Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir

Chapter Four

Over the next few days, Theo made a point to sneak in moments to spend with Marquette without anyone noticing his interest in her. He ate snacks in the kitchen slowly while she was cooking, instead of grabbing food and running off as he usually did. When she went into the city markets, he found an excuse to go as well—sometimes saying he needed to pick something up, and sometimes pretending as if he had just happened to have been strolling through the dirt streets of the city and bumping into her on accident. Even inside the castle halls, he made a bit of a game out of coming around the corner just as she was leaving her bedroom. It didn’t take long for Marquette to realize what he was doing, and as soon as she did, she made it clear to him that she enjoyed it.

The two of them enjoyed the time they had together, even if sometimes it only came in momentary spurts. They talked about things that they remembered from their childhood, some of which made them laugh, and some of which made them somber.

“Do you remember my mother?” she asked him on an early evening that they were walking back from the market together.

They tried to remain platonic under the watchful eye of all the other humans in Grenvich, and it looked as though the prince was simply helping his servant carry a particularly large purchase of vegetables back from the market. Perhaps not something that a prince would often do, but certainly not something that caused rumors to be spread. They walked at a fair distance apart, yet still close enough to hear each other while they talked quietly.

“Yes,” Theo answered. “I remember some things. I remember that she was a good woman and that she loved you. I remember that she used to bring us puzzles to play with, and we would lay on our stomachs in my bedroom and put them together.”

“I remember that too,” Marquette said with a sad smile. “I wish that I remembered more of her. Sometimes I feel as if I will forget how her face looked, and I start to panic. But then, every time I start to panic, I suddenly get an image of her face in my mind, clear as day. But the image isn’t one that I want to see.”

“Why not?” Theo asked as he turned his head to look at her.

“Because it’s always the image of her dead.”

Theo felt a pang of guilt and sorrow. It wasn’t his fault that her mother had been killed by the hunter, but he would always feel as though it was. Her mother was with him when the hunter came to kill him. Marquette’s mother risked her life to protect him until his own parents could get there and put the wolf hunter down. If it hadn’t been for his carelessness, the hunter might not have ever even suspected that Theo was a shifter, and Marquette’s mother might still be alive.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

He wanted to reach out and hold her as they neared the entry gate to the castle, but he knew that he couldn’t, and it killed him.

“It’s not your fault,” she smiled kindly at him.

Yes, it is, he thought to himself.

When they got inside, they unloaded the vegetables in the deep kitchen sink and Marquette turned on the water to begin to rinse and scrub them.

“I’ll help,” Theo said as he rolled up his sleeves.

The sink was big enough for them both to use. Marquette looked at him as if he had three heads.

“You’re going to help me wash vegetables?” she asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, why not?”

Marquette giggled.

“Because you’re a prince,” she said. “That might look a bit odd if someone saw you in here washing vegetables with a servant girl.”

Theo reached into the sink and grabbed a large, garnet-red beet and started to scrub it under the trickling water.

“I don’t care what anyone thinks,” he said defiantly.

Marquette smiled and reached into the sink to grab a vegetable too. When she did, Theo had just reached for another beet, and since he was too busy looking at her instead of his hands, he ended up grabbing onto her hand inside the sink instead of a vegetable. For a moment, they held hands under the running water and looked at each other without moving.

“Theo, there you are!” Cassandra called pleasantly as she came into the kitchen.

She couldn’t see their hands in the sink, which immediately released as soon as they both heard Theo’s mother make an entrance. But she could see the way that her son and Marquette were looking at each other.

“I was just helping Marquette unclog the sink so that she could finish rinsing the vegetables,” he lied. He was getting better at lying, and he wasn’t particularly sure that was a good thing.

Marquette smiled at Cassandra and then focused her attention back on washing the vegetables.

“Did you need me?” Theo asked his mother.

“Yes, I was just going to ask if you wouldn’t mind taking a few of your father’s weapons to the metalsmith in the city tomorrow,” she said, as she still looked between them to see the small glances that were exchanged.

“Sure,” he answered. “Does he need them repaired?

“Not repaired,” Cassandra answered. “Just sharpened.”

“Sharpened? Why?”

Theo was curious as to why his father would be sharpening blades. The kingdom was at peace, and that something that was usually only done before battle.

“No reason; they just need sharpening,” she said.

Marquette quickly finished up with the vegetables and then laid them out on the counter to dry until morning. Then, she bid both Theo and Cassandra goodnight and left to go to her room for the night. Theo’s eyes followed Marquette out the door, and Cassandra couldn’t help but notice the longing look that her son had in his eyes.

“You like her,” Cassandra smiled.

“What? No,” Theo said. “Of course I don’t.”

Theo never lied to his mother, and he felt awful keeping this from her. But relations between humans and shifters were highly frowned upon, especially for the royal family. Even if his mother were to be open-minded and accepting of it, no one else would be. That would put his mother in an awkward and uneasy position, especially when it came to his father, whom Theo was sure would frown upon it.

“You can deny it all you like,” Cassandra said as she smiled at him. “But I am your mother, and as such, I know you. Sometimes better than you know yourself, I think. Let me tell you just this one thing.”

Theo mentally prepared himself to hear his mother tell him he shouldn’t have feelings for a human, and how bad it would look for their family if anyone were to find out. She would tell him how dangerous it was to risk exposing their shifter nature to anyone, even Marquette, and that it would put Marquette in danger as well. But he should have known his mother better than that. She was always by his side, no matter what. Even when he was a small boy and would get himself in all of the worst situations, some of which nearly cost him his life, and almost cost Cassandra hers as well, she would always stand by his side no matter what.

Instead of scolding or lecturing him, she offered him a few sage words of wisdom.

“Always follow your heart, my son,” she said as she put her hand on his shoulder and looked him straight in his deep, dark eyes. “Even if it goes against every rule.”