Page 40 of The Forsaken Heir

“Be more careful next time?” She rolled her eyes toward the ceiling, and grimaced. “And however many times there are after that. Okay?’

“Fair enough,” I chuckled.

T he gala had begun at three that afternoon and was intended to last well into the night.

It was intended to last well into the night, but that had quite obviously been thrown out the window.

It was well past seven o’clock now, the light outside dying a slow death.

Delphine sat on the bed, reading a book, while I was tucked into the window seat and scrolling on my phone.

I was doing my best not to replay the mental movie of me and Aurelius rolling around on his bed, wondering if he was still asleep under those same sheets where he’d taken me.

I flinched when a knock sounded on the door and sat up straight. Delphine jumped to her feet, crossing the room to the door

“Hello?”

“It’s Titus, ma’am,” a muffled voice called back.

“Open it,” I said, hurrying to join her.

Delphine unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door. Titus looked less prim and polished than usual. His suit was rumpled, and he held a garment bag draped over one arm. Still, he managed a slight bow and smiled at me.

“Lady Brielle, Prince Aurelius requests your presence for a meeting with the court in one hour. He’ll be here to escort you himself. He sent me with this.” He held out the garment bag.

I took it, finding it quite heavy.

Titus gave me an awkward glance, and it was only then that I realized I’d never changed out of the baggy University of Washington T-shirt and Seattle Seahawks sweatpants I’d taken from Aurelius’s closet.

“He said you might need those,” he added, nodding to the bag in my hands. “I’ll let the prince know you’ll be ready for his arrival.”

“Uh, yeah,” I mumbled, pressing the bag against my chest. “Thank you.”

When he was gone, I placed the bag on the couch and unzipped it. A selection of four brand new shirts, two pairs of pants, and in the bottom of the bag, making the whole thing bulky and unwieldy, was a box with new sneakers. All my size.

“My, my, my,” Delphine said, eyeing the items. “Gifts? Already?” She nudged my shoulder. “You must have really made his day.”

“Delphine!” I gasped. “Since when do you make lewd assumptions?”

“Assumptions?” she said, crossing her arms. “Really? So the prince didn’t rail you into the next century a couple hours ago?”

Cheeks reddening, I dragged the clothes from the bag.

“Not the next century. No. Maybe the next decade, but that’s it.”

Delphine snorted a laugh and returned to her book.

“I’m taking a shower,” I said, rushing to the bathroom.

“Good idea. I can still smell him on you.”

My ears and chest burned, but I chose not to dignify that with a response. I had less than an hour to get ready, and I couldn’t waste time trading jokes back and forth with Delphine.

Aurelius arrived exactly when Titus had said he would, knocking on my door as I was lacing up the new pair of sneakers.

When I opened the door, the sight of him made my knees weak.

I couldn’t help but recall the way he’d looked when he’d stood above me, ready to devour me.

I swallowed hard and tried to act as casual as I could.

“Hey. You, uh, were coming to get me.”

He grinned, looked up to see that Delphine was still reading on the bed, and lowered his voice.

“Oh, I already got you earlier. Now, I’m only here to escort you.”

Fuck . I mentally moaned, thinking about the delicious things we’d done in his room earlier.

“I guess we should go.” I stepped out of the room and closed the door behind me.

Aurelius extended an arm to me, and I took it, yearning to experience his touch again. His gaze slid up and down my body in a way that made me feel naked all over again.

“See something you like?” I said, my boldness surprising me.

He grinned, and quickened his pace. “I do. I like it very much.”

My stomach dipped, and a warm giddiness filled me. We walked to the throne room in such a companionable silence that I could almost imagine us strolling through a park or down the hall of some resort. It was a nice little fantasy, but that all stopped as soon as we entered the throne room.

Unlike the last few times I’d been here, it was much more chaotic. The room was packed with nobles, all vying for a chance to speak and nearly drowning out the king’s voice. When we stepped in, the roar of voices lessened but didn’t fully stop.

“Son.” Cassius waved to us. “Come. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

“Indeed we do,” Benedictus said, rising from his seat.

“We can’t allow that bastard Bastien Laurent to get away with such outrageous behavior.

He practically spat on our truce and threatened not only a guest of the crown, but the prince himself.

Inside the royal house!” He thumped his fist on the table for emphasis.

“We must attack. The time for pleasantries is over.”

“Agreed!” several other men and women shouted.

“No!” The word leaped from my throat before I could think. A deafening silence fell over the room, and all eyes turned on me. But after the gala, it wasn’t nearly as terrifying or intimidating.

“I’ll fix this,” I said. “Once the fae shaman and oracles reveal my true identity. Like I said today, they can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’m not a skinwalker. Once that happens, all the lies my family have woven will fall apart. I don’t want a war starting on my behalf.”

“My lady,” Benedictus said, giving me a condescending smile.

“This has been brewing long before you strode into these halls. For more than three centuries, in fact. It was only a matter of time. There is absolutely no reason for you to endanger yourself by going to their territories to stop something that is destined to happen.”

“I would not say it’s destined,” the king said heavily. “You’re being a pessimist, Ben.”

“A pessimist? Or a realist?” Benedictus asked, inclining his head to the king.

“As loath as I am to agree with our Lord Beatrix,” Aurelius said, “he does have a point. Elle doesn’t need to be in Laurent territory. It’s far too dangerous.”

“What?” I asked, blinking at him. If there was one thing I’d learned in my time here, it was that Aurelius never went along with anything Benedictus Beatrix said.

He grimaced and gestured to the window, pointing in the direction of my family’s lands.

“After what they did today? The way they treated you and looked at you? If there had ever been any doubt about who sent those wolves to kill you, it was erased. At least in my mind. They want you dead, and you’ll be walking right into their hands. ”

“It’s the best way to end all this,” I said. “When the other wolf houses see that my family lied, it could erode and destroy their credibility. Hell, it might even ruin them once and for all.”

Aurelius rubbed his forehead, sighing wearily. “Why are you so insistent? You’ll be walking into a lion’s den. You might as well be signing your own death warrant.”

He looked into my eyes, and something unspoken passed between us.

For the first time since I’d met him, I saw true terror in his eyes.

He was worried about me. It warmed my heart, and made it ache in a strangely pleasant manner.

But there was more at stake here than my safety.

The dragons were outnumbered. They were powerful, yes, but a war with the wolf shifters would end badly for them.

I couldn’t allow innocents to be killed or harmed for my sake. I’d never be able to live with myself.

“It has to be me,” I said. “If a war breaks out, it could be the end of your people.”

“Highly doubtful,” Benedictus snorted.

The king however, looked less inclined to believe the nobleman. He shifted uncomfortably in his throne.

“We’ll be fine,” Aurelius said, false bravado radiating from him.

“Will you?” I asked, looking into his face. “Can you be certain? Think of the innocent bystanders that could be hurt in a war. Shifters and humans alike. Don’t forget what I said about the human military. This could go horribly wrong, and if I can fix all that with a simple ceremony, I will.”

Aurelius’s jaw worked as if he was fighting with himself. From the look in his eyes, I could see he was thinking about all the eyes and ears in the room. He couldn’t say what he wanted to say with everyone here.

Aurelius pulled his shoulders back and nodded to himself. “All right then. If you’re dead-set on doing this, I won’t allow you to go without the proper accompaniment. I’ll join you as well. Perhaps a small guard detail as well.”

The wide and shocked eyes around the room mimicked my own horror at his pronouncement.

“Your Highness,” a noblewoman with dark, umber- colored skin said. “You can’t .”

“I can, and I will,” Aurelius said, then cast his gaze around the room. “Is there anyone among you who would stop me?”

Benedictus sighed wearily and rubbed his hand across his forehead.

“Prince Aurelius, you and I have had our disagreements, and we also don’t see eye to eye on much, but sending the crown prince, the heir to the dragon shifter throne, into the Laurent pack lands is suicide.

” He looked to the king, extending a pleading hand toward the monarch.

“Your Majesty, please talk some sense into your son. None of us wants Lady Brielle harmed, but this is beyond foolhardy.”

I wanted to agree, but I couldn’t. I was frozen to the spot, staring at Aurelius, and wondering how it had all come to this. I’d assumed he’d send me with some sort of entourage of bodyguards, but I never thought he himself would try to accompany me.

The king’s eyes bounced from Benedictus, to me, and finally to his son. The two men looked at one another for a long moment —father and son weighing and measuring, each thinking over what was about to happen, what needed to be done, and what repercussions might erupt from the choices.

Finally, the king gave a sharp nod.