Taming The Cursed Beast

CHAPTER 2: The Royals?!

“It will be a heavy day, Delphi. The weather is not cooperating with my plans,” Agnes continuously bounces his right heel on the floor as a form of habit, sipping loudly on her morning cocoa at the edge of her bed.

Her monkey was on the window sill, playing with a rose bud as though it was intrigued. This left a smile on Agnes’ face with the similarity her and her cherished pet have.

Both of them are like roses, and it was no surprise she has a high-maintained pet.

The clouds were abundantly watering all the plants in the garden, visible within Agnes’ large windows.

She didn’t have a good sleep.

And the bags under her eyes greeting her in the mirror were of great help to ruin her day first thing in the morning.

She spent all night thinking over and over again about what her parents said and there was only one conclusion formed within those long hours:

She has to stop that from ever happening at all cost. She cannot marry whoever that man is.

Now that she has a plan, all it needs are a bunch of things she most definitely has, but cannot touch without her parent’s consent:

Money.

There is no other way. There was no convincing her parents to take it back as the pack will be on the line. Her urge to help her pack just isn’t big enough to give her entire life into an arranged marriage.

“I have to run away from home, Delphi . . .” said Agnes as she stared right into her pet monkey.

Perhaps start my very own perfume store like I have always planned.

Agnes glances at the endless amount of perfume display she had on her vanity. It was all made by her and she’s very proud about it. Always planning to sell it but just didn't have the time to do so.

Agnes, in her early childhood, had been spoiled; and to her parents, it was a given she would be requiring double the amount of care. When she was six, she forced her dad to buy her a lot of things to ‘discover’ what field she was actually good at.

And single-handedly, in just a few pouts and fake tears, she managed to convince the Alpha to buy her everything she wants.

From music instruments, to books, and even hiring a cooking teacher. Everything.

And yet, even after all that lavish things to find hobby from, she ended up in her parent’s bathroom, simply mixing essences and bath soaps until it created a scent she desired.

That’s how the great and spoiled Agnes Burroughs managed to find her passion for perfumes.

Though she had a lot of trials in order to publish and monetize her desire to sell these things, it was also just as fast as how all those businesses failed.

The pack members do not like the smell of sophistication. It felt unfamiliar.

They have always wished for something sweet and the smell of vulnerability.

What a disgusting choice of perfumes and virtue in life.

She drank the last bit of her coffee before slamming it down on the table, earning a squeaky sound from Delphi, the monkey who was just about to poke his nose onto the rose petals like the curious animal he was.

“It would smell like musk and cloves, Delphi. Its petals contain its perfume,” she calls out to her pet before heading over to her massive closet.

Yep! I have a lot of clothes that need to be cleaned up.

Or in other words, to be thrown in the trash.

Agnes took her time picking out things she might sell. She was going to the unclaimed lands for the very first time. Where the capital market is.

Of course she cannot sell these clothes on her own pack where his father would know her schemes.

What could a wealthy Alpha’s daughter achieve by selling clothes, she has a lot more riches to burn.

She was also aware that she cannot exploit her father’s own money to her plan of running away from the marriage both of his parents were trying to force onto her.

“Agnes, dear. May I come in?” a small knock bothered her silly adventure throughout her closet.

Her mother was patiently waiting outside, as she always had. Her mother was sweet, so sweet that Agnes never knew where her sassy behavior was inherited from.

Agnes clenched her fist tightly on a fabric she was currently holding before shouting back,

“Leave me alone!” she refused when she reminisced what happened last night.

Her mother Layla, though persistent, simply left. She knew she cannot force her daughter into letting her talk the girl into doing what they want. What they think is best for everyone.

They might have to convince their feisty daughter for another time. Of course, that is if they’d be alive long enough until the supposed groom would burst from the long wait.

“Ugh! I hate them so much!” Agnes crumples her clothes around her large cabinet. Some even landed on Delphi’s tiny head.

She tried to calm herself to continue her plan.

She was running away from this pack.

And she’ll never marry whomever that was they were trying to shove her to.

That was the only inner monologue she kept repeating onto herself that made her finish packing despite her boiling anger.

She waited and patiently sat on her bed, waiting for the hallways outside to be still.

When silence reigned over. She ran and ran stealthily on her toes.

Out the pack house and into the green grasses until the large stable came into view. Seeing all the horses she had to ride in order to move across one place to another brought another heavy boulder down Agnes’ chest.

Her wolf had not arrived yet.

She is already twenty three.

Everyone shifts whenever they reach the age of puberty. The memory of her smiling enthusiastically at sixteen on the training field together with her friends and the other wolves under the bloody moon scurried past her head.

This was the reason her father, the Alpha, simply placed a stable within the pack house’s grounds. This was built for no one but her. The horses became Agnes’ friends after people left her when they knew she couldn’t shift like a normal werewolf.

She loves her horses.

And she pats her favorite one, Selie. His mane shiny as it has always been before climbing onto its back.

This horse only surrenders and obeys to Agnes, and she felt empowered about that.

We’re running away, Selie.

She found herself clenching the reins with determination, and with one swift movement, the horse made a sound before its hooves clumped down to the ground with a huff and it ran.

It ran fast, carrying Agnes past the border lines of the Blue Bill Pack.

She pushed the horse out until the capital market of the unclaimed lands came into view. She left the horse on a small pond where she can still see him.

Agnes isn’t even worrying for him to be sfplen. Afterall, he submits only to Agnes.

However, the second reason was that no one would actually need a horse to try and steal one. They have their own transportation. The thought brought another sigh on Agnes’ face.

Whatever, let’s just sell these trash and and get my money.

The unclaimed lands was out of her father’s reach to know her whereabouts, but this was still within his reach to search on once she was announced missing after being gone for a long time.

Let's finish this fast.

The crowd moved along stalls after stalls. Some sell souvenirs, some fruits, some jewelries which Omegas are very fond of.

The weather was less heavy now and the vendors were comfortable and secured enough to place their merchandise on full display.

Despite the heavy wave of people, she still spotted the auction house where you trade valuable things for money. That’s what her entire bag was filled with. Even her bag was expensive enough to be sold at a high price.

Agnes knew that this was a place for rogues and lower pack members such as Omegas.

Thus, as glamorous as she wants to be, she still came out in a plain brown cloak to hide her distinctive silver hair, smart enough to know that displaying any sort of wealth would lead her to trouble.

But she definitely didn’t expect small, running troubles.

She shrieked as the bag remained in her hand for a second, and the next it was gone.

Her heart thumped loudly against her chest as she looked back to see tiny children helping each other carry her heavy clothes and jewelry.

They were fast.

Very fast for kids with those tiny legs.

“Hey! You snitching little douches!” she shouts which was merely drowned out in the sea of people. She huff running behind them.

They were heading towards a small alleyway that seemed to lead nowhere but two paths to choose from. They followed both as they turned right.

Damn, these kids are fast.

She huffs, placing her hands on her knees to take a quick breath before raising her gaze to run some more.

But what met her eyes weren’t the path that she should be running onto, but rather two men, way too large for her own liking.

“Where are you off to, lady? You seem to be someone high-ranking,” the bald one mumbled, his breath which smelled off of tavern beer brushed onto her sense of smell.

She wrinkled her nose in disgust. She was too sensitive to strong scents. They both caught the movement and instantly stepped forward.

“Oh, this high-ranking wench must think we’re disgusting, huh?” the other with hair yet still seems bald, grunted, pushing Agnes onto a wall, earning a grunt from her.

“Look, sir. I am in no position to think of that from the both of you and I—ugh don’t touch me, you vile!” her mouth ran with no brakes when she felt one of their hands snaking on her elbow.

Their expression instantly turned rough and before Agnes knew it, she was running on the other path, opposite to where the kids had gone.

“s**t, s**t, s**t,” she mumbles under her exhausted breath.

She’s starting to regret going alone into these unclaimed lands. But bringing a guard would simply mean she was going to be under her father’s supervision.

Perhaps accepting the marriage proposal would be better than dying in the hands of these stinky large rogues.

She took a brief look back and saw that the both of them were still running behind her. Her pace was starting to get slower and slower.

“I’m so sorry for offending you Misters! Please stop now!” she shouts back awkwardly, still running.

She was not seeing any other way to escape the two of them aside from the light illuminating at the end of the road she was taking.

Huffing, she tried to take a quick breath when she reached the end, a bunch of crowds met her.

They were looking up on someone on the road. Everyone visible was on the side as the carriage took up a large space of the street.

“Why would they be in a carriage on a street such as the capital market? Good Goddess, do they expect us to have prepared an entire area for them?” one of the vendors complained.

Agnes squeezed herself between them, trying to cloak herself invisible against her scary pursuers.

“Lower your voice, Manilyn! That’s probably the royals. No one uses horses nowadays except for them showing off their lavish life,” the man beside the woman who ranted, hushes her down.

Agnes looked up at the carriage, slow as it might be due to the surge of the crowd, the coach seems to be slowing its drive on purpose.

Its windows were covered with tiny curtains, hiding its passengers within.

“There she is,” a gruff voice yelled.

Agnes took a quick look behind and her breath instantly got caught up in her throat when one of them tried to reach their hands out to grab her shoulders through the crowd.

The Alpha’s daughter shrieked, both in surprise and disgust and a little mix of fear.

Agnes ran, separating herself to the crowd to take a step forward on the wide road. The huge sound of steps behind her tells her that those two were still hot on her heels.

And so she did the only thing she could think of.

She jumped on the footplate of the carriage before opening the slow moving carriage door and stepped inside. She merely sat on the edge of the seats, out of breath.

“Who are you?” a voice from beside her asked. She was still busy, out and about peeking on the window curtains as she spots the two rough rogues looking around for her.

Please look somewhere else! I am definitely not in the carriage.

“Wait a minute, gentleman. I am being chased,” annoyance dripped in her tone.

“Are you aware who’s carriage you’re sitting on?” the unknown man replied.

Wait, what?

“That is probably the royals. No one uses horses nowadays except for their lavish ways to show off.” What the guy said a few minutes ago passed by Agnes’ mind.

Oh, s**t. The royals?