mars once again chuckled at his memories.

“My niece, Catalina, the youngest of Phoenix’s triplets has a crush on the son of some actor. She is only 11 years old,” Hamish smiled, remembering his conversation with Zoe before arriving at the pack earlier that day.

“Yeah, that was around the age when I heard that my daughter had a crush on Lucas. Mind you, that worked out well, as he was her mate,” Mars smiled.

“I do believe that Ronnie had a little crush on you,” the alpha continued.

Hamish felt his heart constrict in his chest at the thought the beautiful woman in the picture, had a crush on him as a girl.

“I had a soft spot for her as well. She always got into trouble, when Reggie was the one to start it,” Hamish smiled, as the cottage between the two large oaks came into view.

“That is where Reggie is. I am heading further south. Good luck,” Mars nodded toward the stone built small cottage, which was out in the middle of nowhere.

Hamish stood outside the door, unsure of the welcome he would receive from Ronnie's twin and knocked, hoping beyond hope that he would not need to use his Royal tone to gain access, but knowing if the conversation had half a chance of giving him extra information, he would do exactly that.