Chapter 4: Laurel Miller

The house was small, much smaller than the room she used to live in in the castle. Filled with a few odds and ends, Laurel had been a young woman living on the edge of poverty. Did she have no skills or was she simply in a pack that frowned upon female wolves doing much outside the house?

The old woman sat at the small table with a smile as Laurel looked around for something to give her. She found a basket with a few fruits inside and offered it to the woman. 

“As thanks.”

The old woman shook her head, pushing the basket back towards her. 

“You are too thin as it is! You should eat more.”

Laurel smiled as her heart clenched with warmth. The old woman was strange, but she cared for Laurel. The old woman shook her head and stood. 

“Come for dinner sometimes, hm?” She said and stood. “I should head back before I am missed.”

Laurel walked her to the door, “Thank you. I will repay you someday.”

The old woman waved her hand dismissively, “Don’t be ridiculous, Laurel.”

She left and Laurel closed the door behind her with a little chuckle. She turned back to the small house and walked to the window looking to the backyard. Flowers grew along the edge of the garden, fragrant blooms that filled the air with a gentle scent. She smiled, amused at the laurel growing beside the small vegetable patch. 

The house was neat and seemed to only house her and her father, yet it seemed he had not been home in quite some time. 

She wondered when in time she had been returned and how long the war with the vampires had been going on this time. She shook her head. The vampires, the war, and all the happenings of the court were no longer her concern. 

She was Laurel, not Laura Hamiltion, the former luna. The thought comforted her as she crossed the small room to the table to straighten the pile of papers. She didn’t recognize the handwriting, but they were mostly from a Jack Miller. 

*Dearest Daughter…* 

Laurel smiled and took the pages to the table to read. Jack Miller was her father’s name, making her Laurel Miller. There were at least twenty letters in the pile asking after Laurel’s health and her daily life. Her eyes burned at the warmth of his words. 

*I wish more than anything that I wasn’t on the front lines. As soon as the vampires are subdued, I’ll teach you how to hunt, just as I promise. In the meantime, I’ve asked Amanda to look after you. Try not to cause her too much grief, my little mischief-maker.*

Laurel figured the old woman was Amanda and she chuckled. She wondered what sort of mischief Laurel made. His tone seemed teasing rather than scolding, so perhaps he was joking. She really didn’t know how to read it. Laura’s father had been cold and distant since she manifested, but perhaps, she would learn more if she read the rest of the letters.

*Be safe, my darling daughter. I pray every night for your safety. A young woman without her father must look after herself with great care. There is no telling what trouble could befall you.

Do not fear Lucas. You have my blessing to marry whomever you wish. Lucas may be the next alpha of the pack, but he is a coward and a deserter. When I return, I will straighten him out for harassing you like this. Go stay with Amanda if you feel that he is a great threat to you. Even he has some respect for the elderly*. 

She sniffled, touched and awed by Jack and his relationship with his daughter. The guilt of knowing that his Laurel was gone from this world stung. Her parents had arranged her marriage for power and money regardless of Laura’s happiness. They did not need to marry her off in such a way except to sate their greed, but Jack, a man living on the very border of the kingdom seemingly with very little to his name, was allowing her to marry as she wished!

Her awe and envy warred within her before she set the letters aside. Jack’s Laurel was dead, but she would be Laurel, take care of Jack in her stead, and enjoy the chance she had been given. She folded the letters carefully and put them away before heading back into the forest to hunt. 

The young woman who had died in the forest had not learned to hunt, but Laura had mastered hunting before she died. She ran through the forest with Alice, laughing as she ran through the forest as a brilliant white wolf and caught a few rabbits to cook and eat with some vegetables from the patch behind the house. 

Sated and happy, she curled up in her little bed and thanked the goddess for her new life before slipping into a peaceful sleep.

*******

The days in the small village were peaceful. She learned that the village was that of the Sapphire Lake Pack, named for the lake near the village that was as blue and as clear as a finely mined sapphire. It was a remote village. The nearest town was a few miles away and it was at least a week’s ride from the Imperial City, but it was beautiful, nestled in the shadow of two great mountains and settled at the bottom of the valley. 

It was nothing like the Emerald Twilight Pack’s town, and Laurel was grateful for it. 

Like most packs on the border, most of the young men had joined the war efforts. The women took care of the children and the transportation of food and supplies. 

After checking and rechecking her message, Laurel delivered her letter to the village postman. 

He looked troubled as he looked down at the letter. 

“Is everything okay?”

“Of course,” he said and placed the letter in his bag. “I just… haven’t heard from that rascal in a while.”

Laurel’s jaw trembled at the jolt of terror, but he smiled and waved his hand dismissively. 

“I’m sure he’s fine. Probably just busy giving those fanged bastards hell! You’ll see. The war will be over soon with King Adolph the Invincible leading them!”

*King Adolph the Invincible…* Laurel nodded and averted her gaze. She remembered that name. 

She’d married Basil so quickly that the king had not been able to come back for the ceremony. Basil had been so upset about his father’s absence that he had not even spent the night with her to consummate their marriage. The war had seemed to escalate after that, so Laura had never met her father-in-law. 

She left the postman in much worse spirits than she had come, tracing through her memories of the palace and trying to push them away. 

She was Laurel Miller now, a seventeen-year-old woman living alone while waiting for her father to return from the front lines, not Laura Hamiltion, former luna and abandoned marked mate of a prince. 

The Imperial City was so many miles away. Basil and any concerns of the court were a lifetime ago. She needed to focus on her present. She hadn’t run into her mate in the Sapphire Lake Pack, but maybe he was on the battlefield with her father, fighting for their safety. 

She wondered if he was handsome and brave, rushing into battle with the strength of a great warrior. Maybe he was a general of some sort? An archer? Maybe he was a scout or a spy. Her face warmed as her imagination ran wild and she picked up her pace, whistling into the wind.

Who is that? Alice asked. She looked up as she approached her home and stopped. A tall, lanky man stood in front of her front door, holding the extra rabbit she had hunted the day before. She had planned to give it to Amanda as a gift. 

What right did he have to take her things and who was he?

He looked up, seeing her, and lifted the rabbit as he glared at her. His tone was harsh and angry. 

"Who gave you this?” He hissed, marching towards her. Laurel stumbled back, frightened as he approached her in such a state. She turned, wanting to escape, but he caught her by her arm. She cried out as he jerked closer and shoved the rabbit in her face. “You can't hunt. Someone must have given it to you. How dare you cheat on me with another man!”

Cheat on him? She wasn’t courting anyone. Surely, Jack would have mentioned a suitor by name if there was one, but there wasn’t a single mention of one in any of the letters she’d found. Her heart raced, but she lifted her chin, defiantly. 

If Laurel had been courting such a man, it was for the best that she cut it off now, anyway. 

*He’s not our mate*, Alice huffed. 

“What are you talking about?” She pulled free of his grasp, “Who are you?”

He sneered at her, “I’m Lucas, your future husband.”