Stolen by the Beastly Lycan King-Chapter 30: I Am an Animal... And a Gypsy

The darkness inside the princess' chambers was alarmingly still.

Used to Lorelai being the only one retiring to bed last, Rhaegar could not help but feel worried that something had happened to her earlier.

Was it her meeting with the Crown Prince? The amount of work she had to shoulder? Or was it the diet that tied her down to her bed so early in the evening?

Concealed in the shadows of the room, the man quietly approached the princess' bed and furrowed his brows as his amber eyes fixed on the empty cup on her nightstand.

'Morphine.'

Thanks to the heightened sense of smell he inherited from his beastly lineage, it was not that difficult to discern the peculiar smell of the drug tincture that was still lingering over the porcelain walls of the cup.

Hell, when his own body began to ache, the witches had been feeding him morphine tinctures as well before Naveen was finally able to come up with the special herbal blend that could help him endure it.

"That bad, huh?" Rhaegar leaned over the princess' slumbering body and slowly inhaled her scent. Today, it was weaker than before. And it was tainted. He frowned again.

The king was about to leave when suddenly, Lorelai moved and before he knew it, a pair of bright, sparkling green eyes stared right back at him, utterly confused.

"Rhaegar?"

"Slept well, Princess?"

Lorelai blinked several times as if to try and shake the remnants of the summer off her eyelids, then looked around, and shifted her eyes back to the man standing before her.

"What are you doing in my room?!"

Rhaegar's lips stretched into an arrogant smile as he crossed his arms at his chest, his beastly eyes glistening.

"The answer is painfully simple––I wanted to see you again."

His words made the princess blush and she was grateful that her room was shrouded in darkness; no matter how flustered that man could make her feel, she did not want to give him the satisfaction of actually noticing it.

"If you wanted to see me, then you should have scheduled a meeting like all other noblemen do."

"Tsk," the man clicked his tongue in a mocking irritation, then leaned closer to Lorelai's face again and grinned, baring his sharp fangs. "But you are forgetting one thing, Your Highness. I am no noble. I am an animal... and a Gypsy."

Even though his response was filled with unnecessary sarcasm, the princess still decided to play along.

"So breaking into the princess' palace... Was it an animal or a Gypsy?"

Rhaegar laughed. "The Gypsy broke into your room, but it was the animal that made him do it."

Once again, his words made the princess lose her composure. She could not tell whether it was the way he spoke or his personal itself that continued to send slight tingles all over her body.

The man in front of her was overflowing with intrigue and Lorelai could not fight it. Or maybe––just maybe––she simply did not want to.

"The Gypsy tribe..." Suddenly, Lorelai caught herself wondering about that part of the lycan king's life that seemed to have been ignored by others. "How come you are associated with them?"

Rhaegar took his time answering. Lazily, he sat down right next to the princess' feet, slowly examining her body with his glowing eyes, then shrugged his shoulders, and smiled again.

"What answer do you want?"

"An honest one."

This time, he chuckled. "I am their leader. Their king."

Lorelai's eyes widened in shock. "Their king?! But how––"

"Gypsies... do not really recognize this element of power," he explained, cutting the woman midsentence. "We are just one big family. We don't have ranks or a power scale that divides us. We simply exist and that's as far as it goes. Yes, we do understand that this is not how your people view the world... So this is why I was named their leader. In case we will have to answer to someone. I am prepared to shoulder all the blame."

Lorelai felt a tinge of hurt spreading across her heart upon hearing his words.

Yes, Gypsies were welcomed everywhere because they were peaceful and neutral, but their free-spirited way of living still bothered a lot of nobles.

They were loyal to no one but themselves, and Rhaegar was right––"her people" did not believe in that.

"There is so much I do not know about Gypsies..."

Lorelai did not realize that she had said those words out loud, and the king could not help but greet them with a hearty laugh.

Leaning even closer to her, he locked his piercing eyes on hers, and said, "Well, would you like to learn?"

The princess recoiled but the pillow behind her back did not allow her to create a suitable distance between them. She felt her cheeks turning hot again.

Truth be told, she wanted to learn more. The Summer Solstice festival she attended not so long ago filled her memory with so many bright emotions that she would give up a lot to recreate them even just for a little while.

But the thing that fascinated her the most was still Rhaegar's relation to them.

He was of a beast's blood. He was a lycan king. He was the Gypsy King too.

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How many sides of this man were there, hidden, unknown to others?

The more she discovered, the more mysterious he became.

"I," Lorelai started rather uncertainly, "yes, I would like to learn more."

Without saying a single word in response, as if he had been ready for this all along, Rhaegar took off his black cloak and quickly wrapped it around the princess' shoulders, adjusting the large hood so that her blond hair would not be visible from underneath it.

Then, counting on that brief element of surprise, he slid his strong arms under Lorelai's knees and back, picking her up from her bed and hugging her close to his broad chest.

"Let us learn more then!"

He did not wait for an answer and started marching toward the room's tall window, while Lorelai, still rather shocked by the king's action, wrapped her arms around his neck, and almost screeched, "But, my cane!"

Rhaegar laughed. "You won't need it."

And then, he jumped.