Chapter 33: Chapter 33

CHAPTER 33 Every event in this castle was a different dress code. So, the dress that I was wearing during the day was not appropriate to wear at dinner. So, I needed to change into something a little more formal and then I left my bedroom and I started walking to the dining hall on the first floor.

I walked past a room that had a door that was slightly cracked open and I heard two men in their arguing about something.

“Listen. We’ve got the princess here, what else do you want?” One of them asked.

“It’s not just enough to have the princess here. If we want to remain in the good graces of the King, then you need to do everything you can to make sure that she falls in love with you.” The older man says.

“I know. That’s what you’ve been telling me for the last year. Once we get the princess back then I have to try as hard as anything to marry her. But this isn’t a fight between me and the princess. This is just about you wanting to maintain your status in the castle.” The younger man said.

“What’s wrong with that. I need to keep my status here. And you are my only hope. If the King finds out the truth about our family, then we are done. You are my only hone son.” The older man says. 2 “I don’t like bringing the princess into this. This is not her fault. This has nothing to do with her.’ The younger man says.

“Well, you make sure that it does have something to do with her. Otherwise, I will be banished and I don’t know what the King will do to you.” The older man says.

“He won’t do anything to me because I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t go behind his back, did I? And I didn’t know that you were going to do it either. He will know that.” The younger man says.

“Just finish getting ready. We’re already late for dinner.” The older man says. So, I quickly moved away from the door and kept walking down the hallway until I got to the dining room.

Vincent was already there, standing by the large windows looking out at the village. But when he turned around to look at me he smiled at me warmly.

“Another beautiful gown for a beautiful girl.” He says walking over to me and holding my hands.

“Thank you, Vincent. I hope you don’t mind me calling you that. I’m not used to the whole father thing yet.” I say.

“It’s perfectly okay. You go at your own pace. I know that all of this is completely new to you.” He says.

“Having a father that actually cares about me is something completely new to me.” I say.

“Well, you never have to see Thomas again if you don’t want to.” He says. 1 “Well, that is the dream.” I say looking out the window as well. And the village down below looked beautiful from where we were standing.

“What do you think? One day, this will all be yours.” He says.

“I can’t believe that. It’s amazing. I walked through the village today but from up here it looks completely different.“I say.

“The people here are so excited that you’ve come home. They really are. They can’t believe that it’s taken so long.” He says.

“Well, here I am. I can’t wait to meet them too.” I say and Vincent turns around when we hear other people walking into the dining room.

“Oh. Taylor. I want you to meet my right- hand man. This is Alec and his son Stefan. “Vincent says. And I took a deep breath before I turned around to face them.

“Hello.” I say as calmly as possible. But I had to say, Stefan was very attractive looking. If anyone was going to screw me over, then I was glad that he wasn’t an ugly piece of shit.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you, Princess. Alec walked over and held my hand and kissed it.

“Hello Princess.” Stefan says bowing to “Well, let’s all have a seat.” Vincent says. So, we all sat at the huge table but we were all at the same end. Vincent was at the head of the table and Alec was right on his left side. I was on his right side and Stefan was right beside me.

The servants bought the food out and placed it in front of us and filled our glasses with wine. Which I didn’t hesitate to get into.

“Easy sweetheart. I don’t want you getting drunk straight away.” Vincent says.

“I wish. I’m a werewolf, remember. We don’t get drunk unless we guzzle about I say. And four bottles of vodka at once he shook his head.

“That’s right. Werewolves have fast a metabolism.” He says.

“Yeah. So, no unwarranted misbehaving from us.” I say smiling at him.

“I am very happy to hear that. I guess any father would.” Vincent says laughing and Alec laughed along with him. But I just looked at Alec.

“Stefan. How about after dinner you take Taylor to look at the gardens around the castle. They are quite beautiful at night time.”

Alec says.

“It would be an honour. If the princess would like to.” Stefan says.

“Sure. I suppose that won’t hurt.” I say. And Alec smiled widely at his son. But I looked down at my plate and kept eating without saying anything else.

If they were going to use me in their little games then they obviously didn’t know who they were dealing with. And that was my advantage. I overheard them talking, but they know absolutely nothing about me. And I need to find out what Alec did to my father that was going to get him banished. He was desperate enough to use his own son to get out of it, so it must be pretty bad.

I guess there were assholes. in every realm. No matter where you went.

Once dinner was over Stefan stood pulled my chair out for me and he up and crooked his arm for me to put my arm through it and we left the dining hall and left the men talking business.

Stefan led me out of the castle and around the side where I hadn’t seen yet. Alec was right. The gardens were beautiful. But it was really dark around here. I could see better than Stefan because of werewolf vision, but Stefan waved his arm in the air and suddenly there were tiny little twinkle lights floating above our heads.

that lit up the garden.

“Wow. You have got to teach me how to do that.” I say in amusement while looking at the lights.

“You don’t know how to use any of your fae powers?” He asked.

“No. Can’t say that I do.” I replied looking back at him and he was smiling at me.

“It would be an honour to teach you. Everyone in this realm should know at least a few things.” He says.

“Thank you. I really appreciate that.” I say.

“Don’t mention it.” He says.

We walked over to one of the garden beds that was made of stone, and I sat down and looked over the edge and all the way down the mountain that led to the castle was forest. It looked even more incredible to me. But I had an attachment to the woods that no one else here could understand. Apparently, I was the only werewolf in this realm. So, I guess that made me even a little bit more special.

“So, how are you finding this place so far? ” Stefan asked sitting next to me.

“Well, it’s definitely different. It will take me a while to get used to it.” I say.

“I can imagine. This realm has only existed for 12 years so I was 9 when we came here. I remember Earth and everything that happened there. But coming here was so completely different. And everyone just embraced it. I hope you embrace it too.” Stefan says looking me straight in the face. 4 “I hope so too. I’m not quite used to the dresses yet. But I guess that’s a minor detail.” I say looking away from his intense gaze.

“You don’t need to be shy around me. I understand.” He says. No, you don’t. You don’t understand that I am completely fucking with you here by playing the princess in distress and in desperate need of a friend. Just wait until I find out the truth. No one tries to fuck with me and gets away with it.

“I’m not really shy. I’ve never been shy. I think it’s just been a really long day.” I say.

“Of course it has. You’ve only just gotten here. How about we head back inside. We can look at the gardens another time.” He says.

“I’d like that. We can come back out tomorrow.” I say.

“Absolutely. I’ll let your housemaid know which room is mine so that we can keep in contact.” He says.

“Oh. You live here in the castle.” I say surprised.

“Yeah. On the second floor. Away from your room and the King’s room. It’s not proper to have two teenagers of different genders living too close together.” He says standing up and giving me his arm again to hold.1 “No. I guess that wouldn’t be proper.” I say. All of these rules and what’s proper and not proper, it definitely made me feel like I was living in the 1300’s or something like that. It was weird, but something that I would need to get used When we walked back inside I said goodnight to Stefan and then to Alec and Vincent and I walked up to my room and I closed the door.

As soon as I walked into my room I flopped face down on my bed and I started pulling at the laces on my back because it felt like the corset was cutting off my air supply. But then I heard this weird buzzing noise.

I looked up and tried to figure out where it was coming from before I looked at my bedside table. I opened it up and my phone was going off.

“Hello.” I answered after picking it up. But there was a lot of static in the phone and it was a little hard to hear.

“Taylor. Oh my god, is that really you?” Jackson asked.