Chapter 308: Chapter 308

308 Blackmail

A reason to visit the prince... A reason to visit the prince... A reason to visit the prince... The statement kept going through the girl’s head that she completely forgot that the king was waiting for her to speak.

King Davin had to snap her out of her thoughts, “Bree, are you okay? I was told you made a full recover...”

“I would like permission to visit your brother, your majesty,” the girl rushed, missing the fact that the king was in the middle of his speech.

A frown ran across the king’s face, “Why is that?” the king asked her.

There weren’t many things the girl could tell the king that would get her his approval. The mere fact that the prince didn’t associate with anyone made this request completely out of place. If she chose to lie to him completely, it would be impossible to hide her deceit when he had command over the entire pack link... So she went with an altered version. One that would be almost undetectable “I just want to know why he did what he did. I want closure... and I want to hear it from him,” the girl said to the king.

The king was quiet for a moment, trying to think over what the girl was saying. Her request must have been the weirdest he’d heard all week, but after what she had been through, he was more inclined to listen to what she had to say. He couldn’t help the curiosity that clawed at the back of his mind, “Why can’t you wait for his trial just like everyone else?”

The girl’s heartbeat went into overdrive. The king wasn’t letting up like she had hoped he would. “When I was captured, I overheard something. I’m not sure what I heard, but I would like to ask him about it. Please your majesty. It won’t take me long to ask him,” the girl tried once more, “It might be nothing considering I was scared out of my mind. It was so scary. I thought I might die from starvation. Not to mention after losing...”

“Alright alright... I will let you visit him, but you only get five minutes to talk to him,” the man sighed, pulling a form out of one of the drawers behind his desk. He filled in the blanks before stamping it following through with his signature.

The girl took the form from him and bowed in thanks before exiting the room. She barely noticed the presence of the people in the room. Queen Martha had been seated on the sofa, paying close attention to the girl’s eyes as she spoke, “Something feels off with that girl. There is so much going through her mind.”

.....

“Getting captured can do that to you. She almost died,” the king replied sadly.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. But why does it feel like it was something else... almost like she was consumed by hatred?” the queen searched the mind link and found that the girl had blocked her emotions from flowing into the mind link. Respecting her privacy, she decided against a mental invasion, “Just to be sure, I’ll alert the guards to be weary of her actions.”

Bree returned to the guard at the entrance of the dungeon and held the form out for him to hold. The guard looked between the form and the girl. “You weren’t even gone for thirty minutes.” The man exclaimed, grabbing the form and searching it for any sign of forgery, but it proved authentic. Just then, a transmission came through from the queen that notified the girl had indeed received the confirmation from the king.

“Just who are you, girl?” the guard narrowed her eyes at the girl. She had amber eyes... a rank lower than he was and yet she had gotten closer to the king than he could ever hope to... under an hour no less.

“You don’t seem to understand the king one bit,” the girl replied, walking past the guard, “I would like the key to Prince Sean’s cell, please.”

“Oh, that stays with me,” the guard replied, holding up a lantern and gesturing forward, “If you would just follow me.” The girl gritted her teeth and balled her fists. Withholding her discontentment, she went along with the man’s words.

The man led the girl through the dungeon until they got to the large metal door that was the only known entrance to the prince’s dungeon. Unlike the other cells, this one did not allow anyone to look into it and was locked more securely than the others. “Why is he locked up in such a manner? He’s royalty, you know.” The girl snapped at the guard.

The man only chuckled, “Compared to the other prisoners, he is living the dream. Hey, don’t argue with me. King’s orders.” He replied, opening the door and walking in with two more guards before her, “Stay outside a moment. It’s protocol for any civilian visiting him... not that he gets any visitors at all.”

The girl waited impatiently as the guards worked inside the cell. She heard the sound of chains, but no complaints came from the inside of the room. After a short while, they stepped out, “You have five minutes to speak with him. After that, we’ll be hauling you out of there against your will.” With that, she was left alone to enter the cell. On the inside of the cell, she found the prince chained at his wrists that had been raised so he would not be able to try anything dangerous.

There was no doubt that anything he tried would plunge his system with a dose of wolfsbane.

“Ah, so you’re the reason my novel was so rudely interrupted. And yet I was getting to the good part,” the royal spoke up when she’d just entered. The inside of the room was neat and on the comfortable side for a prison cell. There was no window in the entire room... just good air conditioning. The bed he was seated on was even better than the one the girl slept on in her home.

He was well fed and had a pile of books on a side table that she was sure was constantly growing taller with each passing moon.

“You don’t even know who I am, do you?” the girl snapped at him.

“Am I supposed to know who you are? That would be such an unreasonable request if I was to remember everyone I ever met... and one hell of a chore,” the man chuckled, “What brings you here? I don’t even understand why Davin would let someone like you through. Has he really grown that soft?”

“You’re nothing like the king at all. How are you two even related, to begin with?” the girl spat at him.

Sean’s expression went dark for a moment. It was like she’d hit a nerve, however, the girl couldn’t imagine him acting any other way than he was now. He was the insufferable royal that everyone knew as the Lone Wolf.

The man was quiet for a moment, narrowing his eyes at her and finally spoke seriously, “That look in your eye. You’re angry at someone. What brings you here, girl?”

The girl looked to the door and noticed she was being listened to. Through the mind link, she said, “You’re going to help me get back at the royal family.”

“Oh, what makes you think I would ever help you achieve such a thing?” the man asked her.

“Information is a very valuable thing, you know. Does the name Amanda mean anything to you?” the girl smirked and watched as his eyes widened in recognition of the name she’d just uttered.

“It does mean something to you. I can pretty much piece together everything from here on. You’re in league with the rogues for reasons very simple to werewolf kind...

There aren’t many things in the world that can break the loyalty of a wolf to his pack...

In fact, it might be the only thing in the world besides family that could have caused you to do what you did...

Love... Isn’t it?” the girl asked him. The question was rhetorical.

Sean’s expression gave it all away. The man that was always composed around everyone had just shown emotion at the mention of a single name. At that moment, it was like she’d just cracked the hardest shell in the known world. Sean almost looked ordinary, if not for the bright blue gleam in his eyes.

“What makes you think I’m going to help you?” the royal asked her, however, this time he wasn’t in a mood to laugh. His eyes scanned her face constantly. It made Bree’s skin crawl.

“It doesn’t matter to me at all anyway. I will get back at the royal family and you will help me do it. Amanda recently abducted me, you know. She told my friend to deliver a lot of information to the king. I played dumb and remained ‘unconscious’ the entire time. I know more than you think I could, so I would suggest you listen to what I have to say. If you don’t I’ll just twist all this information in any way that I want and you could find yourself facing a death sentence before long,” the girl replied with a steeled expression. Of course, she said all this through the mind link. The advantage of doing it this way though... was that Prince Sean could feel her conviction flow into her mind along with.

What he couldn’t tell, however, was if she was bluffing. He wanted to invade her mind, but the strain that would take was more than the wolfsbane in his shackles would let him handle.

Sean stared at the girl before her. The look in her eyes was not foreign to him. He’d seen it before. She meant what she was saying and might have been willing to go to great lengths to achieve what she wanted to, but she didn’t have enough to sway him just yet. His mind questioned how much she knew about Amanda and she kept this hidden just as well, “You know nothing.”

The girl smirked, “You sound so foolish right now. I’ll let you in on one of the little secrets I heard...” the girl whispered something to him through the mind link. The smirk on her face wouldn’t leave long even after she was done talking.

Sean gasped upon hearing her words. The reply only proved she knew more than she was letting on even more. It wasn’t like him to get cornered by someone so... ‘powerless’, “What do you want?”

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” the girl’s dark smile grew even wider... if that was at all possible.

“It’s quite simple really. I want to get back at the royals for what they’ve done to me, so I will have you take me to Amanda and the rogues,” the girl replied. The prince paused, but upon remembering her threats, allowed her to proceed.

“I can’t get out of this cell,” he replied.

“You leave the escape to me. I will come to get you out of here at midnight, so make sure you’re ready by then,” the girl said to him, “My time is almost up now. We’ll talk about the rest when we are far from here.” A knock came at the door, admitting the guard into the cell.

“Your time is up,” the guard said to her.

“Oh, I hadn’t noticed,” the girl replied. Sean wondered where the tear that flowed down her cheek had come from, “I can’t believe you would conspire with the rogues to kill your own niece. I believed in you, prince Sean, but... but...”

“Was that really true?” the guard asked.

“Yes, it was. I had only come here so he would tell me that the rumours were true. This man truly is a villainous criminal that should be punished for his crimes. To think someone would want princess Katie to be killed when she was only an infant and a hope to the entire kingdom.”

“This way, miss,” the guard wrapped an arm around her and led her out of the cell. It was only Sean that noticed the girl had already set her plan into motion, “I hope the king gives you a punishment fitting of your crimes.” The guard spat, getting worked up from the state of the girl displaying crocodile tears. The guards freed him from his chains and locked his room. The novel by the king’s bed no longer seemed interesting after what he’d just heard.

‘You don’t get it, do you, little girl? I promised him I wouldn’t leave this cell...’ this thought wouldn’t leave the confines of his cell... and he was sure even if she had heard him, she wouldn’t care one bit.