Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir

Chapter Sixteen

“Iwant to give birth to my baby in the woods,” she said.

It hadn’t been the first thing that she had expected to talk about, but it happened to be the first thing that came out of her mouth.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Aeron said.

“You don’t think it’s a good idea because you don’t want me that close to Rubius again now. You have no control over me or where I birth my child.”

Cassandra didn’t want to argue with Aeron. She wasn’t upset with him. She simply needed to make her own choices now, as Theo had said. And if Aeron was going to be too stubborn to talk to her about any of it, then she would make the decisions without him.

“That is true,” Aeron said. “But as king, I do have control over whether or not to allow my royal family into the unprotected woods alone.”

“You wouldn’t,” she spat at him.

She could see what Aeron was doing – he was trying to play games with her to get what he wanted. That wasn’t a trait that he usually had, and it was not at all becoming on him.

“Don’t you dare use your authority here to try and rule over me. I can promise you that it won’t end well if you do,” she said vehemently.

“Oh, trust me,” Aeron said. “That is something I already know. Crossing you is not something that I ever want to do.”

“Then why are you doing it?” she asked. “You know as well as I do that there is no danger in the forests. The forest is our home, and it is much safer for me to deliver my baby there than it is here in the city. You are hiding behind reasons that are hollow, and you know it. At least give me the respect that I deserve by telling me the truth.”

Cassandra looked into her husband’s eyes as he sighed. There was a heaviness that hung around him as if his crown was made of lead instead of gold. She knew what it was that weighed on him, and she saw that even now, he couldn’t bring himself to say it. She walked closer to him and stood before Aeron.

“You know that I love you,” she said as she bent her face down to look in his. “I have always loved you and our son, and I always will. But you also know that shifters have no choice over who their fated connections are with. I have no control over who I am fated to love in such a way that I cannot live without them.”

Aeron looked up at her with a deep sadness in his eyes.

“No more choice than Rubius does, I suppose,” he said.

There it was; he said it. Finally, the truth was out in the open between them. Aeron took his wife’s hand and brought her to sit gently down upon his lap.

“I know,” he said, and that was all that he had to say. “And although I am saddened by it, I truly just want for you to be happy, Cassandra, because no matter what path and what love your destiny is drawing you near now, I truly believe that you and I are fated to be together. Maybe it won’t be in this lifetime only. Maybe I will have to wait for another to have you all to myself again. But I truly believe that you and I are fated for things that are even greater than the life we have in this world. That being said, I cannot keep you from happiness here. If you and Rubius are fated to be together, then so be it. But you are still a queen. Our packs might understand the shift in mates, but the humans will not. If the two of us do not stay together and keep our family together, everything will crumble beneath our feet, and that includes our home in the forest.”

“I understand,” she said. “Then what should we do?”

“I don’t know,” Aeron said. “I need to think about it more.”

Cassandra leaned forward and kissed him. He lingered on the soft taste of her lips and wrapped his arms around her widened waist. Perhaps there would be a way to keep everyone both together and free at the same time, to keep the kingdom and the wolf packs balanced, and to keep his jealousy from consuming him as he let the woman that he loved go to be with the man that called to her soul.

“Does this mean that Rubius will be allowed back inside of the castle now?” she asked half-teasingly.

“Yes, I supposed that was a bit dramatic on my part,” Aeron sighed.

“You are a good man,” she said, smiling. “You are a good alpha, and a good king, and a good husband.”

“Perhaps some things better than others,” he mused.

* * *

That evening, Aeron invited Rubius to the castle for the three of them to talk and reach an agreement. As soon as Rubius saw Cassandra, he couldn’t stop himself from running to her. He had done well at trying to curb his affections for her in front of Aeron, but now that she was pregnant, with a child that she said she knew was his, it was just impossible for him not to want to be near her. He did, however, refrain from kissing her or making any intimate gesture when he reached her.

Rubius reached out to touch her hand, and when he did, Cassandra laid his palm against her belly so that he could feel the baby move inside her womb. He stared in awe at Cassandra’s beautiful glow and the rippling movement beneath his hand. When Aeron cleared his throat, Rubius withdrew his hand from Cassandra and turned to see her husband sitting at the table. Rubius approached the table and sat down.

“Thank you for inviting me,” Rubius said, giving Aeron a respectful nod.

Aeron gestured for Rubius to sit down as Cassandra joined them at the table.

“Cassandra and I have spoken about this matter,” Aeron said. “It is clear to me that she wants to be with you, and that the two of you cannot go against the will of the stars to keep separated. But there are conditions that must be met.”

“What kind of conditions?” Rubius asked as he looked between the two of them.

“Cassandra must remain in the castle and act as queen.”

Rubius looked at Cassandra quizzically. She was miserable there–they both knew it–and it would be difficult for them to be together if she had to remain here.

“You will both be allowed uninhibited access to both the castle inside of the city and to the forest,” Aeron continued. “You may both come and go and stay where you please. But to the humans in the kingdom, it must appear on the surface that she lives here at the castle. That means that she will still have to spend significant time here with me.”

Cassandra caught Rubius’ eye and interjected.

“This is okay with me,” she said to them both. “So long as I am free to come and go, I do not have a problem with making sure that my appearance at the castle and in the kingdom is noted.”

Rubius nodded. If Cassandra felt that it would work out, then he would see to it that it did, even if it meant that he would need to spend some nights in the kingdom as well.

“I can agree to this,” Rubius said.

“Good,” Aeron said carefully. “But that condition is not the one that I thought you would take issue with to begin with.”

“Then what is?”

“Cassandra told me that she thinks the child is yours,” Aeron continued. “I guess we won’t know for sure until the baby is born. But it matters not.”

“Of course it matters,” Rubius protested. “You are the alpha of your pack; you of all people know how important lineage is within our lines.”

“Yes,” Aeron said as he nodded his head. “I do. What I meant was that it doesn’t matter whose child she is carrying, because in the eyes of everyone here, it will be mine.”

“What?” Rubius stood up from the table abruptly.

“Rubius, calm down,” Cassandra said. “Hear him out.”

“How can I hear anything after that?” he shouted. “I will not agree to give you my child.”

“Nor am I asking you to,” Aeron said.

Rubius was completely confused as he took his seat again. He stared across the table at Cassandra’s strong yet gentle eyes and waited with a racing heart to hear what exactly it was that Aeron was saying.

“No one here in the kingdom can ever know that the child might not be mine,” Aeron said. “No one must ever know that the child could be illegitimate. If anyone finds out, it would put all of us in danger, including the baby. As long as you agree to keep this secret, and you agree to go along with acting as if the child is mine even if it isn’t, then I will not keep you and Cassandra apart, and I will treat the child as if it was my own.”

Rubius grimaced at the thought of having to pretend that his own child didn’t belong to him. But if he wanted to be with Cassandra, and he wanted to be with his child, then he had no choice.

“What about the packs?” Rubius asked. “Am I supposed to lie to them also?”

“No, you are free to tell the pack members that the child is yours. They won’t let word reach the humans. The shifters know that it would threaten the crown if there were to be rumors of adultery. Humans don’t look kindly on such matters in the public eye, even though they seem to engage in it behind closed doors with reckless abandon,” Aeron said.

“And what about the child?” Rubius looked to Cassandra for an answer this time. “What will our child think of this?”

Cassandra spoke up. “We will teach her the way that she must act in both places, and the way that she must pretend in any given situation. She will know that you are her father. And when she is at home in the forest, she won’t have to pretend further. When she is in the kingdom, she will know that Aeron will act as if he is her father and she will think of it as a game that she must play.”

“She?” Rubius asked.

Cassandra smiled.

“Theo seems to think that it is a girl.”

“It will be like living double lives,” Rubius said as he rubbed his forehead and tried to release some of the stress that had started to gather there.

“Yes,” she said. “But instead of not having a life together at all, we will have two. One in which we will be able to relax and be ourselves, and one in which we will be playing a game side-by-side. Either way, we’ll be together as a family.”

“And you are okay with all of this?” Rubius asked Aeron in disbelief. “You would have Cassandra and my daughter here with you much of the time, acting as if Cassandra is still your lover and as if my child is yours. That wouldn’t drive you mad?”

“The question of whether or not it will drive me mad is irrelevant,” Aeron answered. “Maybe at some point, it will succeed in doing so. But I love my wife, as I am sure you can understand, and I would rather see her happy than miserably pining for a life and a love that she cannot have. Do you agree to this bargain?”

Rubius felt like his head was throbbing inside of his skull. Agreeing to the conditions that Aeron had laid out, would mean agreeing to a lifetime of deception and difficult situations to navigate between all of them. But not agreeing would mean not being with Cassandra, and that was something that he couldn’t even consider.

“I agree,” he said.

There was a small rustling sound coming from the hallway, and Aeron stood up at once and walked out to see who was there. But when he stood in the hallway, he saw nothing but a few leaves that the wind had blown through the open door. He returned to his seat and the three of them talked some more about how they would make this arrangement work.

Had Aeron looked a little further down the hall, he would have seen where Theo and the servant woman’s daughter had run to after they had overheard the agreement the king had just made with Rubius. They scurried just out of his sight right before Aeron stepped into the hallway.

“We shouldn’t have eavesdropped,” Marquette said to Theo. “I don’t want to know any of the king’s secrets.”

“I didn’t know he would have such a big one,” Theo said as his head was spinning from the realization that his unborn sister might possibly be Rubius’ child and not his father’s.

The girl looked nervous as if she was already afraid that she would get in trouble for knowing something that she shouldn’t know.

“Marquette,” Theo said as he gently grabbed the girl’s wrist before she could run away down the hall to find something else to do. “You must never tell anyone what you have heard here. No one must ever find out. Promise me.”

“I promise,” Marquette said.

“Good,” Theo smiled.

He was starting to look like a rather handsome young boy, and Marquette was a pretty little girl with no desire to get into trouble, especially not with the royal family.

“Then you and I shall forever have a secret to share together,” Theo said to her.

When he let go of her wrist, she didn’t run off down the hall. Instead, she stayed next to him until they were both ready to go.

“I’d like that,” she said as she stared at him with her big brown eyes.