Wake the Beast

Chapter One

Sixteen years later...

"Mama?"

Queen Lucille, situated on her favorite chair by her favorite fireplace, remained still. Her dark hands were folded, and her warm eyes were shut. Her lips moved silently, likely in prayer. Alex, taught from young age not to interrupt such things, leaned against the doorway to wait.

After a few more moments, the queen sat up a little straighter and turned to welcome her son with a beaming smile. "Alex! How was your daily sword practice? Same as ever?"

"Same as ever," he chuckled, pushing off his post. He began rubbing the back of his neck in anxiety. "I, uh, just wanted to check in on you. It's almost my birthday."

Code for: "Today's the anniversary of the day the witch took my sisters, so I was wondering how you were taking it."

His mother actually took the kidnapping her daughters quite well. Alex just worried, even though he knew he shouldn't. It was his father who broke down on this anniversary of sadness, but Alex strongly disliked trying to comfort him on this day. (He felt guilty about this aversion, but he couldn't seem to control his emotions when it came to his father.)

"Yes, your father won't let me forget," the queen said wryly.

Code for: "Your father plans on doing what he does every year, and I can't talk him out of it."

"Of course," Alex sighed, slouching.

"Don't slouch," his mother chided him immediately. When he had straightened enough to her liking, she added, "I'm sure it won't be as terrible as last year. Rosalind will come!"

"Rosalind always comes, Mama."

"I know, dear, but you have to admit that she's interesting."

"She's definitely better than most of Father's favorite choices."

Queen Lucille narrowed her eyes at him after that comment, and he lowered his head to stare at the floor, avoiding her gaze. While it was true that his father invited some questionable princesses to Hawk's Hill, it was also true that most of them had become some of his closest friends.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "It's just... You know how it is. We don't get along."

"I do know, Alexander, and I also know that both of you need to be making more of an effort to see eye to eye," she told him. "I know you've never seen him at his best, but maybe if you tried, he would open up to you."

"Maybe."

His mother shooed him out of her living room soon afterward, knowing he had princely duties to attend to. Alex left her rather reluctantly, dreading the confrontation with his father. He and the king met every few days or so for what the king called a "royal family meeting." It was just as boring as it sounded. It didn't always exclude Queen Lucille, although she left them on their own whenever she could.

She wriggled out of it by telling them they needed "some father-son bonding time." Unfortunately, the royal family meetings almost always ended in disaster.

Alex stopped outside of his father's throne room, staring at the large wooden doors in resignation. Normally, at least two guards would be posted outside of them, but they always left when the royal family held their meeting (because Prince Alexander and King Tobias almost always began shouting at one point or another, and the king desired privacy during this time). The spacious room behind those doors had been vacated by all other people, he knew. All except the king.

The prince inhaled deeply, closing his eyes to savor that feeling of fullness before he let it out in a large breath. Time to "connect" with his father.