Arthur’s point of view.
“My sister, Ara, is the beast king’s mate?!” I asked, who knows my ears might have heard wrong.
“Yes, Miss Humphrey is the king’s mate” the man answered.
My fist inched forward and landed another punch on his nose, releasing a crack this time and sending him to the ground.
“You bloody liar, how dare you lie about my sister being the beast king’s mate?!” I growled angrily at him.
“I’m not lying, it’s…”
I kicked his stomach cutting off whatever he was about to vomit, he grunted and threw me a glare but didn’t fight back.
“My sister can never be paired with that bastàrd! Ara can never be his mate!” I roared.
Mom made to collapse, but I caught before she could. She was just staring at the liar speechlessly, with her mouth open as she gasped for air.
“Mom, don’t listen to him, he’s a liar” I comfort her.
“My… my… my.. little girl…”
“Mom, he’s lying, don’t listen to him”
The man managed to get up, he dust off his pants and cleared his throat.
“The king and miss Humphrey will be coming to visit you tomorrow, I should take my leave”
He didn’t wait for another second, he quickly dashed into the wizardry forest as if there’s fire on his pants -or maybe he’s scared I’m gonna beat him up again.
“My little girl” mom whispered, a lone tear rushed down her cheek and soon tears flooded her face within seconds.
I glared at the forest as if the idiot who brought this bad news was still there, I balled my fist and clenched my jaw.
“Come, let’s get you home first, Mom” I said, still glaring at the forest. “I’ll bring Ara home tonight!”
★★★★★
Arabella’s point of view.
“Holy shît, the palace is fuçking huge” I complimented.
My eyes moved around in admiration, I had imagined what the beast king’s palace would look like and never had I imagined it to be as beautiful as this.
Everywhere is always dark, with an old pot belly and white beared man sitting on a throne made of thorns in my imagination, but what I’m seeing is totally different -I mean, there’s a huge gap between this reality and my imagination.
Everywhere is shining here, every decorations seemed to be out of this world, there’s a very mighty golden statue of the beast King in front of his palace -we didn’t get to enter his palace because I don’t wanna see it yet.
“I swear, I’ll get lost in this place” I breath out.
“Me too” Daphne added.
Edward chuckled at our reaction.
“And we’ve only just touched the surface, there are still a lot of places we haven’t check out” he said to us.
Daphne stopped on her track, she gave Edward an unbelievable look and shook her head.
“Please, we’ve seen enough for today, I don’t think my poor feeble legs can carry on this journey -this is not fun at all, it’s torture” she complained.
Edward and I laughed at her, but she’s right though. We’ve been walking for almost one hour already, even my legs are starting to feel numb and Edward’s telling us there’s still more to see.
“Can we stop here today?” I asked him.
He inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, as if he’s very pleased with my request -well, I’m very pleased with it too.
“Of course” he answered. “And this is our stop for today, the pup’s playground” Edward said.
As if to confirm his words, we heard pups giggling happily and we turned our heads towards their direction -they’re so many pups on the playground.
Some were playing on the slides, some were playing on the swing, while some were jumping on a trampoline and others were building castles from sand.
The pups were all so happy and carefree, this isn’t how I expected people to live in the beast king’s palace -I was thinking everyone would be walking on their toes or hiding in their houses -for fear of the beast King eating them up.
One of the pups saw Edward and informed the others, they trooped towards him and a few of them jumped on him, while the others hugged his legs.
“Edward, come play a game with us, will you?” One of the pups invited him.
Edward laughed and politely shook his head.
“I’m sorry kids, but I can’t play with you right now….”
“Why?”
“Don’t say you’re busy, we won’t believe you”
“You must play a game with us today”
“Everyone seize him and don’t let him escape” all the pups chorused.
Daphne and I exchanged looks, we laughed at Edward’s expression when the pups held him captive -from the look of things, they don’t plan on letting him go any time soon.
“Alright, let’s make a deal, yeah?” he asked them.
They exchanged looks as if they’re telepathically having a brief meeting, they nodded after a moment.
“His Majesty assigned me to show this two beautiful ladies around”
He pointed at Daphne and I, the pups averted their gazes to us briefly before turning back to him.
“I’ll come play with you immediately I’m done showing them around, what do you think?”
The pups averted their gazes to us again, frown lines appeared on their faces and they released him.
“We’ll make you regret it if you don’t honor your promise!” One of the pups growled at him threateningly.
I couldn’t hold my laughter at how cute she looked, she was trying to be fierce but ended up being cute instead.
Edward raised his hands in surrender.
“I will honor my promise, trust me” he said.
Meanwhile, my eyes were just searching the place for nothing in particular, until they landed on a familiar figure.
I squinted my eyes and realized it’s beast King, he sat in a corner with a little girl of about 7 or 8 years and they seemed to be reading a book -the girl was reading and he was patiently listening.
This is unbelievable.
“What are you thinking about, my queen?” Edward asked me.
I pointed towards the beast King.
“Isn’t that the beast King? Or is my eyes deceiving me?” I asked.
He chuckled lightly.
“Your eyes ain’t deceiving you, that’s His Majesty” he answered.
“The beast King is playing with kids?!” Daphne exclaimed loudly, almost too loudly because some pups heard her and threw nasty glares at her.
We muttered a quick sorry to them and they looked away from Daphne, I looked towards the beast King hoping he didn’t hear Daphne -thankfully, he didn’t hear her.
Or maybe he heard her but decided to let it go, because according to grandma’s story his hearing should be ten times enhanced than ours.
“His Majesty comes here to play with the pups whenever he’s stressed out, or has something bothering his mind” Edward said.
“Hm” I nodded. “He seem to be giving that pup extra attention, who’s she?” I asked.
Wait, that question sounded as if I’m jealous, I scoffed mentally, how can I be jealous of a pup? And besides, we just met each other today, I can’t be jealous right?
*Dummy, the mate bond is already working* Amy said.
*What mate bond? She might be his daughter with another woman!* I snapped at her and shut her out.
“So, who’s she?” I asked again.
“That’s Sabrina, she’s from the orphanage and doesn’t mingle much with the other pups -even though they tried to get close to her”
“Oh” I nodded, ok, I’m kinda having pity on her.
I understand people like her, she might be thinking she’s different from the others because she doesn’t have parents like them, that’s why she loves her own space -I once felt like her, when I lost my dad -it was a huge blow to us.
“His majesty has tried everything to make her fit in with the others but it doesn’t work, so he just took it upon himself to spend time with her everyday and teach her some stuffs”
He paused and stared at them for a moment.
“Hmm… I do think he and Sabrina both have one thing in common” he paused again.
Daphne and I looked at him to complete his words, like why the suspense? He took a deep breath before continuing.
“They both think they don’t fit in, but I understand His majesty though, he’s often misunderstood by the people he’s trying very hard to protect” Edward said.
I heard Daphne scoffed in our pack-link as if she doesn’t believe Edward’s words, I almost didn’t believe him too but watching the beast King being with Sabrina is making doubt those stories my grandma told me.
Could it be he’s really not the one behind all those killings? If he’s not the one, then who is behind it?
“His majesty is a good man, you’ll get to understand him when you know him better, my queen”
I rolled my eyeballs and sighed, that was why I suggested we date each other first for some time -but unfortunately, beast King doesn’t even know what dating means and he doesn’t seem like someone who do love.
“Er.. Edward, can you do me a favor?” I asked.
“Yeah, sure” he answered.
“Good, please stop calling me queen”
“Huh?”
“Yeah, I’m not used to it, I mean I’ve not been able to digest the idea of being the king’s mate” I sighed. “Calling me queen is like putting pressure on me” I explained.
He smiled and nodded.
“I understand” he said.
“You can just call me Ara, we’re can be classified as friends already”
He laughed.
“Wow, that’s awesome, I never knew I’d live to see the day I’ll be friends with the king’s mate”
I punched his shoulder gently, but quickly withdrew my hand when I heard a low growl from the playground -I raised my head and saw beast King glaring daggers at Edward.
Edward cleared his throat and moved away from me.
“I guess I’m in trouble” he muttered very lowly.
The beast King glared at him for a while, then averted his gaze towards me but he looked away almost immediately and turned back to whatever he and Sabrina were doing.
“I guess this is the end of today’s tour, let’s head back” Edward said.
Daphne grabbed my arm and stared at me with a frown.
“Aren’t we going back home today?” she asked.
“Nope” Edward answered before I could.
“Why? I thought you’ve talked things through with him?” she nodded at the beast King.
I sighed softly.
“I kinda made him angry before I could even get to talk about going home” I said.
“What?” Daphne breathe out. “Then.. then.. my parents are still waiting for me outside the wizardry forest, aren’t they gonna get worried if I don’t go back home today?”