The Princess and Her Lycan Pirate

the banquet with an Arch Duke

The banquet started with everybody raising their glass to the birthday boy. His father made a little speech about becoming a man with a wolf which all men laughed at and the women only smiled knowingly. Alana didn't really understand all of it and didn't care either. She was concentrating on the man next to her. In the huge hall were many large tables lined up in rows and on the top end was the head table with the hosts family and the guests of honor.

One of this guests of honor was Archduke of the Lands of the Eastern Moors. That was the area where Amena and Eilidh were from. He was a remote relative of her and Grian. And he was constantly talking! That man never stopped!

Alana tried to guess his age while he was talking about his travels to find a suitable wife. With werewolves and lycans it was not so simple to get somebody's age right. They aged like humans till the age of 18 and had their wolf. As soon as they had their wolf their age prosess was slowed down dramaticly. For example: Alana's Father was about 44 years old but still looked like 28. Amena looked like 24 and was in reality 39. But that was not all.

Werewolves and lycans were able to reach the age of 200 with no problem. And then they would only look like 60 years of age. But their fertile years for she wolves started as soon as they were marked by a wolf and stopped 10 years later.

So even as Amena, Eilidh and Ginessa looked like they were Alana's and Grian's older sisters rather then their mothers and aunty (they called Ginessa their aunty) they were not able to have another child. That was the main reason why the race of the werewolves and lycans was limited. Human women were fertil from the age of 14 till the age of 50 and most gave birth to children every second year. Of course the rate of children dying in child birth was much higher as with the wolves but their number still multiplied compared to the wolves.

So here was Alana sitting, trying to guess this man's age and not listening to a word he said. He was tall and well built like all werewolves (seriously there are no other men shapes!) with blond soft curls, blue eyes with a bit of grey in it and a pleasing face like a greek god. All there was missing was the olive branch around his head. Maybe he was already 30 years old! Naaa, more like 35. He had travelled everywhere. That is what Alana caught from his monologue.

Suddently she realised that he hadn't said a word for quiet a while now! s**t! And he was just smiling at her waiting for her input in the conversation. How awkward! She cleared her throat looked at him innocently and asked: “Sorry, you was saying?” his smile grew wider “ I was just saying that I was sitting here with the most beautiful creature on earth and she is not even listening to a word I say!” Alana blushed and stammered: “ I...I...I am sorry I wasn't listening but I was thinking about something that was bothering me.” His amusement grew bigger and bigger “so, what is bothering you so much that you can't even listen to a fascinating description of the moors your mother is from?” She leanded over to him a bit and said softly “I was asking myself how old you might be.” His eyes widened with surprise and he looked at her teasingly: “How old do you think I am?” Now he was leaning a bit towards her as well drinking in every word she said. He picked up his glas of wine and took a small sip. Alana copied him, picked up her glas of grape juice (No alcohol for youngsters) and smirked: “First I thought you was about 30 years old...” Her eyes were sparkling when he choked on his small amount of wine. “...but then, when I realised how far you have travelled I came to the conclusion that you must be older so I stick to 35!” And with well played simplicity she fluttered her eyelashes at him and went back to her plate of food.

The blond adonis had an amused smirk on his face: “Well, I deserved that! How could I even think that a child could guess somebody's age! And on top of that I bored you with my moors. Scrap that! Shall we start again, little one?”

Alana received a message from her father via mindlink: “Stop flirting with your fourth cousin! James is about to jump up and kill him!” In that moment Alana wished she could mindlink James but she couldn't. She could only mindling her close family members and she wasn't related to him. So she only looked at him and smiled at him. His face turned from being extremely pissed to being a love sick puppy.

The adonis next to her watched the whole thing and whispered in Alana's ear: “How cute, did you give him a name after you found him? He looks like a lost puppy that found his owner.”

Alana straightened her back and looked at him with a bit of anger: “That is James, the host's son. At least I know his name. I can't even remember yours!” - “Ouch, you just cut yourself! We were introduced by your mother but you was more interested in staring at this pedigree breed! By the way his breeding wasn't that succsessfull! You are a pure blood lycan and he is not. At least not a pure one. Maybe a quarter.” Her face was raging with emotions. These beautiful eyes were only thin lines and through gitted teeth she hissed at him: “He might be not a pure blood but he has a good heart, an adorable character and most important excellent manners! Clearly all atributes you are missing!” And with that she turned over to her other side and started a deep conversation with an elderly wolf about the food and the garden party afterwards.

She totally ignored this impertinent man. How dare he putting her James down without knowing him! It hurt her to hear them words and without knowing she glanced a sympahtetic look over to James. He looked up and smiled at her. As soon as he did she felt the butterflies again. Why did this meal take soooo long? All she wanted now was sitting with James on one of them hidden benches in the garden, hold his hand and watch the stars.

But no, her mother had to interrupt her dreams via mindlink: “stop sulking whatever it is about! The young man next to you is a very important man in the human world and the only one at the human King's court who knows about us. If he decides to tell the human King that we exist there will be war! So ignore whatever stupidity he said, swallow your pride and smile at young Adonis!” Alana choked on the food she just had in her mouth and turned to her young neighbour: “Your parents really called you Adonis as well?”

He chuckled “As well? Who else calls me that without knowing my name? Was it you, my little baby princess?” - “I'm not a baby! But if you must know, I thought the name suited your face and your appearance. Unfortunately not your character.” She put as much sugar as she could on them words. He leanded back in his chair “I've deserved that! With all what I am, my dear princess, I beg for your forgiveness for insulting your puppy. But what can I say, your beauty takes my breath away and I can't wait for your coming of age to be able to court you! You intregued me, my gorgeous creature out of a fairy tale!” Her eyes darted up to him: “Only my mate will be allowed to court me! So don't get your hopes up!” He leanded towards her again and whispered into her ear: “And who tells you that I am not your mate?” After seeing the shocked expression on her face he fell back into his chair laughing out loud. All people sitting near by were watching them two curiously but soon turned back to theiy talking partners.

Amena watched her daughter for a while but relaxed as she saw Alana stealing a glance at Adonis. Maybe not all was lost and she could behave at least till the party was finished.

“Are you sure I am your mate?” She asked him calmly outside but nervous inside. “No, I was just teasing you! You are not my mate. Disappointed?” A deep sigh of relief left Alana's lips: “No, not at all! And by the way he is not a puppy! Tonight he will become a man! Including wolf!” And then she remembered her mother's words and she turned to him furiously “Of course you are not my mate! You can't be, you are just a mere human! But how is it possible that you are related to me?”

He clearly didn't like it to be called a mere human. His demeanor became cold. His words were cool as ice when he answered: “My father married a woman he loved. She was only a poor noble woman from the Eastern Moors. But she was also a quarter lycan. A third cousin to your mother. So even my mother didn't have a wolf. I'm sorry if I don't meet up with your high expectations of a suitable man I have no wolf and so I will never have a mate but in the human world I am the cousin to the human King and an Arch Duke. My father kept my mother's secret and I will do the same. Wolf or no wolf I am still with royl blood whether you except it or not!”

The King stood up, taking his Queen's hand and guided her into the garden. That was the sign for everybody to get up and follow them. As it was custom every woman took their right hand neighbour's arm to be guided outside. Alana looked towards James who just pulled Grian's chair out to take her hand and help her get up. He didn't even look at Alana and seemed to concentrate on Grian alone.

Next to Alana she heard somebody clearing their throat loudly. She turned around only to see Adonis' hand waiting for her's. After two seconds of gathering herself she took it and walked with him outside.

Once outside he quickly excused himself and walked over to another group of people. Alana stood there alone till she felt her mother's hand on her shoulder. They smiled at each other and looked to the front.

There was a natural stone stage at the side of the huge garden. On there was James with his parents. The servants were rushing around to make sure every guest had a glas of bubbly in their hand to celebrate the becoming of man. Only a few minutes left. Edward hit his glas with an elongated nail of one of his hands. The people stopped talking and Edward raised his glas “As you all know, now is the big moment.” All the women were giggling and the men were laughing. An elderly woman from the back shouted: “Down with them trousers! We want to see some skin!” The laughter that broke out was too much for Alana. She was disgusted by them lusting old women and now some of them started to whistle!

It was so embarrassing! Thank god it was totally different for girls. Girls were shifting for the first time with only women around.

The atmosphere got more tense. James had taken off his long jacket and threw it to the elderly woman that had shouted to get undressed. Alana couldn't believe her eyes. Why would he suddently do that? Amena giggled and Markus said to Conall: “I told you it was funny to give him more to drink! He should have be carefull with his first taste of alcohol!”

Stupid young wolves! Alana cursed inside. James was now really giving the women a show by unbuttoning his shirt very slowly turning his back to them when he took it of and looking over his shoulder smirking. Oh moon goddes why? Why did he make a fool of himself? But the she wolves loved it!

He turned back around and threw his shirt to his mother. Then he took off his scarf blew a kiss on it and threw it towards Alana. She was so shocked that she didn't even realise that Grian caught it. All eyes were on her, why couldn't the earth open and swallow her in whole?

But James wasn't finished with his show. Alana turned around. She didn't want to see more. She looked up and her eyes met the once of Adonis who stood about four meters behind her. He was so distant to everything. All he could see was her and all she could see was him. He wasn't smiling, just looking deeply into her eyes.

What was up with her? Her sweatheart was up there on stage and in not even two minutes he would announce to the world that she was his forever. She swallowed hard and turned back round to see that James was now only in his pants, waiting for the countdown.

The crowd started cheering and howling at the moon. The bell of the church near by started chiming midnight. Alana was suddently very nervous. James was looking into her eyes smiling.