Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir

Chapter Nineteen

Several days after Cassandra had returned to the castle, she began to pine once more for the forest. Rubius had come to the castle as much as he possibly could without it becoming obvious to the servants who seemed to have eyes and ears in every corner of the palace. But even Rubius found that as happy as they were, and as smooth a start as things were off to, he desperately needed to be with Cassandra outside of the constrictions of the castle walls. With all of the people that lived inside and around the castle in the city, Rubius was certain that the forest offered much greater privacy than Grenvich, even if it was completely open and exposed to the elements and the other packs. Nature and wilderness had privacy and seclusion all its own that a human city couldn’t hold a candle to.

So, Cassandra took a day and night to go spend in the forest with Rubius. She swaddled Holly up in her arms and Aeron walked her as far as the end of the corridor, just in case someone happened to spot her. Rubius met them there. But just as they were about to all turn and go in opposite directions, Theo came bounding down the corridor behind them.

“Can I come?” he asked before his mother got out of earshot.

“Theo!” Aeron scolded. “What are you doing here?”

“I followed you guys down the secret hallway,” he grinned. “I want to go too. I want to spend the night in the forest.”

“You can’t do that again,” Aeron warned. “If anyone sees you—”

“I know, I know,” the boy said. “But no one saw me, I promise. I was extra careful. Besides, Marquette was keeping watch.”

“Marquette?” Cassandra said. “Theo, you can’t drag Marquette into this with you. She’s human. She doesn’t belong in this world with us.”

“Does she know?” Aeron asked him.

Theo thought quickly on his feet to avoid getting Marquette in trouble and avoid revealing that she knew their secret too.

“Of course not,” he said. “She just thought we were playing a game.”

“Theo, you have to be more careful,” Cassandra scolded as well.

“Okay, okay, I will. But please can’t I come just this time? I miss being home in the forest. I don’t like staying in the castle all the time. I want to run around and howl.”

Cassandra looked at her husband and he shrugged.

“Okay,” she smiled at Theo. “But you have to promise to be good and not get into any trouble.”

“I promise,” Theo grinned.

When they got deep enough into the forest to be surrounded by trees thick enough not to find their way out, Cassandra and Rubius sat on a mossy patch of grass and laid Holly down on an exceptionally plush layer of spongy moss. Cassandra un-swaddled her blanket so that her hands and feet could kick around free in the air.

Theo laughed at her.

“She looks like an upside-down beetle,” he said.

“So did you when you were a baby,” Cassandra teased. “Go run around and get your wolfishness out.”

Theo’s face lit up and he shifted right in mid-air as he jumped off the ground in excitement. After he had run off, Cassandra leaned up against Rubius’ shoulder and tilted her head up to kiss him. Their tongues slid around each other in the most delectable way that made Cassandra feel as if there was electricity running through her veins instead of blood. The thick desire between them had been kept at bay following Holly’s birth, and the need between them now resurfaced like a surging storm. Holly cooed and flailed her digits in the breeze, which caused Cassandra to pull her mouth away and laugh.

“Maybe when Theo gets back, we can enlist him to watch over Holly for a little while tonight so that you and I can have each other,” she said.

“I think that is a perfect idea,” Rubius agreed. He felt as though he would die soon if he couldn’t put himself inside Cassandra.

They both stared at Holly and the tiny speckled freckles that connected into a delicate, lacy pattern over the bridge of her nose. Her reddish hair looked exactly like Rubius’ wolf coat when the sun hit it in just the right light.

“What if someone finds out?” Cassandra said as she broke the mood with worry.

“About what? Holly?” he asked. He reached his hands to her and pulled her closer. “No one is going to find out.”

“But if the humans found out,” she continued, unable to let it go until she felt reassured again, “it would either weaken our rule or put a target on Holly; maybe even both.”

“I won’t let that happen,” Rubius said in a voice that sounded like a determined growl. “I will never let anyone threaten you or any of your children.”

Cassandra wanted to believe him. She believed that he wanted that to be true and that he would always be her fierce protector, and Holly’s. But there were things that even Rubius couldn’t stand against.

“You cannot defend us against an entire kingdom,” she said. She wasn’t trying to hurt him – she was just being honest with them both. “If even one person finds out, then that means the whole kingdom could know. They’ll come for us, all of us, and we won’t be able to stop them.”

“Why does this worry you so much tonight?” he asked her with concern. “Did you hear or see something that was cause for alarm?”

“No,” she said as she shook her head. She looked down at Holly, who was now smiling up at the stars and making little circle shapes with her mouth. “I look at her, and I see how precious she is. I look at Theo and his wild excitement to run free and see how much potential he has. And I look at you, and I see my future, all of the moments that I haven’t had yet and that I worry will be taken from me.”

“Cassandra,” Rubius said as he saw Theo bounce back into view. “No one is going to take those moments from us, I swear it. But you cannot spend these moments now, worrying about things that haven’t come to pass, and likely never will.”

“I know,” she said. “I’m just not sure how to stop worrying about them.”

Rubius smiled. “I have an idea.”

* * *

With Theo watching over his sister in the clearing, and both children drowsing off to sleep together beneath the moonlight, Rubius pulled Cassandra into the trees. He silently pulled her dress from her body as she pulled the clothes off of his muscular build and tossed them to the side without caring where they landed. Cassandra leaned into him and ran her hands down his chest while she kissed him and felt his tongue pressing against hers. She let her hands travel down his torso and into the crook of his thighs where she wrapped her hands around what she had been waiting for and carefully pulled him toward her as she laid down onto her back. Rubius climbed over her, and when he pushed his throbbing cock into her, neither of them could stifle the low moan that carried in the night wind and made their bodies quiver against each other. He moved inside of her as he kissed her and held her body in his hands.

“I love you, Cassandra,” Rubius said against her lips as the strong and steady pace of his movement left her breathing in blissful gasps of pleasure. “Now, focus only on how I will fill you with love.”

When Cassandra was finally able to catch her breath to speak between Rubius’ satiating thrusts, her lips formed a smile as she spoke.

“Then perhaps I will need you to make love to me over and over again so that there is no time nor room for me to think about anything else at all,” she said.

“I will gladly do that,” Rubius smiled as he bent his neck down over the top of her again and put his mouth on hers.

Their tongues and bodies encircled around each other in an enticing dance of longing as they held on to each moment of pleasure for as long as they possibly could, before finally letting go. When they finished, found their clothes again, and went back to sleep next to the children, Cassandra no longer had any fear in her mind.

Prince Theo