RubyStudents watch and whisper as the professor ushers me down the hallway and up the massive staircase leading to the headmaster’s office.“No, please,” I beg, but she won’t listen. I just know that I’m going to be expelled, or worse if what Nancy said about the headmaster was true.The professor climbs the stairway, not caring for the fact that I’m stumbling and tripping behind her. Once we reach the top, she pushes me ahead of her toward a large wooden door at the end of a long corridor.“It wasn’t me!” I cry. “Donna started it!”“You can tell that to the headmaster,” the professor says with a grimace. “See if he’ll believe your lies.”The professor presses a button next to the large door. Inside, I can hear a doorbell chime followed by the sound of a man cursing and crashing about.The headmaster swings the door open.His hair is a bit disheveled and his jacket has been removed to show a white button down and a red vest that looks somewhat comical stretched over his round belly.
AtwoodWatching my mate cry makes it feel as though my heart is being ripped from my chest. I never wanted to hurt her, never wanted to make her cry. I never wanted to make her feel so unheard that she would need to resort to this to get me to listen.The power of the mate bond feels stronger now than ever.“Ruby,” I mutter, stepping toward her and wrapping my arms around her. She feels tiny and fragile. Her body shivers with a mixture of anger and distress, but I only hug her more tightly until she relaxes into my arms.I pick her up now and carry her over to my chair, sitting down with her on my lap. She leans heavily against my shoulder as she continues to sob. I say nothing, simply stroking her hair until she calms.“Just breathe,” I murmur into her ear repeatedly.When Ruby has calmed, she sits up and rubs her red eyes. I reach up with my handkerchief to wipe away the tears and snot from her sobbing.I look into her eyes when I’m done cleaning her face and cup her round little ch
Atwood“Sir?” Kayne asks, puzzled at my request.Wordlessly, I motion for my beta to follow as I make my way toward the garage, which is located on the lower level of the castle. Much to my neurotic mother’s dismay, I’ve collected quite a few vehicles over the years. My father always had a love of foreign sports cars; when he died just before my nineteenth birthday, all of them were passed on to me, and I’ve added even more to that collection since then so that I now have fifteen entirely unique cars.On my twentieth birthday, I bought myself a motorcycle. My mother was furious at this purchase, stating over and over again until she was practically blue in the face that I was going to kill myself on that thing, but I never listened.She wasn’t entirely wrong, however.Not even six months after I bought my motorcycle, I was in an accident. It was all my fault, really. I was going too fast around the winding roads near the castle, when I overshot a tight turn and wound up flying off the
RubyAfter my fight with Donna on Monday, I’m suspended from school for three days. It doesn’t feel much like a punishment, since I would rather be anywhere than inside that school after those photos were posted of me. The only thing that particularly burns about not being in school is that I have to wait to try and talk to Nancy.I wake on Wednesday morning to Alice’s lovely voice.“Rise and shine, princess,” Alice says annoyedly. It seems as though I’m not moving fast enough for her, because she stomps over to my side of the bed and yanks the covers down, then tosses a bundle of plain clothes into my lap: a pair of black jeans and a gray wool cardigan with toggle buttons and a hood.I must look confused, because Alice rolls her eyes and tosses the clothes down onto the bed.“Despite your misbehavior in school and your three-day suspension, the King has decided to take you on a da-” she stops herself mid-sentence, then continues: “an outing.” It’s clear that she meant to call it a da
RubyAt the end of my last class for the day, I run to my locker to get ready. Nancy shows up a few minutes later as I’m hurriedly fixing my hair and primping my uniform.“Wow, got a hot date or something?” she says. She’s wearing her cheer uniform and opens her locker to braid her long red hair in the mirror.“I’m… I’m auditioning for the school play,” I say. I can’t explain why, but I’m both excited and nervous at the same time.Nancy spins around to look at me and bounces excitedly on the balls of her feet, clapping her hands together.“Oh my gosh, really?!” she says, loud enough for the surrounding students to look at us.“Shh,” I mutter, feeling my face flush with embarrassment.“I have to come with you to your audition. Are you going right now?” Nancy says, this time much more quietly.I look at my watch. “It’s in fifteen minutes.”“Okay,” she says, grabbing her bag and slamming her locker shut. “I’ll meet you there. I have to, um, meet with someone really quick.”Smirking, I lo
AtwoodAfter my encounter with Ruby in the main entryway of the school, two things become abundantly clear to me: for starters, she definitely has a hunch about my involvement with Ethan’s injury, which means that I need to either come clean or find a way to diffuse the situation more properly if she brings it up again. I’m leaning toward the latter.Second, and more importantly, Ruby’s plan to join the drama club comes as a surprise to me. I didn’t know that she had an interest in acting; in fact, now that I think about it, I don’t really know what her interests involve at all.Truthfully, I’ve barely spent any real quality time with Ruby aside from our one outing to Greenwood the other day. Perhaps that could explain her aloof nature with me as well as some of her misbehavior lately. How can I honestly expect her to want to marry a man who hasn’t taken even five minutes to discover her interests? I feel like a terrible mate.That’s why tonight, I decide to join Ruby and her sister f
RubyI don’t waste any time taking advantage of the library. First thing Saturday morning, I pop out of bed and hastily brush my teeth before throwing on my robe and slippers and running off to the library.The library smells like mahogany and old books. It’s quiet and peaceful, and without Alice or anyone else here, I finally feel like myself for the first time since I’ve come to this castle.I easily spend an hour scouring just one bookshelf and come away with a stack of novels to read. With a smile on my face and my arms heavy with books, I waddle over to the seating area beneath the large window with the stained glass rose at the top and plop myself down to read.The first novel I pick up is the first in a series about a young female detective who is working on a murder case. It’s a page-turner, and within half an hour I’m already several chapters in and completely enthralled.Unfortunately, my peace is broken by the sound of the library door opening. I poke my head up over the ba
RubyAtwood takes away my phone for the week and makes me clean up the mess I made in the bedroom, which is a fair punishment for my behavior. I’m thankful that he doesn’t restrict my newfound access to the library, although as I wake up on Monday morning I’m terrified to think of the brutal punishments that will come from Alice and the Queen this week.Alice’s punishments begin with her usual routine of ripping me out of a peaceful slumber and forcefully combing my hair and dressing me before school. She gives me nothing but an apple for breakfast and sends me on my way with a glare.When I arrive at school, Nancy is waiting for me by the door. After the events this weekend, it’s nice to see a friendly, smiling face.“Good morning, bestie,” Nancy says excitedly. She immediately grabs me by my hand and drags me off before I have a chance to get my bearings.“The cast list is here!” she says as she pulls me along down the hallway. “I waited for you to get here so we could look at it to
RubyThe feast goes on for some time longer, well into the night. Some of the guests begin to go home, leaving gifts for Atwood and I, while many others stay and continue to party.“Feasts are always like this,” Atwood says, swirling his champagne around in his glass with one hand and poking at his cake with his fork with his other hand. “On a few different occasions, we’ve had to escort partygoers out of the castle because they simply wanted to party all night.”“It’s refreshing,” I respond, taking a bite of cake. The cake is moist and not too sweet, with buttercream frosting. It practically melts in my mouth. “I’m happy to see people dancing and having fun, especially after what happened at my birthday party.”Admittedly, however, I’m starting to get tired -- and Atwood can tell.“Come on,” he says, standing from his chair and holding his hand out for me. “Let’s sneak out the back here. Everyone is too drunk to notice. I’m getting tired of all the noise.”I nod and take his hand. We
RubyBefore I know it, I’m standing behind the church doors, waiting to walk down the aisle.The morning feels like a blur. As I stand here now, my heart racing with butterflies in my stomach, everything else feels so small and insignificant. All that matters is right now; the flowers in my hand, the veil on my head, the sweat on my palms.It’s just like my vision.I know that when those doors open, Atwood will be standing at the end of the aisle. Nancy and the other bridesmaids -- Beck is one of them, surprisingly enough -- will be standing off to one side, while Atwood’s groomsmen stand on the other side. The priest will be smiling at me, his robes a vibrant combination of red and gold.Tamara will walk ahead of me, tossing flower petals down at my feet while the wedding guests look at their new Princess in awe.And at the back of the room, the shadow figure will be there. It’s always there, watching, lurking.I will ignore it.I will marry Atwood and pretend that the shadow figure
RubyAtwood says I was sleepwalking last night.I think it was something else.All I remember is waking up in his arms on the forest floor, but my body feels… strange. Like there’s a bit of me missing inside.After I woke up in Atwood’s arms last night, he insisted that we return to the castle in case I start sleepwalking again. I obliged and let him carry me back. He took me straight to my room and didn’t leave my side for the rest of the night, which would normally make me happy, but it only solidified my suspicions that something else happened in the woods.I can’t explain it, nor can I understand it, and I don’t want to try right now. The wedding is today and I just want to focus on that, focus on joy. Perhaps it is just my nerves and it will dissipate after the wedding. Regardless, I’ll take Nancy’s advice and see a therapist. Maybe that will help.Polly comes and wakes me up in the morning. I’m surprised to see that Atwood is already gone, no doubt preparing for the wedding and
AtwoodThe last time I slept in the forest, I was just a pup.It was a warm summer night. Lawrence, Freya, Paul, Kayne, and I had spent the day playing and hunting in the woods where it was cooler beneath the shade of the trees. Eventually, we became so exhausted from our day of playing “grown ups” that we all flopped down in a big pile beneath the pine trees, still in our wolf forms, and fell asleep right then and there.I remember that I had felt so much bliss that night. It was as though sleeping outside was in my nature. Even when my mother punished me the next morning for not coming home that night and forbade me from ever sleeping in the woods like a “scoundrel” again, I never regretted it.Now, as Ruby suggests that we sleep in the woods tonight after our hunt and our animalistic sex, I feel the same bliss that I felt that summer night all those years ago.And my mother isn’t here to tell me I’m not allowed.Ruby and I shift back into our wolf forms and find a good spot beneath
RubyLater in the evening, after we’ve spent a few hours just walking around the castle grounds and enjoying the nice weather, Nancy goes home.Even though it’s much warmer outside than it has been in a while, my face and hands are freezing from spending the day outside so I decide to head in to warm up. I can still hear a bit of commotion in the ballroom as the wedding reception is still being set up when I get inside.My stomach starts to growl and I realize I haven’t eaten all day, so I head toward the kitchen to find something to eat.When I enter the kitchen, Atwood is already there. He’s sitting at the counter with two plates of food.“Perfect timing,” he says with a smile, gesturing to the other plate. “I figured you’d be hungry after trekking around the castle grounds with Nancy all day.”I can’t help but smile at Atwood’s kindness as I take a seat at the kitchen island. The food is still steaming, fresh off the stove. It’s a simple plate of vegetables, chicken, and rice, but
Ruby’s POV“I’ll always protect you, no matter what.”Atwood’s words stick with me, even after he leaves me to go back to the wedding preparations.I know that he’ll always protect me, but how can he protect me against something that may not even exist? How can he protect me against something that has manifested in my own mind; a token of my own guilt and fear?When Atwood leaves me to go back to the ballroom, I still feel as though there are eyes staring at the back of my head. When I turn around, however, there is nothing there.Just then, the sun comes out from behind a cloud and shines through the small stained glass window in the alcove. It casts deep red and purples on the castle floor, and for a moment, I don’t feel so afraid.Maybe I just need to go outside. Maybe some fresh air will help.I run back up the stairs, taking two at a time, and head back to my room to get changed. I send a quick text to Nancy to ask her to meet up at the castle, to which she immediately replies wi
RubyAfter we finished cleaning up Vivian’s room last night, Atwood told me that he had a lot of work to do for preparations since the wedding is almost here, so I decided to sleep on my own. My bed felt cold and empty without him there, but I knew that it would only be forty-eight hours until we’re officially married and will share a bed every night.I’m awoken this morning by Polly knocking on my door. She has a sweet smile on her round face; a massive improvement from Alice’s mean mug waking me up every morning.“Good morning, Princess,” she says with a curtsy, entering my room and opening the curtains to let the morning sun in. “I hope you don’t mind, but Lycan Atwood has asked me to wake you early this morning.”“What for?” I ask groggily, sitting up in bed and rubbing my eyes.“Your wedding dress fitting, of course!”My eyes widen and my heart begins to flutter. It hasn’t fully hit me yet that our wedding will be so soon, but hearing that my wedding dress will be fitted today fi
RubyWhen I was first whisked away from my home to live in the castle and be Atwood’s bride, I thought I would hate it. And truthfully, I did hate it for a long time.But now, as I wake up in the warmth of his hidden bedroom, with his scent filling my senses and the feeling of his lips on my skin, I’m glad that I’m here. Fate has a strange way of making things happen.“Good morning, little bird,” Atwood whispers in between gentle kisses on my chest and neck.Last night, we made love for the first time. I thought that we would follow tradition and wait until marriage, but like so many other things that have happened over the past few months, the outcome was different from my expectations.For the first time in months, I feel peace. Alice, Edith, and the Queen are gone; I’ll be marrying Atwood in just a couple of days; and I’ll return to school in a few weeks as the Princess of the Lycan Kingdom.While the whereabouts of the Queen and her minions are still unknown and there is always th
AtwoodAs soon as Ruby says that she experienced the void, memories of my time there come rushing back. More than anything else, memories of what Vivian said to me there flood back into my mind.“Visit my room more... Turn on the lights and light the fire... Let both yourself and Ruby enjoy the room, rather than shutting it off from the world. Most importantly, uncover my painting; I like to watch from there.”Her words ring in my head as though she’s speaking them to me in this moment, but I know that’s not the case. Vivian has finally crossed over to an eternity of peace. From now on, she only exists in the snow that falls from the sky.I’m okay with that. I think Ruby is, too.I stand up and start getting dressed.“Get dressed,” I tell Ruby. “I want to show you something.She throws on her robe and follows me out of my hidden room, taking my hand as we exit the study into the cold, dark corridor. Everyone else in the castle, aside from the guards who are watching the entrances lik