Jason took her to a part of the city that was busier than the central area where the institute was.There was a lot of music and dancing, very different from where she was from.“Stay close to me.” She heard Jason say through the noise.On reflex, she held his arm which made him laugh.“Stop laughing at me.” She said.“Sorry.”“You happened to come on one of our festival days. I promise it’s not this busy all the time.”“Okay!”Jason led her to what looked like the residential area.He led her to an igloo looking hut and they both entered.“We don’t have any hotels around here, as we never get tourists.” He said as they entered the hut.It was dimly lit and very cozy looking.“I’m not a tourist. I’m here on an official assignment.” Aspen retorted back.“I apologize. It just seemed like you wouldn’t have gotten a place to sleep if I left you there.”“I’m sure I would have been fine.” She snapped back.Jason raised a brow.“I’m sorry.” Aspen apologized, “I just can’t believe they left m
Aspen was woken up from sleep by the smell of fresh bread.She got up and traced where the aroma was coming from.“I didn’t know you had a kitchen.”Jason laughed, “I didn’t exactly give you a tour yesterday.” He started.“I’m aware our houses look like boring huts from the outside but inside, it’s pretty much the same as houses in the East.”“Except the outside bathroom.” Aspen added.“Except the outside bathroom. Though there’s also a reason for that, same as to why our houses look like huts from outside.”“Why?”“The water can make the rooms humid.”“Oh. Which can make it more cold?”“No. Which can make the thick layers we wear very uncomfortable.”“That makes a lot of sense.”“It does, doesn’t it? Here.” He handed her a piece of warm bread and a cup of tea.Aspen sniffed the cup and smiled“Tastes even better I promise.” Aspen took a bite of the bread and her eyes went wide.“There’s no way you made this! I could never get bread this good at home!”Her reaction warmed Jason’s hea
Megan was in her office attending to her duties. Duties that would soon belong to Aspen.She remembered spending most of her childhood and all of her teenage years training for the position of the wife of the alpha and future king.Never in a million years did she think she would be rounding up her projects, giving up the things she loved.Megan cried herself to sleep every now and then. She didn’t believe it would hurt this much if her marriage was purely political or if the mistress was a total stranger.It was hard for the queen. She hated especially that they had Rhode Wales and his entourage around.She had her guard up more than usual because Rhode was always at places where only she and Mason’s owner would know.Mason’s owner had never shown up and despite Brianna and Rosetta pitching to her that Mason’s owner was Rhode Wales, Megan simply couldn’t fathom it.
“Does this mean he saw me going or returning from my greenhouse?” She asked herself.“You went alone to your greenhouse, your majesty?!” Rosetta exclaimed.“Keep your voice down. I just took a stroll.”It wasn’t completely a lie. She did take a stroll, just that she had a destination in mind.She didn’t feel like telling Rosetta about seeing Rhode Wales or her nausea which led her there.“Luna?” Rosetta called from the other side of the table.“Yes?”“Brianna and I have been talking and we decided to tell you.”Megan dropped her pen and looked at Rosetta, “I’m listening.” She said, wondering what Rosetta and Brianna wanted to tell her.“We will follow you anywhere!”“I don’t understand, Rosetta.”“If you plan on leaving the cast
Chapter SixteenRhode entered the greenhouse. He must have heard wrong.“Rhode Wales, it may seem as though your physician here is in the business of telling jokes or making jest of a person and i’m not quite sure I appreciate being seen as a joke.”Doctor Ronda said, “I’m afraid I’m not telling a joke or making jest of you, Luna. Your presenting symptoms are without a doubt characteristic of early pregnancy.”Megan laughed and threw her head back. This doctor Ronda must be insane.“Pregnant?” Megan asked and laughed some more. She couldn’t help it.The barren queen suddenly pregnant? Hilarious!“If you’re not convinced, Luna, I have some sensitive test strips used in the West to confirm pregnancies. All you need is your early morning urine.”Doctor Ronda handed Megan a small bottle containing tiny white papers.“You can take as many as you need but let me be the first to say, congratulations queen.” Ronda said as she ex
Megan flushed down the remaining strips in the toilet and rinsed her face with ice cold water from the tap.She didn’t want to leave any evidence behind that she had been crying. In the mirror, however, her face still looked pink and puffy and she still felt the lingering nausea.Was this how pregnancy was like?After getting back in bed to try sneak in some more hours of sleep, Rosetta and Brianna entered the room.“Good morning, Luna!” They said, a bit too loud for Megan’s ears but she answered them nonetheless.Perhaps she was just cranky this morning. She was determined to look and act as normal as possible.Despite the fact that she abruptly made up her mind to leave the East after her divorce, she wasn’t sure how to break the news to either ladies that she would be leaving.She didn’t have a clear plan so she couldn’t ask them to come along, she couldn’t.Megan let them draw her a bath and she sat at her vanity as Brianna pic
What?”Megan asked, turning to look at Rhode. Clearly she heard wrong.“Marry me, my queen.” Rhode said again, holding her eyes.This was not the time nor the place he planned on proposing yet somehow he felt compelled to at this very moment.“Why?” Megan was finally able to ask.“Why what?”“Why would you want to marry me? What’s in it for you?” “Do I have to have some ulterior motive? Can I not just want to marry a beautiful woman?”“Who is broken goods.” Megan added, getting up.“You’re not broken goods, Megan. You’re the best of only your kind.”“You flatter me but I’m afraid your words fall on deaf ears. I could never marry you.”Rhode’s heart sunk to his belly.“Why?”“Because I can’t.”“That’s not an answer, my queen.”“That is enough, Rhode Wales. I will act as though this night never happened. I appreciate your help these past few nights but I will handle my situation a
Megan was suspicious of his answer but decided not to press any further.She still felt extremely embarrassed that he had seen her at her most vulnerable moments.She cleared her throat rather loudly, “I see. I suppose I should thank you.”“I apologize if you feel embarrassed. I did lie to you.”“That and we were basically courting through text. Quite the scandal.” Megan laughed in a fit to reduce how awkward she suddenly felt around Rhode.“I would like transparency. Considering you’re going to be my queen.”“I didn’t say yes.”“You’re right, you didn’t. I’m being optimistic.”Truth was, she didn’t have a reason to refuse him. If anything, he just offered her what she had been silently wishing for the past three months.She wanted someone to save her and she communicated those feelings to Mason.She obviously didn’t expect that her Kingdom’s greatest rival was the cub she had been confiding in and here he was off
The room instantly became quiet when the door swung open to reveal Megan standing at the entrance. She tried her best to appear brave and unafraid, but it was not an easy task.The disdainful eyes of Lord Fuhler bore down on her in supreme distaste and the cunning eyes of Lord Aldrien look at her from beneath his lashes. She noticed that Geoffrey was back and from the look on Rhode's face he was clearly not happy with it, and that made Megan furious as she vowed to get to the bottom of the problems she was seeing so clearly on the surface.“You summoned me, alpha?” She asked with a curtsy and Lord Aldrien snorted at the act as he stared at her with his beady eyes.“Oh look, her royal highness understands basic courtesy after all.” He exclaimed with a snide edge to his tone, and she could Rhode gripping his chair in anger.No! Wait! She commanded him with the mindlink and he looked at her speculatively before sighing and relaxing..“I'm sorry I barged in here last time.” She apologized
“So, you are getting married?” Rosetta asked with incredulity and Megan chuckled, yeah she could not blame her ladies for not believing their ears. A few days before she had made a whole ass deal out of getting married and now she was accepting it? She could tell they were confused. But she was never going to go back on her Decision.“Yes Rosetta, I already answered this.” Megan laughed in faux exasperating and Rosetta shook her head in amusement.“Well, my word. What do you think, Bri?” She asked the silent Brianna, and Megan turned as well. She was also interested, Brianna had been strangely quiet and she was really worried. She hoped it was nothing serious at all. But to her relief, Brianna gave a faux sigh.“Oh nothing, I was just jealous is all.” She finally confessed, and Megan exchanged amused looks with Rosetta before turning to give her attention to Brianna.“Well jealous of what?” She asked, and Brianna sighed, and nodded at the ring on her finger, causing Megan's eyes to wi
Moving stealthily, he gestured for Aspen to follow him and she did. They were both being careful of course. A single step on the wrong branch could alert the growling villagers that she was right there.Funny how she came to end a threat, but was instead now in a situation where she was actually in danger. She shook her head to remove the little moisture from her eyes. She could not afford to fall in fear now. She could do this. She would go home with her baby intact.“Keep up!” Rudolph snapped, his eyes already yellow, showing that he was already healing. And Aspen sighed in relief. She had no need for a weak wolf, ignoring the fact that she was the one to have put him in the position in the first place.“Alright, fine.” She snapped back, her back bent as she made sure she was concealed by the thick undergrowth of the forest.Together they traveled fast, and soon the woods around Aspen were a blur, and she turned her face to sniff the air. She could smell the smoke of the city. They
Aspen is famously known for her very special ability to make the worst of things. Now she did not do that on purpose, but for some reason it always happens. She was reckless, unthoughtful, and impulsive, and all those things in the worst ways.But as she backed away from these people with the strange eyes that gleamed with feral hunger, she knew that she had made the worst decision yet. Shrinking back, she tried to ignore the stares that Insisted on following her. The ones that cried that she did not belong there with her shiny and fancy clothes. She could see children, wild-eyed and hungry, baring their teeth at her as they let out growls made vicious by the fear of starvation. The public well to her left creaked as a small looking woman with darting eyes drew it open, before flexing a sympathetic yet annoyed gaze on Aspen, and she moved back, desperately searching for her carriage.It seemed her driver had slinked off and left Aspen to her fate, and the thought sent a bitter tast
For the umpteenth time, he imagined marching over to the kingdom of that weakling and stampeding on his throat, ripping out his teeth and claws, and breaking his legs..He was sure that if it ever came to it, he would take Richardson easily. The male had been timid when Rhode entered his Kingdom for the first time. When he had been introduced and stepped up to Richardson, he had realized his aura. He did it subtly, so that everyone in the room would not know what hit them, and for that brief moment where he studied Richardson, he could see the wolf king groan and bared his neck in a show of instant submission, and Rhode could not help the disdain that ran through him.But Megan had been perfect, she had stared straight at him beside her husband, her eyes flashing in warning, and even then he could understand them perfectly. Retreat. Her gaze told him, and he could not help the smile that covered his face after that. Lunas should not have the power to resist a fraction of an alpha's p
Due to the recent announcement and the recent self-consciousness she had developed about her person, Megan did all she could to avoid Rhode, and for a while it was working.She ate with the servants in the kitchen with the excuse of bonding and they adored her for it, proclaiming her the perfect Luna. She memorized Rhode's routine and perfected the art of avoiding him. She was on a roll, really.But that all changed when she bounced out of her bedroom, cradling her heavy stomach still carefully concealed with her heavy brocaded gown, and was suddenly accosted along the forest path by her lovely future husband. And Megan could not help the flush that colored her cheeks as he held her hands and his eyes glowed in triumph.“W_what are you doing?” Megan stammered as she glared up at him. Or at least she wanted to glare but she was intimidated by the animated purple eyes that stared back at her.“Megan!” He exclaimed with a small teasing smile.*So you are still alive! I had no idea!” He l
Aspen felt her world shifting. She had thought, for some reason, that he was only visible to her eyes on the unfortunate days he decided to grace her with his magnanimous presence: note the sarcasm. But she really had not thought that other people saw him. The idea came to her that morning, and despite the doubts, she had wanted to see if she was right at all, and it turned out that she was. Ah hell.“T_the camera! You know him!” She exclaimed triumphantly as she stared at the cook with a disturbing gleam in her eyes. She wanted to go to Richardson the next moment and demanded the head of the cook for being an accomplice in an elaborate conspiracy.“I don't know what you are thinking, young missy. But I do not know that man.” The cook quickly defended, as she stared at the grin on Aspen's face with maximum distrust. But Aspen could handle a little hate. She was not there to make friends after all.If the way to make this strange reporter silent was to silence this cook, then so be it.
Aspen scoffed as she crossed the hallways to her chambers. She was becoming more and more destabilized. And well no one could exactly blame her. She is being threatened, and now her life is in mortal danger. And not to talk of Duke Elric. Aspen sighed as she thought of the Duke with his extremely dubious personality.Sometimes she thought he was on her side, then she got him staring at her with what was definitely a mocking grin on his face, and suddenly she was not sure anymore.If he was on her side, then why did he constantly see the need to laugh? Why did he only show up when he wanted to without giving her a way to summon him. And what was that amused look he had given Richardson?Ugh! She didn't want to think anymore. It was too exhausting. She somehow ended up more confused than before she started. So it was better to stop.Quickly switching her steps to the kitchens, Aspen hurried over with her head held high despite knowing that she was not very favored amongst the staff. De
Richardson knew he had screwed up Royally. He only put the blame on Aspen because there was no one else to take it, and she was stupid enough really.It was not Aspen’s fault, it was his for not having enough backbone to stop the left state counselor from executing a plan that he knew could very well be the death of him and his family.He was trapped from all sides, and even the fae people were beginning to show him disrespect, and when that happened, it was imperative to realize that things were bad. Really bad.Turning to the still gasping Aspen on the floor, he could not bring himself to apologize for his actions. He probably was not even sorry he did what he did. He knew that she was innocent, but it didn't stop him laying his hands on her. And he couldn't help but shudder against the kind of man he was turning into. He could remember putting his hands on Megan too. Megan. Felt like she was light-years away, and the distance was killing him.But it was his fault, his fault he lost