The Lycan King's Rebellious Queen

Red

We listened to the soft tone of a gentle song that was playing as we drove down several old tracks. I could tell the roads were used often yet they remained small and tidy not taking up to much of the glorious countryside. The farther we drove the more houses I was beginning to see.

Back home everywhere you looked there were buildings upon buildings, most had been reconstructed to fit as many people inside of them as humanly possible. But, these were different, these were the type of houses I dreamt of growing up. Just as the notion entered my brain we passed a house that brought the image of my dream to life. A single white house with a porch and a single porch swing hanging from the corner. Plenty of garden space for the children to run around playing for hours and a vegetable patch to grow our own food.

I smiled as we passed seeing a little pink bicycle out the front on the lawn, at least someone was living the life I dreamt of. We passed more houses each one looked different from the last, nothing was out of place nowhere had been vandalized it looked too perfect to be true.

"What's the crime rate like around here?" Lee asked from the back seat. I laughed internally knowing she was thinking exactly the same as I was, the first thing she looked at when we found our place was the crime rate and closest bunker,

"Zero" Archer answered her as he turned another corner. "We help one another here, even if someone was to commit a crime we would just follow their scent back to them, they couldn't deny it so people just don't bother. We are a community that looks out for one another, it's not every man for himself like back in your territory. If someone is in desperate need of help and the community can't help then they come to me and I will sort out whatever they need, everyones happy here" he explained.

"Do you have bunkers here? or any kind of evacuation process" she asked, I could tell by her voice she was genuinely interested.

"We have several Bunkers hidden around the territory like yourself in case of invasion or an attack but they have never been used, nobody really plans on coming here to cause trouble and the ones that have tried have never made it too far" he smiled as if he was pleased of his statement.

As I listened to them and continued looking at each house as we passed I noticed something, "Where is everyone?" realising I hadn't seen a single soul.

"Most are helping with tomorrow's preparations, alot of the women are making decorations or cooking. I can guarantee that the main square in town will be filled with people, the children have a football game today, we have local teams that like a friendly game every week. They can be very competitive around here" he explained as he slowed down the car, "Town is just down that road" he pointed to the left, I could see several buildings down there then I could hear the faint cheers in the distance. "Someone's just scored" he chuckled.

I turned and looked to my right, there was a large brick archway with the word 'Weston' carved into a fancy wooden plate. Weston was Archer's surname so I knew straight away this was the way to his place. "As you can probably guess this is the way home" he said as we drove through the arch.

The trees cleared and a hill became visible in front of us, I leaned forward and looked at the peak where I could make out the shape of a roof of a building. "You live up there?" I pointed to the small wooden red house.

"I do indeed, there are four roads out of here, all four have an archway so it will take you time to get to know each way as they do look similar. The packhouse is the only house in here but we do have people stay over from time to time, it's for the people at the end of the day but my quarters are off limits to them and they understand that" he continued explaining.

"How many bedrooms has the pack house got?" Lee asked leaning forward to get a better look.

"Including mine there are 22,"

Lee whistled as she sat back in her seat, "I do not want your electric bill at the end of the year" she joked.

Archer laughed, "We are self-sufficient and the majority of the electricity here is solar-powered, We have worked out a way to keep the costs down on everything, I don't like to rely on others for help, that way nobody can use it against you"

"Clever way of thinking, maybe the king should have taken a leaf out of your book" Lee complimented.

"He would never have achieved what we have here, his people are not loyal" What did he mean by that? As far as I knew they were very loyal, did he know something we didn't?

The red building came into view, don't get me wrong it was big but how did 22 bedrooms fit inside of that? I was about to ask when he steered the car away from it and around a large circular lawn. Thats when I first saw the packhouse, it was a grande building standing several stories high, covering several thousand square feet. "This is where you live?" I asked in shock as I looked up at the bell tower at the very peek.

"Yep, don't worry you won't think it's that great when you see the amount of stairs you have to climb every day" he laughed as he pulled the car to a stop.

Archer jumped out closing his door behind him and walked around the car opening both Lee's door and mine at the same time. "Welcome home," he said with a strange look in his eye, he held out his hand and helped me out of the car.

I politely took it feeling the warmness of his fingers as I slid out of the car. "Thankyou" I smiled looking back to Lee who was just closing her door, I didn't like it when he looked at me this way, he had done it a couple of times now, I just didn't like it when people affected me the way he did, and trust me there wasn't many people that had the ability to do that at all.

"Your back already," an older man shouted as he jogged towards us. "we didn't expect you for a while yet" he smiled widely as he came to a stop in front of me holding out his hand happily. "You must be the future Mrs Weston, I'm Albert Redding but people around here just call me Red" he bowed his head letting me get a good view of his perfectly polished bald head. He was quite short, well my height I should say, I suppose the majority of people on this planet were considered short when stood next to Archer.

"Nice to meet you Red and you may call me Harley, and this is my friend Leah" I smiled watching him display his impeccable mannerisms as he swiftly shook her hand also and stood back to attention.

"If you ever need anything please don't hesitate to ask, I live here inside the packhouse unlike the other staff members so I will always be at your service"

"Thankyou, that is very kind of you"

"Please, head on inside, I will get someone to get you a drink and I'll have the bags taken to the rooms, the rest of your stuff is currently being taken up through the back door" Red informed us as he bowed his head once more.

"Thanks, Red" Archer thanked him and began walking towards the front door.

"Nice to meet you Red" I said politely as I walked away from him as he scurried to the rear of the vehicle.