**3rd Person POV**
King Armand was happy to hear that his son was interested in women but the idea that his son would be interested in marrying one was ludicrous. He could understand the attraction of course because while the vampires and werewolves had a long-standing bitterness between them, the vampires had never failed to take on mistresses that were werewolves. These women usually included daughters of criminal werewolves who wandered from city to city. They were also women like Nydia who had been exiled. Sometimes, they were women of good repute who wanted a little adventure themselves. King Armand knew because he had a secret werewolf mistress himself. A smile danced on his lips as he thought about her. He had not had another son aside from Kristoff but that was not entirely true. His werewolf mistress had delivered a boy to him and while he could ensure their comfort, he could never acknowledge the child as his.
“Princess Charlotte, perhaps you would like to fill the king in on the negotiations?” Major Drieden's words were a pun. He was also referring to her affair with Kristoff. What Major Drieden did not know was that Charlotte was not your typical girl. Thousands of men had bled by her side and so bleeding one more heart was no problem for her. She looked at Major Drieden dead in the eye and said, “What negotiations do you speak of? The one that happens in the hallways or the one that goes on at the conference table?”
Major Drieden was slightly taken aback. He had not expected Charlotte to come at him head-on. Was she not concerned about her honour as a woman?
“I was not aware of any other negotiations,” the king blinked, clueless of what Charlotte was suggesting. Meanwhile, the others at the table looked at Charlotte–some in surprise, some in more surprise. Reginald and Harlin knew what Charlotte was capable of and they knew very well that she was not concerned about such things as her ‘virtuous reputation’ like most pretentious royal and noble women. Besides for Charlotte, her honour was in her sword and not in between her legs.
“It was inconsequential to fill you in on our rendezvous, Your Majesty. Just as Major Drieden has expressed concern about Dome having a werewolf queen, my people will not be happy with a vampire king,” Charlotte said with a smile on her face.
Kristoff's face was not only red, he was now coughing, suddenly feeling suffocated. Who was this woman? He had always known that their relationship was about physical intimacy and nothing else but it still hurt a little for her to admit it so effortlessly like it meant nothing to her.
King Armand on his part had no words. This was a first for him; he had never in his entire life met a woman of her calibre who scandalised herself as this and did not seem to care at all. Lady Lowell admired the princess and made a wish to one day have the woman's courage. Francesca felt disgusted by Princess Charlotte even though she was married to one man and sleeping with two others. For her, appearances were important. Lowell on his part wondered if there was a world where he could get a chance to lay with Charlotte. He found her ‘looseness’ arousing.
“I… I… uhm. Princess… honour… I mean…” King Armand, King of Dome was speechless. He was not certain he knew what to say at this moment.
“Your Majesty, my honour is in my sword and not my thighs. I can assure you that your son has yet to steal my honour. Our passionate negotiations will not affect our official negotiations,” returned Charlotte with an innocent-looking smile.
King Armand had no appropriate response except to drink some water.
Major Drieden was pissed that his little stint had backfired.
Prince Kristoff was not certain how to behave now that his hot clandestine affair was no longer clandestine.
The rest of the meal went on in silence. Charlotte had given the bigger half of the table something to ponder on.
****
For the Vampires, it was the beginning of a new day while for the werewolves it was the start of a beautiful evening. Soon night would fall and the vampires would begin their usual business and when the moon lit up the sky, the wolves would howl in a beautiful tone.
The inhabitants of the Palace of Dome did not exactly share the sentiment of nature on this night. Francesca was contorting a plan to end the life of her vampire husband. It was important now more than ever to end his life. She could not believe that he really wanted to turn her into his domestic help. She knew that many wealthy vampire homes were like that. They found shewolves and turned them into servants in their homes. There was just no way she was going to allow herself to fall into such a deplorable state.
The problem was that she knew that vampires were not easy beings to kill and yet she knew nothing about their composition that she could use to her advantage and yet, it was an absolute necessity that breath escaped the vampire. As she paced the hallway thinking about what to do, Lowell showed up in front of her. She thought for a brief second about asking Lowell if he knew how she could end the vampire's life but she decided quickly against it. He was not on board with her plan anyway.
“Frannie, you have not forgotten our plan to seduce the young prince?” quipped Lowell. He noticed that Francesca had been distracted more than usual as of late and it was as though she had forgotten all about Harlin. Francesca looked at his face in slight confusion then remembered their plan. She frowned as she said, “I've got bigger fish to fry right now.”
Lowell looked at her dumbfounded. He wondered what big fish she had to fry.