The King's Claim

f o u r - a royal request✔️

I couldn't stop thinking about the strange encounter in the gardens, I tapped my pen on the desk, trying to recall any scent or sound.

"Belle?" I jumped at the sound. Dexter, the other pack chemist, was staring at me with a worried expression.

"You've been staring off for a while, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I guess I'm just spacing off again." I answer.

"Oh okay, but we do have a deadline coming up with the X Bane results and we haven't even started testing it yet. I'm worried if we do-"

"Yeah I know, but I don't think the royals will reprimand us much for missing the deadline when they forced their head chemist to treat patients for two months." I snapped, still mad at having to take over healer duties.

"We'll start first thing tomorrow, we can prep the rooms and get the mixtures ready. It'll be fine Dex." I reassure him.

We handle all the preparations, ready for the highly potent and toxic chemical we're going to have to work with.

X-Bane.

It's tar black, boils at exactly 178 degrees Celsius and is the most dangerous chemical known to our kind. We've been setting this thing up for months, trying to find a cure that ails werewolves of it's effect.

If injected directly into the bloodstream of a pure wolf, it turns the wolf into a savage beast, completely shutting their human side, killing any trace of sanity in them. They become bloodthirsty with a constant stream of Adrenalin coursing through them, creating an exceptionally dangerous creature with nothing to lose.

Thankfully this substance can't be used for warfare, these creatures are so out of touch with their sanity that they're impossible to train or to coerce into following instructions. Once injected, the wolf no longer holds alliance to any side, it just wants to wreak havoc and destruction.

And that's why tomorrow I'm going to be exposed to an entire litre of the stuff.

I strangely loved my job, the thrill I felt at being so close to death, one wrong move and I could potentially fuck up big time. It allowed me to get slightly crazy, not see people for weeks at a time apart from Dexter who every 3 days or so forced me to take a shower. I loved interacting with my pack but nothing beats the feeling of being so close to a break through. Feeling so close that you refuse to sleep in your own bed, day in and day out mixing liquids and testing for properties.

This was were I belonged.

It also helped that I would forgot about my own problems too, my joke of a personal life and the dark thoughts that never seemed to fully clear up.

"Doctor Maddox, your presence is being requested upstairs." A voice squeaked from the door.

"By who?" I ask.

"Your highness, Ma'am." The timid boy replies, trying to not breathe in the awful fumes of the laboratory.

I felt my heart stop, my hands immediately began to feel sweaty. I have never and I mean NEVER been requested by anyone. My god, What if it's the King himself? My heart beats even quicker at the thought.

I feel my heart begin to beat at an impossible rate.

"Why?" I ask, terrified.

"I'm sorry Ma'am, I do not know. I got orders that the head chemist's presence is being requested."

"Okay." I whisper, I turn to Dexter, who's eyes are bulging out of his head, he shakes his head at me.

"It's okay Dex, just finish up." I fix my lab coat as I follow the boy, scenarios keep running through my mind, what if he's dying and he needs a cure from me? What if he's a crazy lunatic and wants me to make him an immortal potion? What i-

"We're here."

"Are you not going to come in?" I ask the boy as he stands outside the west wing.

"No ma'am, I am not allowed."

I walk in on my own, feeling my throat close up as my never ending nerves suffocate me. There it is, his office, two massive polished wooden doors and a golden plaque that reads 'DO NOT ENTER.'

I knock twice, softly.

"Come in." The voice commands me.