Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir
Chapter Eight
In the late hours of the morning, Cassandra came looking to talk with Aeron, and he was woken by the sound of her fist knocking against the door.
“Samar?” Casandra called from the corridor.
As Samar got ready to answer her, Cassandra simply pushed the door open impatiently, talking as she came in before looking.
“Have you seen Aeron? I have been looking—”
Cassandra’s words came to an abrupt stop as soon as she saw her husband lying naked beside Samar. Aeron stared back at her in an uncomfortable moment, but there was nothing he could do to make it any less awkward. Cassandra had chosen to be with Rubius, and Aeron was free to be with whomever he pleased. Still, the surprised and slightly hurt look on her face upset him. He loved her, and he didn’t ever want to do anything to hurt her.
“I’m sorry,” Cassandra said as she tried to look away but strained to force herself to do so. “Aeron, when you’re ready, I’d like to speak with you in the throne room.”
“Of course,” he said as he started to get up.
He was about to tell Cassandra that he would be right there, but she had already spun around on her heels and left.
When he arrived in the throne room to meet with her, she was already sitting in her high-backed chair, dressed fully in one of her most regal gowns, and waiting for him to arrive. Aeron didn’t have any idea what time it was, but since he had seen the sun starting to come up when he had first fallen asleep, he guessed that he had slept late into the day and that his wife had been waiting for quite a while to speak with him. He didn’t really know how he felt about Cassandra’s obvious discomfort of seeing him with Samar. He was partially pleased to see that she was a little jealous, but also upset to think that he had hurt her. Since he didn’t really know what to say yet, he simply went and sat on his throne beside her and waited for Cassandra to talk. She was the one who had come looking for him to begin with, so he figured that she must have already had something in mind that she wanted to discuss. He heard her take a deep breath in and then pause.
“I’m happy that you have found companionship,” she said as she continued to look straight ahead.
“Is that what you wanted to speak to me about?” he asked with a perplexed expression.
Cassandra had come looking for him even before she managed to see him lying with his cock exposed and Samar in his arms. She must have had some other pressing matter to discuss. But since he didn’t want to push her mood with him at the moment, he patiently waited for her to tell him whatever it was that she wanted to say.
“No,” she answered. “I came to talk to you about something else. But in light of things, it can wait.”
“I’d prefer that you still tell me,” Aeron said. “I always want to know what you come to talk to me about.”
Cassandra changed the subject again. Whatever it was that she had come to say to him was no longer on the table, apparently. So instead, he played into the current conversation at hand.
“Are you really, though?” he asked.
“Am I really what?”
“Are you really happy to see that I’ve found companionship?” Aeron said.
“Of course I am,” she answered. “What kind of silly question is that?”
“It’s an honest one.”
When Cassandra didn’t say anything further, Aeron asked her something. It was something that had been dwelling in the recesses of his mind ever since he had found out about her love affair with Rubius.
“Do you think that it’s possible to be fated to be with two mates?” he asked.
He expected her to say no, since it was commonly embraced shifter knowledge that fated mates were once in a lifetime experiences. He had thought that he and Cassandra were meant to be such a thing, but she had chosen Rubius over him and left him to be only a broken half of fate. But she surprised him—yet again.
“Yes,” she said confidently. “I do. But I think that there is only one in each lifetime.”
Aeron was about to ask her if she believed in having multiple lifetimes. But Cassandra started talking again first.
“I am happy that you are with Samar. And we will all help to protect her alongside you.
“Thank you,” he said.
He already knew that, but he appreciated hearing Cassandra say it again.
“They’re here,” Theo’s voice called from the doorway, making his mother jump in her chair. “Sorry, Mother, I didn’t mean to startle you. But those shifters are here again, the ones from Balavia.”
“Let them in,” Aeron said.
He sat with both arms outstretched on the sides of his throne. He looked powerful, and that was exactly the impression that he was trying to make.
The shifters came in and sat down, and the one who had done most of the talking last time remained standing to speak.
“Well?” he said. “Have you decided to hand the woman over to us now?”
“No,” Aeron barked at him. “I have made my decision, and Samar is now a part of my pack. According to pack rules, she has abandoned her former pack and, with my permission, has joined mine. She is no longer bound by your pack rules, nor is she required to go with you.”
The shifter laughed, and Aeron found it so abrasive and unexpected that he scowled at the man.
“You make up your own rules for here,” the shifter said. “And since this is your kingdom, I supposed that gives you the right to do so. But so does our king. And he does not care if Samar abandoned her pack or not, he will have her, regardless.”
“Then you can tell your king that he can come and try to take her from me himself, instead of sending his puny minions in his place,” Aeron growled.
“Careful, King,” the shifter said as he looked around the throne room. “It doesn’t look as though you have quite as many followers here to back you up this time.”
“My wife and my son are here,” Aeron said. “That is more than enough to kick your ass.”
This time it was the shifter’s turn to scowl.
“If you refuse to hand over Samar,” the man said, “you may consider this a declaration of war against Grenvich. Prepare yourselves accordingly.”
The shifters got up from the table to leave, and Theo showed them out before coming back into the room to hear what his father had to say about that ordeal.
“Are we really going to war against an entire other kingdom?” Theo asked. His voice was part fascination and excitement, and the other a bundle of sickening nerves.
“Yes,” his father said. “It appears that we are going to be at war with another kingdom soon. Do not fear war, my son. Battle is what forges great and powerful warriors.”
“I don’t fear battle,” Theo said defensively.
“Good,” his father nodded. “But there are some who will fear it, and those are the people nwhom I must talk to now.”
“What are you going to do?” Theo asked as he watched his father reach for a formal jacket and then walk down the hallway.
“I’m going to address the people of this kingdom,” he said. “My people. They need to know that a war is coming, and the ones who fight need to know that we can win it, even if I’m not sure that we can.”
As Aeron walked from the castle and out into the open city square to talk amongst the people, Cassandra and Theo followed him to watch. Once they got closer, she could see what her husband was about to do.
“Your father is going to wind up getting himself killed one of these days,” she said to Theo as she shook her head.
“Yeah, I know.”
“I wish I knew something I could do to prevent him from walking head-first toward martyrdom.”
“Well, I’m not sure there’s anything that you can do to prevent him from acting on his noble, yet often reckless ideas,” she said. “But there is something that you can do while the noble martyr is acting as if he is the only one around here capable of making a battle plan.”
“What is it?” Theo asked. “What can I do?”
“You can keep a good watch over your father during this war,” she said. “If he falls, you pick him up, and if he needs to be dragged out of there, then you do it.”
“You have my word,” Theo said as he hugged his mother.