90: The Aftermath

Quincy St. Martin

“Quincy, I need to talk to you,” says Lady Celeste.

She’s in a peacock-blue taffeta dress, and her hair is impeccably styled. I’ve got to hand it to her, this woman knows how to dress, or maybe her stylist does.

I’m on my way back from the stable to our bedchamber with Günter behind me. Caspian should be in bed, but my stubborn, injured mate has gone to see his parents instead.

I thought they should have some privacy, so I decided to visit Sabre, the horse that I have taken a liking to. It’s the same horse that I rode to my oath. He’s a little bit wild and a little bit crazy, but he sort of reminds me of myself. He certainly loved the sugar cubes and the apples I brought him this morning.

“Quincy,” she calls again.

I don’t feel like talking to Lady Celeste, so I ignore her, but she catches up and grasps my arm tightly. Günter is immediately standing between us. I stare pointedly at her hand on my arm. Then I look her in the eye, silently telling her to let go.

“Your Highness, please,” she amends, letting go of my arm. When I keep staring at her without giving away my emotions, she says, “It won’t take long. I promise.”

“Okay then. Talk,” I tell her.

“Can we go somewhere private?” She looks at Günter then glances around.

I don’t know the palace well enough to know the best place to talk without being overheard, except for our private area in the east wing. I don’t trust her enough to voluntarily take her to our private sanctuary.

I walk down the enormous hallway, knowing that she’s going to be following me. I head toward the library. Günter slips into the library behind us, and he disappears behind the bookcases to scope the area.

The library is quite massive. Thick cream, red, and gold carpet covers the floor from wall to wall. Rows of bookcases are filled with leather-bound books from floor to ceiling.

Carved gold-framed portrait paintings of the royal family members are hanging on the rich dark wood-paneled walls. There are detailed marble carvings of human forms in the center aisle.

Sitting and reading areas with tables and grand wingback leather chairs are all near one wall where the big windows are. The smells of old books and leather fill the air, the best smell in the world, except for the scent of my mate.

Günter reappears not long after and nods his head, signaling that he’s satisfied that it’s safe before he walks out and closes the door behind him. I walk over to one of the big windows and watch the snowflakes drifting down from the heavens. The vast forest beyond the snow-covered garden looks enchanted.

It’s beautiful out there, and I can’t wait to go for a run again with my mate and pack mates.

“It started snowing again,” says Lady Celeste as she comes to stand next to me by the window.

“We’re not here to talk about the weather, Celeste,” I say without taking my eyes off the view.

She sighs as she moves back from the window. I hear the rustle of her dress as she takes a seat. “I know you’re mad that I claimed Jorden for a mate.”

“So why did you?” I turn my body to look at her. “Jorden’s not your erasthai, and he’s way too good for you.”

“Because I love him,” she answers. “And he loves me.”

I stare at her wordlessly for a second. “How can you say that you love him? You just met him. Besides, you claimed to be in love with Caspian not too long ago.”

“I have had a crush on Prince Caspian since I was very young. If you must know, all the women around here did, and a lot of them still do. He was so cold toward all of us, and we dreamed of being the one to win his heart. We all dreamed of getting marked by the prince and becoming the queen one day.”

I already knew this.

“When my parents made an agreement with Queen Sophia for us to mate, I was so happy. I thought it was meant to be. He didn’t want anything to do with me, but I thought he could grow to love me if we spent more time together, if only he’d give me a chance. But then I went to California and saw the way he looked at you and the way that he treated you. I knew then that he’d never be that way with me or anyone else.”

My heart flutters as I think of Caspian.

“Then I met Jorden. He’s different from any man I’ve ever met. He treats me with respect, and he doesn’t tolerate my tantrums. He’s kind and generous and talks to me as if I matter. He believes that I can change and be a better person. He makes me want to be a better person. Nobody has ever treated me that way.”

Her eyes turn dreamy.

“He makes my heart beat faster, and I think of him constantly,” she says softly.

Then she seems to realize what she’s just said and to whom she’s speaking to. She clears her throat and sits up straight like she has a stick up her butt again.

She thrusts her chin up.

“That first week, I wanted to back out from the arrangement. I wanted to cancel the whole thing. I was planning to talk to Queen Sophia about it, but Æmilius called. He had my father and threatened to kill him if I didn’t get Caspian to agree to mate with me. So that night I was desperate.”

I sigh in frustration and take a seat on a chair next to hers. “Why didn’t you tell somebody about this earlier?”

“I was scared, okay?”

She sounds exasperated.

“I didn’t know who to trust. If I told the wrong person, I’d be dead as well. I knew Queen Sophia was having an affair with Æmilius, but I didn’t know that he was King Alexandros’s bastard son. Besides, Prince Caspian hates me. If I’d told him about it, he’d think I made things up so I could get close to him or something.”

“And waiting for him in our bedroom, dressed in nothing but tiny lingerie, and begging him to take you was a better option?” I say.

This woman! Not even ten minutes in her company and I’m tempted to throw her and her logic out that big window behind us.

How could my cousin stand her? I should nominate Jorden for sainthood. Is there such a thing?

“As I said, I was desperate.” She pouts as she studies her beautifully manicured nails.

Penny was right. It’s hard to like this woman, but she has changed quite a lot since the first time I met her. She’s like a work in progress. I guess Rome wasn’t built in a day, and comparing Lady Celeste to Rome is being generous.

“Look,” I say, “I’m sorry about your father.”

She shrugs her shoulders and lifts her chin proudly. “I wouldn’t mourn him too much. He was a cruel man. I only tried to stop his murder for my mother. For some reason, she loved him. Jorden and I have that in common. We both hated our fathers,” she says flippantly.

I’m surprised Jorden confided in her about his father. Jorden is kind to everybody, but he’s pretty tight-lipped about himself, especially about his father. I know his father hit him constantly when we were growing up. In our pack, kindness was often mistaken for weakness. My uncle’s definition of tough is being cruel and a bully. He hated that Jorden wasn’t ‘tough’ like him.

I knew Jorden got a lashing every time he openly helped me when I got bullied. That’s why I never held it against him when he didn’t get involved. I actually preferred it. Once I cried when I saw his back the day after he stopped some particularly cruel bullying. I didn’t shed a tear during the bullying.

That was a month after Jonah had left the pack. I was twelve, and Jorden was thirteen.

“Don’t you want to wait for your erasthai?” I ask her.

“Your Highness, do you know how many lycans end up with their erasthais? Not all of us are as lucky as you. Some have waited hundreds of years to meet their one true love. Many have died without ever meeting their erasthais.”

She glances out the window and then back at me.

“So, no. I knew all my life that I’d never end up with my erasthai. I don’t travel because I hate to fly. I stay here all the time, and I come from a long line of lycans with arranged matings. The reason that I’m not marked and mated yet is that they were planning for me to be mated to Prince Caspian and become queen one day. Now that it’s not going to happen, I know I will be forced to mate with one of those men from a rich aristocratic family soon. But I’d rather mate with someone I love and who loves me.”

“What about Jorden? What about his mate?” I ask her.

“I don’t know. All I know is that I need him in my life. I know I’m being selfish and he’s too good for me, but he makes me happy, and I intend to make him very happy. I’d do anything for him.”

I study her for a little while until she starts to shift uncomfortably in her seat.

I hear her heartbeat beating faster, and something close to fear flashes in her eyes, though she’s fighting to keep her tough exterior.

“Can you please stop doing that to me?” she asks me finally.

I raise an eyebrow in wonder. “Stop doing what?”

“Are you really not aware of the powerful aura that you carry around? Or the weight of energy you just radiated to dominate me just now?”

Actually, no. I’m new to all this, and the fact that I’m quite blind to the energy and the power of others makes me unaware of my own. However, I would prefer not to admit that to her.

“Listen, you are both adults, and I can’t stop Jorden from doing what he wants.”

I take her beautifully manicured fingers in mine so that she can’t look at them anymore and give them a squeeze. We’re going to be related soon after all.

“But I need to warn you. I love my cousin, and my powerful aura is the least of your worries if you ever hurt him.” I release her hand and get comfortable. “I will hunt you down and personally make your life hell until you wish you were dead. Then I will pull out your vocal cords so that I won’t have to hear you scream from what I will do to you. Next, I’ll break your ribcage one bone at a time before I rip your still-beating heart out of your chest and feed it to you. I will claw out your…”

I proceed to go into very graphic detail of what I plan to do to her if she ever breaks Jorden’s heart. I think she’s got the message by the time I’m done. After all that, I smile super sweetly and welcome her to the family.