Dorian stood at the balcony overlooking the approaching guests with all their fancy chariots and all. Majority of the families had to come try their luck to see if their famous prince would eventually take a wife from one of their daughters.
For a really long time, the family of the Mikealson's has been trying in vain to get the eldest son to settle down. There was a big secret buried in the county which no one knows about. To everyone, it was just a peaceful village without troubles but there had been more than meets the eyes there. There were whispers and speculations of course but none could really tell what exactly was happening in the castle.
Regardless of all these speculations, no one cared a lot about it. The people from the castle were weird. In fact, they were barely seen around and had specially hired slaves run their errands.
What many did not know was that for centuries now, the family of the Mikealson's which happened to be an ancient werewolf family had been leading them secretly but calmly. They were not always like that actually but had happened to be so when their ancestor, King James the first had asked a powerful sorceress for the ability to defeat his enemies. He had lands to conquer but seemed to lack enough resources and strength to carry out his plans.
So Matilda, for that had been her name made a pact with him that he would marry her as soon as he was done subduing his enemies. He had agreed initially but something happened. King James happened upon a really beautiful princess, one so beautiful that he dared not resist. So when the time came for him to get married as agreed to the sorceress, he jilted her and began making plans to get married to his newly found princess.
Blinded by grief, Matilda swore vengeance and disappeared from the county. Few moons later, on the night of his wedding to the princess, while he was having a drink with his men, Matilda came back suddenly.
"Miss me?" she asked him back then
"What are you doing here?" King James had ask.
But she was a woman on a mission. Before he could speak and call his guards on them, Matilda pointed on the full moon and cursed he and his men with a beast curse. On every full moon, their bodies, man and beast would merge as one and permit them to suffer pain through transformation into what we have come to know as a werewolf. It all began that day as right there while she was still speaking, King James began to notice his bones cracking up and soon, he changed. So did his men.
And the sorceress, she suddenly disappeared into thin air. A search was organized for her but she was never found. A lot of stories preceded her disappearance. Some said she died of sorrow and heartbreak. Others say that she decided to go hidden. While some still say she was eventually captured and locked underground in the castle but admist all this, a different story which was not really heard spread among the small folks, it was believed that she eventually found love again and had offsprings. Whatever be the case, the most confusing part was that nothing could be done to undo the curse.
Eventually, a lot of the people because werewolves with time and soon everyone moved away for fear of their lives. It was not until a century later than King Jeremy, the grandfather to Dorian and his siblings who was the strongest yet most soft hearted ruler the werewolves had ever known. He reached an agreement with his people and they decided to compromise and accept a little change. They had to learn to control their wolf forms so they could interact with the humans again. Now, they told the made up story that they had done away with every werewolf in the county and became celebrated as liberators of the land. Although, not everyone believes that story to the latter, they had to go with the flow seeing that no werewolf had been seen ever since. The wolves had become careful.
His coronation was that week and Dorian had gotten tired of trying to find a mate. His wolf seemed to be rejecting every woman that came his way. This was something he just could not understand and the murmurings were that perhaps he would die without any mate. Tonight was his last chance at finding the supposed right one and after that, he swore he was never going to try again. This was the last straw.
"They're ready for us your highness." his guard walked in.
Dorian looked up from the balcony to glance at the man. Everyone feared him because of his haughty temperament and he was doing his very best to live up to their expectations. He was really brutal and cared less about human life. They whispered around him and he heard also that it was his supposed evil attitude that caused the gods to curse him. He did not care as their murmurings seemed to compel him to be even more wicked. His sister Miranda was his basic pain in the ass. She always seemed to pick the right opportunity to embarrass him and remind him that if his elder brother had not been born a half wit, then he never would have gotten one inch close to the throne.
"Tell me Nel, how many girls are coming today?" he asked
"Twenty-three my lord." Nel said.
Dorian thought for a while. This twenty-three would probably be the very last ones as he had thrown open the ball as his hysterical mother had insisted. He cared less about getting married, after all he was a loner. But she was having none of that as she had always had belief that he needed a woman by his side to soften his rough edges. Sometimes when she said those things, he wondered of she was actually making reference to his appearance.
He took in a deep breath of the cool evening breeze and opened his eyes.
"Well, mother dearest must be waiting, let's not keep her waiting now. Shall we?" he said and led the way out.