Princess Luna

Chapter 5 - Oh Leo, where art thou?

Leo’s POV

I lay on the uncomfortable little cot for some time contemplating my situation. It’s not like I have anything better to do. I have absolutely nothing of interest to look at in this cell. The walls, floors, and ceiling have no ornamentation of any kind. There is no TV or books. No phone. Not even a clock to know what time it is or how long I’ve been here. The light is dim, though, so I imagine it must still be night, hopefully the same night I was taken.

Are they hoping to drive me mad? Because this might just do it.

“Hello?” I say loudly, suddenly wondering if there was anyone nearby.

“Oh, you’re awake? Good.” I hear a response from just the other side of the door.

“Glen?”

“Yeah, it’s me.” He says, opening the little hatch in the door so I could see his face. As soon as he lets go it swings shut, pinching his fingers. “Dammit!”

He opens it again and holds it open better this time.

“Listen, I don’t know how much time we have, but Amelia should be calling you very soon.” He tells me, and I’m torn between excitement and worry about what this might mean. “As soon as the phone starts ringing, I’ll push it through the slot in the bottom of the door. You will have only a few seconds to talk though, and I can’t actually give you the phone. If you try to take it from me, we will both end up punished. Got it?”

“I think so.” I say uncertain.

“You might want to get on the floor near the door to be ready.” Glen suggests, and I do just that. And we wait.

“Any idea what going on?” I ask after a few minutes.

“Well, your mate is a very intelligent she wolf who figured out straight away that you were not the one texting her all evening. The king figures that she will be demanding proof soon that you are alive.”

Before I can comprehend what all that means, I hear the phone begin ringing, and Glen drops to the floor and shoved his arm quickly through the flap. I press the talk button and put my ear near the phone.

“Amelia, is that you? Where are you?” I say quickly into the phone, knowing I have very little time.

“It’s me! I came to the capital to bring you and Alex home!” She says, and I feel joy and alarm in equal measures.

“Your father had me thrown into the dungeon claiming some treasonous plot! But it’s a lie!” I shout out, and then Glen has yanked the phone away before either of us can say anything more.

I continue to lay on the floor, depressed, for some time. The king now has even more of my family members under his thumb, but I think he is greatly underestimating his daughter.

My Lycan Frankincense is strong, but Ambrosia is even stronger. Amelia and Ambrosia could command an army if she ever needed to. Everyone would flock to her, thanks to her strong Royal aura and her usually sweet and gentle nature. And I think that is why the king is worried, and keeps such a close eye on us. He’s becoming paranoid that we want to overthrow him and remove his sorry ass from the throne. I didn’t consider that at all before this evening, but right now it’s suddenly starting to seem like a worthwhile endeavor.

I never wanted to be an Alpha, let alone heir to the throne of the Emerald Kingdom. I was much happier living in a mediocre little pack deep in the woods near Mt. Hood, an hour east of Portland Oregon. But this stunt that Alexander the Great was pulling was getting way out of control.

And then it got worse.

I hear Glen gasp on the other side of the door, and begin to moan in agony.

“What’s wrong? What’s going on?” I ask, worried that Glen and I had somehow messed up the phone call and Glen was being punished somehow. And when Glen pushes his own phone through the flap and I see the photo on the little screen of his son lying dead, his throat slashed, I feel my heart sink and I begin to panic!

“What the f**k?” I exclaim at the sight of the disturbing photo, and Glen slides it back through the little flap. “I’m so sorry, Glen. I didn’t know we’d get in trouble for telling Amelia where I was or why. This is all my fault!”

“This happened before the phone call, according to the king, and before he could confront Amelia.” Glen informs me after he manages to pull himself together a little. “Apparently she’s become completely unhinged, killing Jason first, and then she grabbed the boy and ran off. The king was worried for the safety of his grandchild, so he let them go.”

I gasp at that. Something doesn’t quite add up in all this. I knew she wasn’t all that fond of the Gamma that the king insisted on appointing for her, but to kill him? I can’t believe she’d do that without good reason.

“The king says he will gather all the evidence he needs, and then create a task force to find her and the pups before she does anything to harm them.” Glen promises.

“What?” I gasp, hardly believing my own ears. “Amelia would never harm her own pups! This is all just some farce the king has concocted to take Alex away from us!”

“I told you that you’d end up regretting disagreeing with the king. And now my son is DEAD because of you!” Glen shouted. “I’ll be dancing in the streets when you are executed for treason.”

“I never committed treason, and you know it!” I say. “He can’t possibly have any proof of something I never did!”

“Leonard, you are too naive.” Glen says sadly. “He has all the proof he needs. Yesterday in that office, with you and I talking? I followed the script, and the king recorded it all! You even said the word treason without any prompting what so ever. And he took those recordings and altered them to make it say exactly what he needed it to. Even what we are saying now is being recorded.”

“Well then listen up, all you assholes who are listening in,” I say, gearing up for the performance of my life. “I am innocent of the charges against me. My only crime is that I think for myself and disagreed with the king. If the king can have me executed for the crime of having an opinion, he could do the same to any of you, too! Or your families and friends. Is that the kind of king you want to follow? One who thinks it’s perfectly reasonable to take a 10 year old boy away from his loving family, just because he decided that he wanted the boy?”

“Alexander William Worthing made me his heir against my will. I do not even wish for this title, and he knows it. And now he has decided that he would prefer my son over me, but he can’t just get rid of me because he swore an oath in blood to the moon goddess, using the stone of the kingdom. His only way to get out of it is to get rid of ME! And the king knows if he harms one hair on my head, that my mate will destroy him and everything he holds dear unless he can somehow destroy her first. To everyone listening, you have been warned. If you don’t side with my mate Amelia, then you are siding with a tyrant who cares nothing about you or the things that matter to you. He cares only about power and keeping up appearances. He’s been spying on my family for years, carefully recording the things we say, then twisting the words with technology to suit his needs. While Amelia cares about everyone! And she is blessed by the moon goddess. I implore you all to think carefully before you choose a side.”

I finish off, realizing I had been standing and looking right at where the camera is most likely hidden. I hope Alexander the Great is squirming right now, and hopefully rethinking things before they get even more out of hand.

I lay down on the uncomfortable cot, my hands placed behind my head, and my legs crossed in a casual pose. I certainly have nothing better to do right now.

“That was quite a speech,” Glen comments from the other side of the door. “You sure you’re not a politician?”

“Absolutely not!” I reply. And then I hear his footsteps walking away. And I prepare myself for the loneliness I expect will be my constant companion for the foreseeable future. Then I decide sleep is the best option for now. Once the twins are born there will a lot of sleepless nights. And I pray to moon goddess to look after my family before I drift off to dreamland, where my mate and I frolic together in the forest around Mt. Hood.