The Princess Broken Wolf

20

Laying down on the cool grass with the calming breeze blowing on the field, Rosamund was somewhere far away from where she currently was. It wasn’t that she was feeling any more emotional or sadness or relief, it was that she felt absolutely nothing. It seemed as if all the feelings she had to feel had now been felt, the emotions she had to withstand, some for the first time, some after a decade of not feeling them and some that had been with her since she deciphered the true meaning of emotions, were hauntingly empty in her heart. It was somehow free for her and made her light, but in the other end, the uneasiness that she felt was multiplied ten fold. Her mind worked differently, and she was aware, but the core of her problems were well aware, not wanting to kill Ruslan and wanting to flee. The instant the word flee came into her mind, Marcus presented himself in all his ethereal glory.

“Your Highness.” He curtsy beside her before plopping down beside her.

Rosamund rolled her eyes at the lack of display of respect in the way he laid down beside her, with a noticeable length apart. But she knew he was the child of Pandora and Pandora had never been known to give a s**t about royalty. The apple, apparently, didn’t fall far away from the tree.

“Do you know what I just heard on my way back?” he mockingly asked, giving her the time to respond to the question she didn’t even know.

“What is it?” she gave into his bright excited face.

“I heard that we will be stopping in Jamoil, in the so-called Crescent Castle. No one ever told us about that now, have they?” he questioned, tapping his finger on his chin as if he was intently thinking about the reasons. Rosamund was sure he was well aware before she knew about a castle deep in the woods that was so hidden even she didn’t know about.

“ An interesting thing about this Crescent Castle is,” he continuted, “ that it was a hidden gift by Princess Asteria to Queen Mavis. Now I can’t help but think, why was this castle hidden till now? And why would the King travel there when the way to Jamoil is to cross Karkonz? He could have reached Karkonz within two days instead of four.” Marcus voiced his question loud enough for only her to hear. The fact that she didn’t know the way to Jamoil was through Karkonz, made her rethink a few things Ruslan had told her. He told her he had to take care of a little work in Jamoil, but what could be more important than taking one’s bride to commence marriage when war was an open threat? Wasn’t it his best option to make the blood bond before the white moon? Wait, Rosamund thought as she woke from her relaxed pose. White Moon. It was in a few days' time, five days from now and, as far as she knew about the Wolf Shifters, the White Moon meant humans would lose their minds for precisely four days.

“I think you know what's going on,” Marcus said. She had forgotten about him.

“The White Moon,” Rosamund whispered, and looked directly at Marcus. He nodded in return and looked dead in her eyes.

“It’s also when the wolf marks its mate.” the mention of marking made her skin crawl. It was a phenomenon she could never have been able to understand. There was no written manuscript that she could follow or any instructions in any of the books in the Magnus Library in Marigold. One thing though, that was clear was it was a ritual where the wolf present in the person would fully express himself and claim his mate. It could either be a fated mate i.e selected out of convenience or the soul mate, that was said to be half the soul of that wolf. The fated-mate was a difficult option for a mate as many wolves would reject the notion, and thus the human part of the wolf would also have to reject it. Rosamund knew from seeing the glimpses of Ruslan’s world that he was an extremely powerful but picky wolf. And as far as his encounter with her went, he was the Alpha. The other information she got when traveling to Karkonz a long time ago as a part of a delegation sent to establish a friendly relationship with them. Rosamund had sneaked into the main library where there were books on history in far more diversity than there were in Marigold. She came upon a book that had the title, “Wolf’s Secret,” a not so very subtle way of hiding the wolf’s secret, but it made her find more about wolves easily. In that book, she had learned about the ranking of wolves, Alpha being the strongest but the most berserk, Beta, on the second ranking, who had the most intellectual intelligence, and on the third, Gama, the wolf healer and breader. Alpha was the rarest of the lot. Their generations were multiplied by Beta and Gamma and once in every generation, Alpha was born. Being Alpha, they were no small feat, they were the strongest in every sense, with super-natural powers and extreme intelligence that could surpass any scholar. They were usually considered the God of the Wolf clan, but with every extreme power came extreme consequences. Alphas could go berserk any time and when their mates died, they were usually responsible for the annihilation of their own clan. The Alpha Wolf is extremely dominant. Sometimes they would even rein in the consciousness of the person, and kill the human part internally without the person even knowing. Rosamund had read that as far as wolf clan history went, there were only 30 alphas ever reported as a whole and, in half of that population, more than 15 were responsible for the mass killing of their fellow clan. Ruslan, being an Alpha, was something she should have considered from the very first time.

“Do you think that he….” she didn’t need to confirm her fears. Ruslan was considering having his wolf mark her during their stay at the Crescent Castle. This made her plans more difficult than they already were.

“For that reason, I bought you a gift.” Marcus said, holding a normal-looking hairpin.

“This is a hairpin,” she deadpanned.

“I know. A special hairpin.” Marcus smiled. Taking the hairpin back, he twisted one of the pearls attached to it. There was a hidden bottle inside the pearl.

“This, Your Highness, is the Rafflesia Poison I collected the last time we met.” he held the pearl bottle to her, reluctantly she took it and examined the bottle carefully.

“It will definitely knock an Alpha down on its ass.” He affirmed.

Rosamund nodded in reply and twisted the pearl back into its place. They shared silence from then on. Rosamund was playing with the hairpin just as she heard footsteps coming nearer to her. It was taking her a bit of time to be able to recognize the footsteps but she was getting there. She knew that Marcus had gone long before the person made their way towards her.

“ Your Majesty?” a male voice spoke. Rosamund turned towards the voice. She found the bulky looking man from before that sat beside Ruslan during supper.

“Yes, Sir?” she asked, casually putting the hairpin in her hair.

“ I am Sir Micheal Gorman, Commander of the safety team assigned to you. I have come to ask for your forgiveness.” Micheal bowed low on his knees, putting his sword on the ground just as he continued, “ I know Seika was wrong about what she said and for that, as her Commander, I seek your forgiveness for not taking action then and there. We are more than aware of your greatness and excellence and it makes me feel ashamed that I lack such qualities and for that I deeply apologize. Give me a chance to repent, Your Majesty. I have greatly wronged you.” his speech startled and amused her equally. For him to apologize for someone else’s mistake in itself was more valor than she had seen among her own army. Ruslan was an excellent leader and ruler, something she was surprised at.

Waking up from her seat, Rosamund responded as sincerely as she could.

“Firstly Sir, I apologize for making you think that you have to apologize on behalf of someone else. They have been dealt with and, second, I am grateful that you have kept me in such high regard. It humbles me to no extent and I believe you, Sir Micheal, are an excellent Commander.” she gave him the same curtsy he had given her and she could see how much it mattered to him.

“I am proud to have you as my Queen, your majesty, and till death makes me leave this realm, I will serve you with my sword and myself.” his loud voice made a few bystanders focus their attention on them. Rosamund blushed a scarlet red. Thanking her, Micheal went back on his way while Rosamund was left contemplating everything.

“You have a lot of fans, it seems.” Rosamund screamed, startled when Ruslan spoke. She didn’t even detect his presence, let alone his emotions.

“I am sorry,” he apologized while smiling.

“I don’t have fans.” Rosamund chose to reply instead of commenting on his presence.

“You do. Even my wolf keeps making sonnets for you.” he looked visibly disturbed and irritated.

“Your wolf?” In order for her to know more about him and his wolf, she had to play the dumb princess. Whether It worked or not, she didn’t know.

“My wolf’s name is Aleksander. He is an Alpha but currently, he is acting like a puppy whenever he is around you.” Ruslan admitted, picking up the fallen hairpin that she threw when he spoke.

“Aleksander.” Rosamund muttered the name softly. Ruslan stiffened in reply while giving back the hairpin.

“Please don’t say his name.” He pleaded to her suddenly.

“Why?” Rosamund asked, stepping back just as he came towards her.

“Because if you say his name, he’ll definitely fully dominate himself and believe me, even if I am the strongest general in this realm, I cannot fight this jackass that lives freely within me.” his honest admission made her laugh out loud. For Ruslan to fully curse his other part in front of her and admit blatant defeat, it was too hilarious not to laugh at.

“Ah f**k. He makes me say things I don’t even have words for.” Ruslan sighed while smiling at her.

They were both walking on thin ice, tiptoeing between things they had to say to each other and do for the sake of the best for the greater good, but it felt nice to have someone to laugh with, Rosamund admitted to herself.

It feels nice to matter, she thought to herself silently.