Silas also takes a sip of his tea before saying, “Ah yes, your goal of being here. I’m sure it’s been uncomfortable having to leave your home to get to know a strange male you’ve been told you’ll spend the rest of your life with.” He takes another sip and then continues, “I hope you’ve been comfortable here.”
I have, but no thanks to you...“I've been as comfortable as the situation allows. Spending time with Marcellus is worth all of it though.” I glance at Marcellus with the mention of him, and smile at catching him patiently helping to correct the grip his soldier has on their sword.
I reach forward to grab one of the scones, it has red smudges hinting there might be strawberries inside of them, and I wonder if they were picked from the field Marcellus took me to. “I hope you don’t mind me borrowing my nephew’s time tonight. He usually helps me when I’m working on perfecting bigger spells.”
“I don’t mind at all. I enjoy that he’s close to his family. We have our whole lives to spend together, a few missed hours in the name of family is nothing compared to having the rest of our lives.” I finish off my tea due to thirst even though I abhor the taste. Although, I’m more parched now than before drinking the tea.
Silas finishes the last sip of his tea at the same time, and asks, “Would you like some more?” I quickly shake my head no and place my cup and saucer on the tray. “Well then, I best get back to work prepping ingredients. A fair amount of grinding down bark, roots, and such left to complete. I will see you later, Your Highness.”
I watch him walk off without allowing me to respond to his parting words. I, sometimes, wonder if he even knows my name. The way he says ’Your Highness’ is almost a mockery instead of a term of respect.Sigh... only a few more hours.The serving girl picks up the tray after I grab another scone and heads back into the castle.
I return to working on my carry-all bag interspersed with sneaking glances at Marcellus while he’s training his men. When he’s finally finished, Marcellus walks over and helps me stand while gathering the blanket for me. He drapes it over his arm and then escorts me all the way to my room.
When we get there he leans in and whispers to me, “I can’t wait for you to be the one taking me on an adventure. I know it’ll be the best one of my life. Just a little longer, my darling, I'll be back before you know it.” He gives me a kiss on the hand but stares at my lips while he does it, causing me to break out in a smile for him.I wish the kiss was on my lips too, my knight...
Before walking away, he knocks on the door across the hall to alert my guards I’m back, and once Frances comes out, he walks away. I wonder, will I miss all the sweet whispers when we’re no longer concerned with his uncle overhearing us? I’m willing to wager Marcellus will find new things he wants to whisper to me that will cause my blushing cheeks to become permanent. I head into my room and place the blanket on a chair.
After having the scones I’m not hungry, but I find myself tired enough to sleep for a bit. This is probably an idea I should’ve planned out since we’re going to be traveling for as long as possible tonight. Being fully rested will ensure we can cover a larger distance. I lay down on the bed and close my eyes, daydreaming about what my life with Marcellus will be like once we reach home.
Chapter 22
Derrick
Present
Ican’t recall a moment when I've been happier to see Marcus’ cabin come into view. We’ve spent several days traveling to arrive at the Canadian cabin that's just over the border. Having to carry Princess added a good deal of time versus us being able to just shift and travel in wolf form. We also added to the length of our journey by taking a route with the least amount of population. No matter how you spin things, seeing three men with an unconscious woman sends up red flags.
Klaus is carrying her at the moment, lucky for him because if he wasn’t I probably would’ve punched him by now. In fact, I still might once he puts her down because he still hasn’t shut the hell up. “She’s been nothing but trouble from the moment she entered our lives, I don’t know why you both can’t admit it. I don’t care if we have a connection to her or not. It’s unnatural. I’m telling you something’s going on. There’s no reason we should be able to hear each other’s thoughts in wolf form while touching her.”
I’m pretty sure his last argument is due to me fucking with him two days ago when he still didn’t know about that little tidbit. He almost took a chunk out of my ass chasing me down when I started to voice his personal thoughts out loud. I still think it was worth it, though.
“Klaus, if you don’t drop the subject, I’m going to beat your ass!” Ah, he’s gotten on Alex’s last nerve too it seems. “I know you’re going to end up regretting the moment you ever suggested we drop her off at a hospital and forget about her.” Alex’s nostrils flare as he points his finger at Klaus.
“Yeah, I doubt that,” Klaus mutters under his breath. I’m with Alex on this one, I have a feeling she’s someone important to all of us. In fact, I think he won’t just regret those words but he’ll end up on his knees begging for forgiveness at some point.
We approach the steps leading up to the porch and the front door unexpectedly swings open. Alex and I both jump in front of Klaus to make sure we’re a wall of protection before anyone can get to our girl. “What the fuck, Marcus, way to give us a heads-up. How did you get here before us?” Alex asks from beside me.
“A little thing I like to call modern transportation.” Oh snap, Marcus got jokes all of a sudden. He strides forward and pushes Alex and I out of his way and grabs Princess out of Klaus’ hold. All without a word, nice to know some things don’t change. We all watch as he cuddles her into his chest and walks through the front door of the cabin.
I see Klaus frown out of the corner of my eye before he sticks his hands in his front pockets. Yeah, he sure does want to get rid of her. His denial causes me to roll my eyes. We follow Marcus into the cabin, not seeing the need to stand around outside.
This is the third reimagining of a cabin Marcus has built on this particular property of his. He’s owned the land for so long, he had to tear down the old buildings to start from scratch with a new structure. He goes through periods where he spends a lot of time here, and then huge chunks of time where he doesn’t come at all. Typically, after one of his neglectful periods is when he has to rebuild the cabin since it becomes uninhabitable.
Marcus strides right for the love seat, sitting in the middle as if he’s trying to discourage anyone from joining him. Alex scoffs, probably thinking the same thing as me, and then he squeezes onto the loveseat with Marcus making him scoot over to the edge. Princess is sitting across his lap with her head on his chest as if she was just taking a peaceful nap there.
His arms wrap around her, and he kisses the top of her head. The tension visibly melts out of his muscles the longer he holds her. Yeah... same, buddy, same. I take a seat on the couch angled perpendicular to the loveseat, making the two form an L shape. Klaus takes the seat on the other end of the couch and slumps back resting his head on a pillow he grabbed from the seat. He lets out a long exhale and runs his hands through his hair.
“It’s felt like a lifetime since we saw you, man. Was the radio silence really necessary?” I ask Marcus. He left with the tracker and we hadn’t heard from him since. Kind of a dick move, if you ask me.
He jumps and his arms instinctively squeeze around our girl as he glares at me, as if forgetting we were here until the sound of my voice popped his isolated bubble. “Yes, it was.” Okay, guess it’s too much to ask for him to respond in any kind of depth.
“Marcus, you know we’d like a little more detail than that. Fine, let me put it this way, give us a full detailed report. WAIT! A full detailed report containing the interesting facts.” There, that should cover us.
Alex gives a sharp chuckle. “Nice save.” Yeah, we’ve learned that lesson before. Marcus could’ve told us the pertinent information in five minutes, instead he took twenty stating we asked for it to be detailed and we’d need to learn to accept what we asked for. Needless to say, we weren’t amused. On the flip side, at least we’ve learned how to get what we want out of him when it comes to communication.
Marcus gives a grunt before providing the details we wanted to know. “The tracker looked high-tech, and I had no way of knowing what capabilities it possessed without having time to fully inspect it. I didn’t have the time nor the equipment to pull that off while on the run. So, if there was a chance they could hear us, or tap into nearby towers, I chose the side of caution and remained radio silent.
“I knew you guys would be fine with a break in contact for the few days it would take for us to meet back up. Since I sent you north to the cabin, I decided to head east. I ran in my wolf form hard and fast until I reached New York and headed straight for the airport. From there, I found someone who had luggage tagged for an international flight and slipped the tracker in their bag. My objective there is pretty clear.
