BXBX NOVEL Chapter 117 - Rules
Nigel was trying hard not to show it in his face that he had already broken a rule of the clan. Adeline had already told him some gruesome details of what the clan did to keep their secret safe. And as Adeline was an outsider who knew the secret of the clan, he didn't want to give himself away and put his sister in danger.
Though Nigel was not showing any nervousness on his face, Rhea's sharp ears were able to pick up the sudden escalation in Nigel's heartbeat. But she assumed that it was because he was smitten by her, it happened most of the time when she would talk to men. So she carried on explaining the other rules to the Prince without thinking much of his escalating heartbeat.
"Another rule that every werewolf of the Siccaldi clan must follow is that they should follow their alpha's orders. Right now, King Conall is the alpha and all of us must follow him and his words. His words are absolute and binding. If you ever try to defy him, you will be taken down by him."
Nigel widened his eyes when Rhea stated that rule. He instantly asked a question because he wanted some clarification, "What do you mean by 'you will be taken down by him'?"
Until now, he was very oblivious to what was going on in the Aberdeen Palace. He had believed that everyone in the Palace, his maternal uncle and aunt, his grandmother, and his cousins were very much normal. And he had a perception that they all were very kind and soft-spoken like his mother.
But now that he knew that most of it was just a façade and that the werewolves were very authoritarian and had a bad temper, he did not take those words from Rhea as some light statement. He felt that her every normal-sounding sentences were a warning with a hidden meaning behind them. And he asked something that he feared, "Will I get killed if I don't do what he says?"
For some reason, Rhea burst out into laughter when Nigel asked that question. If Nigel was not tensed up right now about possibly getting killed by his uncle for not following his orders then he would have been smiling like a fool seeing that beautiful lady laughing like that. But instead, he was wiping the sweat beads forming on his forehead.
After getting a good laugh, Rhea finally looked at Nigel and said, "Your Highness, what makes you think that you will be killed by your own maternal uncle for not following his orders? What I meant by that was that you will be given certain pre-determined punishments by the clan. And… in some rare cases, the alpha will challenge you for a duel to crush down your ego. But that is too rare."
Nigel let out a quiet sigh of relief. He was more than happy to know that he would not be killed instantly if he somehow managed to piss off his uncle.
"Shall I continue with the rules, Your Highness?" Rhea asked Nigel whose mind was wandering off somewhere.
Nigel's attention was now back to his teacher. "Yes, please continue. I fear that if I miss out on any rules then I will end up bringing trouble for myself. So make sure that you tell me every rule."
Rhea chuckled again and then continued explaining the rules, "And another rule is that you are to treat the clan as your family. You are to respect all the clan members and if they need your help with something, you are to provide them, given that your help does not break any other rules. For example, you are not allowed to cooperate with a member of the clan to cover up their own mistakes."
Nigel really wanted to ask Fenris if he had revealed it to the clan that Adeline knew about their secret. From what the teacher was explaining to him, he felt as though Fenris might have already revealed it to the clan. He just hoped that Fenris's attraction towards his sister had stopped him from ratting him and Adeline out.
Rhea explained few other rules to Nigel. And after that, she told him the most important thing that he needed to know, "And finally, as you are a new turner, you will be kept in the Palace's dungeon during the full moon."
Before Rhea could elaborate, Nigel exclaimed in shock, "I will be kept in the dungeon? Do you mean I will be a prisoner during every full moon? But why?"
"I am explaining it to you, Prince Nigel. Have some patience." Rhea said a bit sternly because she didn't like being interrupted when she was speaking. But Nigel was doing that every now and then. If he was not a Prince of another Kingdom then he would have already gotten a punch or two.
"I'm sorry. Please carry on." Nigel gave an innocent grin to his teacher.
"We were cursed to walk on the earth as a wolf on the night of the full moon. So full moons are still a curse to us. Our animal instinct tends to win over our human sanity during those particular nights." Rhea was speaking in a grim tone, increasing the intensity of the spookiness of the already spooky tale.
"And new turners tend to seek their prey out of instinct. They won't be able to make a distinction between other animals and humans. All they know is that their prey is in front of them and they want to pounce on those prey. Of course, we can take control of our animal instinct over time, but it takes a lot of practice and self-dedication."
Rhea started to walk back and forth as she further explained why Nigel would be locked up. "So, to make sure that the new turners don't go looking for their prey and end up tearing off humans, we lock them up in the dungeon during the full moon. We don't want the new turners to turn into the Ravagers."
Nigel interrupted the teacher again because he was just too curious to keep his mouth shut, "What are Ravagers?" Though he already had some idea about what they were, Wulfric had told him a story about a Virgin Turner who was stuck in his wolf form because he had eaten human flesh.
Rhea gave up being angry every time Nigel would interrupt him. And she answered him, "Ravagers are the ones who get stuck in their wolf form because they ate the human flesh. Human flesh is the one thing that is like poison to us werewolves. And Ravagers are the most dangerous types of werewolves."
Rhea skipped out a piece of information that the Ravagers would be hunted down and killed by the clan. But Wulfric had already enlightened Nigel about it.
Nigel asked yet another question again, "I will be here in Aberdeen just for a month so, what if I won't be able to learn to suppress my animal instinct by then? Does that mean I will have to lock myself up somewhere when I return back to my own Palace?"
"I will assess your progress and we will think about what to do later." Rhea gave a mirthless smile to Nigel.
Rhea already knew that the King and the clan wouldn't let Nigel return back to Wyverndale. It was just too dangerous to let a werewolf live in another Kingdom. But she did not have the heart to break that news to Nigel yet, she didn't want to scare him off on the very first day of his arrival. All she could hope was for Nigel to understand that on his own and stay here in Aberdeen for the rest of his life.