Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir

Chapter Seventeen

The question remained: who would Holly’s husband be? And how soon could she marry?

Holly knew that she was in love with Dex, but she also knew that Dex was a loner and that asking him to marry her for the sake of a kingdom that he held no allegiance to wouldn’t be a fair thing to do. She couldn’t ask him to join the royal family in the castle—she wouldn’t.

But Cassandra would.

Holly may not have known the depths to which Dex had fallen in love with her, but Cassandra could see it. She recognized the way that Dex looked at Holly. It was the same way that Rubius had looked at her when they were younger and madly in love and had been ready to give up life and limb just to be together at any cost. She, like her daughter, would never have asked Rubius to give up his life for her, even though he would have done so without question. And Cassandra knew the same held true for Dex. Which is why, without Holly even knowing, Cassandra went to Dex and posed the idea to him.

As much as Dex had tried to stay away from everyone, he now found himself in the midst of a situation that he couldn’t walk away from. He couldn’t walk away because he was too in love with Holly already. By the time he had finished speaking with Cassandra, he had agreed to marry Holly, and Cassandra had spoken to him about how they could make it work without sacrificing his freedom, just as she and Rubius had.

When he went to find Holly, she had already left the castle—something that both her father and brother had warned her not to do. But Holly felt like she couldn’t breathe inside the castle walls that were ringing with the sounds of the agitated chanting outside. She needed to get away to think and started down the hidden tunnels toward the forest again. As much as she knew she should stay inside the castle, she needed to go into the forest.

“You are so much like your mother,” a voice called from behind her.

Holly turned around quickly to see Rubius walking up next to her. He smiled instead of scolding her and walked beside her as they continued down the tunnel together.

“At least let me walk with you,” he said.

Holly smiled and put her arm in his.

“Your mother used to do the same thing,” he mused. “Except instead of walking with me out the tunnels of the castle, she would be running toward me.”

“Well, I guess you can’t be too mad at my recklessness if I get it from my mother,” Holly teased.

“I am not mad at you, sweet girl,” Rubius said to his daughter. “I only worry about you. I want you to be happy and fulfilled, and I want you to be safe from harm.”

They walked the rest of the way in silence until they reached the end of the tunnel, which opened out into the trees.

“Do you really think that I should marry?” she asked him before they went into the woods.

“I think that you should follow your heart,” he smiled.

“That’s cheating,” she grinned.

“How so?”

“Because that’s what mom always says.”

“Well,” Rubius said thoughtfully. “Your mother is right. And it has served her well all these years.”

Holly paused before shifting and springing into the thicket of trees.

“But there is only one man that I love,” she said with a near-sadness to her voice. “And I can’t ask him to marry me.”

Rubius gave her a knowing look. And he also already knew the reasons why she felt that she couldn’t ask him to marry her. It was the same reasons why Cassandra had tried to keep at arm’s length with him too. She didn’t want to trap him into a life with rules and duties and a lack of freedom.

“Sometimes,” Rubius said, “we don’t need to ask. Sometimes, the one we love does the asking for us.”

Before Holly could ask him what he meant by that, Rubius eyes gleamed a golden yellow and he shifted into a regal wolf, ready to run alongside his daughter for as long as she needed to be wild and free from the thoughts that troubled her, before safely accompanying her back to the castle when she was finished.

Holly shifted too and ran toward the trees.

After they had run until their legs ached, they stopped to drink at one of the streams near Rubius’ pack territory. Fortunately, he always kept changes of clothes stashed on his territory, and after the two of them had dressed, they took a moment to enjoy the peaceful stillness of the forest before heading back. A decision would need to be made, and if the decision wasn’t one to marry, then they would need to come up with something else before the humans amassed more unrest that would become a formidable threat against the castle. Just before they were readying to leave, there was a rustling in the woods, and Rubius turned to see Dex there. He walked slowly out of the trees, and Rubius handed him a change of clothes as well.

“I suppose this is one of the perks of being in a pack?” Dex said jokingly. “Your alpha provides you with an endless supply of clothing to change into after every shift?”

Rubius threw his head back and laughed.

“I suppose that would be one of the perks,” he said.

Dex took the clothes to put on, and Rubius decided that Holly was in good hands.

“I’m going to head back to the castle,” Rubius said to his daughter, who was still sitting by the stream. “You’re in good hands, and I think that you two might want to talk alone for a while.”

He Holly a wink, although she wasn’t sure why, and then headed back toward the kingdom.

“Why are you here?” she asked Dex as he came to sit down beside her by the stream.

“I wanted to come and ask you something,” he said. His voice shook a bit as if he was nervous about something.

Holly didn’t think she had ever really seen him nervous before—awkward and angsty, yes. But not necessarily nervous.

“What is it?” she asked.

“I want you to marry me,” he said.

Holly was too shocked to actually believe him at first. She laughed lightly to try and eliminate the seriousness of the moment.

“Well, first of all,” she said, “that’s not a question.”

Dex looked even more nervous than he had a moment ago.

“Let me try again then,” he said as he cleared his throat. “Holly, will you marry me?”

This time, there wasn’t really any way for her to ignore or play down the question. She felt a rush of feelings—some good and some not so good. She didn’t want to get her hopes up that Dex actually loved her enough to marry her. She was sure that he was just doing this because he knew it would solve the problem in the kingdom and protect her.

“Why are you asking me that?” she said.

“I’m asking you that because I want you to marry me,” he said.

“That’s not true. You’re doing it because of the trouble with the humans. You feel guilty that we were overheard and you’re trying to fix it by asking me to marry you.”

“No,” he said matter-of-factly. “I don’t feel guilty at all. That wasn’t my doing. And I’m not asking you to marry me just to fix a problem with the humans. I’m asking you to marry me because I’m in love with you.”

Holly felt her breath catch in her throat. She felt as if her heart had clawed its way up her chest and was preventing her from being able to speak actual words. Her stomach churned in a battle of butterflies and her skin tingled as if it had been lit on fire.

“But,” she finally said in a whisper that was all she could seem to get out. “If you were to marry me, then you would have to live in the kingdom. That would be the exact opposite of living alone as a rogue shifter. That isn’t what you want.”

“How do you know what I want?” he asked gently as he moved his body closer to hers. “What if I told you that I hadn’t ever really known what I wanted until I saw you. That moment that I first saw you in the tavern—the time that I ran away from you. What if I told you that I knew then, what I know now, that all I really want is to be with you.”

“You can’t mean it,” she said as she felt her mouth getting closer to his. “Think of all the things that you would have to give up to be married to a queen. You would become a king. You would need to rule people and live in the kingdom and you would be trapped.”

“No,” Dex said. “I could never feel trapped again as long as I am with you. Your parents have made it work, and they are happy and free. We can do the same.”

“Do you really love me?” she asked as the sting of tears pinched at the corners of her eyes.

Yes,” he said before kissing her.