Virlaq Kingdom

14

Darius stood in his dorm room that he had all to himself and stared at the photos on the wall. He breathed heavily, bringing his face closer one picture in particular, hoping to maybe smell the person he desired.

In the picture was Klara, Silver, and Prince Nicholas. Klara stood in the middle, laughing with a large smile on her face. She was wearing a pink crop top and black skinny jeans. The photo was taken sometime toward the beginning of the year.

This picture was odd because he actually found it in his father's office, surprisingly. He stole it a few weeks later since it was a great addition to his whole collection on his wall that he'd gathered.

Truthfully, this was the first time he saw Klara. When he finally saw the girl from the photo in real life, he was ecstatic.

He stroked the picture with a shaking hand, "I love you so much," he whispered, "One day... one day, you'll feel the same."

He stepped back and saw his wall filled with similar photos, all shot without the people in photo's consent or knowledge.

"Why?" He asked the photo, "Why couldn't you have been in love with me?" He stroked the picture once more.

I love you more than anyone else could, I always have," he whispered, closing his eyes, "I've loved you ever since I first laid eyes on you.

If only you knew. If only you knew how much you meant to me, how much I cared for you. If only you knew the things I'd do for you. Ever since I got to this school, life was miserable. But then meeting you, shaking your hand, I finally got to be happy here.

But why?" he shouted, not caring if the people next door could hear, "Why don't you love me back? I've been kind! I've been caring! I've shown obvious interest! Why?"

He ripped a picture at random off the wall and held it with both hands. "Why don't you love me? What will it take for you to love me?

Prince Nick." He whispered to the photo.

There, in the photo, sat Prince Nicholas. He was around 18 at the time, at some ceremony Darius couldn't remember the purpose for. He sat on a throne bored out of his mind as his father gave a speech, decked out in the finest clothes Darius had ever seen. He looked beautiful. He always did, and that's exactly what Darius thought when he had shoved his way through the crowd to take the man's picture.

This picture was special because Prince Nicholas was looking right at the camera. Darius remembered it vividly. He had screamed, "Prince Nick!" and the boy turned his head, still looking bored, to Darius. He blinked at the camera flash and then turned back to his father, being far too used to paparazzi already.

"I almost dated a freakin' werewolf just to be close to you, Prince Nick," he said breathily, "I don't understand.... Why don't you love me back? Why do you still have feelings for him? Of all people, a human.

I would do anything for you."

Suddenly then, he felt a cramp in his stomach and a bitter taste in his mouth. He groaned aloud, going over to his desk where he kept his medicine in the drawer.

"This keeps getting worse," he said to himself, getting the syringe ready.

After fixing everything to be injected and wiping his side with an anti-bacterial wipe, he plunged the needle into his torso, looking down at the photo of Prince Nicholas again.

"I would do anything for you,"

Right then his phone rang. He took a moment to put a bandage over where he had injected himself and then checked the caller ID. When he did, he legs nearly gave out. He answered immediately.

"Prince Nick?" he said happily.

"Yup," the man on the other side answered, sounding much more cheery than how he usually sounded when talking to Darius, but Darius hardly minded, "You know you can just call me Nick, Darius."

Darius swooned, biting his lip to hold back a scream, "N-No I could never do that. You're my prince," he explained

The prince laughed a big fake laugh, but Darius didn't seem to notice how non-genuine it was, "You're so respectful, that's really kind of you," Prince Nicholas said, "How are you, Darius?"

"Me?" Darius's eyes widened. He wanted to know how he was doing? He was such a wonderful prince. He was such a wonderful person, "I'm fine, how are you?"

"Great, except..." Prince Nicholas sighed, "I was wondering if you would let me speak to your father for a bit at some point during the week. He scheduled an appointment with me, and I was just wondering if you could tell him that I want to make a deal."

"A deal? What kind of deal?" Darius asked, "Are you close with my father? He never told me that."

Actually, Darius could have sworn that his father hated Prince Nicholas. He was so bent on having Darius marry Klara and stay away from the prince lately.

Little did his father know, he was actually using Klara to get closer to the prince.

"Ah, we're not close," He answered carefully, "It's just that... your father has something that I want. And I would very much like to make a deal for it without having to give over something else valuable to me."

"I see... How much is he making you pay for this thing?" Darius asked, suddenly angry with his father for making the gentle prince of their nation upset.

"Something far too great for me to give up,"

"Right," Darius nodded, "I make sure to set up an appointment with him sometime this weekend."

He heard the prince sigh on the other end and he flushed, "Thank you so much, Darius, you really are a valuable friend to me."

Darius jumped up from his desk chair, "Really? Me? A friend of you?"

"Of course, hopefully, one day we'll be closer," Prince Nicholas said, obviously meaning it in a platonic way, not knowing about Darius's true feelings.

Darius, on the other hand, couldn't stop the smile that engulfed his face, "Of course, Prince Nick," he looked back at the picture,

"I would do anything for you."

***

Super short chapter with just Darius, but obviously this part was kinda important. I got one more fluffy chapter and then I think this book will start to take a turn towards the end. I got 23-24 chaps planned but it's about to get wild and things will finally start falling into place.

Bis Bald!