Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir

Chapter Nine

Theo listened to Rubius’ warning, but he didn’t think too much of it in the following days. He and Marquette were so ecstatic to be together at last that they couldn’t think clearly about anything else or let any dismal worrying cloud their joy. They were careful about keeping their love a secret, still acting as though they were merely a prince and his servant girl and making extra effort not to let their glances and casual brushes up against each other draw any attention from the royal family. It was difficult. Every time they were around each other, they wanted to fall into a heap of kisses and lovemaking. The angst between them wasn’t easier to deal with now that they had made love; it was even more difficult to ignore. Theo literally ached for Marquette every time he saw her, and on more than one occasion, he had to casually let his hands fall over his pants to keep his swelling desire from being visible.

They managed to sneak in moments of intimacy together late at night, after everyone in the castle had gone to sleep. And anytime that Marquette needed to leave the castle on errands, Theo found an excuse to go too. He would follow her at a distance, enough to make sure that no harm came to her. Marquette teased him about being overly protective and hovering, but he insisted that he would always make sure that she was protected, and since she liked having him with her, she never protested.

But despite their false sense of security together, Rubius hadn’t been the only one to see the two of them in the forest together. The man that had been holding onto Marquette’s waist had seen Marquette run after Theo as he headed into the woods. And although the man didn’t know that Theo was a shifter, he did know that the prince was having an affair with one of his servants. Why else would the prince have gotten so upset about who a servant girl had been talking to in the market square? And why else would she have chased the prince all the way into the woods?

The man was not a hunter, nor did he have any interest in Marquette for himself. He was simply a greedy man who saw the opportunity to line his pockets by blackmailing the prince.

When the man showed up at the castle gates asking to speak with Prince Theo, and Theo saw who it was, he knew that it couldn’t amount to much good.

“What do you want?” Theo asked him once they were alone in the throne room.

“I want to be paid with riches and enough wealth to last my lifetime,” the man sneered.

Theo laughed in disgust at the man’s bullishness.

“What makes you think that I would ever give you one coin?” Theo asked, waiting to be amused by the man’s explanation of merit to back his ridiculous request.

“Because if you do not, then I will tell everyone in the kingdom about how you put your cock in the wet hole of your servant girl,” the man grinned.

Theo was so outraged that it took only a moment before his anger began to surface. He got up from his chair and walked over to where the man was sitting.

“You need to be very glad that you are within the walls of this castle right now,” Theo said to the man in a slow whisper as he leaned close to his ear. “Because if you were not inside this place of honor as a guest, I would rip the head from your shoulders right now.”

The man pushed his chair back and got ready to race out of the room, but Theo met him at the door and put his arm across the exit.

“Let me make one thing clear before you run out of here with your tail between your legs like the cowardly piece of shit that you are,” Theo said. “I will not be intimidated by the likes of you, a lowly townsperson with nothing to offer anyone except for your obviously delightful personality. You will stay away from Marquette, and you will never let me see your face again. Because if I do, I will tear it from your skull. Do you understand me?”

The man nodded and Theo stepped aside to let him leave. Just as the man was running down the corridor to the front exit, he saw Marquette in search of Theo. For a brief moment, she spotted the man and wondered what he was doing in the castle. And at that same moment, the man came up with an awful idea to further his ends.

“What was he doing here?” Marquette asked as Theo came out of the room and reached for her hand.

“Nothing,” he said, not wanting to worry her. “Asking about a loan for his merchant.”

“Did you give it to him?” she asked.

“No.”

Marquette smiled. “Still holding a grudge against him, are you?”

“Something like that,” Theo said. “Come, let’s take a walk to the courtyard. I need to train, and you can watch if you’d like.”

Marquette would never turn down an opportunity to watch Theo train, and he knew it.

“You know that if I watch you train, then I will want you to immediately take me to the bedroom and make love to me,” she said.

“I know,” Theo grinned. “Why do you think I asked?”

* * *

Later that evening, Theo went to Marquette’s bedroom after everyone else in the castle had gone to bed. It was something that he usually did, and Marquette was always anxiously awaiting his arrival. But this time, her door was already ajar, and she wasn’t in her room when he got there. At first, he had a fleeting uneasy feeling about it. She had never not been there waiting for him. But he brushed it off and thought that she had probably gone to get a glass of water and would be right back. When she didn’t return, the feeling of unease came over him again. Theo went to search for her, looking everywhere, from the kitchen to the courtyard. When he had searched everywhere and could not find her, he began to panic. Then he remembered the man and the way he had caught sight of Marquette in the hallway, and he went to go track down the human.