Harper stood there, heart in her throat as her eyes locked on to the furious stormy ones. She couldn't look away, the stew and vegetables abandoned on her station.
She watched as with a last look, he thundered down the hall.
"What was that about?" A kitchen help asked from the other station, whispering to his friend.
"Don't know. Wouldn't want to be who it is directed at either. We've all heard of the legendary temper of the Alpha Princes." The other helper shuddered before going back to her own task of buttering the chicken.
At this point, Harper had all but given up on her going back to work again. She had to...explain...somehow...
...Well, she would get to that part.
She quickly put the tools on her station, and giving a pleading and aplogising smile to Maerva, walked away from the kitchen as slowly as she could.
Once she was out of sight, she spicked up speed. She couldn't explain why she was doing what she was, but she had to meet him. Now.
Reaching Prince Sorien's chambers, she entered without knocking. It was empty.
She quickly left, already thinking of her next destination.
Where was he?
...Prince Kael.
When she was a few steps from the door, the loud noise gave it away. She was in the right place.
She entered trepidiously, only to find the brothers in an intense fight.
Prince Sorien slammed Prince Kael to the wall, holding him by his collar. He roared in anger as he raised his fist.
"AAAH!" The punch threw Kael's head to the right, blood spraying from his mouth.
Harper stood, open-mouthed at the scene.
"You DARE CLAIM HER!" He layed punch after punch on his younger brother, as he tried fighting him off.
"Prince Sorien! Stop!" Neither of them listened to her.
Kael finally got a hold of his brother's hand, and throwing it off pushed him away.
"She is MINE NOW! Stay AWAY!"
He laid punches on the other man, fighting him till they both were in the middle of the room.
"Prince Kael! Please stop!" She watched in despair as the brothers fought until they were bloody, their faces and tunics red and rage ever present on their faces.
She went ignored. Pain started climbing up her chest as she watched the fight, powerless.
Kael delivered an uppercut that had the elder prince falling on the ground, where the two continued their feud. Sorien was not down for long though.
"She will be MY MATE!"
With a maneuver, he overthrew his younger brother, riasing his fist with a yell.
"Prince SORIEN!" Harper yelled with all her strength, as the men in front of her finally realised there was someone else in the room with them.
She walked forward, trembling.
"Please...stop." She whispered, her words breaking with tears gathering in her eyes.
The sight immediately led to a break in the tension, and the two brothers lowered the arms they had raised. Chests heaving, Kael pushed his brother off of him, and Sorien went willingly. They both sat on the floor, not looking at each other or at Harper.
SIlence reigned, heavy with unspoken words, and feelings.
"Prince Sorien..." He averted his gaze, ashamed, "Prince Kael?" He looked at her once, before he too looked away ta the floor.
She swallowed.
The door creaked behind her, but she was too stressed to look at it.
"It is all my fault."
Prince Elyan entered, eyes reflecting pain as he saw the scene with his own eyes.
The three of them looked at him. Sorien was the first to let out, gritting his teeth, "Explain."
"I...went to Lefervesse." Seeing his two brothers tensing in rage and standing up, he continued, "To find a way out! For all of us!"
"And this is what you came up with?!" The eldest Prince thundered down on Elyan. "We need to break the bond," He looked between Kael and Harper desperately, "Now."
Elyan looked at him before turning to Kael, "Brother, please, you must understand..."
Kael, who had been suspiciously quiet until now looked at Harper, who herself stood there, motionless and clueless. "Harper?"
"...What is happening?" She almost pleaded, overwhelmed.
Kael's heart melted, as he quickly walked up to her, "Shhh, it's going to be fine. I promise." He lovingly took her face in his hands and wiped her tears away.
The touch, so familiar to the one they had last had, but so completely different at the same time.
Something in Harper calmed, as she allowed her head to rest in his hands, lowering her head. He followed, their foreheads touching.
She had never had this before, this feeling, this security...someone for her own self. She didn't know what it was, or how long it'd last, but she didn't want this to end.
Emboldened, she raised her head back, nodding. "Okay." She raised her own hands, touching the bleeding cut on his lip and forehead, heart aching.
He smiled at her and kissed her fingers, nudging her to let go but taking her hand in his as the both of them turned to the room...
...and their smiles froze.
Because there stood Sorien, looking as if he had been physically stabbed as his eyes shined, and Elyan, who had yet to take his pained and broken glare away from their joined hands.
Harper paused, feeling guilty for something. Not entirely sure what.
She quietly tried to slip her hands away from his, but Kael held on. Harper let him, as she nervously fidgeted.
Kael took a shuddering breath, as he stood straighter, and asked calmly, "Elyan, tell us everything."
That was the cue. Sorien walked away to lean on the wall, Elyan took a seat on the chair near the desk as Kael led Harper by the hand and sat her on the bed, standing beside her.
Harper surprised herself when she reached for his hand that landed on her shoulder after sitting down.
"So, it all started when we found Harper in the forest...on the day of the trial Hunt. Our wolves reacted, and though it was not The Red Moon...it was a full moon." Elyan began, "And that's when I knew."
Harper looked at him curiously, "Knew what?"
"That the Ruby Queen had returned." Sorien answered, as he went back to looking away again when her gaze flickered to his. She tried not to let that bother her. "I felt it too."
"The legend of the Ruby is an old one." This time, it was Kael, "There used to be another family, another dynasty who ruled these lands. The Moon Rulers."
"Called so because they had the power of the Moon, infused into them by the Moon goddess." Elyan continued, "And usurped, wrongfully, but our ancestor- King Dareth."
The image of a blue-eyed military stout man in the throne room flashed through Harper's mind.
"He took away the throne form Queen Yilqina and her commoner husband, King Guio under the guise of breaking of the promise. The Treaty." Harper jolted at the names, but said nothing. Kael squeezed her shoulder, a question and a reassurance.
"What treaty?" She forced herself to ask.
"Over hundreds of years, The descendants of the Moon Rulers have been women, and the descendants of our line, the Guardians, have been men. To protect the powers in our bloodlines, there have always been marriages between Moon Rulers and the Guardians."
"But...wouldn't that cause..." She didn't want to say it, but inbreeding over generations? The results had not always been good.
Kael seemed to understand her question.
"The Moon Rulers are not passed down through blood, but rather by power. The stone-" Kael pointed at the stone infused in her chest, "choses, or rather chose, the next Moon Ruler. It could be anyone. Though there were biological children of the Rulers, they were free to do whatever they wanted. Many chose not to live the court life, surprisingly," He smiled, as if in wonderment. "they chose to give up all power."
"They were on a whole different level of connection to people, to living being. To feelings. They usually chose to go and live amongst the masses. And help them from within." Even Sorien let out a smile at that.
"But what about the new Moon Rulers? Did they not want the same freedom?"
"They were free to choose, after they had done their part in securing the Power of the Moon. They had to hold a ritual to please the Moon Goddesses for a few years, and they would continue to bless the people with peace and prosperity. After that, they could live their long life as they wanted and the Ruby would find someone else" Elyan looked at his brothers, as he spoke, suddenly sober. "The marriage treaty..."
"...The marriage treaty between the Rulers and the Guardians was not really a treaty, but just something that happened for a few generations." Kael spoke up when his younger brother faltered.
"The Rulers and The Guardians spent so much time together...love usually bloomed. There was an understanding of the possibility, no promise. No treaty."
Kael gulped before he spoke the next part, "Our ancestors didn't see it that way, apparently."
Sorien left his place on the wall, "King Dareth took it as an insult when the Moon Ruler didn't chose him, his generation's most promising Guardian. He took his large family of Guardians that by that point had spread widely throughout the continent, and took the throne he thought was denied to him."
"It was never his!" Kael snarled, "And look! Look where it got us! The Ruby disappeared, the Ruler killed herself after her husband was assasinated and their child, vanished." He rocked on his feet. "And us? Cursed to live like this."
Silence spread throughout the room as Harper processed the barrage of information.
"King Dareth got cursed by the Moon Goddesses, and so did all the Guardians," Elyan continued his story, "To live like this, trapped to the whims of the moon. To roam, in pain..."
"...And die." Sorien finished.
This silence was louder than the first one. They were dying?!
She shook her head. Harper had another question she wanted the answer to first, "Was the child, was the child named Shulm?"
Now she knew, why the name sounded familiar.