We did not get married. Not even in secret.Henry stammered a few excuses why we couldn’t marry, and they sounded reasonable, but I was determined to find a way around the laws. My kingdom depended on it.My only consolation was the fact that the Office of the Royal Household invited me to join Her Imperial Majesty on her visit to the orphanage in Aldervolf. It was an institution closest to the older woman’s heart. I heard she spearheaded the construction and establishment of the orphanage. It was her biggest beneficiary.I was excited. By going with her, I could show my future mother-in-law my child-rearing skills. She’ll know I am the perfect mother to her future grandchildren. It doesn’t matter that I hate children. I could pretend I care about them for one day if it meant impressing Camilla and securing my spot in her good graces.“Everything all right there?” a voice from behind me instantly pulled me into the present. I turned, smiling, expecting it was my boyfriend who spoke, b

“Hey,” Jasper said as soon as he saw me approaching. When I went down to the playground to get away from the infants, he was hiding under a large, shady tree. I seriously thought I’d find him in the bushes with one of the sisters again. Instead, he was sitting there, relaxing, with two sleeping children on his lap. “The white suits you.”I rolled my eyes at him. A sister offered to wash my dirty pee and poop-stained clothes, but they made me wear their extra tunic in the meantime. Of course, I did not wear the coif and veil that came with it. It’d be too much.I sat at a picnic table and briefly observed the children as they played before pulling my phone from my pocket. I responded to some emails and texts before logging onto social media. We were not permitted to access an account. A team was in charge of all public relations and such. They took pictures or videos and posted them on our websites as if we were actually the ones who were using it. But I have a burner account that no o

“Are we there yet?” Jasper ignored me and got out of the car, slamming the door behind him. “Henry...” I couldn't help the quiver of fear in my voice as I grabbed my boyfriend's arm, shaking him. Where did this monster take us? He started awake and I yanked the blindfold off of him. “What are we doing here?” He looked around, as confused as I was before opening the door beside him and stepping out. “Jay?” Henry called out to his friend. As a burst of wind swept the dunes in front of us, Jasper shouted, “It's here.” The wind blew his shirt and snapped his long hair free from its weak tie, forcing him to fight to keep it from floating around and covering his face. “D*mn it.” Henry ducked inside the car as a white helicopter descended in front of us. It hovered just close enough to the sand for us to board without difficulty. “It's our ride, come on.” Henry was leading me by the elbow while I was busy struggling not to sink in the sand and prevent my skirt from being blown away by

“Satisfied?” a deep voice asked after I hung the ring of spare keys on the hook outside of the servants’ quarters. I hadn’t spotted Jasper when I got there, so when I looked back, I nearly leapt in alarm to see him standing behind me, leaning against a wall.True to his words, Dame Genevieve gave me a spare set of keys without question and let me roam the place. There was no room, nook or cranny I wasn’t allowed to enter and I spent the entire morning doing that. I even found Henry’s room, but he was fast asleep, so I left him alone. I wasn’t sure what I was searching for, but I did find a few things in the manor interesting:First, they weren’t joking when they said the king had lived there since he was a kid. I found dozens of photo albums of him in the painting hall, as well as a painted portrait of him with the Otxoa family. He was six or seven years old then. According to some of the ledgers I found in the library, he stayed on the estate under the tutelage of Izaro Otxoa until t

What I did was stupid and dangerous. I knew that. However, when I thought about it at the time, it made sense to me. In my desperation to prove to Henry that his ideals were stupid, I was thoughtless... and it cost me a life._______I stopped in my tracks before I reached the foyer. I heard rustling and growling outside and looked out the window, shocked to see werewolves prowling in the vast yard. Not just Ulrich wolves, but actual werewolves. Some of the monsters were interacting with the animals, while others stood motionless, staring at the full moon. They were as hideous as ever, not quite a wolf but also not entirely humanoid. They resembled a sickly dog, with thin dark hair, an elongated body, and abnormally long arms and legs, as well as thin long fingers with claw-like nails. From where I stood, I could see that there must be at least fifty of them. I’ve never seen so many werewolves gathered in one place before.I shook in terror as one of the werewolves sniffed the air. It