章節 13: Emerald I
This chapter was edited on December 23, 2018
During the carriage ride, Brent was a mess and Lucas just couldn't figure out why. He avoided his and Gina's eye contact the entire time and hardly ever responded to conversation. Not to mention, Brent had his hood up the whole time. Even if he needed to brush his hair back, he would brush it back with his hand and then flip his hood back on his head, shadowing his eyes to everyone.
Since Lucas was sitting across from the chef, he reached over and put a hand on his knee while the girls were canoodling shamelessly.
"Are you okay?" Lucas asked. Those green eyes glossed him over for a sec before he seemed to realize that the prince was talking to him.
"Oh- uh," he gulped, "Oh, yes, yes I'm fine." he nodded, "Just a little nervo-"
The carriage suddenly lurched to a stop and Brent flew onto the prince. Their faces barely two inches apart, they stared at each other in bewilderment.
"I-I'm sorry," Brent stuttered, his breath smelled of spearmint and warmed Lucas's face when he spoke because of the close proximity.
Lucas took the time to let his eyes trace over the other man's features. Brent went back over to his seat and brushed his hair back with his hand, replacing his hood promptly over his face. Lucas just stared in awe.
Brent was so incredibly handsome.
He wore nothing but jeans and a red hoody over a white t-shirt, but wow did he look good. The prince could practically still smell Brent's cologne in his nostrils. He felt himself grow heated at the memory of Brent falling on him, his ears practically burning.
But he didn't feel nervous or embarrassed or even scared. In fact, the thought of Brent being so close to him was... soothing.
He relaxed, staring at Brent openly. It didn't matter anyway, Brent was avoiding his eye contact like the plague for some reason.
But Lucas didn't focus on that. He focused on how strong Brent's jawline was. He focused on the chef's broad shoulders and muscular arms. He remembered the feeling of being in Brent's arms and then of those times when Brent would flick a piece of hair out of the prince's face. He thought about how soft those calloused hands had felt brushing against his cheek, warm and gentle.
"What happened?" Gina asked, almost shaking Lucas out of his thoughts.
He turned to her, "What?"
"The carriage stopped." Gina rolled her eyes, "Remember? Two seconds ago? When Brent just tackled you? It wasn't out of love, the carriage just stopped out of nowhere."
Lucas looked around at the passengers and saw they had equally worried and curious expression. He frowned and shrugged, "I will go check this situation out. And I'll see what I can do."
Lucas kicked open the carriage door and hopped out, closing it behind him. He walked around to the front of the carriage and found the driver was nowhere to be found. Not only that, but the horses were gone as well.
Well, this was going to be a problem.
He stared up at the sky and sighed, a smile forming on his face as he remembered being next to Brent, despite his circumstances.
"Oh dear," he laughed, "I think I've fallen in love."
***
"What do you think is taking that boy so long?" Gina asked after ten minutes of Lucas not returning.
Brent bit his lip, "I shouldn't have let him go alone. He's like the size of a child." he huffed, adjusting his sweater's hoody and opening the carriage door.
The girls promptly followed the chef out and into the woods. Upon exiting, they spotted Lucas. He was standing there, looking very tense, his nose straight up in the air.
Seeing this, both girls also raised their heads to the sky with a wary expression. Even though the sky was barely visible, Brent realized. The trees seemed almost endless, melting into the clouds and going beyond even that.
He looked at the rest of his party curiously before interrupting whatever ritual was taking place. "Um, what the heck are you all staring at?" he asked
He was immediately shushed by all three of them, Lucas shushing him a bit softer.
"Wha-"
SH, once again, he was silenced. He scowled, turning to the prince for support. He knew better than to try and speak again so he just raised one eyebrow and shook his head in confusion. Lucas seemed to catch on.
He hobbled over to the chef and whispered softly, "This is the Bridge Wood. You aren't allowed to make much noise here."
"Why not?" Brent asked, matching the prince's volume, desperately trying to ignore how good the prince smelled at the proximity.
"Because this is the Bridge Wood," he answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "They might come down."
He turned to the rest of his party, "I'm assuming that's what happened to our driver and the horses. They must've made too much noise, not knowing where we were."
"You think they took the driver and horses?" Diana's eyes widened as she whispered, face growing paler than before.
"Who the heck is 'they'?" Brent whisper-yelled
"Of course not, we would've heard it," Gina told her, "I'm assuming the local Pack took them. They guard this area and I've been told they 'take care' of anyone who might put their territory in any danger."
"That's correct," said a low gruff voice.
They all turned to a burly looking man with a strong chin and deep-set eyes. The scarce sunlight glinted dangerously on his deep brown skin, and it startled them all that he wasn't speaking at a whisper.
The man wore faded blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt, matched with big black boots that were stained with mud. He walked over to the prince cooly and towered over him.
Something in this man's voice was familiar, something about him. Brent couldn't quite place it, but he strangely wasn't scared of him.
Brent put a hand on the prince's shoulder to pull him back so that they were standing next to each other and he was also right in front of the giant man.
"Who are you, and why aren't you whispering?" Brent asked, seeing Lucas flush at the height of the man in front of them.
"You don't need to whisper, we're not at that high of an altitude," the man answered with the roll of his eyes, "That driver of your was singing mighty loudly, however. We didn't want him to put us all in danger."
"And the horses?" Gina said, still lowering her voice because her voice had a bit of a squeak to it and she knew she needed to be more cautious than the others.
"Just a light snack," the man grinned and then turned back to the prince, stone-cold, " As the girl said, we're part of the local werewolf pack. I'm Zaizen, the second-in-command. I just happened to be out lurking around the time you lot passed by."
"Would you mind giving us a place to rest?" Lucas piped in suddenly, "Or at least our driver back. This place is very terrifying at night and I don't know if we'll make it to the Northern Kingdom in time now."
"The Northern Kingdom? Definitely not," Zaizen laughed, "And about those two other questions, that's negatory on both. Your driver has been arrested for putting my pack in danger and we don't shelter humans."
"Yes, but-"
"No buts," Zaizen shrugged, "Sorry it happened this way. You can huddle in your carriage and hope for the best."
"Wait," Gina chimed in. She stomped over behind Brent and pulled down his hoody, "Look into this man's eyes and tell me you don't want to give him shelter."
Zaizen looked over Brent once more, now that his face was uncovered, with bored eyes. That is until he finally did see Brent's eyes and his expression changed. Emotion flooded through him, an uncertainty.
"You, boy, what is your name?"
Brent raised an eyebrow once again, "Me? Brent Lucas. Why?"
Zaizen scrunched his face up at that, biting his lip.
"Who was your father?" Zaizen leaned down to get a better look at Brent's eyes, holding his shoulders with both hands.
"Why are you asking me this?" Brent scrunched up his face at the mention of his father.
"The late Daniel Furray was his father," Gina said, pushing past the two boys to stare Zaizen in the eye, "The former alpha leader and descendant of the founder of your Pack. The Furray pack, am I correct?"
Brent's eyes widened as he turned to Zaizen, "What?" he looked back at Zaizen, "Wait, have we... have we met before?"
Zaizen looked at the group one last time, surveying the situation he had before him. Gina didn't give him a chance to think it over.
"You're really going to deny your former leader's son shelter and subject him to the terrors of the Bridge Wood? You're going to disgrace Daniel Furray's death that way?" she questioned, poking him with one finger in the stomach.
He looked at her wildly and (maybe) a bit scared. He looked at the prince, then back to Brent and sighed.
"Follow me," he grumbled, turning his back and starting to walk in the other direction.
Gina squealed in a whisper and skipped behind the man. Brent followed quickly as well, wanting to figure out how this man was related to his father and Lucas and Diana trailed behind, dumbfounded.
They walked for what seemed like ages, but Gina never lost the skip in her step. She kept a big smile on her face for saving the whole group from whatever the heck could be lurking in these woods.
Or above these woods, Brent thought ominously. He looked at the sky, ridden with thick branches. Who were they? And why were they so powerful that even the werewolves were afraid of them? A part of Brent wanted to just shout at the sky, hoping they would come down, whoever they were. If they came down that is. Were they in the sky? Did they live on the trees? Why didn't they like noise?
By the time they reached what appeared to be the base, it was dark out. Not pitch black, but a thick navy blue engulfed them and they could vaguely see each other at this point.
Zaizen stopped them at the base of a tree, where a small trap door was found at their feet. He flipped it open, as it apparently had not been locked and revealed a large stone staircase that led to a dark chasm that none of them could see the end of.
He started descending without a word and, before he was completely engulfed by the darkness whispered yelled to Lucas who was the last in the line, "Shut the door behind you, princey."
The trek was scary and Lucas felt like he would slip and fall every step he took in the pitch darkness. He took it one step at a time, slowly and surely until the reached yet another door. They couldn't see it, of course, but they heard the jingling of keys, a door being unlocked, and then lightness flooded through the pathway as Zaizen opened the door.
The walked until they found themselves in a foyer of what appeared to be a giant mansion. The floors were light wood and the walls had long dramatic arches that curved into the ceiling. Zaizen turned to them.
"Listen, before I give you guys rooms and sleep and food and all that good stuff, it's imperative that you come to see our Alpha right now," He said, voice practically pleading them.
Gina scrunched her eyebrows, "The leader? I thought he didn't like to see anyone. Ever since Brent's dad died, you supposedly never showed your leader to anyone in fear of them being murdered again."
"That's correct, but this is a special case," Zaizen said looking over to Brent, voice softening, "You look so much like your father. It's those eyes. You never see anyone with those bright emerald eyes that isn't a Furray." A small smile etched onto Zaizen's features.
Brent suddenly felt breathless, "Are you sure we haven't met before?" he asked again
"Oh we have. I'm sure of it now," Zaizen sighed, turning his back to them and starting off in another direction, "You just went by another name back then."
"What does that mean?" Brent asked as the rest of the group followed the werewolf. Zaizen didn't answer, and instead, lead them to a large brown door at the end of the hall.
He knocked on it harshly and a velvety voice answered from behind it, "Yes?"
"Oi, I-uh... I have something for you to see, Alpha. Or rather... someone," Zaizen said, looking from Brent to the door.
The voice behind the door laughed, "If you say so, Zai, let them in."
Zaizen opened the door and revealed the inside of an office. A very large office with bronze carpeting and dark wooden shelves. A man in a sleek black suit leaned on a large brown desk at the far end of the room, adjusting his glasses.
Brent, upon first glance around the room instantly has the wind knocked out of him. His stomach twisted into several knots as memories he didn't even realize he had swum up into the room and landed right on the man in front of him with bright emerald eyes.
The same exact bright emerald eyes that he had, to be specific.
He breathed out painfully,
"Dad?"
創作者的想法 
Mayachuchu13
Mayachuchu13 yaaaaaaay Lucas finally realizes he's in love with Brent. Now if only Brent knew how Lucas felt TT
The next chapter is by far one of my faves so hopefully I'll do it justice in the rewrite. I really want to get through most if not all of this book before the new year.
Thank you so much for reading this and hopefully you'll enjoy the rest!
Maya Renee <3
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