The Last Wolf Prince

4 - The Truth

~~Raya’s PoV~~

The inside of the castle is gloomier than I expected. I’ve never been in a castle before that wasn't a ruin, since there weren't any in the camp I grew up in. Although this one looks solid and permanent now, it had crumbled by the time I was born. It is strange to think about the fact that this building will fall and all the people in it, all the people we pass on our way through the corridor, are long gone.

Or they were, before the future became the past and the past became the present.

It's confusing, to say the least.

The only building we had in the camp was the one where the children were raised, but it had a lot of windows, probably so there weren't any places for the adult wolves to hide during the hunt. In contrast, the castle walls are mostly stone with only small windows dotted around, and the glass in those windows is slightly murky rather than clear. The interior is lit by candlelight, but it doesn’t do much to brighten up the darkness.

We pass several open doorways and there is a constant buzz of people and activity. Bertie is still with me, which I appreciate. Although he seems inept in many ways, the others here still defer to him. His position seems to grant him their respect even if his bearing doesn't, and though I'm given several curious looks because of my clothes or my smell, no one challenges me, not with Bertie beside me.

At the end of the corridor there is a closed door, and Bertie opens it, taking us into a small room with a circular table and chairs set up around it. We are soon joined by some older men who all give me curious and slightly wary looks as they sit down too. They are dressed more formally than Bertie and Tristan and the other soldiers we encountered in the woods, with lace collars and longer hair that curls down to their shoulders. They look more feminine than I do, and it suddenly makes a bit more sense to me why everyone is assuming that I am male.

Bertie begins to hum a tune I don't recognize, but no one speaks until Tristan joins us a few moments later.

As soon as he walks in the room, immediately commanding everyone's attention, that quiet murmur starts up again in my head. I listen as closely as I can, but I still can’t make out any words, and the noise is a distraction. I’m sorry, Avelin, I apologize to my wolf. I can’t understand you, and I need to concentrate now. Can you tell me whatever it is later?

She goes silent and I immediately feel guilty, even though what I said is true. It's not that I don't want to talk to her, but this could be the most important meeting of my life. Somehow, I need to convince these men to listen to me. They need to believe that I have truly come here from the future and that the warning I’m here to give them is sincere.

If they doubt me, this will all have been for nothing, and I can’t let that happen. I won’t.

As Tristan closes the door behind him and takes a seat, he gives me a nod that I take as an invitation to speak. Clearing my throat, I dive in.

“Thank you for taking the time to meet with me,” I begin. “I know that, as an outsider here, you would have been completely within your rights to imprison me, or worse. I appreciate that you have agreed to hear me out.”

“We don’t generally imprison people who have done us no harm,” Tristan says, his strong voice filling the small space of the room. He seems to dominate the whole scene, and it's hard to pay attention to anyone else. “But if you are here to harm us, our mercy will quickly turn sour. Bear that in mind before you say whatever it is you have come here to say.”

Avelin makes another noise in my head, but I don’t know what it means. I do my best to ignore her and focus on the task at hand. “Believe me, I mean you no harm. Quite the opposite, in fact, but what I am about to tell you will sound unbelievable to you. I hardly believe it myself. It’s quite a story.”

Bertie’s eyes light up and he reaches out to put his hand on my arm. “Oh, I love a story! Does it have a happy ending?”

A loud growl echoes around the room, and everyone looks at Tristan in surprise. He looks almost as startled as everyone else is that the sound came from him.

He swallows hard, his jaw clenched tightly. “Bertie, take your hand off the boy. Give him some space.”

Once again, I’m a little insulted at being called a boy, and I consider setting the record straight now, but it’s not as important as what I need to tell them. And besides, maybe they will actually listen to me more if they think I am male. I don’t know how females are treated in this time, but I haven’t seen any yet among the prince’s men or the king’s advisors, so that seems a pretty good indication that their status is not equal to that of men.

Exactly why Tristan is so bothered by Bertie touching me, though, I have no idea.

“You have already noticed that I am not like you,” I point out. “My clothes, my way of speaking, it’s all different.”

“Are you a special kind of wolf from across the sea?” Bertie asks, unable to keep quiet. “With diamonds in your fur?”

What? Diamonds? I glance over at Tristan who has his lips pursed together like he's not sure whether to laugh or roll his eyes, and it makes me want to smile too.

“No, Bertie,” I tell him gently. “I am a regular werewolf, just like you, and I have lived all my life in these woods.”

That sends a murmur of surprise through the men, and Tristan’s eyes narrow suspiciously. “That’s not possible. We would have found you before this. Every inch of these woods is patrolled.”

“I'm sure it is,” I assure him. “But although I lived here, I was born many, many years after you all died. I only arrived here in your time today.”

Confused looks are tossed around the room, which I expected. It’s a lot to take in. The men whisper among themselves, as Bertie looks at me uncertainly. "I don't understand this story."

Tristan, however, understands me perfectly. “You’re saying you’re from the future?”

“Yes.” It must sound ridiculous to them, but it’s the truth, and I need them to believe it.

The men start to whisper again, but this time I can hear the words ‘mad’ and ‘witch’ being tossed around, which is not a good sign.

I try to explain further without overwhelming them with too much information all at once. “I know it might seem hard to believe, but you must listen to me. My people went to a great deal of work to send me back here and to help you. If you don’t defeat the Faceless…”

“Everyone out, now.” Tristan’s firm command leaves no room for argument, and the king’s advisors get to their feet as Tristan glares at them. “You heard none of this. If you breathe a word to anyone, you will be exiled from the kingdom, do you understand me?”

They nod and leave the room hastily, but not before giving me suspicious looks on their way out the door.

Tristan looks over at the prince. “Bertie, you too. Go and have something to eat.”

“But I want to hear the rest of the story,” Bertie pouts, putting his hand on my arm again. “What is it like in the future? Are there suits of armor that can walk by themselves?"

I don’t know how to answer that, but I don’t have to. Tristan growls again, even louder than he did before. “Get your hands off him, NOW!"

The power coming off of Tristan is extraordinary, and my head bows naturally, without me even realizing I'm doing it. He must have a great deal of royal blood in him.

The prince, however, merely sighs. “Fine. Ryan will tell me all about it later, won’t you?”

He gives me a wink and I can’t help but smile back at him, even though Tristan is still glowering at both of us. "I will, Bertie. Thank you."

Tristan doesn’t say anything as Bertie leaves and closes the door behind him. It’s only then that his eyes come back to me, deep and intense, but still he does not speak. He seems to be struggling with something, and I can only imagine it's whether to lock me up as a madwoman or not.

“I know what I've said is difficult to believe, but you must hear me out. And the king's men too, and the prince, they all need to hear this..."

“Why are you really here?” he demands, cutting me off and leaning so far across the table I could almost reach out and touch him. “Who sent you?”

“I told you who sent me, the people from my time,” I remind him. “Perhaps it sounds crazy, but it is the truth. If you don’t listen to me, Prince Bertram is going to die, and with him, all chance of defeating the Faceless. I came back to stop that from happening. I came back to save him.”

“Bertie will die?” He looks genuinely horrified at the idea, making me suspect he actually likes the prince a lot more than he lets on. His pain at the idea seems as much personal as it is professional.

I nod, seizing on this show of emotion to try to forge a connection with him. “They are going to come for him, and soon, since without him, there is no chance of defeating them. In my time, he is known as ‘the last wolf prince.’ He is a legend.”

The idea of Bertie as a figure of legend makes us both smile, for just a second.

“We don’t know much about these Faceless creatures,” he admits to me. “Are you saying you know how to defeat them?”

“Sort of.”

“Sort of?” he repeats in disbelief. “You were sent here from the future because you ‘sort of’ know how to fight our enemy?”

“It’s better than nothing,” I argue back in my defense. “You just said you know nothing about them. Working together, we have a better chance.”

“And why would they choose a boy like you for the job?” He looks over my slight frame in confusion, his eyes lingering on my body slightly longer than necessary. If I didn't know better, I would almost think there was a flash of interest there.

I tell him the truth. There is no point in lying, not when I need his trust so badly. “I was chosen because of the power in my blood. And before you insult me yet again, I am not a boy.”

His eyebrows raise at my defiance. “I can hardly call you a man.”

I raise mine right back at him. “And you shouldn't, since that would be just as wrong.”

Now, his eyebrows draw together in a confused look. “What do you mean?”

I take a deep breath before introducing myself properly at last. “My name is Raya, not Ryan, and I am a daughter of the Valerian line, the last of my kind. That is one thing that Bertie and I have in common.”

Tristan’s eyes scan me again, this time in complete shock and disbelief. “Daughter? You’re… you’re a woman?”

He looks surprised but also incredibly… relieved. I don’t know why it matters so much to him, I just didn’t want him calling me a boy anymore, so I nod in confirmation. "I am."

He almost smiles until he realizes what else I said and his eyes go even wider. “Did you say Valerian?”

I’m glad the name means something to him. That will make this easier. “Yes. I am a woman and I’m Valerian. Now, will you please let me speak?”