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Each puzzle has its own allotted time. The easiest puzzle in this three-dimensional debacle takes a little less than an hour and fifty-six minutes to complete. The one that she chose to do takes three hours. On the count of three, the judge counts it off and Bella starts building. I watch her sort the puzzle pieces out first so she can figure out what goes where. When she finishes sorting the pieces, she starts building the base of the puzzle.
“Hey Orwell, what puzzle is she building?” I just had to ask the prince.
“Wow, she chose that one,” he says that as he runs his hand down his face and shakes his head.
“Is it really that bad?” He just looks at me, looks back over at Bella.
“We’ve yet to see anyone actually complete that puzzle in the last century. Only one person completed it, and it was the person who created the puzzle.” I can’t help but look between Orwell and back over to Kaedyn. He’s now visibly sweating from the stress of watching our mate take on this most difficult puzzle.
“What’s that supposed to be, anyway?” Orwell just looks at us and then stares back out across the field at Bella.
“It’s the puzzle of Romulus and Remus. The two wolves that supposedly found Rome.” And then reality dawns on us; it is the first depicted history of shifters in the world. We watch for what seems like forever, but in reality. It’s only been approximately thirty-five minutes and Bella is already halfway done.
She slides puzzle pieces around and stops working on building the legs of the wolves. She then moves over to assembling the bodies. Why she picked this one is beyond me. But she’s building both wolves side-by-side piece by piece. They are almost mirror images of each other. She completes the first body and then the second. And then comes the task of her placing the bodies on top of the legs that she built first. The first wolf slides into place without an issue. The second one, one of the back legs, ends up falling, and she has to place the body back down onto the table and rebuild the leg that she had broken. When she finally has it assembled; she double checks both wolves and makes sure that there're no pieces left on her table before slapping the buzzer, signifying that she’s done. She’s completed a three-hour puzzle in an hour and ten minutes. Just a fraction of the time that was allotted for her.
The judge comes over and confirms that she’s completed it and then gives her the gold card to allow her to move onto the next puzzle. Bella moves on to the next section, and this is a trial of intelligence. It’s another three-dimensional puzzle. She has to move a single metal bowl through the puzzle without using her gifts, and without touching the sides of the puzzle. It kind of reminds me of that human game of the guy that’s sliced open on the table. The one where you have to remove his bones or ligaments from these little holes that are cut in a similar shape to the item that you’re removing. If you touch the sides, a buzzer goes off and his nose lights up. Bella stares at it for a few moments and watches the other female next to her working on the same puzzle that she’s getting ready to start. Several moments pass as she watches and sees the female fail at it three times. Three strikes and you’re out and you have to start all over again back at the beginning with the three-dimensional puzzle build again. The female is in tears as she walks away from her failure.
After having watched what that female had done wrong. Bella moves her piece through the puzzle. About halfway through, she hits the side and buzzes and has to start all over from the beginning again. My heart is in my throat as I anxiously watch her as she moves through, much slower this time. Orwell is pacing the deck where we’re standing, overseeing the entire event. As much as he’s supposed to remain neutral in this entire thing and watch all the females equally, his eyes have barely left Bella the entire time. Every move, every flop of her hair he’s watched. I would swear that he was ready to jump over the rail the moment that the buzzer went off when she accidentally touched the side the first time. Three-quarters of the way through the puzzle, she stops and takes a breath or wipes her hands on her dress. She takes a calming breath and then returns to the puzzle again. She doesn’t make it through the fastest, but she completes it without a problem. Once she slides the metal ball into its compartment at the end, she hits the buzzer. The judge comes over to ensure she completed fairly. Completing the second puzzle, she receives her second gold card and moves on to the last event.
The last puzzle has to be the most difficult one to date. It’s a book full of riddles, with several ways to answer them. But only one way will be correct and once you get the answers, they will form a sentence, provided you place them in the correct order. Bella flips through the book, glancing at all the pages. As she stares at the book, it dawns on her and she writes answers as she flips through the book back to front. She just doesn’t go from front to back. She just randomly picks different pages. Whichever answer comes to her first is the one that she answers. We see her doing this for maybe the first twenty minutes of this portion of the trial. We’ve already gone through most of the day today. It’s coming up on three o’clock and over half of the participants have already been eliminated. Bella is just about done with the book, and when she finishes, she draws in a deep breath, stops, looks up at us for a mere moment, then stares at the paper in front of her with all of her answers written.
As she organizes the words, we can see her flipping them around back and forth until she’s finally satisfied with the sentence that she’s created. She rings the bell, signifying she’s finished rewriting the sentence, then hands it to the judge that comes over to her. He looks it over and then looks up at the box with us and Orwell’s parents. He gives King Mateo a thumbs up and then motions for Bella to take a seat over on the platform that’s just below ours. One other female is sitting there, which means at some point there needs to be a tie breaking event. Bella sits calmly with her hands folded in her lap, just looking out at the last of the contestants that are standing there still trying to compete their tasks. One by one, they either quit or pass and move on to the last one. But sadly, the last puzzle cuts the number of contestants down to just Bella and two others.
King Mateo moves to the edge of the balcony and raises his hands, silencing the gathered crowd. “We have never had anyone make it to the final round so easily. We shall judge each proceeding round based on difficulty.”
The bald-headed judge, known as John, comes up and delivers three sheets of paper to King Mateo. He looks over the three pieces and then smiles. “Each of our contestants had done a different puzzle for their first puzzle. In the three-dimensional challenge. One chose Romulus and Remus, the three-hour puzzle. One chose the Great Norse bear, and the last one chose the sleeping pup, the thirty-minute puzzle. Now, based on its difficulty, the contestant that won the first round is the one that completed the Romulus and Remus puzzle.” Bella shows no reaction but sits up just a little straighter for the second.
“When it came to going through the puzzle with the least amount of alarms set off. The total was one.” Bella raises her head slightly in acknowledgement. But to everyone else, she barely moved.
“And the last the completion of the riddles with the fastest time. Was Belladonna of the Shadow Court.” She stays perfectly still and does not move. Having only heard her name uttered once. The other two accomplishments were definitely hers. Bella is not moving nor acknowledging that the accomplishments were hers. For whatever reason, she’s allowing the other females to feel as though they may have got somewhere. She remains seated still.
“Since I only have two sons, there can only be two winners.” King Mateo says as he starts his way down the stairs, heading toward the balcony that the girls are on.
“In first place Belladonna Queen of the Shadow Court.” Bella slowly stands and then curtsies out of respect to the king.
“Who do you choose to be your mate?” His voice reverberates around the field and everything goes as silent as death itself.
Bella looks up to the balcony, and I can see the wide smile growing across Orwell’s lips. “I choose your son Orwell to be my mate.” Her voice is strong and sure as she makes the announcement. She laughs just slightly, then looks up at him. “That is, if he’ll have me.” She makes that last statement, which was unnecessary. Because as it is. The winners have been chosen and their fate sealed.
Orwell makes it down the stairs and comes over to Bella’s side. She offers him her hand, and he takes it, raising it slowly to kiss her knuckles. “I accept you Belladonna, as my mate,” he says, clearly smiling at her. A slight dip of her head is given, and then she looks up at the rest of us. Kaedyn is smiling and dips his head. Having received our blessing, she closes the distance between herself and Orwell and kisses him.
Callan is up on the balcony throwing the mother of all fits when the second female utters his name, choosing him to be her mate. He objects immediately. He objects so firmly that the wolf in him rips loose. It goes tearing down the stairs and off into the woods. I have never seen an adult male act like such a brash child before my entire life. It’s borderline disgraceful the way he’s acting. The sadness that seeps into his father’s eyes is clear. His mother is in tears, crying to herself on the balcony. Covering her face with her hands. Trying to hide how much her son's reaction just hurt her. Slowly, Bella and Orwell ascend the stairs, coming to stand beside us. Silent high fives are exchanged with Orwell and bro hugs are given and he’s welcomed into our little family.
King Mateo resumes his spot on the podium up on the top balcony. “The celebration begins in thirty minutes. Please join us. Eat, drink and be merry. We’ll have the mating ceremony toward the end of dinner. All are welcome.” His voice carries across the field, and everyone celebrates. Bella is beaming with excitement. I can feel the flutter in my chest. The fluttering reminds me of the butterflies I first felt when I stared at her for the first time. When my wolf and her wolf acknowledged each other as mates. It was one of the most pivotal moments in my life. And now here I watch her take a mate to bring into the fold. It’s not a true mate, neither of these guys were. But this is by choice and he’s going willingly. I can’t wait to see how the night unfolds.
Chapter28
Belladonna
Having watched everything unfold,I’m honestly not shocked at Callan’s reaction to me choosing his brother Orwell over him. The poor female that chose Callan is in tears, curled up in a ball leaning against the wall that leads into the castle. Orwell, Hollis and Kaedyn hug it out and my guys offer him support. Breathing in a deep, slow breath.
I look to see where Orwell’s mother is currently standing. I leave my guys and head over to her and pull her into a big, tight hug. I allow her to rest her head on my shoulder, and I rest my cheek on her temple. Humming softly to her, I try to soothe over her grated nerves at the disgraceful action of her son. It honestly took me by surprise how Callan had acted. I guess he was looking forward to being a king in the Shadow Court versus being the king of his father’s court. Disappointment’s a bitch, isn’t it? I’m more disappointed in him in how he has treated the poor female that honestly felt like she had won the lottery, having the chance to claim him as hers.
First, I soothe his mother, then I head over to the poor female and try to offer her some semblance of support. She honestly isn’t having it. She bats my hand away and starts growling, attempting to be threatening even though her wolf is maybe the quarter of the size of mine. Arching a curious brow, I look down at her. “Are you seriously trying to intimidate me?” I try to ask her as gently as possible until her wolf rips free of her and starts trying to back me into a corner.
I know deep down I can utterly destroy her, but I won’t. She’s hurting and in pain and there’s not much that I can do about it other than tolerate her current shenanigans and hope for her to come to her senses before I have to do something brash. She snaps several times in my general direction and that’s about it. My wolf isn’t having it and she’s demanding retribution for the level of disrespect this much smaller wolf is causing. Orwell’s mother and father are in a mild state of panic, seeing that this young small she-wolf is threatening me. They know my size and level of damage that I can cause and, to be perfectly honest, this little female isn’t worth the trouble. I try to do my best to dissuade her from wanting to attack me.
But unfortunately, she’s too far gone, and her wolf isn’t listening. She snaps several more times at me, almost getting my ankles. My guys run up and try to flank me. All I do is raise a hand to stop them and continue to stare at the female before me. “Little one, you’re gonna give me no choice in a few moments. I’m going to have to defend myself if you keep this nonsense up.” Her growls only deepen, and it saddens me to watch her throw her life away over a male that obviously doesn’t want her.
