The Rogues Who Went Rogue
Chapter 88

Greg muttered sarcastically at the sight of Pellethia's glowing streaks of hair, "Great. Now that we have a live glow stick, we can stay here until nightfall and nothing will happen."

A yellow flower near Greg bloomed instantaneously and sprayed scents of animal dung at him. The duke choked on the pungent smell and moved far away to another plant, only to be sprayed by the same foul odor by another yellow flower. Seeing how Greg was suffering, Christian turned to Xandar and declared with a satisfied grin, "I like it here, cuz."

Xandar himself had to look away from Greg to make sure he didn't chuckle out loud. At that point, Christian felt something at the sole of his left foot before two green tendrils wrapped his shoe from each side and entwined with one another. Then, two red roses bloomed to exude that all too familiar rosy scent.

Amber, Rafael and Octavia were pressing back cheeky smiles when the duke turned to his cousin and asked in bewilderment, "Am I supposed to know what this

Xandar's eyes amplified playfulness when he patted his cousin on the shoulder and said, "Looks like the forest likes you too, Christian. It's flirting with you." Rafael burst into laughter, as did many others when the duke's eyes widened in shock. "Please tell me you're joking, cuz."

means, cuz?"

Christian's right shoe was wrapped by tendrils the same way before another two red roses bloomed there. Lucianne started chuckling with Xandar at the sight as the king said, "Well, now that I think of it, flirting is too shallow. I'd say the forest has already fallen in love with you." "Uh..." Christian would have thought Xandar was pulling his leg but the looks on everyone else's faces, especially the vampires, confirmed that whatever his best friend just told him may be true.

He had no idea how to reject a forest's advances, a forest that had the ability to curse anyone in the empire if it was angered. His lycan was of no help when it told him to just pull his leg out and break the tendrils because only Annie could be tender with him like that. His human part knew that doing what he and his animal truly wanted would be reckless. He didn't want random creatures to be cursed because of him, and he surely didn't want the forest to go after Annie.

Christian bent down and looked at the fully-bloomed roses, swallowed a lump in his throat, awkwardly patted the two flowers on his right foot and muttered, "I'm flattered, really, but uh...I have someone," the petals started wilting and the red started turning brown. Christian didn't want to upset the forest so he added, "You're definitely something special, and I'm not saying that we aren't good enough for one another, but it's just...we might not be...the best fit in the long run. I hope you understand."

Lucianne had to bury her face in Xandar's chest to muffle out the laughter, and Xandar did the same by hiding his mouth in her hair. The burst of humor in their bond was out of control, and the worst part was that neither of them were capable of stopping the other. Toby already pulled up his turtleneck shirt to cover his mouth, and the other wolves and lycans were using various ways to hold back the humor. They envied their animals who were all chuckling and laughing uncontrollably in their minds when their human parts had to put on a straight face. Some of the vigils who wore jackets used those to cover the bottom half of their faces, but anyone who saw their smiling eyes would have known how they were really taking in the situation before them.

The roses and tendrils at Christian's foot withered, and when nothing happened in the next five seconds, he turned to the vampires and asked, "I didn't do anything wrong, did I?"

Rafael reluctantly removed his hand covering his mouth and spoke as seriously as he could, which was not serious at all with that broad, teasing smile. “Your Grace, you just broke the forest's heart. How DARE you presume that you've done nothing wrong?!"

Lucianne snorted, then she and Xandar burst out laughing again, which was when some of the river water splashed on the royal couple, and Lucianne protested, "Hey!"

It was finally Christian's turn to laugh, and a beige flower which had small, red polka dots in the inner regions of the petals appeared an inch away from his left foot. The duke looked at it in confusion. Annie had shown him most types of flowers and plants, and taught him what each one meant but he had never seen such a flower in lycan territory.

Rafael teased, "If the flower of friendship doesn't appease you, Your Grace, I'm sure the forest would be more than happy to replace it with the romantic ones from before."

Upon hearing that, Christian leaned down to snatch the flower off the ground and put it into his coat pocket as he spoke to the grass, "Thank you. I really appreciate this. I'm glad there are no hard feelings."

His sights turned to his still-smiling cousin and cousin-in-law when he linked them both in seriousness, 'No one tells Annie about this.

Lucianne immediately linked back with an excited grin, 'EXCEPT FOR ME!'

Xandar responded, 'Christian, what are you worried about? It's not like you cheated on her with the forest. You ended the relationship before it could even start, and I thought your heartbreaking and friend-zoning days were over!

Octavia's hand landed on Christian's shoulder when she spoke with more humor than any vigil or minister had seen, "I won't be surprised if our empire is suddenly blessed by your visit, Your Grace. On behalf of our people, Pelly and I send our...most sincere thanks in advance." The duke narrowed his eyes at the consort, and the mention of Pellethia drew Lucianne's sights to the empress. As her eyes fixed on Pellethia's still-glowing streaks, she began murmuring, "I wonder..." Lucianne looked behind her, where her tail would be if she were in her animal form and Xandar knew what she was thinking.

He pecked a kiss in her hair to get her attention before whispering affectionately, "Only one way to find out."

Her eyes shone in excitement as she went behind a tree to strip and shift, and lo and behold, two of the five stripes glowed. The thickest one in blue, the stripe next to it glowed in emerald green. Xandar's eyes never left her when he picked up her clothes before pecking a kiss on her furry forehead as he muttered into her ear, "Beautiful."

Lucianne's lycan cooed at his affectionate compliment and loving stare. His animal made him nuzzle her nose to elicit her human's soft chuckles through their link. After they were both satisfied with Lucianne's melodious laughter, Xandar took her hand and led her out of her changing spot. When everyone saw her tail glowing, mouths gaped and eyes snapped wide open for the second time that day.

The forest found this an appropriate time to exude a scent that certain insects were attracted to. Within seconds, a swarm of minuscule bugs flew along the scent trail that led into the opened mouths. The alert ones closed their mouths quickly enough to avoid them. Toby and a few others weren't so lucky, and had to spit out the insects when they realized that their mouths had been invaded.

Pellethia was looking at herself using the reflection of the water in the River of Heres, and her eyes snapped to Lucianne when she emerged. They stood side-by-side, and the surface of the water rippled to remove Octavia and Xandar from the reflection, leaving the two women before it added three silhouettes next to a human-form Lucianne and Pellethia, one next to the empress and two next to Lucianne. Pellethia mumbled, "What does this mean?"