The Midnight Prince

Welcome to Darling

(Flint)

The jet ride out of Alaska and to Illinois is a grueling 7 hr trip. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Chance hadn’t been talking nearly the entire time. She was intrigued by anything and everything around her. Mom had always been so fearful of something happening to us we rarely ever left our homeland.

Chance is finally asleep in the leather seats across from me, sprawled out over the expensive tan bench as if she’s lived in this jet her entire life. Her wild orange hair consumes her face and upper body. I hope she’ll put it up or at least style it in some way that makes her look presentable.

The jet lands in a small airport near a city called Carbondale, about two hours south of where we need to be going.

“Tyler, have you arranged for a car to take us shopping before we go to Darling?” I ask our head of security. Tyler’s been working for my mom for a long time now, and he’s about to retire in the next few years once his nephew is trained to take his spot.

“Yes, Your Grace, and after you finish getting new wardrobes, the driver has been instructed to take you to the Shawnee pack house.”

I nod in approval and wake my sister up. “Chance, come on. It’s time to go. We need to grab you some clothes.”

Chance sits up and stretches her lanky arms towards the ceiling. “What’s wrong with my clothes?”

“Nothing is wrong with them, per say. It’s just that we are Kingstons. We’re royalty and you need to dress up a little. Some slacks, a nice business dress, something that makes you look more professional.”

“So you want me to dress like Jade?” She mocks. The poor girl has spent her entire life being compared to our younger sister. Chance, why can’t you just behave like your sister? Chance, can’t you just get good grades like Jade? Chance, please just sit down and sit quietly like your sister.

“Could you?” My joke is only funny to me as we exit the Jet and start on the asphalt towards our car. The sun beats down on my back, leaving an uncomfortable burning sensation against my black, long sleeve button up. I’m going to have to buy something to wear in this miserable heat too.

“Oh f**k off, you and I both know that’ll never happen. Jesus who turned up the heat?” Chance whips out her phone and her eyes nearly pop out of her head. “Holy s**t, it’s ninety degrees outside right now. Are you sure we’re in Illinois and not Hell? Am I going to see a big red devil on the drive there?”

We’ve barely climbed into the back of the car and Chance is already beginning her antics. She leans over the center console and flicks the air conditioning up to its highest setting. The driver seems slightly annoyed but doesn’t say anything. There’s a large SUV behind me with Tyler and several of my security team that will follow us wherever we go, per my mother’s orders.

As we drive through Carbondale, the car stops three times. The first stop is a boutique for Chance to exchange her jeans and band tee shirt for a beige silk blouse and dark green slacks. She refused to wear heels, instead finding a nice pair of sandals. The second is for me to grab a short sleeve shirt. And the third is a salon.

“Chance, go in there and have them show you what to do with your hair.”

“Flint don’t you start about my hair. I’m so serious. You know how I am about my hair.” Chance has been ridiculed for her crazy curls her entire life. They’re much like her- unruly and refuse to follow any orders. Rather than giving into the school bullies and our family, she wears her hair down and free, like a shield of armor. While I admire her for taking the thing everyone has called a flaw and using it as her signature, I need to start pushing her to think like a Kingston, especially if I’m going to make her my right hand.

I sigh and try to find a nice way to word it. “Look, I know how you feel about your hair. I get it, I really do. I’ve never given you s**t for it before. But please, for this introduction I need you to look your very best, just like me. Can you just do this, just one time. You don’t have to cut it, just have them style it.”

She groans and storms into the salon. For a moment I feel sorry for the stylist that gets stuck with her.

An hour later Chance returns to the car, and I’m completely shocked. Long, silky ribbons of ginger fall down her body, ending right at the small of her back. When it’s not straight, the curls rest just below her shoulder blades. The flat iron added a good four inches of length to it. “Wow, it looks incredible.” I compliment, reaching out to touch it.

Chance swats my hand away and slouches in her seat. “Yeah yeah, I know I look amazing. Can we just get to this pack before my sweat makes the curls come back?”

“For the record, I think you look great with your curls too. But there’s nothing wrong with switching it up every once in a while.”

The rest of the drive is surprisingly quiet, we finally reach the town of Darling around noon. It’s a quaint little place. There’s a few gas stations, all of them serve hot food, which I find strange. Why would you want to eat a pizza from the same place you get gas at?

“I’ve counted four bars and only two stores that sell clothes. Can you imagine living somewhere where drinking is more important than wearing clothes?” Chance mutters to me, looking out her window.

“If it’s this hot all summer I’d imagine clothing is going to lose importance to me too.” I jest and she snorts in agreement. We leave the town and start down a very bumpy and poorly paved road. Alongside the highway are thousands of rows or corn and something else growing in short, bushy rows. The only time there’s a break in the crops is for the occasional cow or pig farm.

“Oh my gosh Flint look! Horses!” Chance squeals and starts tapping the window repeatedly. Three brown horses stand together in a field, chewing on the rich green grass. With this heat I can’t imagine how the grass isn’t burnt to a crisp.

I glance down at my phone and wish a notification from Kaylee would pop up. As I’m looking down, the car slows. I look out my window but see nothing. “What’s going on? Are we there?” I ask.

The driver points ahead to a large tractor on the road. “Oh just a tractor sir-er- Your Grace.”

“Can we honk when we pass him?” Chance starts to roll her window down to yell something at the poor farmer.

“Oh no Miss, our turn’s comin’ up here soon, I’m just gonna let him go on. Ain’t no sense in passing him just to slam on the brakes and turn.” He explains.

He’s right, we turn down a gravel drive that leads us past more rows of corn. The rows soon end and give way to a large pasture of cows grazing peacefully. On the other side of us is a large field of uncut grass. No animals can be seen over there and I wonder what use that grass could have if not for animals to eat.

The pack house comes into view. It’s beautiful- a wide porch with swings and rocking chairs decorates the front of the red and White home. Three stories with a chimney on side- it looks like an old fashioned farm house out of a movie.

Four large barns are scattered about the small hillside. One is clearly made for horses, as it has a bunch of tiny paddocks along it’s side with horses inside of them.

“Why do they have the horses separated?” Chance asks our driver as he parks in the gravel driveway.

“They’re just in their turnouts. Not all of the horses need to go out into the pastures everyday, and if they’re going to use them it’s easier to just have them up by the barn than trying to catch them.”

“How do you catch a horse? Like with a lasso?” Chance continues to grill the driver, who seems slightly annoyed.

“Well when I say catch I mean more so having to walk all the way out to where the horse is, then calling it over to you.”

“Do the horses know their names?”

“Some of them do.”

“Okay so when you say ‘turn out’ is that like a tiny yard for the horses to hang out in so-“

“Okay, Chance, that’s enough for now. Look, that must be Alpha Darrell and his sons. Come on, let’s go introduce ourselves. Please don’t ask them any questions about the ponies.” I roll my eyes and exit the car.

At the base of the covered porch stands Alpha Darrell, his wife, and their two sons. I could’ve sworn I had read they had a daughter around Chance’s age but I must be mistaken.

A worker drives by on a golf cart with bags of animal feed stacked on the back and I raise an eyebrow to the strange occurrence. Why on earth do they need a golf cart? Don’t they have tractors or trucks to move those sorts of things?

Darrell smiles to me under his graying beard. “Prince Flint Kingston, it’s so great to have you here. Pleasure to meet you.” He sticks out a calloused hand to shake mine, and I find myself surprised at his strong grip. He’s not a large man, nearly several inches short than me. I’m fairly average at 6’2.

He steps back to place a hand on his wife’s back. “This is my wife and our Luna, Georgia Garrett.” The small woman nods to me. She’s a plump little thing, but in a sturdy way. “Nice to meet you, Your Grace. These are our sons; Dylan and Austin. Our daughter was supposed to be here but I think she’s caught up at the arena. That girl and her horses, I feel like I’ve been prying her away since she learned to climb up on them.” Georgia’s laugh is loud, but pleasant. She reminds of the stereotypical farmer’s wife.

“Arena..?” Chance starts but one glare from me and she pipes down.

Dylan holds out his hand to me first. “Hello Prince Flint. It’s so nice to have you here. My family and I really appreciate the crown coming down here to help such a small pack.” His grip is stronger than his father’s. He’s a bit taller than him too. Dylan’s hand is rough and stained with dirt and oil. Even his fingernails are black from work. His skin is tanned dark caramel from hours spent under this godforsaken summer sun. Brown hair peeks from under his dirty ball cap, I think I can make out the name of a football team underneath the grime and sun bleach on the fabric.

His clothes aren’t much better; he sports a neon orange shirt with the sleeves cut off and old Levi jeans that have rips starting in the knees of them. They’re not designer tears though, rather the fabric has been rubbed against the ground so many times it’s finally frayed and given up. Thick, leather work boots protect his feet from the ground and whatever difficult terrain he may face. Austin’s clothes are a bit cleaner and less worn, but even for a young teenage boy he looks as if he’s spent the morning working with his brother.

After my quick assessment of the family, I finally speak. “It’s great to meet all of you as well. Please, just call me Flint. I don’t care too much for being called Prince, it makes me feel like a little boy again.” I chuckle lightly. They laugh with me and agree to keep it simple. Motioning to Chance, she takes a tiny step forward to be at my side. “This is my little sister, and my Beta, Chance.” Instead of shaking hands, she turns and gawks at me. “Beta?”

“Chance, say hello.” I whisper harshly and she quickly snaps forward again and leans forward to shake Dylan’s hand but remembers you should always address the Alpha and Luna first, so she tries to redirect clumsily and loses her balance, stumbling forward.

Dylan catches her by the arm and helps her straighten back up. “Are you alright?” He asks her and my moronic sister just smiles and giggles a pathetic ‘yeah’.

Whose idea was it to bring her again? Drago groans. It was yours. Oh, well you really shouldn’t listen to me all the time, I’m a wolf, I can be impulsive. He jokes and I wish I could smack him. Now is not the time to be goofing around.

“I’m sorry about her, we don’t get out of Silver Crest very much. Behind me is our head of security Tyler Bishop and his rogue team. This is their second time helping a pack out with a rogue problem, so I’m sure they’re eager to get to work.”

A worker comes jogging up from the barn to our right. “Sir, I really hate to interrupt but Jimmy locked the keys in the truck and we can’t get this Anhydrous moved away from the heavy equipment without them.”

Darrell curses under his breath and sighs. “Alright, yeah. I’ll be there in just in a minute. Tell Jimmy he’s a dead man.” He leans over to peck his wife’s cheek. “I’ll be back before dinner, my love. Save me some of that cornbread.” He winks to her. “Mr. Flint, I really hate to get out of here so fast but that Anhydrous needs moved today and we can’t risk any of these other idiots bumping into it with a tractor or something. Dylan, could you please show Flint and his sister the farm and get them up to date in the rogues? Austin, please show his men the bunk house.”

“Yes sir.” Austin and Dylan say at the same time. Austin goes off to introduce himself to Tyler and the rest of the boys while Dylan motions for us to follow him.