Royal Affair

by Preston Walker

  Don straightened up, still breathless, but trying to regain his composure. “It is a resistance, Jace. It is a huge amount of predator shapeshifters who are angry at what we are doing. They clearly don’t want to give up their place on top of things.”

  “And where is this resistance?”

  “Just outside the gates. I was out having a walk when it happened. I don’t know if they have broken through yet or not.”

  “Yet?” Jace turned and took hold of the clothes Keiran had been pushing at him, dressing rapidly. “What do you mean, yet?”

  “I mean that there are a very large number of them and we may not be able to push them back immediately. They may even breach the castle. That is why I have come, to take the two of you to the safe room.”

  There’s a safe room?

  “What about my father?”

  “Sanjay has barred himself, the nurses, and all of the patients in the hospital safe room already. I stopped there first.”

  “Where’s the safe room?” Keiran asked.

  “Beneath the castle.” Don grabbed the door and pulled it open. “Come, we must go! Quickly!”

  Keiran looked back at the bedroom behind them, at all the clothes and belongings they were about to leave behind. All of his pregnancy booklets and vitamins. Everything he needed to gather up but could not. He turned back and grabbed onto Jace’s hand. “Let’s go,” he said.

  Jace clutched his fingers so tightly that they ached, but he didn’t protest. It reminded him that they were connected, that this was the only way they could make it through this: together.

  They followed Don out into the hallway, only to immediately hear a shout that chilled Keiran’s blood.

  “Get back!” someone screamed. “Get back, they’re coming! Everyone to their rooms! Lock the doors!”

  Don swore and turned to Jace. “They have breached!”

  Jace looked like a man made of stone. “How the hell did this happen? Weren’t we prepared?”

  “I don’t know! They must have struck during a guard switch or something. I don’t know, Jace! Does it matter?” Don thrust out his arms, gesturing wildly down the stairs. “They are here! The bedrooms won’t be safe enough for you. Or for your child. We need to descend. Do you know where the safe room is? Do you remember?”

  “I do.”

  “I will stay in front of you and fight but, if I am lost, run for your lives.”

  Keiran reached out. “Wait! Don’t do that!” he yelled, but it was too late to stop him. He hadn’t ever seen Don’s wolf form before. It was as black as night, as black as anything, from head to tail.

  Don looked back at them over his shoulder and started down the five flights of stairs and there was nothing they could do but obey him and follow behind. For the first two floors, Keiran saw nothing and wondered if the person screaming had made a mistake. Then, a commotion rose up from one of the long hallways all the way down at the grand entrance hall. A wolf charged through the hall, spinning on its paws just in time to face a muscular cougar. They clashed, blood spraying up the wall, and now more poured in from the hallway to join in the fray.

  Don charged down the steps ahead of them, clearly meaning to carve out a path for them. Keiran followed as quickly as he could, although by this point he was lagging badly. Before he knew it, Jace had picked him up and was carrying him.

  “I can walk!” he protested.

  “And so can a turtle,” Jace gasped. “But right now, we need to be running!”

  They reached the second floor. One more left to go. Don staggered through the fight, holding his own but receiving just as many scratches as he dealt. As Keiran reached the bottom landing, a small orange fox tore away from the fray and charged towards them. Don swung around to face the fox. Here was an opponent he had an advantage against, one that he could handle, and he meant to.

  A fox?

  “Don, don’t!” Keiran cried out. He kicked his legs hard and dropped out of Jace’s arms onto his feet, waddling over to the fox. “Ty! Ty, it’s you! What are you doing here?”

  The fox transformed. It was indeed Ty, the impish ginger omega Keiran had grown close to on their journey. He flashed one of his grins, but there was no joy in it, no affection. “Keiran!”

  For a moment, Keiran forgot all about the battle raging as worry consumed him. “Man, what are you doing here? You picked a bad time for a visit!”

  “I’m not visiting, Keiran.” Ty’s expression hardened further. “I’m here to fight.”

  “For the castle?”

  “No, Keiran,” Jace said, from behind him. “I don’t think that’s what he’s saying.”

  Ty spat. Where his saliva hit the floor, it was pinkish, making Keiran realize for the first time that the fox’s mouth was stained with red and his pointed teeth dripped. “Your stupid prince is right. And that’s been about the only damn thing he’s right about. I’m with everyone else. This separation shit is stupid. You’re going to reverse everything! We might as well just revert back to only living in tribes and fighting each other over bones!”

  “Ty…” Keiran said, weakly. He could hardly believe this. What had happened to their friendship?

  The coming war destroyed it.

  “We’re predators. We’re on top. We eat these pathetic weaklings for breakfast! The powerful need to be on top of everything, just like we are right now.”

  “You’re an idiot,” Jace snapped. “Wily little fox who thinks he knows more than he truly does. You have no idea that you’re being tricked. Do you really think a fox could ever be on top? Your kind eat mice and rabbits, but you can’t compete with apex predators. You’ll be at the bottom of the pecking order, with the cats and the little hawks! Is that what you want? Is that what you’re fighting for?”

  Ty’s expression didn’t change, and Keiran knew there was no more point in trying to talk to him. They were friends no longer, if they had ever been friends at all. “Get him out of the way,” he said.

  “Who are you talking to?” Ty asked. He got his answer a moment later, knocked down by Don. And as he was only a little fox, there was nothing he could do but shriek and yip his frustration after the fleeing pair as he was held immobile.

  Keiran let himself be scooped up into Jace’s arms again, tucking his face against the alpha’s shoulder. He also closed his eyes and wished that he could close his ears, wanting to know no more of what was happening around them. He could hear the fighting, hear the screams of pain, and feel the heavy thumping vibrations of bodies being tossed around.

  “I have to put you down for a second.”

  He found his feet and looked around. Though he hadn’t noticed them descending any further, they stood at the mouth to some sort of tunnel. Jace strained against a heavy door, pushing it flush against the frame and activating several locks before staggering backward.

  “Is this the safe room?”

  “Almost,” Jace promised. “We have a few more doors to go through.”

  Four, to be exact. Keiran said nothing for the first two but, on the third, he couldn’t help himself. “How do ordinary doors keep people from getting into the safe room?”

  Jace actually laughed, though the sound seemed somewhat crazed. “These aren’t ordinary doors. They can only be opened from this side. And they are made of solid titanium. The frame to which they are attached goes up five feet into the roof of the tunnel, and five feet down through the floor. Five doors like this, of which each one would take a massive amount of attacks or digging to remove. It buys us time to win the fight, just in case anyone stands a chance of reaching us.”

  Keiran followed Jace down the tunnel to the next door, holding his hands under his stomach while he walked. That helped with some of the strain, he had discovered. “But then, how are we supposed to know when it’s safe to come out?”

  “As it turns out, this safe room is directly beneath Father’s chambers on the fifth floor. Almost as if it was intended to be built that way.”

  Keiran smiled for h
is alpha, though he felt too nauseated to really enjoy the joke.

  “There is an interesting device in Father’s room that resembles an ornate hat stand. It is attached to an incredibly long wire that is threaded through a tube in the earth, which ends at the ceiling of the safe room. There are bells attached to the end of the wire. If anyone moves the hat stand, the bells will move. They are to be rung five times, once every five minutes once it is safe to leave.”

  “That’s a really convoluted solution. And really clever. How many people know the code?”

  “Sixteen, which is a rather small portion of the castle staff.”

  Somehow, the extra information added onto the end of that statement didn’t make Keiran feel better. However, he really had no choice. This was what had to be done.

  They reached a sixth and final door, beyond which lay the safe room. Jace shut that door behind them, and the resounding thump had a finality to it that Keiran didn’t like. He imagined the two of them—the three of them—never hearing the correct chime of bells. Of the system being damaged. Of somehow just never leaving this safe room far beneath the ground. They had saved the resistance some trouble and gone willingly to a grave.

  Stop it.

  “Let’s get some light down here, shall we? I think you might relax once you’re able to see.”

  Jace flipped the switch, and Keiran blinked as his eyes adjusted. And then he was only blinking in astonishment at the room. He had been expecting something extremely medieval, like a dungeon. What he got instead was a tastefully furbished little room with tapestries and paintings of panoramic views covering most of the metal walls. There was a tiny combination kitchen and dining room, two beds surrounded by shelves that contained books and board games, and a separate bathroom.

  “Wow. We could have a vacation down here.”

  Jace smiled a little, coming over to Keiran and wrapping his arms around the omega. Keiran gripped him hard in return, desperate for as much comfort as he could get. “I know that this isn’t ideal but we’ll be safe, and there’s a six-month supply of food down here.”

  Keiran glanced around the room, trying to figure out where that much food might be hidden. “Where?”

  In answer, Jace went over to the bed and lifted up the skirt. The beds were stacks of crates with mattresses placed on top. “Anywhere they could stick it, I think.”

  “Do we have a limited supply of water too?” Keiran worried about that more than he did the food, knowing as he did the varied importance of each.

  “No. We are connected to the water pipes that run through the castle. Same for the electricity, for hot water, the stove and the lights. We also have vents piping in fresh air. Hidden.”

  Keiran went over to one of the makeshift beds and sat down on the edge of the mattress. The beds were small and it would be rough getting two people in the same bed, but he supposed it could be done if they tried really hard. “How long do you think we’ll be down here?” he whispered. “A month? The whole six months?”

  Jace came over to him, his weight lifting the other end of the loose mattress so that Keiran slid down and slumped against him. Keiran took advantage of the situation and tucked in close to Jace’s body, craving heat and love. “No,” Jace soothed. “I don’t think we’ll be down here for even a week. If the bells don’t ring in three days even, I’ll be surprised. This was a hastily put-together attack. I thought that since the beginning, but I had it confirmed for me when I saw your friend Ty.”

  Not my friend anymore.

  “If this was an organized attack, they would have brought a smaller number of incredibly powerful creatures. The way things are going, they would also all be alphas. Having so many small creatures like Ty, and especially omegas, tells me that they were desperate to make a move and brought along anyone.” Jace hugged Keiran and rocked him gently from side to side. “It’s times like this that make me glad I actually learned as much as I did. I don’t want you to be scared of anything that you don’t need to be scared of.”

  Keiran clutched at Jace and they took comfort from one another. As for how long they cuddled, he didn’t know because he had realized there were no clocks down here.

  “We can’t even know how long we’ve been down here?”

  “That was the only part of the safe room’s design that caused a huge debate,” Jace said. He shrugged. “Some behind the construction came to believe that having a clock down here would make the occupants go crazy from watching the time. And then there were the others who thought that not knowing how long they’d been down here would be what made for craziness.”

  “And in the end, the no-clock people won?”

  “I guess so, but I’ll be damned if I remember why. That part of the lesson didn’t stick with me.”

  Keiran sighed and cuddled back up against Jace again. A new concern had come to him, that he might go into labor down here and not have medical help, but that was just the same concern Jace had already put to rest. He needed to believe the one who had all the experience with this kind of thing.

  It was funny, now that he thought about it. They had both changed since they met. He was no longer so helpless, and Prince Moody wasn’t so moody anymore; they were only capable of making those changes once they found each other. He just hoped that they would live long enough to continue growing together.

  They ate dinner together and then played a board game before curling up in bed to finish what they started earlier.

  When they woke again, Jace prepared a breakfast of pancakes made with flour and powdered milk and applesauce instead of eggs. It was good enough, if slightly bland. After that, there was nothing to do but try to amuse themselves until the next meal. It was easy at first, as they went through a stack of board games. Everything started going south as Keiran became unduly upset over losing a game of checkers for the fourth time in a row.

  “I’m just good at strategizing,” Jace said, in an attempt to smooth over the situation. Keiran growled at him, knowing that he really had no reason to be angry, and Jace put up his hands and went to get a book from the shelf. Then, Keiran pouted over having to put the game up by himself. It took far longer than it should have because he kept stopping to shoot glares at Jace, and then he picked a book too. At least the shelves were stocked with a variety of novels so that he could choose something that was actually slightly interesting.

  The problem was that the only chairs were uncomfortable dining room chairs and those made him ache these days. That left sitting on the bed while leaning against the wall, which meant that he would be next to Jace.

  Keiran wandered over and climbed up onto the mattress, shooting Jace a scowl.

  Jace turned to smile at him. “I think you’re the real Prince Moody.”

  And Keiran hit him over the head with what was really a rather heavy book. Jace rubbed his head and then wrapped his arm around Keiran’s shoulders so they could cuddle up and read together.

  Lunch passed, and then another dinner. They fell asleep with the lights on, both of them doing their own thing.

  Breakfast the next day came without any signals from above, and Keiran was about at the end of his rope. This was only the third day they’d been down here, and he already felt like he’d gone mad.

  “I thought you said you didn’t think we’d even be down here for three days,” he complained out loud. They were playing checkers again, not that he knew why. Jace seemed to have discovered a passion for it. Either that, or he just liked winning a lot.

  “Technically, we haven’t been down here for three full days yet,” Jace pointed out.

  Keiran swiped a handful of checkers off the board and prepared to toss them at the alpha, who laughed and held up the board in front of his face. Playing pieces scattered everywhere. Just then, the bells chimed.

  A thought occurred to Keiran, a major oversight in the design of this place. “Jace?”

  “Hmm?” Jace stared up at the ceiling, watching the little bells bounce and jingle. The merry sound seemed
somehow sinister to Keiran, and he shivered.

  “How are we supposed to count five chimes spread out in five-minute increments if we don’t have a clock to tell the time?”

  Jace didn’t seem particularly concerned. “I guess we use our ingrained sense of time.”

  To Keiran, the gap between bell chimes seemed as wide as an eternity. However, Jace gave a nod. “That seemed about right to me. If it happens again in about the same amount of time, I think we’re set.”

  I guess that makes sense. If it was the invaders just screwing around with the hat stand, it probably wouldn’t be something measured out like this.

  They sat through the rest of the chimes in silence, and then waited an even longer time afterwards to make sure another wasn’t coming. When it didn’t, Jace stood up and held out his hand to Keiran. “We’re safe. It’s time to go up and pick up the pieces. Are you ready?”

  Keiran took a deep breath and took Jace’s big hand, letting himself be pulled to his feet. “As long as I’m with you, I’ll always be ready.”

  Chapter 22

  Confusion reigned in the castle, as it normally did after a large event of any kind. However, this was much worse than the drunken laughter and aimless wandering of servants after a ball or an important dinner. This was chaos, lined with death.

  Jace pressed Keiran’s face to his shoulder as he walked with the omega in his arms. “Don’t look,” he urged.

  “I don’t need to look. I can smell it.”

  The dead lined the halls, members of both sides. Marvin passed by him at one point and whispered, “We lost one. Griffin didn’t make it.”

  Jace’s chest ached. One of his own Guard, put down in the siege. “Appoint a replacement immediately,” he said, not bothering to hide the raw pain in his voice. Marvin bowed and went to carry out his bidding. Jace scanned the faces as he passed, but he didn’t see the wolf Griffin amongst their numbers – when he was capable of making out facial features at all. They had won, but the win came roughly and without finesse.

  He could see no survivors in the hall, which he hoped meant that during the siege they had been immediately rushed to one of the rooms converted into safe points for the injured, since the hospital had been under lockdown. Servants ran here and there, carrying bandages and food and countless other things. Guards patrolled the halls, leaving bloody footprints as they searched for any remaining invaders. Everyone looked weary, shocked, and simultaneously furious.