Chapter 26: +Chapter 26+

Lucien returned to his palace in a darker mood than when he left earlier that morning, as soon as he stepped out of his car, Bryce was right in front of him to receive him.

His second-in-command was completely covered from head to toe, complete with a face mask, dark shades, and a hoodie over everything, not one sliver of skin was showing.

Lucien frowned, momentarily distracted from his anarchistic thoughts, “What the fuck are you doing?”

Bryce was thin, almost frail even and that was because his second-in-command spent most of his life indoors, seated behind screens. He was a computer genius but also quite out of shape.

“Making sure I don’t record any murders today,” Bryce said cheerfully, holding out a hand, “Turn in any weapon you’re holding.”

Bryce’s actions might have seemed silly but he was actually very serious. He always kept a close watch over the werewolf King, knowing very well that his King was a little unhinged. He had never had to come out in person before but that was because there had never been a time that King Lucien’s pastimes didn’t fix his dark moods.

Lucien held out his arms in a gesture of surrender, “I don’t have any on me unless you want to pull out my fangs and cut off my fists and dick,” He joked with a wicked smile.

Bryce was unfazed by this, “Your Highness, please cooperate,” He continued in his bright voice, his face mask hiding a worried expression.

Lucien rolled his eyes, “You’re no fun.”

Bryce sighed silently in relief, knowing that if King Lucien didn’t want to cooperate, he wouldn’t and there would be no stopping him. “If I was, I wouldn’t have a job, Your Highness,” He said patronizingly.

The guards around watched their interaction from the fringes, the South King’s second-in-command was an enigma because no one knew what he looked like. As a matter of fact, this was the first time that a lot of the hired help was seeing what he looked like figure-wise.

When Lucien brought out the first gun, Bryce held out both of his hands. By the time a trio of guns were placed on his outstretched palms, his hands started to tremble, not from fear but because of the weight of the guns.

He blanched when the throwing stars came out, “Your Highness?” He tried to keep up his chipper tone and failed, “Why do you have throwing stars?”

The King of the South had the nerve to shrug nonchalantly, *he didn’t even use sharp weapons.*

Bryce quickly forgot about the throwing stars when the next weapon plopped down on his quickly filling hands.

“Your Highness,” He started gravely, staring down at the hand grenade balanced precariously on the guns. “I can allow throwing stars but please, refrain from putting grenades in your coat pockets.”

Lucien’s response was a slow smile as he brought out the last item, a pair of black furry handcuffs. There was no space left for them so he stepped forward instead and placed them around one of Bryce’s wrists, giving him a wink as he clicked the first cuff shut, well aware that his second-in-command couldn’t protest.

Bryce was grateful that his face was completely covered because he would have had a difficult time keeping a straight face. He sucked his teeth in anger when King Lucien cuffed both of his wrists and placed the key to his cuffs between his sharp teeth before walking off with it.

He had let Lucien do as he wished because he knew that the South King was still volatile, he would take being cuffed over having a hand grenade thrown inside the palace.

He shot the guards behind him a piercing look that could be felt through his shades, “Take these off me,” He ordered through gritted teeth, the guards nearby falling over their feet to take the weapons from his hands.

When it was just the furry handcuffs left, they all hesitated unsure of what to do next.

Bryce cursed and stomped off in the direction of his palace, his cuffed wrists limiting him from expelling his frustration. The quickest and safest way to get the cuffs off would be to go to King Lucien but Bryce wasn’t too eager to do that, knowing that the King would probably do something far worse.

His job didn’t involve being an outlet for the King, he had work to do and he let King Lucien know. If he wanted to mess with someone, there were lots of people regardless of gender that would give a lot to be picked.

“Fine,” Lucien agreed, sounding very disappointed. He was seated at the edge of his bed, his long hair freed from his topknot. “Come closer, I’ll take it off for you.”

Bryce hesitated for a moment before walking closer, his hand held out so that he could keep some distance between himself and King Lucien.

Lucien anticipated this, reaching out lightning fast to snag onto Bryce’s hoodie to pull him closer. Now that he was certain that his second-in-command wasn’t going to run off, he pulled off his face mask, his blue eyes sparkling at the look of exasperation on the other werewolf’s ethereal features.

Bryce glared down at him as he deftly unlocked the cuffs around his wrist, the shorter werewolf snatching back his face mask with a spiteful look in his pale purple eyes.

Bryce completely lacked melanin, there was none in his short frizzy hair which was pure white, as well as his skin which was as pale as porcelain.

“You should consider therapy, Your Highness,” He muttered, pulling his face mask back on.

“Already did, it didn’t end well.” Lucien fell backward against his bed.

“I wonder why,” Bryce grumbled sarcastically, remaining in place although he was now free to go.

He was probably the only person in Moonbeam immune to their King’s sexual charms and that was solely because he preferred his computers over romantic entanglements. He was also the only one who could keep up with his volatile nature. Before he was hired, King Lucien had run through second-in-commands faster than any other King in history, it would have been impressive if it wasn’t worrisome.

King Lucien was very much straight but with the way he flirted with everything that breathed, it was no surprise that at almost all of his previous second-in-commands had fallen in love with him.

“I half expected that you would be happy to see the witch go, she was quite the trouble,” He started quietly.

Lucien groaned from the bed, “Go push buttons on your computer or something,” He said dismissively.

Bryce sighed longsufferingly, he didn’t get paid enough for this. He made his way out of King Lucien’s bedroom, deep in thought. He knew that was the root cause of King Lucien’s mood swings, and he knew that Lucien never spoke about his feelings or private thoughts even to him but he just wanted to understand.

The entire time the witch had been here, it had just been him getting into fights with the North King and intimidating the witch, it didn’t look like a fun time to Bryce but he supposed he would never understand people cursed with the ability to fall in love or feel attraction.

-+-

Lucien laid stiffly on his bed, unable to relax although the bed was made from the highest quality materials. He didn’t appreciate how Bryce always managed to read him like a book, he thought he did a decent job at masking. Just when he was trying to pretend that the problem didn’t exist too.

Bryce was right about one thing though - well multiple things - but Lucien had to find an outlet for the tightness under his skin and soon. If sex didn’t work, he needed to find an alternative.

Like his second-in-command was telepathic, his phone rang. He picked it up lying down, waiting for the information.

“Your Highness, there’s been reports of Shadow sightings in the outskirts of Wintree.”

At the mention of Wintree, a literal wall of a nostalgic scent slammed into him, one of sugar and moonlight, making him sit upright with a black scowl. “Prepare for a trip tonight…”

“Got it, Your-”

“You’re coming too,” He cut the other werewolf off, knowing it wouldn’t be dangerous as there would be no sunlight.

There was silence on the other end for a short while before Bryce’s voice came through again, “Got it, Your Highness,” He completed, his voice desert dry.

Lucien hung up and laid back on the bed, a tussle with Shadows was the perfect alternative. Those things didn’t die but they retreated and that was enough.

He would be taking Bryce with him because his second-in-command was the only person he could tolerate at the moment, and he needed the colorless werewolf to do damage control. He had no plans to have Bryce fight, his job was to do all the talking and keep everyone from him until he let out the energy trapped under his skin by fighting it out.

He also didn’t appreciate how reminders of the witch kept popping up throughout his day, it was like the hands of fate were trying to torture him.