by Haley Weir
Marquette, in her nightgown, looking as if she had been stolen from right out of her bed, was tied to a bed that sat in the corner. She saw him, and her eyes widened, but she couldn’t say anything to him because of the rag tied around her mouth. Theo immediately raced to her and began to untie her, but had not yet finished when he felt the crash of something heavy and sharp against his back. He turned around to find the man behind him, wielding an iron kettle at Theo with the intent to knock him unconscious.
Fortunately for Theo, and not so fortunately for the man, shifter strength and stamina remained no matter what form the shifter was in. Theo was barely touched by the man’s strike. However, he was so furious by the man’s attempt to kidnap and harm Marquette that he couldn’t control his rage. Within the blink of an eye, Theo shifted and lunged at the terrified man, his teeth bared and his jaw opened wide. He sunk his canines into the man’s neck and stood over him in massive wolf form as he shook the man’s body like a rag doll, feeling the life run out of him and splattering blood all over the cottage walls.
By the time Theo realized what he had done, it was too late. The man was dead, the cottage looked like a blood-soaked crime scene, and Marquette was silent but horrified.
“Shift back!” a voice called from the doorway as Rubius walked inside and quickly shut the door closed behind him. “Theo, shift back!”
At his direction, Theo turned back into a man, standing nakedly in front of both Rubius and Marquette.
“Damn it, Theo,” Rubius said in a hushed voice that somehow sounded like he was yelling at him. “I told you this would get you both into trouble.”
“What are you doing here?” Theo asked. He was too disoriented by all that had just happened to think of any other question to ask.
“I’ve been watching over you,” Rubius answered. “Like always. Except a bit more lately since I knew something like this would happen.”
Theo went to Marquette and untied her. He tried not to look into her terrified eyes. As soon as she was freed, he held her close, and she buried her head against his bare chest.
“Take Marquette into the woods. It’s dark, and there isn’t anyone out on the streets now,” Rubius said.
“Why the woods?” Theo asked.
“Because she is obviously shaken by this whole incident and the two of you need to have a few moments in peace to recover. I will take care of this body and clean up this mess so that no one finds out. I’ll meet you in the forest later.”
“Thank you,” Theo said.
He knew that he owed Rubius more than just a simple thanks, but for now, it was all that he had to give him.
“Stay to your own pack’s territory,” Rubius warned. “I mean it. This time, listen to me. The packs will be out in the forest tonight, and the two of you cannot afford any more trouble. Go straight to your father’s territory and stay until I get there.”
Theo nodded and took Marquette’s hand as they left the cottage.
When they got to the forest, Theo found them a quiet and secluded place in the thicket to sit together. He didn’t have a stash of clothing this time, so he just sat unclothed and ashamed by his rash actions. He was worried yet again that Marquette would be afraid of him. How could she not be after what she had just seen? He wanted to hold her, but he also didn’t want to push her.
“I am not afraid of you if that is what you’re thinking,” Marquette said as she scooted her body closer until she was sitting on his lap.
“How is that possible that you are not afraid?” he asked her. “You saw what I just did. I lost control, and I literally tore a man to shreds in front of you.”
He looked up at her under the moonlight and saw that even she had a splattering of blood on her face from the incident. He wiped it from her cheekbone and looked into her eyes nervously.
“What I saw in that cottage was the man that I love coming to my rescue yet again and saving me from a lowlife who intended to harm me.”
“That may be true,” Theo said. “But what I did to that man was violent and vicious. You can’t deny that.”
“Sometimes love is violent and vicious,” Marquette said. “If I was a shifter and someone had tried to hurt you, I would have torn them apart with my bare teeth too. In fact, if I had the ability to do what you did, I would have torn that man apart even before you had gotten there.”
Theo was in awe of her. He had never known a woman so brave and fearless. He thought back to the night that her mother had been killed. He remembered how he had gone with his family when he was only a child, to tell Marquette that her mother was dead. He remembered how she didn’t even cry, but that she made sure to take what few items from her home reminded her of her precious mother before coming with the royal family and leaving her old life behind forever. There was a certain type of strength and courage that one developed after having gone through trauma like that. Marquette had that courage, and she would not scare easily. She also had an impermeable devotion to those she loved, and she loved Theo.
When Rubius arrived back in the forest after taking care of the mess in the city, he brought a pair of pants with him that he tossed to Theo. Marquette was exhausted and had fallen asleep in Theo’s lap.
“I know that you love her,” Rubius said quietly as he sat beside Theo and watched Marquette sleep. “And I know that you feel as if you can’t live without her. I felt the same way about your mother. I would not let anything come between us. But there was a difference in what I went through and what faces you now.”
“What is the difference?” Theo asked as he gently stroked Marquette’s head while she slept.
“The difference is that your mother was never in danger of dying for being with me. We were both shifters, and your father was an understanding man who knew of the way fated love in the packs worked. It is not the same for you and Marquette. She is a human and a servant. You are a shifter and royalty. The two of you are from completely different worlds. This man tonight tried to hurt her, and he didn’t even know that you were a shifter. He did it simply because you were fraternizing with the help. Imagine what could happen if someone found out, human or shifter, that the two of you had mated across species.”
Rubius sighed, and he put his hand on Theo’s shoulder.
“I’m not going to tell you what to do, and quite honestly, my heart bleeds for what you are going through. But all that I can tell you is this; if it were me, and I knew that being with your mother would have endangered her life, I would have given her up to keep her alive.”
Rubius’ words dug into Theo’s chest like a blade embedding itself in his flesh.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The next day at the castle, everything seemed normal. Theo and Marquette had made it back undetected, Rubius had covered up all traces of what had happened the night before in the city, and it seemed nothing could scare Marquette away. And that was exactly why Theo decided that he had to push her away instead. It felt as if he was pulling his own heart out of his chest.
But Rubius had been right. This was about more than just going against a few rules to be together; this was about keeping Marquette alive. It was way too dangerous for her to be with a shifter. His title of royalty wasn’t the real problem, but a human and shifter together was. If either side found out about their relationship, they would both be hunted. Theo wasn’t afraid for himself. He wasn’t a little boy anymore and he could easily take on any wolf hunter that came for him. But Marquette would be in real danger from both the biased humans and the pure-blooded delusional wolf packs. As much as he wanted to think that he could keep an eye on her every second of every day, last night proved that he couldn’t. There would inevitably be times that he had to let her out of his sight, and those would be the times when she would be attacked. He had to let her go to keep her alive.
When he came across her in the castle, he ignored her. At first, she thought that he didn’t hear her, but then it became clear to her what he was doing.
“Don’t you dare do this!
” she cried. She was speaking loud enough that other people could hear if they were nearby, and Theo tried to calm and hush her.
“No!” she said through her tears. “You promised! You promised that you wouldn’t push me away again, not even if it was for my own good. You lied!”
“I’m sorry, Marquette,” Theo said as he tried to remain strong and callous toward her spiraling emotions, even though he felt as if he was dying inside. “But it’s just not going to work out.”
“You are a coward!” she said.
After she got over her initial anger, she tried to appeal to him and plead with Theo to reconsider.
“We love each other,” she said as the tears streamed down her face and she reached for his hand.
But Theo pulled away from her and started to walk away.
“Not anymore,” he said as he turned and left.
He heard her softly crying behind him and felt as though he were the worst person on the face of the planet. He had just hurt the one he truly loved and lost Marquette forever. As he walked through the empty hallway, he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to find Rubius walking beside him.
“You did the right thing,” Rubius said to him.
“Yeah? Then why does it feel so awful?”
***
Holly stumbled upon Marquette as she was still whimpering and drying her tears. When she asked her what was wrong, Marquette turned to her for help, and after she explained the entire situation, she begged Holly to tell her what she could do to get Theo back. But there wasn’t much that Holly could do except give her a hug and offer her comfort. Neither of them had any idea that Cassandra was aware of her son’s affections for Marquette. And when Cassandra came in to find the two girls despondent, she offered her advice.
“Just give him some time,” Cassandra said to Marquette, who had broken down into another round of crying. “Theo will never truly leave you if he loves you and if the two of you are fated to be together.”
“Fated?” Marquette said.
“Yes, in our world, we believe that love is fated. That it calls two people together in an unrefutably powerful way that cannot be denied. If you and my son are fated in this way, then you will be together, and nothing can stop it.”
“But I am not a shifter,” Marquette said. “Maybe fate doesn’t work the same on me.”
“Fate works the same for every living being,” Cassandra smiled gently. “Trust that it will be the same for you and Theo.”
Just as Cassandra said her last words, the three women were interrupted.
“Cassandra!” Aeron called in through the doorway.
His voice was agitated, and it was unusual for him to address his wife in such a tone. Cassandra knew immediately that he had heard what she had said to Marquette, which meant that Aeron now knew of Theo’s love affair with the human girl. She got up to walk with him out of the room so the two of them could speak privately, and she gave Marquette a reassuring smile before she left.
When Cassandra got into the bedroom with her husband, he no longer hid how furious he was.
“Did you know about this?” he asked her as he paced the room.
“Yes,” she said.
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I knew that you would react like this,” she said.
“Of course I would react like this,” Aeron yelled. “How else would you expect me to react when I hear my wife consoling a human girl and a hidden love affair that our son seems to be having with her?”
“It’s really not that big of a deal,” Cassandra said. She knew that she was at least partially lying in her attempts to downplay.
“How can you say that?” Aeron shouted. “It’s a huge deal! Theo’s actions yet again put our entire family in danger. He has even put Marquette in danger.”
“I am aware of the risk,” Cassandra said. “But you cannot deny our son the ability to love who he has chosen to love. Or if the love has chosen him, then he cannot even deny it himself.”
“Cassandra,” Aeron said as he tried to calm himself down and came to sit on the side of the bed beside her. “If any of the other packs were to find out, especially the pure-blooded pack, there would be an attempt on his life.”
“I know that,” she said. “Which is why we will all make sure that it stays a secret.”
But unfortunately, as was true with most castles, the walls had ears. It wasn’t long before word traveled to the other packs without a clear knowledge of how it managed to get there. The means of transmission was not of consequence, though. What mattered was the ears upon which the information fell. It just so happened the pack to hear of the love affair between Theo and his servant was the pure-blooded wolf pack that considered such relationships to be an abomination.
In the shifter world, if a pack and their alpha felt so strongly about something, then they would challenge it. In this case, since the offense came from the highest ruling pack, the pure-blooded pack’s alpha, along with his entire pack, came to challenge the rule of the royal family. Not only did the rival alpha and his pack consider the relationship to be an abomination and a complete disregard of shifter law, but they also considered Theo to now be ineligible to be heir, and they claimed that since Aeron and his family had tried to cover the whole thing up, Aeron was no longer fit to be the ruling alpha and the royal family were no longer fit to rule the human city. The entire situation erupted into a very volatile mess. Rubius came to stay at the castle as an extra measure of security, and both Theo and Holly were forbidden to leave the castle grounds until the matter was settled. Cassandra even spoke to Marquette and told her that she was not to go into the city until things cleared up, for fear that it wouldn’t be safe for her either.
In an effort to diffuse the situation and reach an amicable and diplomatic decision, as Aeron was well known for, he invited the rival pack to the castle to try to work out a resolution without bloodshed. The entire royal family, along with Rubius, would sit to discuss the matter with them in the hope of maintaining a civil peace and solid leadership.
CHAPTER TWELVE
When the rival pack entered the castle, the tensions were already high. Rubius met them at the castle entrance and led them into the throne room where Aeron, Cassandra, Theo, and Holly all sat waiting at a long table big enough to seat everyone. There was no need for Aeron and Cassandra to sit atop their raised thrones now because these were fellow shifters. And although Aeron was still the alpha that held leadership over all the packs, things were done on a more equal level of merit within the shifter world. Here, they would all sit together as relative equals to discuss the matter, with Aeron having the final say as alpha.
Even if he was challenged, there was nothing that the pure-blooded pack alpha could do inside this room. Pack rules were always to be followed, and if a challenge was initiated, then it would be held at a later time in the forest. Holly had already told Marquette to stay away from the throne room until the other pack had left. Theo had been thinking about Marquette every minute since he had pushed her away from him, and it was difficult for him to concentrate on anything else aside from her. But right now, in the presence of the other pack, he needed to try to think clearly and act with restraint and better judgment.
“I believe you know why we are here,” the rival alpha said as he addressed Aeron. “Your son, Theo, has broken one of our most sacred laws. He has had relations with a human and is therefore no longer eligible to be an heir to the throne of Grenvich, or to follow as an alpha for your pack.”
“First and foremost,” Aeron said as he addressed the concern brought to light. “I deny the allegations that you are accusing my son of, and he will deny them to you as well. But then there is also the matter of shifter law to be discussed. The disdain for human and shifter relationships is not a shifter law, as you have so incorrectly stated. The decision as to whether or not to allow such relations is a pack decision, and nothing more. As alpha of your pack, it is your prerogative to deny such relatio
nships if you see fit. But I will not have you determine what the other packs can and cannot allow.”
“Perhaps the reason that you are trying to alter the existence of that law, is because you also are guilty of improper actions,” the alpha said.
Aeron’s ridge raised as he became more defensive and on-edge with the man.
“And what action would you now like to accuse me of?” Aeron asked.
“You have had knowledge of this hidden relationship, and you have covered it up, not only from your kingdom, but also from your packs. You can say that you do not hold your pack to the same level of pure-blood standards that I hold mine to. But you cannot sit here and say that hiding such a thing from all of the packs is the action of a trustworthy leader.”
“My father has done nothing wrong,” Theo interjected as his temper started to rise. Holly kicked him under the table to get him to stay quiet and let their father handle it. “And I have done nothing wrong either.”
“Is that so?” the alpha said.
He turned and gave one of his pack members a nod. The other man stood up to walk out the doorway, and within minutes, he reappeared with Marquette in hand.
“Damn it,” Holly said under her breath so that only Theo could hear her. “I told that girl to stay out of sight.”
The alpha got up from his seat and reached for Marquette, pulling her into the room and parading her in front of Theo.
“So this girl here, this human,” he said with a sneer, “she is of no significance to you?”
“She is Marquette, one of the servants who has been with our family for a very long time. What concern is she to you?” Aeron said.
“She is of no concern at all to me, personally,” he said. “But I wonder if maybe she is of some significant value to your son.”
“Let our servant get back to her castle duties,” Cassandra said. “You may not come into our home and lay hands on our servants without reason.”
