The Morning After

A hush fell among the court ladies. Some of them were scared, some exasperated while some were just forced to be here. 

The female lycans were immaculately civilized with poise and elegance. Since their genes weakened and not many could shift, the Lycans had progressed in culture and economics to compensate for their disappearing superior genes.

But try as they might, they couldn't leave humans behind as humans had centuries over them.

A lady who couldn’t stand the eerie silence finally huffed out: “Lady Magny, I say, it’s futile.” She turned to the ladies who gave her the attention she sought, “Imperial etiquette aside, who are we even going to pay respect to? A lump of rotten meat? I can’t believe Princess Scarlet would belittle us this way!” Her agitation made her whinier than she already was.        

Magny gritted her teeth to stop them from chattering. Greeting the first lady to enter the King's chamber was a tradition. But! All of them have heard what tragedy had taken place yesterday but Princess Scarlet enjoyed such a dirty power play.

Magny fisted her trembling hands. She had woken up to screams this morning. Her maids were screaming over several dead bodies dumped in her garden. It took her a moment to recognize her loyal servant, who she had planted in the palace to get rid of the Princess of Ehan. The others were the maids she had bribed.

'Princess Scarlet did it! She was threatening me.'

The plan was flawless, she got rid of the Princess of Ehan by the hands of the King, conveniently. Sacrifices need to be made for greatness and she will bring greatness to the Kingdom by giving the King heirs with Lycan blood.     

Her family was known as one of the last clans of lycan that could shift so she just couldn't let just any woman enter his chamber before her.

The foreign Princess would have naturally been the King's first lady in his bed. She couldn't bear to see her great King's blood mixing with filthy humans. There was less chance of a  child to be born between but she couldn't let the Royal blood be tainted.

So she had to die, the Princess of Ehan was just unlucky.

Another lady hummed, not seeing her darkened complexion, “I do sympathies for the Princess and I know the King's condition is not common knowledge but she was foolish enough to insist on having an audience with the King despite the resistance of servants…” She drawled languidly, meaningfully meeting others' eyes, “How are we even going to stomach that!”

Princess of Ehan had insisted on meeting the King despite servants' resistance was a rumor Magny had religiously spread behind the scenes to avoid suspicion.

Several moaned loudly, Lady Magny scrunched her eyes in irritation yet again. She didn't think she could look at the mauled body of the woman she had sent to her death yesterday. 

She sighed. She felt a little bit guilty but she was satisfied inside. 'That lowly human deserved it for coveting the Lycan King!'

“Argh!” Another lady shuddered at the thought of paying her respects to a night-old corpse, “I don’t think I can watch and not be plagued with night terrors. Oh, wait... The King! He isn’t here, right?”

Magny rolled her eyes. The dark eclipse had passed. What were they even trying to be cautious of anymore? The King will return to his previous state now that the night is over.

It only happened once a year, on the night of the dark eclipse, when the King lost control of his lycan. His Lycan was too strong to be controlled. The former King used to unleash him on people, officials, or territories he wanted to clear out.

One young woman mulled over thoughtfully, “Well, the Chamberlain did say he left right after their first night... If you can call it that.” Some of them erupted in giggles while others tsked with mock sympathy.

“Poor Princess, her greed got her. If only she waited another day before trying to seduce our King.”

Magny had had enough of their chatter and asserted her dominance, “Enough! It’s a sick joke. Have respect for the dead.” A sick pride swelled her chest when all the ladies drew their eyes to the floor.

Great. This is how it should be. She craned her neck higher and admonished, “You’ll be wise to understand not to speak of this matter again. It can escalate to national war.”

Ashel, her only competition for the throne of Queen shrugged it off. “Well, she was a hostage Princess. What else are we to do? We will already have to compensate Ehan for her vile character! It’s not like she was even married to the King!” Magny barely held her pretentious smile at the absurdity.

Yes, Ehan will be jumping in joy at the opportunity. Who knows what the Old man is going to demand now that his eldest daughter is dead?

When the other ladies looked at Ashel incredulously, she exclaimed, “It’s true! Kin of my maid saw her being tended to last night. Her procession arrived later into the night and the eclipse was already peaking. She must have forced maids to  They rushed her to the room right away. There was no ceremony!”

Lady Magny clenched her fist at the fool. It was, in fact, true: there’s no such thing as a perfect crime.

There will always be morons who slip past the cracks. “Don’t be ridiculous, ladies! She was just an unfortunate victim of ignorance or perhaps... it was the Foretold's curse.” She glared at them with each word.

The word "foretold" shut all of them up, even when there was hardly any relevance to the subject.

"As if?" Ashel fanned herself. "It's just an Old Wives tale. Why would you speak of such an ominous thing right before visiting the dead?"

They were almost at the front of the door now. “Regardless, we must empathize with her for unfortunate circumstances.”

She slammed the door open and every lady jumped back in horror at what lay before them.

.....

Laylin was awoken by a chatter filled with horror and ridicule. The unfamiliar women in the room endlessly spoke from behind the curtain that was drawn on the bed.

As they entered, cries of terror woke Laylin from her deadlike slumber.

I'm alive...

That is the only thing that registered for a while. If her memory served her right, she didn’t go down easy. Her heavy eyes fluttered with an effort to clear her hazy vision. She winced even after lifting her lashes from the throbbing headache.

An unforgiving bright light indicated it was past 12. For a second she just lay there, trying to make sense of where she was. Her eyes landed on the wide window she had seen the Beast climb out of...

A scream had Laylin scrunching her eyes with a headache, “Ahh Lord!” The other women followed suit and gasped “What a horrible sight the night had painted. Poor Princess!”

Several exclamations later, her head couldn’t take it any longer. The fluttering of the curtains gave the Court Ladies a view of the Princess laying on the bed.

With gasps of wonder, they stumbled back. None of the proud lycans had expected the tribute to be such a beauty. One went as far as to mutter under her breath. “Good riddance.”

With cautious hesitation, Magny pulled away the curtain. What lay there, bloodied and distressed, couldn’t be anything but an angel. Exquisite to the point, eyes couldn’t waver away from the woman. A voluptuous body as such, even in tattered rags, could incite one to gulp.

“A shame, indeed.” Mumbling, she tried to go near when the celestial doll moved.

When yesterday night came back to her, Laylin anxiety made her rise up on the bed with a start. 'The King knew she was a witch! Are they here to execute her?!'

The Princess readied her aura to launch an attack but the next thing she knew: they were screaming, stumbling, and crawling upon each other as the bloody angel rose from the dead.

Laylin furrowed her brows in confusion. The ladies looked like anything but knights here to arrest her. Her throat was parched by the lycan's strangling her last night and she felt like she couldn’t even muster a sentence past her lips.

“Wh-Who are yo-you…”

Sitting up with a desire to approach the women, she called out but their screeching screams consumed her weak whispers.

"I... need to escape..." 

She fought hard against her consciousness but she slipped away once more. 

Note:

Okay, so this is my outlook on Lycan society if their ability to shift would gradually become weaker.

 FYI: These are Lycans and their hierarchy doesn't have ranks, Alpha, etc., or 'instincts' of a pack and protective feelings since their genes have become weak with time and are almost disappearing. They are powerful beings but only one out of a hundred can shape shift. The creature they shape-shift into is not a wolf but something like a humanoid beast. 

They are highly civilized, with a perfect administration government. They don't have a concept of 'fated mate', but they do have a 'chosen', that they chose of their own volition.