His beloved witch

Chapter 38: Some manners

-Blanche-

Tricia and Magaly joined my training this morning, which was a pleasant surprise and a good distracter because my mind kept wandering between the news about Elba, its implications for Andre, and the name of a female… Maya.

It is a pretty name; Maya must be beautiful… but beautiful is subjective. What is beautiful to Andre?

Damn! Why am I thinking about that? There are more important things now!

Again, the name popped out of my head. I cannot focus… and I know why.

Therefore, while in a lotus position with my eyes closed, I come to terms with myself. It is important to know and understand your emotions. I have learned that. So, I took a deep breath.

Get ready, Blanche, because this is huge!

Breathe in, witch. Breath out.

Ready? Okay!

I am falling in love with Andre. I am falling deep and hard for the King of Lycans, and I am scared shitless.

Andre is kind, intelligent, passionate -in more than one aspect- and he drives me crazy! Who can protect her heart against a male like him?

Still, I am irritated with myself. It is too soon to feel like this! I cannot give him this kind of power over me so soon. He is not ready! No, I am not ready!

I saw Andre's face looking at me from a balcony just now, and I blushed intensely. He dared to smile at me, dazzling me. I barely noticed the other Lycan, shorter than him, in a black suit, standing next to him.

Goddess, I am in so much trouble now!

My witch heart wants more than just Andre's affection based on the mate bond. I want him to choose me for me.

That is the problem with feelings; you want more... you always want more.

I got to laugh at myself at that last thought. I have passed from being someone who begged to be loved to someone who wants more than the devotion of a fated mate... I have become an ambitious b***h, damn it!

I dropped those thoughts as I realized something important after paying attention to my conversations with Andre and my friends from the werewolf Kingdom. I just needed to confront Adela to confirm my suspicions about the cause of the death of Andre’s mother.

It is the first time I have wished I was not right about something…

The session ended, and I dismissed my ladies. Everyone left to get ready for tonight's party. It is too early for that, but every female wants to look her best.

Adela came next to me and handed me my Mina. I found it weird that she was with Andre. Yet it helps my purpose. I need to talk to her, and our conversation will be strained.

The soft mewls from Mina helped me release the tension from my shoulders. My fur children kissed my face and made me smile.

When I looked up, hoping to see my Lycan... Andre was gone. He could have waited to say goodbye to me.

Oh, bollocks! I am freaking ridiculous.

I pushed all my thoughts and feelings for Andre, focusing my attention on Tricia and Magaly as we walked together.

The girls petted Mina, and she meowed softly. Even Fergus allowed the girls close, and he is the most territorial of the three dogs. Animals are the best at judging people’s hearts; these girls mean no harm at all.

My fur children walked behind me, besides a squad of guards, and Adela stayed away, observing all.

I left Tricia at the door of her bedroom. Something like a beauty salon was installed there to get her ready.

Magaly looked at her sister's room with horror and closed the door. I walked her to the Royal Library then. She wanted to pick a new book to read since she had free time. Their Amauta gave both girls the day off, and I thought it was for both to get ready for the party later, but I was surprised when Magaly told me otherwise.

“I am not invited to the party! And I am grateful to my sister for letting me off the hook!”

“You are?” I asked, still walking with her. Damn corridor! It was a long way to the damn library. I am tired already!

"Oh, yes! Makeup… lipstick… all makes me feel I am wearing a mask to please others. No, thank you. I prefer to be surrounded by books."

What thirteen-year-old girl prefers books? Well, Princess Magaly does!

“Besides, our library is one of the largest in the world. And did you know that we have more than a thousand incunabula books?” She kept on.

Magaly dreams of traveling to other kingdoms and visiting their libraries and museums.

Since the largest library in our world is in Vampire territory, Magaly plans to ask for as her sixteenth birthday gift... a trip to that library instead of a party. Unfortunately, that vast collection is not fully available for Children of the Moon.

I did not want to break Magaly's heart by telling her about the rules, so I just smiled at her, thinking of a way to help her by then.

I was having such a good time with Magaly, an avid reader, that I considered staying with her.

"Maybe I should stay with you and skip the party altogether. I am sure you can recommend me a good book from there,” I said, although I was thinking about that thousand incunabula books!

Clara found another around four hundred hidden in the werewolf territory. Emma Rossi did a wonderful job there. Another hundred were confiscated from the family house of Melina De Witt, the fake Luna Queen. I could not check them before their restoration! And then I was busy with work, and then Andre brought me here.

Before I knew it, I was planning on spending more time with Magaly and the precious collection. We incline into the academic knowledge, but her radiant face changed suddenly.

     “I beg you, Your Majesty, do not do it, or my brother will hate me more for keeping you away from him.”

“Magaly, Andre does not hate you. And please, call me Blanche.”

“But Your…”

“I am your brother’s mate, therefore your sister-in-law… you should call me Blanche.” I was not thinking when I said it, and now… I cannot take it back, even less when Magaly smiled like that at me.

“Thank you, Blanche.”

“Come on! I just walked with you on my way to…," I looked around. I am freaking lost!

This palace is enormous. And most of the corridors and galleries look so much alike! “Somewhere!” Adela will help me find my way back.

“No! Thank you for helping us. Our little sister is better and all thanks to you. Tricia got what she wanted for her party and… Thank you for not being the evil witch we thought you were.”

I liked her! However, my guards moved nervously, and I could tell they did not like what Magaly said.

“I apologize, My Queen. Sometimes, I just… I should know my place.”

“What have I told you, sister-in-law? I am Blanche for you. Please, always tell me what you think.”

“Well, Blanche… Thank you again. I will hunt for my book now!” Magaly thanked me for the hundredth time and went into the immense library.

That kid needs to enjoy her childhood! Do I have to teach children how to be children here? I wanted to roll my eyes, but there was something pending to discuss with Adela, and I needed a special place for it.

“Your room is far, and it would be inappropriate for me to enter such place, your High… Miss Blanche,” Adela answered my request.

“What place would you suggest, Adela? I need to ask you something… in private.” Not far because I am freaking tired.

“The closest place would be the room for the incunabula books. It is almost atomic bomb-proof.” Adela joked, but seriously, humans can be so dangerous.

I took the offer and followed Adela.

The Royal Assistant held authority and made the guards stop before turning a corner. Adela made them wait for us. Then she touched a panel on the wall. A mysterious door opened at her contact. I walked down another long corridor.

Wow! This palace has better secret passages than the werewolf’s one. I found all of them in a week there. Here… I am still learning. I should have the blueprints!

I wondered if Charles and Francisco got this area protected, too. This entrance was a secret, and my fur children stayed behind.

“Francisco came here after your father left, Your Highness. But you should ask him if he finished the work. I am not sure.” Adela blushed when she mentioned Francisco.

Oh, that blush is adorable!

I hope Adela is not as stubborn as my mother and drops the torch for Eleazar. Even if she does not choose Francisco, there are plenty of amazing males in the world. That platonic love has been alive for too long.

Anyway, Adela took me to a small room where to read an incunable. Those books are the first editions of stories printed at the beginning of our civilization. So many are already lost in this world. Ergo, they are delicate treasures that never leave their sanctuary and must be treated with extreme care.

“Miss Blanche, please tell me what you need. King Andre sent me to assist you today because he is worried about you.”

“He is always worried, even if I am already guarded by an army out there.”

“No precaution is enough, your Highness.”

Someone knocked at the door and Adela allowed the Librarian in. She bowed and presented before us an incunable. It was an old black, hardcover book with gold letters. I approached it without touching it. It was the first edition of the first volume of the Moon’s Children tales. Amazing!

“My fingers are itching to touch it,” I admitted, staring at the book with an intense desire to open its pages!

Shit!

Me and my curiosity!

That is how I got my hand cursed at my grandma’s laboratory. Fortunately, the wound is closed and now it looks like a mole on my palm. Nothing to worry about.

“There are special gloves in that little bag, Your Highness.”

I shook my head no. Books later; I need to focus.

“There is no easy way to ask this question, but only you could know because you were close to her, and she trusted you.”

“Miss Blanche... Your Highness, I do not understand.”

“Damara’s symptoms were not of disease. I know it, Adela. I… know,” there is no better way to start this conversation.

Adela’s eyes grew like wide saucers.

“I am sorry, I do not understand what you mean…,” she tried to deny it.

“I paid attention to the details, Adela. Once you figure out what to look for, it is not so hard to conclude…”

Maggie said plenty when she thought I could reject Andre. Her mother-in-law was a Lycan and Eleazar’s sister. She was the former Luna of Silver Moon. The Alpha had a stupid prejudice against Lycans and broke her heart slowly… with similar symptoms as those Andre's mother had suffered.

“Please, I promised my Queen I would never say it.”

“Since Damara is dead, the blood oath is invalid,” Adela did not want to change her mind. “I came to you, to confirm my suspicions myself. I have not said anything to Andre, yet.”

I waited for Adela to tell me the story, so she could remove the venom and come clean before Andre. He deserves the truth.

“Did it happen around the time Eleazar threw the cat away or before?” I had concluded Andre’s mother found her fated mate by then.

“King Eleazar should not have thrown that cat away... or he should have just left it lost forever…”

Oh…

“It was all that cat’s fault!” Adela recalled with resentment, but she calmed down.

I stayed silent to listen.

“Rejecting a fated mate is taboo in our culture. There was not enough information about it. Damara was my friend, and I wanted to help her… She was trying to protect her family, Miss Blanche.” Adela was rubbing one hand with the other nervously.

“Damara loved Eleazar, and they were happy with their son. The other male... She would not leave her family, not even for her fated mate. Fortunately, he understood her position. However, he would wander around the palace hoping to see her even from far.”

“Did she fully reject him, then?” I guessed.

“She tried but did not work,” Adela explained. So, my potion would not have worked on Andre? “We could not ask around and she did not want King Eleazar to find out.”

“Yet, she could not be with Eleazar anymore,” I added.

“She knew her fated mate would feel it,” Adela admitted with sadness in her voice. “We did not understand why she would still be linked to that male! She was the Queen of Lycans. Why did it happen to her?”

I do not understand it either.

Damara was marked by King Eleazar. She should not have felt her fated mate after that. However, “For werewolves, taking a chosen mate works if there is consent, yet the bond is never as strong as the one made by the Moon Goddess,” the death of a chosen mate does not end the life of the other werewolf... 

“I think the mate bond of Lycans is unbreakable. Not even someone else’s mark can change it,” Adela reasoned. “Since it is considered a sin against our Goddess, it is something never seen before in our culture.”

Talia, Richard’s mother, died because she could not reject her asshole Alpha mate. I thought it was because she did not even try.

“Is that why you supported Andre and me from the start?”

Adela blushed.

“I had my doubts since you are not a Lycan, but I knew the consequences of fighting the bond. The Lycan weakens the human and falls into depression… And you know the rest…”

Crap.

“Andre should know.”

“Please, no. It does not matter anymore!”

“I am not going to hide things from him, Adela. You tell him, or I will.”

“Why?” Adela forgot all formality.

“We need the past to understand the present and be prepared for the future. Andre needs all the information he can get!”

I want him to understand the past, so he does not resent his father that much. Eleazar suffered years of loneliness without fully understanding the reason for his mate's neglect. Cara was just there in a moment of weakness, I guess.

“Andre already knows you are his weakness.”

“What?”

“Every Lycan in our Kingdom felt a piece of our souls being ripped off when you almost died. No one doubts you are fated to be our King's mate, even without a ceremony, you are our Queen.”

I passed a hand over my face. I understand better his overprotectiveness even within these walls.

 “Please, my Queen wanted to keep that secret to her grave. She knew what she was doing when she hid it.”

“And you helped her,” Andre would feel betrayed by Adela, and if he found out I knew… "You are asking too much!”

“I promise you, if this information becomes of use to him, I will tell him… Not before. Your Highness, I beg you… Miss Blanche, please!”

Why do I feel like the villain now? Damn! Sometimes, I hate to be right.

“Please, reflect on this,” I was frowning, but Adela smiled. “I can give you some time for it. And only because his heart will break if he finds out from another source that you had this information for years!” I am the one about to beg this time. “I do not want secrets between Andre and me."

“I will think about it, thank you, Miss Blanche,” Adela said, with a smile and teary eyes. “I am so happy; Andre has earned your love.”

      “What? Why would you say that?” I crossed my arms in front of me, shielding myself from her accusation. It is a very recent truth to myself; I am not ready to share it with anyone else, not even Andre!

Adela did not answer me. Her eyes flickered red and looked at me, worried.

“Princess Magaly is asking me to go to her. We better hurry!”

I nodded as we both left the room and the precious book under the care of the Librarian.

“Our princess has heard something important!” Adela whispered to me.

I obeyed and followed her as she tracked Magaly's scent in the immense empty library! Everyone was busy with the party. My guards were outside somewhere. Damn! Magaly was not joking about the size of this place!

We found her sitting on the floor, hugging her knees between large stands of books. She pointed to a place from where I could hear some voices behind large stands of books… and one of those voices was familiar to me.

Magaly was nervous, and Adela urged me to leave, but I didn't listen. I followed my instinct and walked closer to where the voices came from. Libraries in Lycan and werewolf territory have a scent neutralizer in the environment, so I moved confidently, only careful of the noise I made.

When I understood what that conversation was about, I felt my blood boil. I appeared as the witch I am and slapped the stupid face of Salomon Ventimiglia. Someone had to teach him some manners.