Chapter 61

Arthur couldn’t believe what he’d heard. He glanced at Daphne and found her frozen in shock as well. He looked back at Blade who looked pensive and troubled.

“I’ve talked with the other members of the patrol, and we all think it’s a trap.”

Arthur thought that much was obvious, but he was more interested in what their goal was. At least with Owen, he knew the man just wanted to kill him, but what did the vampires want? Maybe it wasn't a trap, but an opportunity.

He didn't know enough about vampires to know for sure, but his instincts said they weren't trying to trick them.

“Have you told anyone else?”

“No, Your Majesty.”

Arthur sighed and stood, “Call a meeting in the hall about this.”

Blade nodded, bowed and left. Arthur looked at Daphne.

“Once this is done we’ll go back to lunch.”

Daphne gave him a tight smile. She had a feeling that it wouldn’t be that simple. Nothing had been that simple since Arthur took the throne.

“It’s a trap!”

Arthur sighed. They had been arguing about this for at least an hour now, yet they didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. How many times were they going to say it? Didn't anyone have something useful to say or an idea of how to proceed? They had no other leads and no other way of finding out why the vampires had attacked. They hadn't even known that the vampires were capable of attacking until they were all almost killed. The only option they had was to meet them.

“Of course, it’s a trap,” Rex said. “The only thing we can do is to figure out how best to navigate it.”

Arthur sighed, a bit disappointed in Rex's statement. If the vampires were smart enough to have a mole in the werewolf kingdom, then they likely wouldn’t have bothered with a trap or it wouldn’t be so obvious. However, Rex was right about focusing on what to do next instead of panicking.

Tom stood, "The best option is to send a group, masquerade one of them as His Majesty, and see what they want.”

Rex shook his head, “I don’t think they’ll be tricked.”

“I agree,” Arthur interjected. “They have inside information, so they know what I look like. Likely one of their informants is going to be around to make sure that it’s the right person.”

Trying to fool them, would only make things worse in the end. He knew being lied to was a quick way to infuriate him. The vampires were already upset for reasons that hadn’t been disclosed. It made no sense to anger them further. He thought of his father's letter. King Dean had wanted peace and saw in Arthur a chance for it.

Maybe this was the first step to achieving that peace.

“There’s no other option,” Arthur said. “I have to go.”

“But Your Majesty!” Tom gasped, “The vampires are vicious creatures! They’ll kill you on the spot.”

Arthur sighed, “You keep saying that. They’re strong, sure, but if they were that vicious they would have just killed everyone in Sharp Armor.”

Tom paled and shook his head, “You… You don’t understand.”

Arthur gave him a skeptical look.

“I… am the only one at this table old enough to remember the war, so it makes sense that you all don’t understand. The war with the vampires has been going on for ages, off and on. Those vicious creatures are hell-bent on destroying us.”

Tom shuddered remembering the sights of bodies strewn across the streets of pack villages. No one had been spared.

“They have no regard for life,” Tom sneered. “Even the cruelest of us wouldn’t murder children.”

“… That’s not true,” Arthur said. “The former alpha of Brown Valley arranged to have me murdered as a child.”

Tom’s eyes widened.

“Unless you have something concrete to say about where this deep hatred for vampires comes from and why the war started, it’s irrelevant.”

Tom’s heart stuttered. Irrelevant? How could he say that such a momentous event in their history, such a great victory of the werewolf kingdom was irrelevant to dealing with the threat of now?

“The war with the vampires was not the reason the werewolf kingdom collapsed and had been reduced to the state it is now,” Arthur said. “I’m not afraid of them. I have no reason to be.”

Tom shook his head, “You’re…. You’re… Your Majesty, please reconsider…”

Arthur ignored him, “I’m going with a force small enough to get there and strong enough to buy us time to retreat if needed.”

"B-But--"

Arthur waved him off, "If they wanted to murder me, they would have attacked already and I doubt we'd have any forewarning. We need to know what they want so they'll leave us alone. Rex, Blade, Tom…"

Tom’s stomach churned. His heart was racing. Arthur was young and unlearned about the war and the dangers of the vampire kingdoms. The vampire queen had been vicious and her lieutenants had been just as bloodthirsty. He bowed his head and prayed that this wouldn’t go as bad as it could have gone.

He shuddered, remembering the day he followed Dean out to meet with a general of the vampire queen. The woman’s face had been masked and her eyes were seething. They had agreed to retreat that day, to collect the dead.

“Do not think this draw is the end, wolf.” Her voice was tense. “You escape alive today because it suits my queen.”

Arthur chose a small team of twenty werewolves to come with him to the meeting at the border and left with a sigh. He was tired and his ears were ringing a bit with agitation. He should have allowed Daphne into the meeting with him. Maybe he would have managed to feel calmer afterward.

Daphne came to him from down the hall and looked up at him.

“When are we leaving?”

Arthur gasped and shook his head. Of course, Daphne was smart enough to figure out he was going, but there was no way she would be coming with him.

“You’re not going.”

“You can’t go without me!”

Arthur clenched his fist as her eyes pleaded with him. He couldn't risk her.

“I’m not going to risk your life, Daphne.”

She clenched her jaw, “Arthur—“

He pulled her close, “If anything were to happen to you, I don’t know what I would do. I need to be focused on figuring out what they want and keeping the escort alive. I can't have you there.”

Daphne didn’t want to agree. She didn’t want him to go out there alone, but she knew trying to argue with him would be pointless. If she were to go, she’d have to go without him knowing.

Could she manage that? She knew the way to Sharp Armor. Were they meeting there or somewhere nearby?

“Come back to me in one piece,” Daphne sighed. “Promise?”

Arthur squeezed her tighter, “I promise.”

They returned to finish their lunch, but the mood had turned dark and tense. Before he managed to escape the lower levels of the castle, he went to the old study where the progenitor of the Royal line office. The chair squeaked as he lowered himself into it and considered Tom’s words.

There was an almost fanatical hatred of vampires in his eyes. He shuddered. It reminded him of the way the people of Brown Valley would look at him, so sure that he would murder and destroy at the slightest provocation.

Was there a chance that there was something else behind the war? He started looking through the journals Arthur I left behind.

In one of them, he found a folded map and frowned. It was different than the map that was on the wall, maybe an extension of the other side. He pinned it up beside the map and considered it.

He recognized the territory just beyond Sharp Armor as the borderline, but this map extended into what he assumed was vampire territory.

How would his ancestor have gotten this map? Why would he have it? Had his father known about it?

Something told him to put it back where he’d found it, so he did, but the sight of it was concerning. Was there a map of the human territories? Did they have a territory or had they always been stuck between the two empires of supernatural creatures?

He left the office and headed back to his room just as dinner was being served for him and Daphne.

Daphne smiled, “I thought we could… use a break from eating with everyone.”

Arthur nodded, “Thank you, Daphne… I can’t say I want to see anyone else right now anyway.”

He sat beside her and they ate in companionable silence before going to wash up for bed.

“Daphne?”

“Yes?”

He frowned, “Why would an enemy have a map of an enemy’s lands?”

Daphne frowned. It was a strange question but she hummed and thought about it.

“Well, either they weren’t always enemies or it was stolen, I guess. Why?”

He swallowed and wondered which was the truth for the werewolf kingdom.