Megan was about to answer when her stomach decided to do the talking for her. It growled, loudly, and after it was done Megan had completely forgotten the excuse she was going to give.
“That decides it,” said Rokkan. “We’re going to get you something to eat.” He grabbed his pile of books and led the way out of the library. They stopped for a moment so Megan could grab a few books from her own stack. Rokkan said he would send Rekk for the rest later, and with that, they headed out on their first ever lunch date.
* * *
Lunch quickly turned into a walk around the grounds, which then turned into a tour of the Hotel, which then turned into a walk down memory lane, with Rokkan insisting on stopping at all the important places of Megan’s childhood. This led the two of them straight through until dinner time, at which point Rokkan asked if she was planning on meeting up with her family.
“They would be getting off work right around now,” said Megan. “I should probably go see if I can find them. They’d be upset if they had to go another week without hearing from me.”
“Okay.” He smiled. “I hope you have a wonderful meal.” He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “I will see you back at the castle?” His inflection told Megan it was a request and not a statement.
She nodded and he turned to walk away. At the last second, just before he was out of earshot, Megan started to speak, slightly under her breath and still unsure of what she was about to say. “Well,” she began. He stopped and looked over his shoulder. “You could come with me.” He spun and made his way back to her. “If you didn’t have dinner plans of your own, I’m sure my family would be fine with it. More than fine.”
“Are you sure?” She could hear in his voice how happy he was with this suggestion. “I wouldn’t want to impose. I know you don’t get to see them very often, which, by the way, I’ve been meaning to talk to Rekk about. I think the castle employees should be getting at least two days off a week.”
“Two days would be great,” she said. “And it’s because of ideas like that, that I know my parents are going to love you.”
“Great.” He clapped his hands and rubbed his palms together. “Then let’s do it. Lead the way.”
Chapter Thirteen
Meeting the Parents
As she and Rokkan approached the mess hall, Megan’s hands were sweating profusely and her mind was boarding so many different trains of thought, she worried there would be some sort of mental railroad disaster. She couldn’t believe she’d just invited Rokkan, prince of the draaks, killer of werewolves, and leader of District One to grab a bite to eat with the Zandle family. It wasn’t that she was embarrassed of them, in fact, it was quite the opposite. She was embarrassed of him.
Firstly, she’d never brought a guy home to meet her parents before. She had dated a bit in her teens, but nothing serious, and she never saw anybody she thought worth introducing to everyone. Secondly, Megan always assumed the first time she would bring someone home to meet everyone, that someone would be a working man who shared a similar background to hers and understood what life was like for her and her family. Prince Rokkan, on the other hand, had no idea what it meant to put in an honest day’s work, and try as he may to understand her and her people, he would never really get it. Megan knew she was being prejudice against the prince because of his privilege and his background, and she was trying to push some of these negative, unfairly biased thoughts from her head, but they kept finding their way back to the forefront of her mind.
He opened the door to the mess hall for her, and inside conversations were ceasing and people were turning to look at who had just walked in. This was exactly what Megan was afraid of. She didn’t want any sort of special treatment or attention given to her because she just so happened to be walking, arm and arm, with the district leader. Her family hated this type of spectacle, and they all used to make fun of the previous leader when he would walk around acting all high and mighty.
This was a mistake.
Megan did a quick, ineffective scan of the room and said, “I don’t see them. Let’s just go get dinner by ourselves––”
“Megan!” Her dad was yelling and waving his hands in the air across the way. “Over here!”
“Is that your dad?” said Rokkan.
“Would you look at that.” Megan smiled. “There they are.”
Rokkan waited a moment, watching Megan with anticipation, but she didn’t continue or make any move towards her family. “Should we go over there?”
She sighed. “Yeah, I guess we should.”
They walked together, but before they came into view of the her family, Megan pulled her arm from where it was interlocked with Rokkan’s and put a few inches between the two of them. She could tell he was aware of her sudden shift in body language, but she didn’t further address it.
“Hey sweetheart,” Cal said once they were at his table. Ollie was sitting next to him but there was no sign of Iris. “I see you’ve brought a friend.” He stood up and wiped his hands down the front of his pants, then offered one to Rokkan.
“Dad,” Megan said. “This is Prince Rokkan.” They shook hands. “And Rokkan, this is my dad, Calvin.”
“You can call me Cal, Prince Rokkan, sir.”
“And you can just call me Rokkan,” said the prince. “It’s nice to meet you.” He looked over Cal’s shoulder. “And you must be…”
Ollie stood up but didn’t stick his hand out. “I’m Ollie, Megan’s brother.”
“NIce to meet you Ollie,” said Rokkan. “Megan was kind enough to invite me to join you guys for dinner tonight.” He looked back to Cal. “I hope that’s alright.”
“Of course!” Cal grinned. “We’d love to have you. Iris, Megan’s mother, should be finishing up her shift any minute. She stayed late to work with one of the botanists on a special project, but she shouldn’t be too much longer.”
“Great,” said Megan, some of her concern melting away as she realized just how easily her dad and Rokkan were getting along. “Should we just eat here then?” She looked at Rokkan when she said it, hoping he wasn’t about to make a face or snarky comment about eating in the mess hall.
“Works for me,” he said. “Whatever’s cooking smells great.”
Cal lead the way to the back of the line and immediately launched into a series of questions regarding Prince Rokkan’s ideas for the future of District One farming and every once in a while offering Rokkan one of his own ideas for consideration. Ollie and Megan hung back, where they could mutter to one another without being heard, like they used to do when they were kids.
“So, were you ever going to explain?” said Ollie. “Or am I going to have to ask?”
“Explain what?” Megan played dumb.
“Explain what the hell it is you are doing going out to dinner with the prince of draaks!”
“We were spending the afternoon together and then I had to excuse myself to come to dinner with you,” she said. “I thought it would be rude not to invite him. That’s it.”
“Fine, then tell me why you were spending the afternoon together?” His voice struck her as more hurt than angry, although he was clearly trying to put an accusatory edge on his speech. “Are you like, one of his concubines or something?” After saying this, his tone shifted yet again, and suddenly his voice was full of concern. “Wait a minute, is he making you do this?” Ollie grabbed Megan’s arm and caused her to stop. “If he’s keeping you as some sort of… pleasure slave or something, then, uh, cough twice.”
Megan rolled her eyes and laughed. “Oh my god, Ollie, could you be any more dramatic? First of all, Rokkan doesn’t keep ‘pleasure slaves,’ he doesn’t have any slaves at all. He pays all of his workers a generous wage and he’s never made me feel like I couldn’t leave or quit.” She pulled on his arm and prompted him to keep moving. “Secondly, if you must know, him and I are friends. Close friends. Who enjoy spending time with one another. That’s it, though, I swear.”
Ollie shook his ar
m from her grip. “I don’t trust him,” he said plainly. “And I don’t think you should either.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’s a draak,” said Ollie. “And he’s a prince. And he gained his position as leader by murdering and conquering. Do none of these strike you as major red flags?”
“Hey, wait a minute,” said Megan. “Last time I saw you, you were all googly eyed and gaga over that draak woman you work with. Don’t you think you’re being a little hypocritical?”
“That’s different,” he said.
“How so?”
Ollie twisted his mouth around and furrowed his eyebrows. “I don’t know. It just is.”
“Is it because I’m a woman and you don’t think I can take care of myself?” Now Megan’s voice had an accusatory edge.
“No,” said Ollie. “Not at all. It’s because… because you’re my sister and I just want you to be safe. Look, I don’t care really that he’s a draak or a prince, but he is violent––”
“He’s not violent!”
“You saw how his men treated those wolves, they tore them apart.” Ollie shook his head. “Just because he kept his hands clean, doesn’t mean his intentions were moral.” Megan smirked. “What is it?”
“It’s just funny,” she said. “Somebody else said the same thing to me before I ever started working for the prince. They were saying it to try and scare me, is that also why you’re saying it?”
Ollie looked down at his feet. Rokkan and Cal were standing at the back of the line now, and the two siblings were only a few feet away. “I just want you to be safe. Promise me you’ll be careful.”
She reached out and took his hand, gave it a squeeze. “I promise.”
* * *
Dinner went, for the most part, very smoothly. Iris joined the group about halfway through the meal, and after some initial awkwardness, and a few shocked looks from her thrown in Megan’s direction, the evening carried on pleasantly and without a hitch. The food was nothing fancy, but it was good nonetheless. Prince Rokkan insisted on paying for everyone, which at first worried Megan, she thought her parents might see the gesture as some sort of condescending slight. Instead, however, her parents happily accepted the offer and Cal even joked that the cost of the dinner was worth less than it cost for Rokkan to have his horns trimmed.
The prince did not immediately laugh at the joke, and a severely tense moment of silence followed. A second later, Rokkan broke into a fit of laughter, quickly followed by the rest of the group, and they continued to laugh until their stomachs ached and their eyes watered.
After dinner, Megan and Rokkan excused themselves. They had stayed in the mess hall long after they had finished eating, talking and laughing. It was getting late, and Megan had work in the morning. They said goodnight, Megan gave everyone a hug and a kiss, Rokkan shook their hands, and the two of them left.
Back at the castle, Rokkan and Megan stopped at the top of the grand staircase, where they would normally part to head for their respective rooms. “Care for a nightcap?” Rokkan said instead of goodnight.
“I’d love that.”
He made a fire, even though it was a warm night, and the two of them sat in the two cozy lounge chairs drinking and talking.
“Your family is great,” said Rokkan, who was currently nursing his second whisky on the rocks. “I had a wonderful time with them.”
“They liked you too,” said Megan. “I could tell.” She finished off the last sip of her first drink and stuck her glass out for a refill.
He poured the dark amber liquid into her glass and topped off his own. “Not your brother.” He took a sip. “I don’t think he liked me at all.”
“He’s just protective,” said Megan. “He’s worried about me, and he doesn’t necessarily trust you. Which, you shouldn’t take personally, he doesn’t trust anyone. I taught him that.”
“What does he think I’m going to do to you exactly?’
She shrugged. “Who knows? It doesn’t matter. I set him straight.”
The prince raised his eyebrows. “And how did you do that?”
“I told him there was nothing to worry about. I explained that we were just friends and that I could take care of myself. I think he understood.”
“Just friends?” The playful curiosity melted from Rokkan’s face. “I see.”
Megan looked down inside her glass. “I mean, what would you call us? We’re not together, right? But we’re not strangers either… I’m sorry if you would have preferred I use a different word, I was just trying to make the whole thing as easy for my family to digest as possible. Does that make sense?”
Rokkan nodded, slowly and thoughtfully. “It makes sense, if you’re scared of what they might think about us being… more than friends, which it sounds like you are?”
Megan thought about this for a bit, not wanting to lie, but not entirely sure how truthful she should be either. “To be perfectly honest,” she said. “I’m not sure what I think about us being more than friends. I was sort of hoping we could have this conversation at a later date.”
“Like when?”
“Like after we figure out what’s going on with the wolves, after we know we’re safe.”
Rokkan smiled and took a big swig of his drink. “Ah. Okay. I get it. You’re a coward.”
He said the insult so stoically, and with such conviction, Megan at first assumed she heard him wrong. “Excuse me?”
“You’re a coward,” he repeated. “You are too afraid to give this a chance, in case one of us gets hurt… or worse. I understand, it’s terrifying. I’m scared, too. If I give myself over to my feelings for you and then something happens which tears us apart, where does that leave me?” Megan didn’t answer the rhetorical question, clearly the prince wasn’t finished. “But I’m willing to take that chance, because the alternative is so much worse.”
“Alternative?”
“Dying without knowing what it’s like to love you.”
Again, he spoke so calmly, collectedly, that Megan was caught off guard. Thankfully, Rokkan didn’t wait for her to speak, instead he persevered through to the end of his speech. “That’s where you and I differ, I guess. You’re stronger than me, I know that, but I think I might be braver.”
“Bravery can be a sign of stupidity,” Megan said, softly, only somewhat joking.
“Then call me an idiot,” Rokkan contered. “An idiot in love. An idiot so in love, he doesn’t want to pretend anymore. If the wolves attack, there’s a good chance I won’t make it out alive, but I refused to be permanently silenced without telling you exactly how I feel first. If you don’t want to talk about this again, that’s fine. If you want to push what we have out of your head, out of your heart, then go ahead, but I’m done playing this game.”
Megan swirled the ice around in her drink and watched the two frozen cubes chace one another, imagining herself as one and Rokkan as the other.
I’m a little drunk.
“Maybe we should talk about this another time,” she said. “When we are a little less inebriated.”
Rokkan shook his head, smiling. “I will still say the exact same thing. I’ve been thinking all this for a long time now.”
She put her glass down and stood up from her chair. She walked over to him, staring intently and working to control shortening breath. He watched her, and put his glass down as well. Without saying anything, she sat down in his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You’re right. I’m scared.” She leaned in and rested her forehead against his, just below his horns. She closed her eyes.
“That’s okay,” he said. “You don’t have to say––”
“I love you, too.”
He was kissing her before she could say anything else. His arms were around her waist and his tongue was playing tag with hers. They were pawing at each other’s clothing, eagerly, when there came a frantic knock on the door.
“Rokkan,” Rekk yelled. “It’s me. Let me in!”
Mega
n hadn’t even realized Rokkan had locked the door. As she slipped off of his lap and allowed him to get up, she wondered if he had anticipated the evening finding them once again together in bed.
The prince opened the door and let in his nervous, shaky hand assistant. “What is it, Rekk?”
Rekk crossed the room, not seeming to notice or care that Megan was also there. He was sweating like he’d just stepped out of a sauna and his breath was manic. “The wolves,” he said. “They’re here.”
Chapter Fourteen
The Battle for District One
The plan Megan and Rokkan had so carefully devised needed some serious adjusting. The prince had put half the amount of men, on guard, at their designated stations the very same day Megan informed him of the errors on the map. He didn’t want to put his entire force in position, considering there was no indication when the wolves were going to attack, or even if they were going to attack. This way, with only half on guard at once, his fighters could take shifts and not be exhausted when the enemy came knocking on District One’s door.
The wolves had first been spotted by those stationed in the watchtower. Based on their estimates, they guessed the wolves would be at the wall by sunrise. Rekk had gotten to the prince as soon as he could, but not soon enough. They needed to inform the citizens of the attack, get them to safety, and make sure the rest of the fighters get to their designated stations in just a few hours and all without causing a panic. Usually, in emergency situations such as this, the leader would sound the alarms, which told everyone to seek shelter. Unfortunately, the alarms would most definitely be heard by the wolves hiding out in the forests around District One, and therefore they would know they’ve been seen and potential shift strategies.
“Then what are we going to do?” asked Rekk after the prince shot down the suggestion to turn on the alarms. “We need to get people out of the streets.”
Lord Rokkan’s Private Toy Page 12