Red Riding Hood | BoyxBoy | COMPLETED

Nosy Children

Holly Laren's POV

Father was being weird again. He'd been acting strangely for a while now, like the other day when he wanted to have lunch together and we did and that was a whole other event itself. This family was a mess.

Today's oddness began right before the full moon run. Father vaguely announced to no one in particular that he wouldn't join the run this time because he was busy with some council matters. That was obviously a bad cover for something else. The entire council was made of wolves with the exception of Princess Seffrin. I seriously doubted that any one of those old wolves were just going to skip the traditional full moon run for council business.

Mother didn't even question it. She simply waved a dismissive hand and turned to instruct the servants. I rolled my eyes, at least that was as per usual. It was pretty pathetic that my father was somehow better than my mother. Between the two of them and their unwillingly arranged marriage that was absolutely no secret from me since I was far from blind, my father paid me more attention despite looking like he had no idea what to do with me the whole time. I was fully aware that I was a tragically neglected child. The servants probably raised me more than either of them did.

As my father left to conduct his highly dubious things, I discreetly tagged along. It wasn't as if I had to join the run, seeing as I was completely human myself. Mother wouldn't notice, and if she did, she wouldn't care anyway. Being an unwanted child had its perks.

Fortunately for me, he didn't take the carriage or a horse or I would have been hard-pressed to follow closely. He walked—very sneakily, I felt—into the jungle foliage near the royal dens. By then, I was experiencing some mild regret for following because up till then, he had gone in the direction of the royal dens, which was where all official council meetings were held.

But then he slipped into the jungle and I knew he didn't have "council business".

On the bright side, the plants and trees made it easy to find cover. However, the rustling of leaves was not inconspicuous, and it was a tough balance to remain unseen and unheard. A challenge that I promptly failed once a bug kept flying too close for comfort.

While I was distracted, swatting at the irritating insect, my father pulled aside the branches and exposed me to his eyes.

"What. Are you doing?" he bit out.

Caught off guard, I froze. "Um."

Father pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why are you following me?" he asked.

I didn't dare to tell him the truth, so I stared wide-eyed at him.

Eventually, he sighed in exasperated annoyance. "I don't have time to deal with this," he muttered. "Holly, we will talk about this later. Don't think I'll forget. I don't have time to take you home right now, you'll just have to come with me and stay quiet. Do you understand?"

I nodded mutely.

Now that I'd been discovered, it was hard not to do exactly as he'd instructed. I followed him very meekly. Also, he was holding on to me; I didn't try to struggle away.

We came to a patch of land that had been cleared of trees and plants. From the looks of it, this place had been deforested recently enough that saplings hadn't yet grown from the turned soil.

As it turned out, Father did seem to have council business after all. Half the council members were here! And one of them, a woman I recognised as Councillor Rau, looked in our direction as my father and I showed up at the edge of the clearing.

She looked at me with one dark eyebrow raised but said nothing. I swallowed nervously. I never liked Councillor Rau.

Father pulled me to the side as someone else emerged from the bushes dragging another person with them. Belatedly, I realised who I was staring at.

It was Colin's sister, Princess Seffrin. She was struggling futilely against a guard who held onto her wrists very tightly. I gasped when I realised exactly where I'd seen this guard before. He was the same person who caught us in that cave on Goat Mountain!

"Councillor Rau," he called. "I found her spying."

The Councilwoman turned to them. "This isn't a bring-your-child-to-work event," she said with much irritation. I shifted so that my father would block her line of sight to me if she looked over again.

"What do I do with the Princess?" asked the guard.

"Just tie her up in a corner and make sure she doesn't escape," she commanded. "She might be useful, and we don't need her tattling before everything is ready."

I watched nervously as Princess Seffrin was bound. The hate in her glare would have ended all of us if looks could kill. Fortunately for all of us, she wasn't a Gorgon.

"Go stay with the Princess," my father told me. "But don't talk to her or do anything. Just be quiet," he repeated.

"Yes, alright," I burst out in agitation. He kept saying the same things!

"Be quiet," he stressed out, but let go of me. I went over to Colin's sister and sat beside her, hugging my knees to my chest. She ignored me.

What had I gotten myself into? I thought I definitely regretted following Father now. They had the Princess captive! Whatever this was, we were all in over our heads.

Looking around to distract myself from the strange situation I'd unknowingly joined until it was too late, I found myself growing horrified with everything that I saw.

It was just after sunset, and the torches had been lit at the edges of the clearing, giving a very tribalistic atmosphere to the space. I didn't think I would have recognised the crates and jars I was looking at if it weren't for the lighting. The darkness and shadows only reminded me of the things Colin, Chingu and I had seen in our ill-advised venture onto Goat Mountain's cave. And all of a sudden, I realised that was precisely what I was looking at. The jars and crates—even the ritual knife was here.

The knife was being held by a man I didn't recognised. He polished lightly at the blade, holding it up to the light to see. I turned away quickly when he looked at me. Princess Seffrin no longer seemed enraged when I snuck a peek at her. She looked frightened. And that scared me.

There were no clouds in the night sky and the full moon in display for anyone to see. By now, they appeared to have pretty much finished the setup. There was a clear circle scraped out and filled with things I didn't know what to think of. It smelled foul even to my human noses, worse to the wolves I imagined. Councillor Rau's face was a permanent scowl at this point.

I nudged the Princess. "Do you know what we're waiting for?" I whispered to her. She shook her head.

"We are waiting for our Guest-of-Honour, girl," replied Councillor Rau. Her smile bared sharp canines and never reached her eyes. I tried not to shudder in the face of a predator. "Come along, girls," she beckoned. "Get in the circle."

Both Seffrin and I stared at her in shock. Were we meant to be sacrificed? And if I had just stayed home, would I never have known what would happen here?

Irritated by our lack of immediate compliance, she snapped at us. "Get up!"

We scrambled to our feet. The guard I recognised came and pushed us into that rotten circle.

"And now we wait." Councillor Rau grinned sickeningly.

I counted my breathing to keep from panicked screaming. I didn't want to die.