Chapter 65 - Meeting Of The Pack

After saying goodbye to Princess Adeline and taking the letter from Queen Claricia, Prince Fenris had departed from Wyverndale and left for his own homeland, Aberdeen. It took him one and a half days in his carriage to get back to the Palace of Aberdeen.

After arriving there, the first thing that he did was that he headed straight towards the throne hall. This hall worked similar to the King's Court of Wyverndale. The King would be present in this room for most of the day and he would carry out all his duties from this hall.

The throne hall, of course, had a large throne at the front. The throne was polished with gold and was shining brightly. Unlike the throne of King Dragomir, this throne had a carving of huge wolf on the backrest.

The other difference was that in this hall, there were several other grand seats along the both side of the room that were reserved for ministers of the Kingdom and elders of the Siccaldi clan. Everyone would be present in this hall if they were called for a meeting by the King, else, the large hall would only be occupied by the King and his few guards.

Right now, King Conall was sitting on his grand throne and was working on something. A guard who was standing by the door of the hall announced to the King in a loud voice, "Prince Fenris has returned from Wyverndale and wants an audience with His Majesty."

King Conall glanced at a guard who was standing by his side and then nodded to him. In turn, that guard ordered in a loud voice, "Allow His Highness to come in."

Prince Fenris's footsteps echoed throughout the hall as he walked inside. He kneeled down on one of his knees and then bowed his head to the King, "I offer my greetings to you, My Lord."

"Rise", King Conall spoke in a monotone. King Conall was a middle aged man but looking at him, people would think that he was still in his late thirties. He had a long black hair that fell down to his shoulders. His whole body structure looked very sturdy and he was giving off a very intimidating aura.

The King glared at his son and asked, "How was your stay at Wyverndale?" There was a suppressed anger towards Fenris in the King's voice. He was clearly not impressed with his son overstaying at another nation without getting his permission beforehand.

Fenris stood up and looked down at the floor, not wanting to anger his father even more. And he replied in a soft voice, "The stay was productive because I have some important news to announce to you. But first, I would like to present you with the letter from Queen Claricia which will shed some light regarding the matter that I would like to discuss."

Fenris handed over the letter to the guard and the guard presented it to the King who was sitting in his throne.

The King opened the letter from his sister and then read the message. He raised his brows as he learnt something important to the Siccaldi clan from the letter.

And the King spoke in a cold and intimidating voice, "I see that there has been a new addition to the werewolf pack. Did you witness Nigel's first transformation? I believe that you were sticking with him at that time since he is your favorite cousin."

King Conall had high hopes from his first born son but his hopes were crushed when Fenris did not even inherit the werewolf curse.

And because of this reason, some unspoken distance was created between the father and son. It was no secret that the King had grown cold to his first son ever since Prince Wulfric was crowned as the Crown Prince.

Prince Fenris took a deep breath in and replied to the King, "Unfortunately, I was not together with Prince Nigel and I did not get to witness his transformation. But I can guarantee that he went through the transformation. I dueled with him and his strength and speed were on equal level to Crown Prince Wulfric."

"I hope that no one else found out about his transformation apart from my sister. Is there anyone that needs to be dealt with?" The King gave an intense gaze to Fenris.

However, Fenris was not going to give in to the King just because of his cold gaze. He had endured it for a long time now and he was already used to it. Also, he was not going to put the woman he fancied in danger.

So Fenris just lied through his teeth, "No, there were no one else who found out. All guests and people of Palace were gathered inside the banquet hall and he was in the forest when he had transformed."

"Hmm… what a coincidence, it sounds a little too perfect." King Conall was furrowing his brows and was showing his suspicion towards the statement given by Fenris.

Prince Fenris was unfazed and reemphasized his point to make the King believe that he was not lying. "I assure you that Nigel had managed to run to the forest behind the Palace when he began experiencing the pain. And he said he had not told about it to anybody. I believe him because he had not even told it to Queen Claricia. She only found out when I revealed it to her."

And he immediately added with confidence, "Even I found out just by chance when I dueled with him. And I also questioned him about other symptoms and confirmed that he had indeed transformed."

King Conall finally nodded his head and then looked at the guard standing by his side and ordered, "Call an emergency meeting for the elders of the clan."

"Yes Your Majesty", the guard immediately marched outside of the hall to call the meeting.

Then the King looked at Fenris and ordered, "You may rest for now. You are not that useless after all."

The King's words pinched Fenris's heart. But he swallowed his pride and then bowed to the King. "Thank you, My Lord."

After he was far away from the throne room and when he was sure that his father would not hear him through his super hearing, he shouted, "It is not my fault that I did not inherit the werewolf gene. Why does he need to treat me like this? Maybe I should just run away from the Palace."

In the throne room, every important elders of the clan gathered in no time. Once everyone settled in, the King started the meeting. "Thank you for coming here in such a short notice. I have gathered you all here to announce that Prince Nigel, my sister Claricia's only son, has successfully completed his first transformation."

As soon as he announced this news, the elders started to gossip among themselves. It was a new matter to them because something like this had never happened before. Usually, the curse hardly manifested in a child whose both parents had not triggered the curse. And since Claricia had never triggered the curse, she was married to another Kingdom thinking her child would not bore the curse.

However, now that Nigel had triggered the curse, it was bound to create some problem for the clan.

The eldest member of the clan, or the eldest werewolf, clapped his hand twice and whole hall went silent. He looked at the King and then asked, "What have you thought about this problem? Do you have any course of action?"

The King was almost offended by the elder for calling his nephew a problem. But he maintained his calm because even he knew that it was going to be a problem to leave a werewolf on his own in another Kingdom. "I also learned about it just a while ago so I have not given much thought to it."

Then he glanced at everyone present in the hall and asked, "If anyone has any suggestion about what should be done then the floor is open."

One of the elders put forth his suggestion, "I have heard that the King of Wyverndale has many children. So why don't we simply ask the King to send Prince Nigel to our Kingdom? I don't think he will have any problem with that."

King Conall chuckled at this remark of the elder and said, "I don't think it will be that easy. No matter how many children one has, they won't just hand over a child to another Kingdom. And besides, their custom of selecting the future ruler states that everyone will have equal right to the throne. So, asking him to send over one of the potential rulers won't be that easy."

One of the members of the meeting commented, "What kind of silly custom is that?"

The eldest one immediately interjected, "Whatever it is, we cannot let Prince Nigel to be selected as their new King. There will be a lot at the stake if that is to happen. It will be hard to protect our secret if he becomes the King and goes on displaying his power in the battlefield someday. By hook or by crook, we must bring him here, close to where the pack is."

And another one agreed to the eldest one, "Yes, we must teach him the rules of how a pack works. He should be a responsible member of the clan. And that is only possible if he is here."

The King exhaled sharply and thought for a while.. Then he replied, "Alright, I will see what I can do."