5. The royal Wax seal

Freya

“Freya! Freya? May I come in?” I heard my mother call out to me from the hallway, beyond the door that I hadn’t locked myself for once. Instead, my father had decided that my “insolent behavior” deserved a punishment, and that punishment was to be locked away like some princess in a fairy tale. Not fit to be part of society, my family, nor the world anymore.

“Do I have a choice?” I replied, my swollen eyes opening slightly as the door creaked open, my mother holding a wooden tray full of food. It had been days since I ate, and the smell of stew meat, bread, cheese, and wine hit punched me right in the nose and caused my stomach to rumble wildly.

“Freya, you need to eat,” she insisted as she sat next to me, raising a hand to pet my head. I flinched and withdrew from her, and I could see in her eyes how much that had hurt her.

“I’m sorry,” I replied weakly. “I can’t bring myself to.”

“Not even my stew?” my mother asked.

“Yours? Not the cooks?” I queried, sitting up a little as I inhaled deeply, my senses submerged in the scent of her amazing cooking. By the time she had put the tray across my lap, I was already salivating, imagining the savory soup in my mouth.

“Mine,” my mother said as she took a spoonful and held it to my mouth. But even though I wanted nothing more than to chow down, I knew that I had to use that moment to my advantage.

“I appreciate the gesture, but no thank you,” I said as I weakly got up, tray in hand, and set it on my dresser.

“I hate seeing you like this,” my mother sighed, her eyes full of worry as she took a seat on the end of my bed. “You’re being incredibly stubborn.”

“I’m the one who’s stubborn?” I asked. “Let me remind you what father is trying to force me to do. Not respecting my wishes is what’s stubborn.”

“He is the alpha of this clan, Freya,” my mother sighed. “I don’t always agree with his choices—“

“—So you’ll help me?” I asked.

“Now wait a minute—“

“—Mom, I cannot marry Matthew!” I blubbered, getting on my knees and throwing myself against her legs. “He’s a womanizer and a creep!”

“Freya, this is a way to keep you in the family,” my mother replied as she patted my head.

“By sending me away to live with some asshole?” I argued. My mom went quiet for a moment and let out an exasperated sigh.

“Well he certainly wasn’t my first choice,” she replied, sticking her tongue out in disgust.

“Then you’ll help me?” I asked as I looked up at her, and I could see the sadness in her eyes. She obviously hadn’t been a fan of the decision either. If I could just get her on my side, I would be safe from the clutches of the heartless Dark Star leader.

“Freya, I love you…but…you know now your father is.”

“You know how to talk to him though,” I contended. “He loves you, and besides Raven, you’re the only other person he will listen to.”

She paused, letting out another deep sigh. “I’ll try.”

“Yes! Mother thank you!” I said as I stood up and threw my arms around her.

“But you have to eat,” she said. “Or no deal.”

“Fine,” I groaned half-heartedly. “As long as you don’t tell him I caved and ate. I don’t need him gloating.”

“Deal,” my mother said as I slid back into bed and ate my meal as my mother gave me a kiss on my forehead before she’d slipped out. However, the hours turned into days with no let up on my entrapment, I stopped eating again. Knowing full well that if she had talked with him, it’d fallen on deaf ears, very mulish ones, and again I’d collapsed into a world of despair.

As I ‘d laid there in my room with nothing to do, I had been doing a lot of daydreaming. I’d been imagining myself frolicking in the fields by our house in the early autumn breeze, leaves floating through the air when I was awoken by knocking at my door again. “Go away,” I yelled weakly.

“That’s no way to greet a friend, Frey” a familiar voice replied as they stepped through the door, and I felt a sprig of happiness bloom in my heart as Lucy stepped through the door.

“Lucy!”

“I’ve been calling you,” Lucy replied. “You weren’t answering and my father told me any this whole fucking Dark Star pack deal,” she said as she stuck out her tongue in disgust. “Jesus, you look terrible.”

“Thaaaanks,” I replied. “I haven’t been eating or sleeping well.”

“I can imagine,” Lucy replied. “I heard from my parents you’ve been promised to the Dark Star foagie.”

“Ugh, I don’t want this,” I said as I began to cry. “My father won’t listen to anyone, not even my mother apparently. He’s made up his mind that if I’m not going to be a proper wolf, the only other option is to marry me off for political purposes and resources.”

“He couldn’t have found you someone else at least in your age range?” Lucy groaned. “For all we know, his Luna died of heartbreak from all the philandering he’s done… or god forbid some disease.”

“Well, what can I do?” I replied tearfully.

“Actually, that’s part of why I dropped by,” Lucy said as she fumbled through her purse before pulling out an envelope and handing it to me. “I might have an alternate solution.”

“What’s this?” I ask as I flip it over and see the royal Wax seal on the back.

“Is this…”

“Yep! It’s from the royal city,” Lucy asserted with a nod. “Well come on now, open it!”

I slid my fingers carefully under the lip of the envelope, careful not to pop off the wax seal, and opened it up, pulling the carefully folded letter out from inside. I unraveled the note, and on the parchment was a handwritten letter, scrawled in the most beautiful calligraphy.

Three Months earlier, Lucy had covered for me, inviting me on a trip with her family to the royal city, a bold-faced lie. Instead, I’d attended the biennial royal nurse exams, something I had wanted to do for as long as I could remember. It had just been a bonus at the time to hopefully pass and be rid of the grip my father held on me.

I’d never wanted to be a warrior or his whipping wolf. I wanted my own life, and if that meant being a royal nurse, I had felt it would be far better than being married off or whatever else he had in store for me… and unfortunately, I’d been right. I just never had thought it would have gotten as bad as it did…

“Come on, Freya! Don’t leave me in suspense, what does it say?” Lucy asked, and as my eyes scrawled across the paper, I’d lit up with the first smile I had since before I’d been told I had to marry Matthew.

“Holy shit, I got in!”

“Oh my gods!” Lucy squealed with excitement as she threw her arms around me and embraced me hard. “That’s amazing news!” Lucy said as she let go and looked at me. “When does it say to be there?”

“By this weekend is best,” I replied, and the excitement started to wane. My heart sunk a little as I remembered the reality of my situation. I had to leave Raven and my mother behind. Lucy. The only life I’d ever known…

“But how do I get out of here? There’s always somebody watching.”

“Hmm…” Lucy said as she paced the floor. “I’ve got it. You can skip out with all the commotion going on with Raven’s engagement party.”

“Oh… right…” I sighed.

“Still upset about Blake?” Lucy asked, and I gave a silent little nod.

“Mhmm…”

“Listen, Freya, you are absolutely gorgeous. There’s plenty of men out there who would be dying to date you,” Lucy said. “Blake is definitely a hottie with a body, but you’ll be in the royal fleet of nurses! Can you imagine how many men are going to swoon over you?

“Yeah, I suppose,” I replied with a chuckle.

“I bet you’ll look hot in that nurse outfit,” Lucy joked, and I slapped her playfully as my face flickered with heat.

“Shut up!”

“Alright then, no more being so glum,” Lucy said as she playfully pinched my cheek. “Now let’s get this plan straight. We don’t have much time.”

***

“What are you doing out of your room, Freya?” my father asked, not looking up from the paperwork on his desk. “I thought I told you that until you agreed to marry the Dark Star—“

“—That’s just it, father,” I said as I plastered a complacent grin on my face. “I have thought over what you said, and you’re right.”

My father stopped writing and peered up at me through this reading glasses before leaning back in his chair, taking them off, and laying them on the table. “Really? You concede?”

“I’m no good to anyone without a wolf, just a human,” I replied with a shrug, my palms sweaty with anxiety. I’d just told my mother I didn’t want to do this very thing, and now there I was, agreeing to it. I had to hope my sudden flip flop didn’t sound off any alarm bells in my old man’s head. “Matt is an ally to the pack, and I do want to be useful to our family.”

“Excellent!” my father said, clasping his hands in glee. “Your confinement is terminated; you may come and go as you please.”

“Thank you, father,” I said, my belly queasy from kissing the ass of the man who saw me as a possession, and not his daughter. Not wanting to be near him anymore I turned to leave, glad that the first part of Lucy and I’s plan had seemed to work like a charm.

“Now wait one second,” my father said, and I felt my shoulders and neck tighten.

Now what?

“Yes, father?” I asked, turning around to face him again.

“The maids will we around today, so don’t go off with Lucy or anything, you need to be retrained in the ways of etiquette,” he said with a smug look, one I wanted to rip right off his face. But time would do that, especially once I was gone. It was just too bad I wouldn’t see it.

I did as I was asked. I entertained the ‘teachings’ from his maids, letting them primp me up in gowns and drill me on everything to the way I spoke, to the way I set a table. The kept driving it home that I needed to be perfect for a man thirty years older than me— that fact alone making me want to hurl. I needed to be more mature, graceful…elegant. But the one thing that bothered me about the whole thing was trying to imagine what would a man that age have in common with an eighteen year old girl to begin with? And when I’d thought about it hard enough, and how Matt was, I shuddered to think what that something might be…

But I continued to play along, playing my father’s little games, all because I knew soon none of it would matter if Lucy and I would have our say. Once I was in the royal nurses, no one could pawn my hand off to anyone ever again. I would belong to the royals, and not even my own father would be powerful enough to negotiate my return.