The Lycan King's Defiant Surrogate

After Caleb's grand display. I decide to remove myself from the gruesome sight and return to my old room, to see if it's

en ransacked. Entering. I notice a few things that are strewn about, but for the m

part, everything is more or less as ! left it. With a quick cleaning, it will be good as new.

I set to work, stripping the sheets from the bed, when someone comes through my door.

"Harper? Thank the gods

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Turning, I see Bethany rushing toward me. I open my arms just in time to receive a big hug from her.

"I was so worried about you," Bethany says. "No one could find you. And then when you returned, and those soldiers took you..."

"Did you get the servants away from the explosion?" I ask, not forgetting the task I had entrusted her with, when it was clear that I was going to be captured.

"Yes," Bethany says. "We already knew to be on guard, so when I gave the order to get away from the door, no one questioned it."

"Good," I say with relief. There were still casualties today, but it seems as if they were limited to the traitors and the loyal soldiers. No innocents were killed, from what I could tell.

Bethany and I pull away from the hug then. She notices the sheets on the floor, and immediately begins to assist me in cleaning.

With her continuous curious glances at me, I could tell that she wants to ask me a few things.

"Go on, then," I say to her. Honestly, I have my own questions for her. Cleaning can wait for now.

"What happened to you?" she asks. "You totally disappeared, only to return with the King. What happened while you were gone?"

Over the course of the next hour, Bethany and I exchange information about what happened at the farmhouse, as well as what happened here in the capital. We are both equally intrigued in hearing what the other has to say. Though, by the time we are through, Bethany is much more excited than me.

"I can't imagine the King acting that way," Bethany says with wonder. "He must really care about you to actually try to contribute, rather than just letting you do everything."

"It was a matter of necessity, not affection," I tell her.

"Maybe," Bethany says, clearly not convinced. "But that doesn't explain the way you talk about him now."

"What do you mean?"

"Compared to before. Your voice softens when you speak of him, and you so often address him by his first name and not his title," Bethany says. "You will have to be more careful about that in front of the others."

I blush slightly, not realizing how informal I have been talking about Caleb. In my mind, I know that he is still the king. But my heart is less practical. After spending those days together at the farmhouse, my heart yearns for him to be simply Caleb. "Harper," Bethany asks. Close to me, her voice is quiet, as if she worries we will be overheard. "Are you developing actual fondness for our King?"

So what if I am? It wouldn't change our positions. He would still be kind, and I would be nothing but a member of his harem. He would never return my feelings, and once he marries, I would be entirely cast aside. At least, I hope I would be. It

would be so much worst for him to continue to visit me, all while he is married to someone else.

"I didn't mean to upset you," Bethany says.

"It's not that," I tell her. "It's just... Caleb - King Caleb is now as he always has been unobtainable. My growing feelings matter very little in the long run. When we were at the farmhouse, it was easy to pretend that things were different. But me than what a King could feel for his reality is still reality, and I am faced with it now. Caleb will never feel more fo consort."

Bethany's good humor falls at my words. "Yes. I suppose

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that's true... Though your feelings for him will surely help you find comfort in your days here. Maybe being near him won't be such a chore for you."

I want to believe that, but the truth is messier. Instead of being annoyed by Caleb's presence, I will now be annoyed by my own impossible feelings. Being with Caleb might just hurt me now, down in my heart.

If only things weren't so impossible...

But this is life. Caleb is King, and I am a lowly harem member. There will be no changing that.

Bethany and I return to cleaning. Before too long, we have my room in an acceptable condition.

We pause when we hear a great many feet being marched through the hallways. Curious, I duck my head out into the hallway, with Bethany behind.

The people being marched are in the next hallway down, but I can see them from where I'm standing. Their wrists are chained, their faces dire. They are being led into the stairwell, and likely taken down to the basement. I stop a servant on her way up the hall. "What's going on there?" I ask.

After her initial surprise at having been addressed, the girl answers, "The traitors, mistress. They are being led to the dungeons. In the morning, the King has declared that there will be a grand execution."

I look at Bethany, who looks back at me.

Bethany speaks to the servant, "He has condemned them all without individual trials?"

"He says the sickness must be purged," the servant continues. "He was quite forceful."

I'm sure he was. "I should speak with him," I say to Bethany.

While I have no love for any of these traitors and what they tried to do, I'm not sure a massive execution is the answer. Perhaps they can be reformed, or sent back to their home country in a trade of some kind.

Caleb is relying too much on his anger here. He's thirsting for revenge of those who harmed him so badly that he's not thinking clearly. Ruthless as he may be, he might end up regretting this action and the wealth of possible information it might have otherwise produced.

I need to talk to him. I'm the only one who really has a chance at soothing him enough to thinking critically. If, when he's calm, he still wants to move forward with this plan, then I might understand. But as it is, it seems as if he's being reactionary and unreasonable. So many deaths. Even the deaths of traitors.

It would weigh on Caleb's already troubled mind.

I step out into the hallway. The number of guards stationed outside of the King's chambers give me a pretty good idea that he's likely inside.

I head there and try to reach for the door. Immediately, my hand is knocked away. A guard shifts sideways to directly block

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my path.

"My apologies for the misunderstanding," I say. "But Caleb - King Caleb usually allows me to see him..."

"Not anymore," the guard replies. "The King has demanded that we block anyone from entering."

"If you would ask him -"

"Anyone includes us," the guard says. "We are not to enter either. If you wish to speak with the King, you must wait until he leaves his chambers and gives explicit permission."

"I understand," I say, downhearted. It's not the guard's fault though, so I refuse to take it out on him. Instead, I drag my feet back to my rooms.

"See?" I tell Bethany. "I'll never be anything more than à harem member."

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