CHAPTER [10] - Princes and Knights.

He panicked.

And so, Darren kneed him in the stomach.

"FUCK-" Damsel gasped as he held his stomach, Pain erupted from the point of impact.

"Shit-!" Darren gasped, "I didn't mean to do that-"

"The fuck do you mean you didn't mean to do that? I didn't even do anything this time!" Damsel kissed, groaning at the pulses of pain coming from his abdomen.

"You- You said I could hit you back earlier- I held you to that, right? So-" He stammered, before yelling, "Fuck you!" Darren brought up an excuse out of nowhere.

"Shit dude-.. You're a real piece of work." Damsel scoffed, almost baffled as he eyed him down.

"I don't want to hear that from you of all people." Darren retorted, wiping his sweaty palms as discretely as possible, fuck,

"Anyways, so-.."

"#### ##### #########."

At some point, Darren tuned him out, just staring at the little flecks of gold swimming around in his gorgeous brown eyes, and the corners of his lips tilted upwards every time he had to pronounce an E, it was the way the corners of his lips folded upwards when he smiled that really captivated him, he never had the honor of seeing him smile up close, so all he could do was just imagine it with how he pronounced certain letters.

what was he supposed to do when his face got all up on him all of a sudden, he needs to learn to be careful with it, he cant go around looking like that-

looking so pretty-

augh fuck him.

Fuck Damsel for being so good-looking.

"Are you even listening? You prick-! Have I just been talking to a wall for the past 24 hours?"

"Huh?" Darren blinked, the younger's voice finally reaching him. "Ha-..?" He had to blink a few times to really snap out of it.

"The fuck did you say? And quit exaggerating, it's not been 24 hours, piece of shit."

With a roll of his eyes, damsel continued. "I was saying, We could totally escape by friendship!"

Darren raised a brow, sighing in defeat as he turned back to the door, already giving up.

"Wait- Wait! Hear me out!" Damsel rushed as he practically dashed infront of Darren to block him from taking another step, he held out both to his sides as though he were a fence aswell. "Don't you wanna take any measures to keep your mate?"

"I do, and I will," Darren scoffed, crossing his arms and pointing his nose at the air arrogantly.

"I'm going to act as disrespectful as possible."

Damsel blinked for a second, before practically spitting on his face, "PFFT-!"

"What the fuck, Knight? That's what I used to do back when I was like-" Damsel counted his fingers, "5!" Damsel held up six fingers,

"You're holding up six fingers, Prince."

"I- ugh." He looked down at his hand and slowly put the extra index finger down, smiling at himself as if he were proud or something to have successfully counted 5 fingers.

Ah shit, what the fuck was that?

That was so fucking cute-

What am I saying- him being brain-dead is cute?

But that smile was adorable.

Fuck.

So cute.

"This isn't just a matter that can be fixed by just throwing a fit, I tried it already, trust me."

"Ha? And what, friendship is?" Darren cooed sarcastically in a baby voice.

"Hear me the fuck out." Damsel dead-panned.

"I'm listening." Darren pretended to seem busy by looking at his nails and observing them, clearly trying to piss the other off.

Damsel rubbed his hands together.

"When that meeting starts, we're going to oppose as much as possible, and in the end, I'm gonna talk about how I want my mate only, then you're going to join in saying the same thing aswell,"

"That's going to work like a charm-.. woohoo.." Darren did jazz hands.

"Then!" The younger hyped up, "I'm going to propose a 6 month deal! If our mates don't show up after 6 months of us turning 18, then we'll commit to a consensual marriage!"

"Damsel what the fuck? You're already academically stupid for fuck's sake, but you think a mate is just gonna show up at-."

"Nope, nope, shut up." Damsel brought his index finger to darren's lip to shush him, but the Older merely tried biting his finger in annoyance, damsel was quick to retract his hand though, only fixing him a glare.

"I wasn't finished!" Damsel pat his index finger with his other hand as if trying to comfort it for fuck's sake, "You turn 18 in 3 months, just a month before me, before my birthday, we can tell them that living together for 4 months really opened our eyes and we became friends!"

Darren seemed to be in thought for a second, before an 'Ohhhhh!' escaped his lips, Damsel merely nodded along in an excited manner.

"Then we're gonna say that we want to form an alliance by means of friendship, right? right?" Darren perked up as he delivered the words, he smiled brightly at Damsel to which damsel nodded,

"Exactly!" Damsel jumped excitedly, grinning, "Then they can't say shit!"

"I got it! That's fucking genius!" Darren wowed, he pointed at damsel in a proud manner, "You came up with all of that, I underestimated you, prince!"

Damsel rubbed his nose, giving a fake laugh, it was Vincent's amazing idea but why couldn't he take credit for it? "I'm not as stupid as you, fucking dumbass,"

"I'm geniunely surprised, this plan might- no- this plan will for sure work!"

"Of course it will, I came up with it after all!"

The two dumbasses ended up laughing proudly at their scheme throughout the whole trip back to the meeting room.

The plan was stupid, utterly stupid, it was completely unrealistic and childish.

Damsel would find that out later.

-

-

The moment Damsel entered the room through the glass doors, he was momentarily blinded by the light that struck his eyes, he had to blink a few times to finally find his vision again, only to be met with what seemed like a huge meeting room, with a long wooden table that reached one side of the room, to the other. Office chairs were lined from both sides and the room looked like any other normal office conference room used for important discussions regarding important decisions,

well, this was an important discussion that needed to be conferenced after-all, so what was Damsel expecting?

He looked around the simple-decorated conference room to find that almost all the chairs were occupied by old, elderly men and women, all dressed in lavish suits and office-y attire which put Damsel at a loss of words, that explained why his father forced a suit on him so early in the morning.

A loud cough invaded his ears, making Damsel almost flinch as he looked at the source,

It was Matt.

he sat with crossed arms, he pointed at the empty chair next to him with his eyes, issuing the message to sit his ass down.

Now that he was brought back from his thoughts, he realized he was the only one standing, he glanced next to him only to realize Darren had already taken a seat. With a scoff he looked at where Darren was sitting, and Darren returned his gaze with a smirk,

"Take a seat, Damsel." Carter said, he was sat at the end of the table, the king of the table's chair, if you will, while Nick was sat on the opposite king of the table chair on the opposite side of the room.

Having said his name, a few low chuckles spread throughout the room.

It felt like someone had suddenly turned on an internal heater inside Damsel's system, and his pale skin slowly turned from a ghastly white to a shade of a ripe strawberry. The warmth had now bloomed into a full blown, sweltering heat wave bursting through his pores and triggering the anger he kept in.

His father cleared his throat.

Damsel clenched his fist in embarrassment, his goddamned name, it wasn't the first time he was met with mocking stares though, throughout his 17 years of living, he had learnt to keep it in within events like these, he couldn't shame himself more than the rumors had done already, especially not in front of high-ranked elders.

how was he going to be taken seriously in this board meeting if everyone started laughing every time someone called his name for fuck's sake?

With a mutter of curses, Damsel threw a glare at both carter and the smirking Darren, going to his seat with a huff, ignoring the snickers from the line of people he passed.

The moment his bottom touched the chair, the lights all closed, leaving the room in a shade of pitch black, leaving no room for light, Damsel flinched at the sudden darkness, but soon a projector he hadn't noticed that was hung on the center of the ceiling was turned on, letting a power point project on the only empty, rid-of decorations wall.

The sound of chairs turning from the opposite side of the table could be heard, and Damsel was almost snickering at Darren, since damsel himself was seated perfectly facing the projected wall whilst Darren had to shift his chair around,

A win for me,

"Then, let us start."

Carter voiced, the elder sat nodded in agreement. His chair screeched back as he got up from where he was sitting, going infront of the screen.

"My son is going to be leading the meeting today, gentlemen." Carter brushed his beard, his voice booming throughout the room, he smirked and his eyes latched onto Darren, who wiped off the stupid grin off his face within seconds.

It was alright, he told himself, he was used to these meetings, he had rehearsed his lines, it was alright, he just needed to appear calm; Though it seemed like his body and brain didn't agree,  his hands were shaking whilst holding the paper that had all his points written.

fuck.

"With our joined forces," Darren cleared his throat, his voice was booming as he rose from his seat. "We could rise to the number one pack in the country, expand our territory to great lengths, maybe even to all borders of the USA!"

Damsel swallowed the anger when it was a fire-seed,

"The supplies of our pack will be doubled, no lack of housing for any wolf, no hunger, we'll all be living a rich life full of every necessity! The Prince pack has many promising workers, doctors, engineers, lawyers! Just imagine what topia we could create."

Every time he opened his mouth, Damsel got angrier. "Our pack this, Our pack that! Resources and supplies from them, Manual workers, More money, more cash, we could do this..." At first Damsel merely swallowed his retorts and smiled, smiled and moved on and calmed himself with the plans in his head. But that only made it worse.

"The MoonPrince pack could each pay a monthly tax of-" Darren gulped, "A- 1000 dollars-that wouldn't be a lot, given how rich their finances are!"

Carter laughed, chuckling at the plans, the elders of his pack laughed along while Nick, Damsel, and Matthew were left gnawing at their insides for the hope of keeping themselves from pouncing.

"How about transferring some of their manual workers as compensation to this side, actually?" Carter raised a brow at nick with an evil grin that sent goosebumps down the other alpha's back.

That was it,

That was the straw that broke the Camels back.

Damsel's fingers curled tightly around edge of the table, grasping tightly, he could to see the man's neck snapping in his mind and it felt good. He could feel his fist smashing into his nose, splattering red blood on the dirty walls. What an improvement that would be.

His mind ticked.

Ereloc wanted to come out,

And both Matthew and Nick noticed it,

Matthew gulped as his eyes widened, his hand immediately went to Damsel's arm as he gripped ever so tightly, to which nick did the same, to hold him down, if Ereloc was released again now, there was really no going back, even an alliance wouldn't be left to slip.

So there he was, both his arms chained down to the arms of the chair on both sides.

Both Nick and Matthew were practically walking on egg shells as they just prayed, prayed he would calm down, yet damsel's veins on his arms were so apparent as though they were about to pop, his mind circled and circles as Carter kept yapping off about how his pack would benefit greatly from MP's losses.

but it was different this time,

way different.

When Damsel managed to discreetly shove the constraints on his arms off, he rose from this chair with a loud slam on the table, his fists clenched up as they hit the table, his eyes glared down Carter with a disgusting sense of threatening tension.

The laughter of the others in the room died down,

Snapping their heads in Damsel's direction.

It was a sight he was all too well familiar with, being the center of attention in the worst ways possible, and when he browsed over the seated elders, their eyes laid on Damsel's like predators.

"Sir Knight, I have a question." Damsel cut in, eyes steady on Darren, he slumped back down onto his chair, this time putting one knee over the other.

Darren almost dropped the papers, he looked up nervously, raising a brow at Damsel and looking to his father for help.

Carter merely nodded his head at Darren.

"Uh, yes? Sir prince?" Darren questioned, stammering.

"Let's say we come to terms with the contract, but how would a full soul binding benefit either of our packs?"

Damsel leaned back in his office chair, spinning his pen between his fingers. "See, I'm looking at the contract-" He looked down at the documents infront of him, everybody had a copy of the terms and agreements,

"-And we could simply just pay for the damages, meaning your son's hospital bills, on behalf of us breaking the peace treaty barely, mind i say. A bonded marriage isn't needed for a matter this small at all."

"Couldn't we just sign a contract and send over some supplies?"

Damsel looked up to smile at Darren, signaling him with a raise of his brows,

Darren was supposed to add a few points in aswell-

he gulped down the bump of saliva that had built up, shifting from one foot to another as he tried to get any words out,

He hesitated,

the moment he made eye contact with his father-

he couldnt.

Darren couldn't get a single word out.

The fear sat on him like a pillow over his mouth and nose. Enough air gets by it, allowing his body to keep functioning, but it's crippling all the same. He could walk walk, He could talk, He could smile like he always did,

but infront of that man, he was scared.

And Damsel only watched, watched the pitiful boy cower away within his thoughts, he saw how the boy opened his mouth but stopped mid-way, he saw the way his eyes trembled and lowered their gaze onto the ground, and he noticed how anxiously his hands kept trembling, the papers in his hold crumpling every now and then.

He was a lost cause,

damsel eyed him down, cursing himself for even trusting Darren in the first place, he was going to have to do this all by himself.

It was alright, Damsel knew the rules of high society, he could play a good alpha as well as he could an angsty teen.

"Alpha, if I may be so forward, but this is a little dramatic for a teens' feud, no?"

"I mean," Damsel chuckled, spinning the pen between his fingers, "A marriage because of a few punches? I must say, your sons are quite the.. men."

Carter felt empowered to micromanage every little aspect of Damsel's pack' lives, every damn thing done his damn way, Damsel knew Darren wasn't the one who wrote the words he was shitting out,  it was carter.

And he knew carter was just shitting whatever he could onto the contract.

"My son's bruises are not just a few punches, his whole body is purple and blue!" Carter slammed his hand on the ground, "The peace treaty we made 20 years ago was broken, annihilated! destroyed! And we have every right to ask for whatever we want, who knows if this new contract is going to last either, we need something to hold this contract to valid degree."

meaning, they're trying to push the prince pack to make a move they can't just backtrack from, so they're using Damsel as full hostage.

"Alpha, you must think we're easy, I'm not sure how you've managed to exaggerate everything up to this point, but the peace treaty clearly states that in the case of an actual attack."

"Using actual soldiers," Damsel deadpanned,

"But if we're using your logic, then your pack owes us 17 years worth of pay for damage,  and vise versa, I'm sure you know that Darren has been the first to punch me alot of times within our childhood." Damsel stood from his seat, "I just don't know why you're so sensitive about a petty kids' fight all of a sudden. Feuds between our teenagers are normal."

"Hah. Damsel, let me state something clearly." Carter glared him down, "We-" he pointed at his chest, "can completely wipe out your pack if we wanted to, but we're giving you a chance to save yourselves and simply abide by our rules."

"It seems as though we're not beating around the bush anymore!" Damsel clasped his hands together, his voice sounding a fake shade of giddy.

"So this whole situation has nothing to do with me punching that kid, but this is just you pulling any excuse to take our resources and join packs."

"The situation between you and Darren is quite normal as kids, but what you did to my  son is considered an ambush, and a one-sided fight on your side, it was all you that partook in the action out of nowhere."

"Then let me rephrase my words aswell if you're going to keep being like this." Damsel's eyes darkened, and Nick felt his soul leaving his body for a second, whilst Matthew's eyes dropped to the ground.

But the darkness that had flooded his eyes, dispersed ever so slowly with hesitation as the forest green returned to them, his father had already looked away to notice, though. And the others in the dark room couldn't see the change anyways.

It's okay, just 4 months, I just need 4 months; don't mind his words.

"I can understand the fact that our pack broke the peace treaty then, but you have to understand my father is compensating out of pure good-will for my regrettable actions, and compensating as written in the contract-" Damsel started, but was quickly interrupted.

Matt and Nick's eyes widened, rushing their eyes back onto Damsel, gripping the edges of their seats.

"Is that right?" Carter laughed,

"I presume your father must have a large amount of Compassion then,"

By large amount of Compassion, he meant his father must be feeling really kind to send over everything they requested, their requests could fill a 700 page book; but they weren't requesting, they knew they had the power to order anything they wanted on the contract, even if it was out-of-line,

Because the MoonPrince pack couldn't fight back.

In other words, Carter was poking fun at his useless jab of pride.

The elders of the Knight pack chuckled within themselves, whispering and mocking them under their breath, even though they were right standing infront of them, it was like they didn't even see the Princes as an equal, they genuinely looked down at them as though they were a small clan rather than a built pack with it's own heroic history;

first, their warriors didn't open the gate for them.

second, their alpha refused to return a handshake with Nick.

third, they abused their contract.

and now they even had the audacity to mock them right infront of their faces.

Fires of fury and hatred were smoldering in the small narrowed eyes as he weighed the pros and cons of the various and creative means available to him for exacting revenge for disrespecting not only his hard-working father, but his whole pack at the same time.

even though his father was a horrible excuse of a parental figure, he was an outstanding leader, that damsel couldn't deny, to the point he even gave his own son up for the pack.

Every word stung only fueling the fire that burned inside of him. Every violated phrase was like gasoline to it, his fists began to clench and his jaw rooted.

Carter scoffed, eyeing the way Damsel's mood shifted, it was all too amusing for him actually, seeing him hold his last straw of pride for his pack, but Carter knew Damsel, nor anyone else, could actually do anything to them, they would just be forced to take their anger out alone and punch the air as do teens do when mad at their parents.

The seated people laughed amongst themselves, they had managed to make a fool out of their whole pack, and they simply enjoyed their victory.

"Damsel, just sit down." Nick, whose shoulders had slumped, whispered with such a broken voice, he was affected by Carter's words more than Damsel was actually, to have your pack be treated like dust right infront of your face, he was the alpha after-all, and he couldn't even get angry, he had to just ignore their words.

Damsel knew his father had already come to terms with everything, and at this point it was like Damsel was just pointlessly fighting back a tsunami by holding his hands out to block.

Damsel shoved his arm off, glaring daggers into Carter's back.

Just as Carter turned around to walk back to his seat in satisfaction, Damsel spoke up again.

"You didn't let me finish, Good sir," He sneered.

Damsel smirked, "You forgot your words at the start of the meeting, or- Darren's words."

he got up from the chair and walked over to where Carter stood with a strange glint in his eye, Damsel had a few inches on him so he merely looked down smiling.

Then, he smiled.

"Our finances and Careers are very,

very rich."

He leaned back up to turn on his heels and face the entire board room.

"While you may have a dozen soldiers consisting of betas, you merely have less than three digit doctors." Damsel explained,

"And we have a dozen, highly respected, doctors and men in high political ranks, while we merely have a little under a dozen soldiers,

but,

our soldiers are all alphas."

"Tell me, Carter, who would win if we were at war?" Damsel walked up to him again with a grin.

"Not to mention, I hear Darren is the only alpha in your main family, and if he is bonded with me, how could we possibly produce an heir for your clan?"

"No soulmate, no possible child with the same gender. once bonded, you cant partake in any sexual action with others, am I right?"

"The marriage is simply a constrain on your side, you might think you could join our packs together this way, but in the end, your lineage will end and it will be us who benefit from it in the end."

"Meanwhile our family has more than enough Alphas, in the future we could have branches that could spread through-out the USA."

This time, Damsel zigzagged around Carter, and slowly walked towards Darren, who was standing stiffly watching him with widened eyes,

Damsel was more than pissed, at Carter, yes, but also at Darren who had his tail tucked between his legs throughout the whole meeting, letting Damsel take all the heat whilst he stayed a good daddy's boy and read those aggravating sentences with that horrid voice of his.

"There's a reason we are called the Prince pack, while you're Knights." He started, he was directly infront of Darren now,

it was as though he were talking directly to Daren, looking at him as he spoke, but everyone knew his words weighed something more.

"Get off-

Damsel placed the tip of his index finger on Darren's chest,

"Your high horse."

Then, he pushed him down onto his chair, with just the tip of his finger, so that Damsel stood looming over him,

looking straight down at the Knight.