Forbidden Lovers

Invaded His Soul

"Let me show you the castle," Estelle suggested. "I bet you'll love it."

Just like that, they started walking around, talking, Estelle showing Evelyn rooms and objects and the history behind them. Evelyn was just happy Estelle was there with her.

"I really admired the way you spoke there at the meeting, even though everyone disrespected you like that," Estelle sincerely said. "And the fact that you sacrificed your own happiness for your people by marrying my father. I know it must be really difficult for you."

Evelyn froze. "For my people!?" She blinked a few times in shock, letting the words sink in. For her people?! "That's what your father told you, Estelle?"

She saw the surprise on Estelle's features. "Of course, isn't it the truth? Everyone here knows that you did it to make peace between our kingdoms," she continued.

How far could this man really go, lying to his own people? To his own children? He was disgusting.

"Evelyn? What is it?"

"It's nothing." She put the most sincere smile she could fake on her face. It was no use telling Estelle this now, it wouldn't change anything. Not even Estelle's view about her father. She was one of the kindest women Evelyn had ever met, but something told her she'd put her father above everything else. The respect and admiration she had for him was too obvious for Evelyn to try and ruin that.

It made her wonder if she'd be this... clueless, if she had been risen like Estelle; like a true Princess. Something deep inside her envied Estelle. She was just too perfect and Evelyn was just too broken.

She was beautiful and happy. The perfect Princess, the perfect daughter, the perfect sister. 

Everything Evelyn had never been.

Her eyes laid on a big portrait hanged up on the wall, a beautiful mid-aged woman with dirty blonde curls and some emerald green eyes. Except her eyes, Estelle had taken everything from her; she was just a younger version of her mother.

"She was beautiful," Evelyn whispered, more to herself. The woman on the portrait radiated kindness. How could she ever replace her?

"She was," Estelle admitted with a sad smile on her face. "It's been five years now and I just miss her so much. Do you ever stop... missing them when they're gone?"

Evelyn sighed, thinking of her own father. "You don't." She gave a shrug. "But it gets better over time, I think."

They moved to another portrait, this one one of the whole family— King Robert, Queen Erica, Princess Estelle, Prince Julian, and Luis, just a newborn baby in his mother's hands.

"This was just a few months before she died."

"She looks happy," Evelyn referred to the smile on the pretty woman's face.

"She wasn't." Estelle wiped a tear from her face. "For the longest time I had thought she was happy, Evelyn; never once she let me knew that she actually wasn't." Evelyn wanted to ask her for more, but she kept silent. Estelle seemed to debate with herself to keep talking or not, before she gave up. "My father wasn't her true mate, Evelyn." The revelation left Evelyn dumbstruck. "Her father, an Alpha of one of the most powerful packs of this kingdom was my grandfather's best friend. He had forced her into marriage with my father."

Evelyn gasped. What had it been like, living the life that Evelyn was forced to live now? "I'm so sorry..." she whispered.

"The whole time I had thought she was in love with my father but now I knew she wasn't. One day she told me the truth... When she turned eighteen she met her mate. It was at the same time she was engaged to my father. They tried running away together but her father found out. I don't know what happened to the boy, but my mother never met him again since then. And something tells me she had been in love with him ever since."

"That's... that's terrible," Evelyn was only able to say. It was indeed terrible... and the similarities, the way she could relate to her. How many more women would Robert destroy just like that?

"I don't even know why I told why that, it was her secret no one knows but me."

Evelyn shook her head. "I give you my word, no one will ever know," she promised and Estelle actually seemed to trust her.

"At least you never met your mate," Estelle tried to make a joke that made Evelyn swallow down hard.

"Yeah," she mumbled. Little did Estelle know.

"You know Arthmael is the one who has painted most of these?" The expression on her face changed to a happier one in an instant.

"He- he what?!" Her eyes widened. How did she not know he was an artists too? How many more things did she not know about her mate?

Could he get more perfect than this, though? The paintings were more than beautiful.

"Yeah, he's really talented. I love it every time he practices using me as his model."

Jealousy bubbled up inside her instantly. Just the images of him looking at Estelle for hours, concentrating on painting every small detail of her face and her body started haunting her. And it didn't make it better the fact that she couldn't dislike Estelle; it only added to her misery more.

"You two look close." Her voice almost cracked.

"We are." Estelle smiled. "I've been just a little six year old kid when he first came here and I've looked up to him since then. He was such a strong amazing kid, even though what happened to him was horrible."

"What happened to him?" Evelyn panicked. She indeed didn't seem to know much about her mate.

"You don't know?! After your father died, there was a big chaos in here. Elves attacked and we were unprepared. They say they wanted to get rid of young boys who'd become warriors in the future," she explained. "Arthmael's mother protected him by hiding him on the basement of their house as they killed her."

Evelyn's heart started aching all over. Her whole chest did, actually, it was one kind of a pain she knew too well. She didn't even care Estelle was right there in front of her as tears slowly made their way down her face. It seemed the guilt of blaming herself for her whole family's death wasn't enough, this had to be added too.

Her people had hurt him beyond repair. And now she couldn't even blame him for hating her kind, now she knew exactly why.

"He never talks about it, but I know deep down he blames himself. He thinks that he was a coward for not getting out of there and protect his mother."

A sob almost escaped her lips if she didn't bite it back. "What about his father?" She asked.

"Oh, he never knew who his father was. They say he left his mother pregnant and ran away. She raised Arthmael by herself," she explained further more. "You're crying."

She shook her head slightly. "It's too painful and... I think I know what he has been though all these years. I've been through the same." That was half-true, the reason she was crying right now. They had the same scars. The same wounds on their soul, they were just too similar.

"What about your mother?" Estelle asked, already knowing the painful truth behind her father's death.

Evelyn looked down at her hands, too shameful to even look her in the eye now. "She died... giving birth to me..."

"Oh, Evelyn." Estelle shed a tear too.

"...And so did my twin brother." It was too painful but with Estelle, she felt like talking about it. "They say I absorbed his powers before we were born and he ended up being born dead. It happens with twins elves. One of the twins can absorb the other's powers. I just don't understand why it had to be me, I'm a healer."

Estelle didn't seem to know what to do other expect hugging her, but it was all Evelyn needed right now. A friend. A friend who could hear her out and be there for her.

                                       ***

"Arthmael." Vincent's voice stopped him from walking out of the pack-hall. It seemed the man had waited for it to empty before talking to Arthmael and he didn't appreciate it one bit. He didn't know why he had never liked Vincent. He had been there since Arthmael had first stepped foot inside the castle, never once had done something for Arthmael to dislike him, yet it was something about his aura. About the way he spoke, or the way he seemed to know everything going on around the castle. Like a shadow.

"Tell me, Vincent."

A sly smile found its way on the man's face and he took some precious seconds to keep going. "Oh, it's nothing, really... just the way you protected our new Queen today..."

"Our Queen doesn't need protection in her own home, so no, I didn't protect her." It pained Arthmael to say these words but he did. This was her home now, he had to somehow get used to it; to her, around; to them, always in the same room, never together.

"Of course," Vincent continued. "But you know what I mean. You stood up for her a little bit... passionately, if you ask me."

Arthmael didn't let panic appear in his features. He knew exactly what Vincent was doing right now— provoking him. And it simply wouldn't work. "I just did my job," he said coldly. "Now excuse me, my men are waiting for me."

Only when he was away from Vincent, he let out the breath he was long holding. Even hours of training and fighting in his wolf and human forms didn't help him one bit. He was distracted by everything... by her.

He told Nick about the conversation he had with Vincent but his best friend — the only one who knew the truth — told him not to read too much into it. But Arthmael couldn't help it, Vincent was right, after all. He did stand up for her without caring for a thing in the world. Only the thought that the old men had insulted his beautiful mate had stung a thing inside him. How dared they? Couldn't they see how perfect she was? She was so goddamn magnificent.

Oh, the way he wanted her.

"Arthmael." It was Alpha Robert that greeted him when he entered the castle. "Why are you training this hard, we just made peace with the elves. You should celebrate instead."

He tried putting a fake smile in his face. Yes, they had made peace with the elves. And the price Arthmael had had to pay for it was life-shattering. "You're right, Alpha."

"I just heard what you did at the pack meeting today. Someone had to put them on their places and I'm glad you did. I always knew I could trust you since you were a little boy."

Guilty. That's how Arthmael felt right now. So f*****g guilty.

His Alpha trusted him. Trusted him to keep his family safe, while all he wanted to do was take his wife away, make her his.

He couldn't even meet his eyes now. This was too much weight in his shoulders, too much agony for his soul. "It's nothing, Alpha, everyone in my place would've done the same," he murmured.

"I don't think so. You are one of a kind, son."

He swallowed down the guilt and the misery as he excused himself and made his way to the room. Yet there she was, the single reason to his pain and agony; to his life and happiness.

"Arthmael," she whispered in her oh-so-melodious voice. Her saying his name seemed to be his new favorite sound in the world. "Thank you so much for what you did today, but you shouldn't have—"

"I just did my job, I would have done it for everyone else," he said, moving past her so she wouldn't be able to read the lie in his face.

"Oh." The disappointment was so obvious behind her voice, it broke his heart.

"Goodnight, my Queen." He walked away, no matter how much every atom of his being told him not to.

Only when he closed the door of his room behind his back, Arthmael slammed a chair against the wall.

Furiously, he made his way to his painting supplies, starting to draw her face... her perfect features, her deep eyes, her wavy hair, her pretty kissable lips. Maybe he could get her out of his system this way. Maybe he could escape his own misery this way.

Which he knew he couldn't.

He finished it in only some minutes and the way it had come out... like she was there, standing in front of him. She didn't even have to be there, apparently he had her face printed in his brain.

Or maybe it had already invaded every cave of his soul and there was no escape from that. Not even burning the drawing was an escape, which he tried doing but figured it was pointless.

It was too late now. Much too late.

Evelyn had indeed invaded his soul.