Chapter 394

394 Something about a River... And something about a Forest

The prince took his time to clean himself up and tend to his aching muscles despite the king’s urgent summons. He was far too tired to take his younger brother too seriously. There was also the matter of hunters walking freely on royal grounds. Now that he had the time to think about it more clearly, he gritted his teeth in anger, ‘The nerve on those hunters. How dare they waltz in here carrying weapons and act like they are friends with the wolves.’

The warm water was soothing and allowed the man to recover from his angry fit. It’s not like he could do anything against them anyway. His energy was immediately drained at the thought of retaliation, so there was no point in running himself mad.

‘Where are the women though?’ he thought to himself, ‘Did Thane happen to forget? Odd...’ Cirrus froze in the bath, finding himself repulsed by his own thoughts. This new reaction to having women around him was severely intensified by his canine alter-ego. As though making a point, a hallucination of a beautiful woman appeared before him, albeit highly exaggerated.

Cirrus dipped his head into the water, ‘So this is the power of the goddess... It’s frightening. No matter... I am still alive, aren’t I? She could have killed me, right? And if that’s the case, then perhaps she left me alive for a reason.’ Cirrus’s thoughts brought him a hounding headache but did nothing to break his unrelenting will to see the goddess’s mission through.

Sighing, he exited the bath and wiped the thoughts from his mind. ‘Let’s see what the king is so worked up about?’

........

Cirrus soon stood before King Hamedale in the throne room, wondering what he’d done to irritate the great man. The king cared for the werewolves a tad bit more than the mission the goddess assigned them and he did so without letting it show.

Cirrus was one of the few that had been able to see right through him. However, seeing him livid was one of the few rarities he never wanted to get on the wrong side of, “You summoned me, your majesty?” the prince dipped his head in a mock bow.

“Yes, Cirrus, I did,” the king pinched the bridge of his nose. The anger he was trying to soothe was clear through the mind link, “Where have you been, Cirrus?”

.....

‘Ah, so he hasn’t heard of the short encounter with the peasant of a mate I was granted. Either that or he’s holding that information for last.’ “I followed you. I won’t deny that, but merely to confirm the moon goddess’s ‘questionable’ state.”

“You assaulted the goddess with your... I can’t believe I’m saying this... ‘twisted’ ideals. That goes against a myriad of rules,” the king looked like he might blow up at any time and the mind link reflected that anger with pristine waves of fury directed at the prince.

“You don’t have to scold me, brother. I already got my fair share of that,” Cirrus sighed. The energy in his body was only getting less and less. Even more so with hunters roaming the palace grounds. If Cirrus had his way, he would unleash carnage on those filthy bipeds, but alas, this would not come to pass.

As he turned to leave, he heard the sound of rushed footsteps and a surge of fear gripped him. His instincts kicked him, but his body didn’t respond. Cirrus was far too slow... far too weak at the moment to react. The attacking footsteps were too fast for him to follow and before he could react to them. The king’s imposing figure appeared in front of him and his hand gripped him by the neck and crushed him against a pillar in the throne room.

The king held him up with one arm, choking him by the neck. Cirrus grabbed at the king’s hand, trying to break free, but it was all in vain. His hands were barely any use against the king’s superior strength. No, correction... an amber-eyed wolf would probably put up more of a fight than he was doing. Cirrus grunted in pain and stopped struggling... It was futile. Instead, he stared his brother in the eye with a dark cold expression... ‘Do you mind?’ he growled through the mind link.

The king’s eyes widened in horror at the realisation of this weakness and he let the man drop to the ground. Hamedale backed away from the prince, watching the man before him cough and struggle to regain his breath. Black spots stained Cirrus’s vision and his thoughts echoed loudly in his aching mind, ‘So this is how it feels to be weak.’

“Explain, Cirrus,” the king’s anger had vanished completely, now replaced with concern for his brother.

Having recovered, Cirrus scoffed, “Nothing I’d openly admit. In any case, I’ll say this. I’m resigning from the army. I won’t be much use to them in this state, anyway.”

'

“You’ve had a long journey, Cirrus. You should get some rest. Let’s not make hasty decisions like that,” the king tried, helping his brother up.

“I’m not weak because of the journey, brother. I’m weak for entirely different reasons. It’s the reason my journey was long in the first place. It took everything just to get here. A week is too long for a journey from the Origin, Hamedale,” the man sighed, accepting the king’s help.

“This is not like you though. Did the goddess say something to you? I know your actions caused her to banish us from the Origin, but I didn’t know she’d done something to you,” the king comforted.

“Oh, she did something alright,” Cirrus replied as the two royals left the throne room. A crowd of humans was walking up to them as they exited the nearly empty throne room.

“Is something the matter, King Hamedale?” one of the hunters spoke up.

“Oh no, my brother is just tired from his journey. I’m escorting him to rest in his room. My beta alphas can guide you for now. I’ll return shortly,” the king replied in a tone Cirrus was not familiar with.

When they were finally alone, “Did you practise how to use an authoritative voice?”

“I did. I spent a while on it too. Did I sound cool?” Hamedale perked up, grinning from ear to ear.

“Now I don’t know if I’m speaking to a child or a deranged adult,” Cirrus groaned.

The king chuckled, “I met this woman out in the woods. She could speak to animals and she was delighted to meet me. I entertained her for an hour since she had always wanted to meet the King of Lycaon. What stunned me out of all her abilities though was the way she spoke to the creatures of the wild.

She spoke with an air of confidence and authority. She sounded like the Queen of the beasts when she was talking to the animals. So before leaving her, I had her teach me to speak like that.”

“Your story gets more unbelievable the more I hear it. You know there is no one with the power to speak to animals,” Cirrus raised a brow at his younger brother.

“Oh, but there is someone with such a power. I should remember her name. Ah, what was it again? It sounded like a river... and had something to do with a forest... Riverbark, no... Waterwood, no, that wasn’t it either...” the description the king used struck several cords at the man’s heartstrings. ‘It can’t be, can it?

“Riverwood?” Cirrus asked, his heartbeat speeding up a bunch.

“Oh yeah, that’s the name. She was a kind soul and had one respectable ability. I wish I could have had more time to speak to her, but...”

“Of course, she wasn’t an average werewolf,” Cirrus chuckled himself, having long tuned out of his conversation with the king.

“Huh... Cirrus, did you meet her as well?” the king paused to observe his brother’s expression. Cirrus was the kind of person to show either anger, amusement, disdain and a wide range of emotions on his countenance, but the one he wore now was unknown to Hamedale.

Something was wrong with Cirrus... He looked... ‘broken.’