It took over a day to reach the capital on horseback. The first day, we spent off the main roads because my mother's soldiers were searching for me and I didn't know how many of them I could trust. Sneaking off once we had gotten the horses was easier than expected. We went through once of the lesser gates and the guard was a member of the pack.
"Tell no one that you have seen us." I told the guard, he was barely older than a pup himself.
"Yes, alpha. May the goddess protect you on your journey." he said.
"And may she protect this pack from the storm that is coming." I replied.
After that we took off on game trails, passing through water as often as we could.
I could sense it when we left the pack's territory, it felt as if I were leaving my home, which I was. It was just after dusk when we decided to stop for the night. We fed and watered the horses and before setting up camp. My senses could detect no one near by but that didn't mean it would stay that way.
William took the first watch and I fell asleep quickly. My mate found me in my dream again.
Jared was in his human form tonight and we were in the same clearing as last night.
"My mate, you are looking wonderful this evening. I see that you are beginning to discover who you are."
"Yes, Jared. Why did you send your beta to come and warn me about my mother's plans? Why not come yourself?"
"Because, dear one, I am one of the most recognized people in the Hesperia. There is no way I would have been able to come and rescue you myself, even though I wanted to, so badly.
"William is not as recognizable as me, only the pack betas and alphas even know what he looks like. It allowed him to go to Sicilia and rescue you. Of course, he did have other reasons to go."
I smirked and said "If Hildy had not chosen to come with me, she would have been hidden away with the rest of the women and children of the pack, protected by the best of our Cacciatori."
The letter from the prince had held proof of what I have long suspected for years. My mother was a werewolf hunter, and she had roped my father into it when they got married. It also held something that had shocked me, my mother was planning to find every werewolf on our lands, through me and kill them. An alpha can always find the members of her pack' the letter had stated. The last thing the letter had stated was the most shocking, it said something my parents weren't my parents.
My mother, or the duchess, rather, had kidnapped me from my parents when I was barely a newborn pup, to replace her actual daughter who had died from crib death.
"Jared, it seems that you know more about me than I know about you."
"Rose, you know that my father is currently the king of Hisperia and that I rule the werewolves of the realm and I am the heir to the kingdom. His queen is largely forgotten by most of the kingdom, but he did have a queen. She got very sick and she died years ago."
There was a sadness in his voice that I didn't like, it told me that the queen he spoke of was his mother.
"How old were you when she died?" I asked gently.
"I was just a baby, I never knew her. I've spoken with the servants that knew her and my father. She was a warrior but, she was also kind, and wise."
He smirked and said "But, her temper was also just as well known. Just after she and my father got engaged, there was a lady named Tremaine that had been engaged to her brother. She was known among the servants for being cruel. One day, one of my mother's maid was standing in for Lady Tremaine's maid, the maid had made the lady's hair into the wrong style, and Lady Tremaine beat her. Mother was furious when she found out, especially since that maid was with child. She kicked Lady Tremaine out of the palace and Lady Tremaine has never been allowed back since."
I smirked and said "Jared, I think I would have liked your mother." If someone had beaten Hildy, especially if she had been expecting a pup, the least I would have done is kick them out of my house.
"I have no doubt about that, dear one. I am working to find your birth parents, checking all the packs for a report of someone kidnapping a pup about 25 years ago. So far, I haven't had any luck."
"So, Jared, why aren't you married? You are 25 -ish, good looking, and you have a good heart."
"Because my father gave me the freedom to choose who I marry. Why aren't you married? I imagine you had tons of suitors." As he said that last sentence, his voice grew harsher, as if he didn't like the thought of any other man with me.
"As if, normally I escape the balls and find a quiet spot to read. I doubt that the males know I exist, or if they did none of them would want to marry me. Believe me, if someone had approached the duke and duchess with an offer of marriage to me, they would have married me off in a heartbeat."
The thought that they didn't care about me didn't hurt me as much as it had earlier.
"It's just my luck then, that I hadn't decided to marry yet."
When he said that my whole body tensed up. I didn't like the idea of him with another woman and just the thought of it made my blood boil.
He laughed and said "Easy, love. You're getting your wolf riled up and she doesn't like the thought of me with another woman any more than you do. Just remember that I belong to you and you belong to me, until the end of time."
He closed the distance between us and kissed me. It stirred a fire in me that I didn't even know I had. I started kissing him back and the fire was now a raging inferno. I wanted him even more than I wanted to breathe.
"Rose of Sicilia, I think the Goddess knew what she was doing when she made you my mate."