Regal Renegades

Chapter 17

Caroline's POV:

I hated how rigid I was. I hated how stiff and anxious I felt walking into the room my parents set up for 'important meetings'.

Away from prying eyes. Away from the other vampires staring all of us down after the tension created by my parents and then Daniels... grand display of regaining focus to him.

Those wings became a prime object of focus the second they separated me from my mother and continued to do so as we entered into the inside.

Two powerful appendages darker than night itself.

That stern, unshakeable display of power, mixed with a look on his face that was final to anyone looking.

It was reassuring if nothing else, and eased just a pinch of my worries during the short walk.

And oddly exhilarated a different part of me that really shouldn't exist right now.

I was just going to walk with them there, then step to the side and allow them their conversation.

I was a topic of this conversation, but I wasn't a part of the people having it.

That was my plan, and I only got to enact it for half a second before the arm of Lady Vanderwood herself hooked around mine with smooth elegance.

I attempted to suppress the scare it gave me, having it only come out as a slight gasp and sending her a look.

She didn't look at me, but instead had a content, if not confident, smile on her face as she walked us in, and the doors were shut behind us.

Nothing but an oval table and four chairs

I paused again, feeling cramped in the smaller room, and favoring the doors so the royalty could take the other two while my parents took the chairs that faced the door... that would face me.

Daniel took a seat, which succeeded in stripping me from the cover his wings had been providing me, and showed me off in full force of my parents.

My mother's glare burned into me like a hot iron.

I could feel the anger, the blame.

The look of someone who must have assumed I'd done nothing but screw her over with the connections I apparently had with the prince for what they'd done to me.

She was expecting an act of petty revenge, despite the fact that that was never once my intention.

I had the power to look past her actions and instead think about the good of the clan. The good of what they'd built here and cared so much about.

I turned to look at my father, who rightfully was more focused on the prince shifting his wings in order to sit properly in the chair.

Then to Daniel, who was apparently also looking at me quite expectantly.

It wasn't until the Lady's arm unwrapped from mine, and her hand found the small of my back urging me forward that I understood what they meant.

An admittedly panicked expression peaked on my face, and the assurance and reasoning came from her rather quietly soon after.

"No part of my future is being discussed here, dear. You go ahead."

Her words weren't stern per se... but I could still tell that there was no room for me to try to argue or insist otherwise.

Maybe that was just because of who it was coming from.

I gathered myself, swallowing and nodding firmly before forcing a relaxed poise over me and walking to claim my seat beside him... beside the prince.