Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir
Chapter Five
The next day, Theo walked into the city with an armful of his father’s swords, blades, and axes to take to the metalsmith for sharpening. He still wasn’t convinced there wasn’t some other reason to sharpen all of the weapons, and it made him slightly uneasy thinking about it, but he knew that if there were imminent danger, his mother and father would have told him. He hadn’t seen Marquette since they had been in the kitchen the night before, when Cassandra had unintentionally interrupted. It was good that his mother had come though because Theo knew he was getting too close and too comfortable with Marquette. He was bound to slip up if he didn’t pull the reins back on it. His nature had always been a bit reckless and impulsive, especially when it came to intense emotions.
Theo hadn’t planned on staying in the streets of Grenvich for long. He had intended only to drop off his father’s weapons and then return to pick them up the following day. But the sight of Marquette further inside the city caught his eye. There was a puppet show in the city square that had drawn a small crowd, and Marquette was one of them. Theo had heard her gentle, lilting laugh and had looked up to see her a short distance up ahead, watching the puppet show. It looked as if the show was just about to end. Marquette was getting ready to leave. Theo decided to wait for her to walk back to the castle together as long as he was already there.
But when Marquette walked away from the crowd to head back up toward the hill that led to the castle, Theo noticed a couple of men who seemed to be watching her, and who followed her movements toward the hill. The men walked just a few short paces behind Marquette, whispering to each other with vile looking grins on their faces and watching Marquette’s hips sway as she walked. Theo knew what they were thinking, and he knew what was going to happen. He rushed toward Marquette’s side and jumped in to protect and defend her just as one of the men had reached forward and grabbed her by the arm.
“Let her go,” Theo growled at the men.
The men seemed not to be intimidated that the prince of Grenvich was telling them to back down.
“It’s okay, Your Highness,” one of the men said in a tone that was more mocking than it was respectful. “She’s with us.”
“No, she is not,” Theo said. Anger was rising within him, and he could feel the twinge of his eyes starting to shift, and the bristling ridge beginning to form on his back. He tried to hold on to control over himself, but his reckless demeanor was biting at the bit to emerge. He hated men like this: misogynistic, disgusting excuses of flesh that thought they could just take whatever they wanted. He also hated that they didn’t respect his authority in the royal family.
“She is a servant of the castle, which means she is with me,” Theo snarled. “And as such, you will let her go. That is a direct command.”
The other man burst into a laugh, which further enraged Theo.
“We don’t take commands from pretty princes,” the man said. “We only take commands from the king.”
Theo began to lose control, and his form began to partially shift, starting with his eyes and growing with the teeth that were expanding within his jaw. But Aeron intervened before Theo was able to lose it completely. Fortunately for Theo, Aeron had come behind him because Theo had forgotten to bring two of the swords to the metalsmith. Aeron had brought them shortly after Theo and was then looking for his son in the city to walk back to the castle together. When he saw the scuffle between Theo and the two men, he immediately interrupted it. He put one hand on the front of his son’s shoulder to get him to calm down. Aeron glanced quickly at Marquette, and she could tell that he had immediately known the reason that his son had come to her rescue. But before any of the three of them could deal with their internal family issues, Aeron needed to deal with the two lowlife human men.
“What is this that I hear about you only taking orders from the king?” Aeron said to them.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” one of the men said with a deep bow as he tried to backtrack his rude behavior toward the king’s son. “Because you are the true and respected ruler.”
“Does that mean that you do not respect my son, your prince?” Aeron asked rhetorically as he glared at the men. “And that you do not respect the servants from my castle, such as Marquette, who has served the royal family for her entire life?”
“No, Your Highness,” the man said as his voice shook, revealing him as the cowardly bully that he was. “We meant no disrespect.”
“Good,” Aeron said. “Because if I were to think that you disrespected any of the people from my house, I would have no choice but to assume that you disrespect your king as well. And I’m afraid that would end very badly for the both of you.”
The two men nodded so furiously that it looked as if they were bobbleheads as they slowly took steps to back away from Aeron. Aeron could be quite scary looking when he was mad.
“Apologize to Marquette for being jackasses,” Aeron commanded.
Each of the two men immediately gave Marquette their apologies.
“And the next time my son gives you a command, I expect that you will follow it. He is your prince, and as such, he is representative of the crown. Any words that come out of his mouth are to be followed. Do you understand?” Aeron asked.
“Yes, Your Highness, of course,” the man that grabbed Marquette’s arm sputtered.
“Leave now,” Aeron told them. “Before I take your heads from your puny necks.”
Both men turned and ran from their king.
Marquette stood looking at Aeron as her face turned several flushed shades of red. Theo couldn’t tell if she was scared, or embarrassed, or angry; whatever it was, he knew that she just wanted to get back inside the castle and probably straight to her bedroom. He also knew that he would face quite a scolding from his father once they got back to the castle. The three of them walked back in silence. Aeron walked between Theo and Marquette, and Theo was fairly certain that his father positioned himself there for a reason. He knew.
As soon as they got back to the castle, Marquette expediently excused herself to go to her room. Before she left, she thanked both men for coming to her aid in the town square. After she was gone, Aeron yanked Theo by the arm and pulled him into his room to speak in private. Theo had been right; the scolding was of epic proportions.
“What could you possibly be thinking?” Aeron shouted at his son.
“I was thinking that I was helping Marquette,” Theo answered boldly. “Are you telling me that I shouldn’t have jumped in and protected her against those despicable goons? Marquette has been a part of our family for years. I would have done the same thing for Holly.”
“I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have helped her. You absolutely did the right thing by protecting her from those men,” Aeron said. “But that’s not what I’m talking about, and you know it.”
Theo was getting ready to pretend that he didn’t know why his father was so angry and upset, but then he decided that he was tired of how much energy it took to be elusive and deceptive when it came to his feelings. So instead, he just looked at his father, and no words were necessary because Aeron knew by the look alone how his son was feeling.
“You can’t possibly be this selfish and stupid as to risk exposing our whole family and putting everyone in danger,” Aeron said.
It was a rather harsh lecture, and it probably would have been better received if he had left out the part about calling Theo selfish and stupid. Theo knew that his father was just acting out of anger, and he tried not to take it too personally.
“Theo,” Aeron said as he tried to use a calmer voice. “If a human finds out about us, any human, then you risk our whole family.”
“Marquette would never betray our family,” Theo said.
“And that may be true,” Aeron acknowledged. “But are you willing to take that chance?”
After several long minutes of repeating the same warning over and over again, Aeron had finally run out of patience and things to say, so he left Theo to think about the implications of what almost would have happened if Aeron hadn’t been there to intervene.
When Theo left the room to walk down the hall toward his own bedroom, he noticed Marquette, who had been waiting for him, standing in the shadows of the corner. She locked eyes with him for a moment, and then turned to slowly walk toward her room, knowing that Theo would follow her. Once they got inside of her room, Marquette closed the door behind them, and the two of them stood just inside of the doorway together.
“Are you okay?” Theo asked her.
He wanted to wrap his arms around her, and if he had, Marquette would have buried her head against his chest. But for the moment, they just stood closely together and stared into each other’s eyes without touching.
“Yes,” she said with a grateful smile. “Thanks to you. I don’t know what those men would have done if you had not been there.”
“I do,” Theo growled low under his breath.
It made him furious just to think about it, and he had to be careful he didn’t lose control again and let one of his shifter features emerge. His father had literally just got done warning him to be more careful. But Theo found it difficult to be reserved and in control around Marquette.
“Theo,” she said cautiously. “I want you to take me into the woods with you.”
“Why?” he asked, completely perplexed about why she would ask him to do such a thing.
“Because I want to see you shift.”
“What?” he said as panic started to cross his face.
There was no way that Marquette could have known, he thought to himself. She shouldn’t have known.
“I know that you are a wolf shifter,” she said.
Her words filled his head with both dread and relief. On the one hand, he worried about what he did that had exposed his family’s secret and risked their safety. On the other hand, it was such a relief to not have to pretend with Marquette anymore. Still, he had to heed what his father had said for the good of everyone involved, including Marquette.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Theo lied.
“Yes, you do,” Marquette said firmly. “I have known about you and your family ever since we were children. I don’t want you to hide from me anymore. I want you to take me into the woods with you. I want to see who you really and truly are, in all your forms.”
“No,” Theo said adamantly.
“Why not?” she asked.
“Because it’s too dangerous.”
“I’m not afraid,” Marquette said as she reached for Theo’s face.
But Theo backed away and reached for the door handle to open.
“No, Marquette,” he said in a quiet voice as he opened the door to leave. “I need to protect both you and my family, and whatever it is that you think you know, you need to forget about it.”
Theo turned and walked out of the door and back into the corridor before Marquette had a chance to say anything else. She thought that she saw someone standing in the corner of the hallway, but it was only Holly, who was probably on her way to her room as Theo stormed past her. He didn’t even stop to acknowledge his sister, and Marquette closed her door right after Theo had left, leaving Holly by herself and wondering how to fix the situation that she had just overheard.