@ofthe10kingdoms
Dear Queen Red III,
I was disheartened to hear that you would be unable to attend the wedding of my step-sister Virginia Lewis and her betrothed, your cousin Wolf. I hate to imagine the great distress this might cause your lovely heir Scarlett to miss her own brother's wedding.
Therefore I have sent this carriage with her brother to fetch her. No need to thank me, of course, I was more than happy to assist in anyway possible. After all, we are now officially joining our houses together, through kinship and blood.
Yours most cordially,
King Wendell White
Wolf did his best not to fidget or bite his nails. Not when Red was so unflappable. She was not much older than him and they were far from close. Wolf was not entirely unpracticed with visiting his royal cousins though it was not an invitation given out... ever now. When he was a child, when Scarlett was very small, they have visited the Court of Red. Once, maybe twice, when Father had been more active in the court. Before Mother had lost her temper, as wolves do, and Queen Red II had declared their Father, her own brother, no longer welcomed. The palace had not changed very much. And Red the Third seemed to be every bit entitled and dismissive as her mother.
They had watched their parents burn for 'treasonous activities' and were living as outcasts, no longer worthy of the titles their father's heritage had once offered them. Luna and Wolf struggled to find work, both of them resorting to thievery until Luna was caught and put in prison for a time. Shortly after her release... the newly crowned Queen Red III had shown up, knowing they had no other choice. No magic or wishing could give her an heir, and so she exploited the only family she had left.
He had not been to the Castle Red since before his parent's deaths, not invited, of course, none of them ever had been again. He had tried but always was turned away at the gates. He had regrets of their decision, though he knew it was the best option. The only real option. Scarlett's best chance. His little sister was an heir to the throne of Red, not an outcast, not a criminal. Not a lost scent and a cold trail. Not a memory and an unmarked grave.
They had other siblings. Scarlett was the only one whose whereabouts he knew of. She was young enough to be molded into a proper princess, young enough that her wolf-ness hadn't yet come about. There was still time to... tame that side of her. Luna, their elder sister, had agreed to it without much discussion. He had been angry with her for weeks, more angry than he had ever felt. But all the tears and snarls wouldn't change the fact that she had been right in her decision. Scarlett deserved a better life than what they could give her. She was of the right age. Lupita and Caleb, the twins, were the middle children, already teenagers. Rory was younger than Scarlett, but the House of Red always favored a female heir over the males. Luna had tried to convince Red to take him, too, even in service. But she had refused.
It had been almost two decades since he had seen or spoken to Scarlett. Nearly as long as when he'd last heard from Luna. And if anything had happened to her and the twins... there was little telling what had happened to Rory. It had been his own stint in prison, his first time, that he had returned home to an empty house with no word or sniff of where his siblings might have run to.
So Wolf stood in the empty guest parlor of the House of Red awaiting an audience with his sister. All grown up, no longer the little girl he remembered. Queen Red had been more than annoyed to see Wolf and flush with rage with King Wendell's letter and insistence that Scarlett, at least, be in attendance. The Queen had come up with some excuse so utterly see thru, Wendell hadn't even bothered to mention it to Wolf when the Wedding invitation had been returned with a very short letter attached. It would have been more than insulting to decline without reason. And perhaps it was some thinly veiled threat from Wendell that he mentioned knowing Scarlett was Wolf's little sister. Virginia and Tony both had offered to come for moral support and a curiosity to see more of the kingdoms. Wolf knew he had to go, in person; he had insisted on coming. Alone.
In truth, Wolf was frightened. It had not occurred to any of them that perhaps it wasn't Queen Red who was declining the invitation, addressed to both she and her adopted heir, but Scarlett herself, a grudge held for a brother that she was possibly ashamed of, if not hated. But now, with Wolf a proper Lord of the house of White, or soon to be, he could make the effort to reunite his family, to search for them. He had hoped his new connections would have made things easier in finding the rest of his siblings before the wedding, before the birth of his first child, but to no avail.
He had written many times to Scarlett through the years, with nothing in return. Any attempt to visit her had been turned down, though any mention of whether it was an order from Red or Scarlett had never been clear. He wouldn't risk exposing Scarlett's secret just to be insistent. 'No wolves', was the usual response from the guard.
This, he told himself, would be his last chance. To hear it from Scarlett herself, or to leave her be forever and move on with his life in the 4th kingdom.