"Wait, stop! You can't just march over there, what do you expect to do?" I cried.
"What do you think I'm going to do?"
"There is nothing illegal about what he did, there is nothing you can do." I grabbed his arm and tried to stop him, but he just dragged me along.
"I advise you to listen to Her Highness," Carlak said.
Caspian growled and turned around. "Why are you stopping me? He deserves death."
"He deserves far worse than that, but there isn't anything that can be done. Please, do not do this, it isn't what I want."
"Of course, it is what I want."
"Your Highness…" Carlak muttered.
Caspian closed his eyes and composed himself. "What would you have me do about it, my dear?"
I held his hand again. "I want you to help me get over it if you will."
His face softened and he squeezed my hand. Although it felt the same, there was some reassurance I had never felt from anyone before.
"I'm sorry, I acted irrationally." He sighed and sat back down. "Please, let's eat and continue talking. I want to hear everything you have to tell me."
I smiled and nodded. I proceeded to tell him of my past, the hardships I had suffered since the day I entered the Emery family and could recall my earliest memories of being moved down to the basement level of the house, right below the servants. I was told from that day on that I would be the personal servant of our future Alpha, a position that was to be held in high regard.
I told him of the way I would be whipped if I misspoke or made a mistake. There were frequent times when I was set up purposely to fail, just so he could watch me writhe in pain. I told him of when I turned 16 and was defiled by Magnus for the first time, of when he realized how much he enjoyed her and from then on continued to call on me whenever he wanted.
With every word I saw his anger grow, but he contained it as well as he could and continued to listen to me until the very end. I was shocked that at the same time, he continued to feed me whenever I decided to take a pause, which was more embarrassing than speaking of my past, I didn't think it was possible.
I was so invested in the both of us that I hadn't realized Carlak and the rest of the servants had left, which left just the two of us in the room. Besides the bedroom, we were rarely left alone. There was always a guard or a servant who stood nearby, it was weird to be alone somewhere other than where we typically would be.
"Thank you, for sharing this with me. But I fail to understand what you thought the misunderstanding was," he said.
"Did you not think I had a past with Magnus?"
He chuckled. "I figured you had a past, but I knew someone like Magnus Emery was above taking someone he saw and treated as a servant, as a lover. I assumed he mistreated you in some way, but I hadn't prepared myself for this. Will you really not let me handle him?"
I smiled softly. "I will allow you to handle it in a way that does not break the Lycan Laws or tarnish your name further in any way."
"Do you really think I care for my name?"
I shook my head. "But I do. I want everyone to see the person who has treated me with kindness for the first time in my life and has given me a place I have come to feel I can truly call home."
Caspian took a deep and sharp breath, and I wondered if I had said something wrong. Instead, a smile stretched across his beautiful face.
"I'm glad to hear that. Here, you should eat more." He lifted the fork once more, and it was clear he was trying to find a distraction from this topic.
I smiled and accepted his offer as we settled into a peaceful silence for the remainder of dinner.
~*~
The next morning Caspian joined me for breakfast and walked me to my morning etiquette class. He kissed me on the hand politely before he left and said he would come back for lunch to get me.
With the way our relationship had been going, I couldn't feel further away from the death sentence I thought I would've received the moment I entered these palace walls.
Instead, I have been shown the greatest kindest by everyone here and I am treated just like any other werewolf, although most of them didn't know I couldn't shift, I was practically a human with the smell of a wolf.
My etiquette class today was a breeze, most likely because of the great mood I was in, I felt a lot more confident in myself and my abilities. My teacher praised me for the first time when she was usually stoic and hard to impress.
I felt like there really wasn't anything that could ruin my day at this point. Once my classes were done, I waited for Caspian to come and get me for lunch.
The door opened and I stood up with a smile on my face, but it faltered when Carlak walked in with a solemn look on his face.
"I'm sorry, Your Highness, but the madam is requesting an immediate audience with you."
I froze on the spot. "By 'Madam', do you mean…?"
He nodded his head. "The Queen Mother would like to see you."
"Where is Caspian? Why can't he escort me?"
Carlak just looked at me, as if I knew the answer, and I did. This was being done without him knowing.
"Do…do I have to?" I whimpered.
"This is not a choice, I'm afraid."
I nodded and reluctantly followed behind him as I was led to the Queen Mother's palace. I thought I would be led inside, but instead, he led me around the side and toward the back garden.
Sitting in the middle was the Queen Mother under a gilded gazebo, and a whole array of food was put on the table. She lifted her head gingerly as I approached, and I curtsied.
"Good evening, Your Majesty," I said.
"Oh, honey, we're family now. Please, call me Queen Mother." She said that as if to remind me of who she was. "I wanted to invite you to have some tea and lunch with me today, so we can get to know one another better."
She turned and narrowed her eyes at Carlak. "Why are you still here?"
He opened his mouth, but I cut him when I pulled on his pant leg and motioned with my eyes not to say anything. I didn't want the Queen Mother to know my weaknesses.
"I apologize, Your Royal Highness. I shall take my leave," he bowed and slowly made his way out.
"Well, dig in. I handpicked everything here to serve the sweet tooth after I heard you're rather fond of sweets," she said.
I panicked slightly and wondered who might have told her that. It couldn't have been Caspian; he rather despised his mother. Was it one of the servants? It wouldn't surprise me if she had planted spies in Caspian's palace to make sure he stayed in line.
I picked up a delicate-looking cake pastry and lifted it to my lips but paused when the scent of wolfsbane hit my nose. Though it was a subtle amount, it was still a deadly poison to werewolves. With this amount, I'll likely be throwing up blood later tonight when the food is digested and the poison activated.
This was her plan. She hoped to make it look like I took my own life, like all the others. That was probably what was happening this entire time with all the previous wives before me. There was no way I was the first person to notice Caspian's good looks and charm, the others must not have been strong enough or were infertile.
But little did she know that my body had been trained against most poisons, especially wolfsbane, it was Alaira's favourite. She often forcefully fed me leaves that had bushels of wolfsbane inside of them. Blisters would form on my lips, and I'd throw up blood into the wee hours, my stomach lining completely ruined and I wouldn't be able to eat solid food for days.
This much would only cause a bit of throwing up, nothing too painful and it wouldn't last too long. I could hopefully hide this encounter today from Caspian. It was just one more thing he didn't have to worry about.
"This looks delicious, thank you," I said and ate the pastry. I watched as her grin widened and she looked rather satisfied with this small gesture, which confirmed there was poison in all of these items, except what was already on her plate.
"So, Aurora, what a pretty name. How did my son come to choose it?"
"He said I reminded him of the dawn, with my hair." This wasn't a lie; it just wasn't he who named me.
But I felt if I exposed my relationship with Rosalyn, it would put her in danger as well.
"Isn't that lovely? My son has never shown this much affection for any of his wives before, I was really hoping we would find the perfect match for him, and it seems we have." She smiled but the corners of her mouth were tight.
"Yes, I like to think we fit each other quite nicely."
We continued to speak about how my classes were going before she said she felt tired and dismissed me, she most likely expected the poison to start working soon and wanted to be nowhere near me or the scene when it happened. Once she was out of sight I rushed back to the palace and up to the room to lock myself in the bathroom as I felt the vile rise in my throat and the searing pain in my stomach.
I expected it to be over soon, but as the pain continued to get worse, I realized I may have eaten far more than I thought I could handle. I knew for sure I did when black spots dotted my vision, and I felt my body fall to the floor with a sickening crack.
Just as Caspian broke down the bathroom door.