Princess Luna

Chapter 2 - Frustrations

Leo’s POV

“Are you even paying attention, Leonard?” The king booms. As if I would ever make the grave error of not listening carefully to his majesty’s every syllable!

“Yes, sir,” I grate out trying to look as if I’m smiling rather than gnashing my teeth. “Gross domestic product is down, productivity is down, inflation is high, and the population is booming.”

“Do you have any ideas or solutions as to what can be done about any of those issues?” The king says calmly enough, although I expect he will be having one of his infamous Royal tantrums any moment now.

“Well… some wolves might not like being told that they need to work harder and have fewer pups, but if we could get everyone on board, that would solve every one of those problems, wouldn’t it?”

“Says the wolf who makes my daughter run his pack for him while she is expecting her seventh and eighth pups!” The king snidely remarks. I notice the few other politicians in the room looking uncomfortable.

“If you’re so concerned about Amelia’s well being, then go ahead and send me back there! I didn’t exactly volunteer for this training, you know.” I say as calmly as I can manage, knowing that losing my temper wouldn’t go over too well. I see he is contemplating my words carefully for a minute before he says something that is completely outrageous.

“You can go back to Bull Run anytime you want to, Leonard,” the Kings says suddenly to my surprise. “I’ll even let you out of all this training that you despise so much. You don’t have to be my heir at all, if you’d rather not. But my grandson will stay here in the capital. Permanently.”

Now I’m wishing that I hadn’t stopped Amelia from coming with us to the capital in order to kick her dads ass, as she so eloquently put it. He is really starting to tick me off!

“No.”

“Think about it for a while.” The King says, trying to sound diplomatic rather than tyrannical for a change of pace. “You have plenty of other offspring, and even have two more on the way. You’ll hardly notice he’s gone.”

“No.”

“I could order it done, if you won’t agree peacefully.” The king begins to threaten me.

“I don’t think you really want to do that, Alex,” I tell him, knowing I have a few cards up my sleeve. “Certainly not in a room full of witnesses. If word got out that you were forcing a loving parent to give up their 10 year old son against their will, who in their right mind would still want to follow you? And my lycan Frankincense informs me that we are stronger than you, so ordering me to do anything that is against my own conscience isn’t going to work. And you know Amelia would never agree to the separation. So I think you are out of luck.”

The king glares at me for some time, but I don’t back down. Eventually, he appears as if he’s given up, but I suspect this will not be the end of it. For now he is moving on to some other stupid piece of diplomatic bullshit that apparently needs the attention of the king. Something about the amount of deforestation going on in the Olympic peninsula from logging. I don’t know or care, still angry with the king’s unreasonable demand to take my son away from me and his mother.

I decide I better not tell Amelia, or she will be making the 5 hour drive here in person to slap her father around and probably end up in prison or worse. Then the king would have more than enough reason to take young Alex away from us. Amelia would be devastated! No, I better avoid letting her know what’s going on at all costs. I can carry this burden for the both of us.

After the afternoon’s meeting is over, I want to head back to the royal residence within the palace to check on my son, when the Royal Gamma Glen pulls me aside and takes me to a small empty office.

“What we discuss in here is to remain between you and I.” Glen begins, sounding almost like some form letter that he is checking off boxes. “The king does not know that I am talking with you, and I would prefer it remain that way.”

“Do I really want to be a party to whatever this is, then? I don’t want want to be seen as if I am conspiring against him in some treasonous plot.”

“Oh, no. It’s nothing like that!” Glen assures me, but I’m not feeling all that reassured. “It just that recently the Queen Luna suspected that she was pregnant. Only when she went to consult her physician, it turns out that she has entered menopause. The King has lost his last hope that he might sire his own direct heir to the throne.”

“While I sympathize with his dilemma, I still don’t believe that taking my son away from me will be in young Alex’s best interest.” I say bluntly. “At home he is surrounded by his friends, his loving family, and everything that he needs for a happy childhood. What does he have here?”

“His future.” Glen responds immediately. “Mentoring from the king to ensure a smooth transition of power in the future. The king needs to be seen with his heir at public events, to quell any discontent among our nation and to the world regarding the stability of our kingdom. We should not appear weak if we are to ensure the continuation of the monarchy! We need to show we are strong, and that the kingdom will continue to be run smoothly. Disagreement with the king in public like this afternoons meeting is sending the wrong message.”

“Then he should not have brought up the idea of taking my son away from me in public!” I shout. “He was spoiling for a fight, if you didn’t notice. If he didn’t want me to disagree with him in public, he should have brought up the matter in private.”

“The fact that you disagree with him at all is why he wants to bypass you in the line of succession.” Glen informs me. “He is hoping that by mentoring young Alex from a young age that he will be able to make the child a more amenable student than you have been.”

“He basically wants another yes man to add to his ranks,” I say angrily. “As well as a polished politician, rather than someone who asks questions instead of doing exactly as they are told, or doing things as they’ve always been done, you mean!”

“He doesn’t see it that way.” Glen says cooly, “but it’s true none the less. He had hoped that you wouldn’t fight him on every little matter. But you have. And with you having such a strong Royal Lycan, he is actually quite afraid of you.”

“Afraid of me?”

“Afraid of Frankincense, actually,” Glen informs me. “Somehow you ended up with his grandfather’s Lycanthrope. As a child, he was quite afraid of his grandfather with his strick and unfriendly lycan. They didn’t get along well as he grew, either. He suffered quite a shock when he saw you transform before his very eyes into the very beast he had detested so much in his youth.”

“I didn’t know any of that,” I say. “But it doesn’t excuse anything. I am not his grandfather, his grandmother, his aunt, or the best friend of his 2nd cousin thrice removed. I am just me. And he is going to have to deal with that fact since he only made me his heir during that ill conceived blood oath that I was forced to consent to. One that would not have been necessary at all if he hadn’t tried to kill me thinking that would force Amelia to marry someone he chose for her. I honestly don’t trust the king’s judgement. And therefore I will never consent to let him raise a goldfish, let alone one of my own sons.”

“I hope to goddess we don’t all regret that decision.” Glen says. I decide to take my leave at that point and go spend some time with my son.

I found young Alex in the family quarters of the royal palace, playing at dolls with his little aunts, who owned an enormous doll house filled with plenty of elegant furnishings and several dolls with complete wardrobes. Isabelle was only about a week older than the triplets, and Janette was 2 years younger. Alex looked really bored, but he didn’t complain about it within their hearing.

“Hey Alex, did you have a good day today while I attended a bunch of boring meetings?” I ask. He just shrugged his shoulders. “What did you do all day?”

He just shrugged his shoulders again.

“Oh my goddess, I’ve gone deaf!” I gasp, and pretend to unclog my ears. “I can’t even hear the sweet voice my own son speak to me! Woe is me!”

“Stop it dad!” Alex says with an eye roll.

“It’s a miracle! The goddess has restored my hearing! All praise Selene, the restorer of parents ears!”

“You’re so embarrassing!”

“So let’s start over,” I say, hoping he will play along. “Hey son, how was your day…? Now you say “boring, but not nearly as boring as yours!””

“Izzy and Jan’s governess made us read history books for a couple hours. Then we went to the park. We had something gross for lunch, I think it was called pate, it was some dry tasting gray paste which was served on dry toast with little green leaves, and a bowl of some soup I can’t even pronounce. Then the girls just wanted to play with their dolls all afternoon. I got to be the prince doll, and the girls would fight over who the prince wanted to marry. Satisfied?”

“You win the most boring day award.” I tell him, and give him a friendly pat on the head for being such a good sport about everything. Yeah, there is absolutely no way I’m going to subject my son to this life any more than what I have already agreed to.