Chapter 142: Panic

The words went through her with a startling shock of pain. He shouldn’t have been able to say that to her. He should have denied it before she had even managed to finish accusing him.
“What… did you say?”
Basil shook his head with a groan of annoyance, “Even if we are mates, she didn’t deserve that from me. I should have never divorced her.”
Delia’s eyes widened as a little wave of golden light flickered across his back. Her heart thundered in her chest in terror. Sweat slid down the back of her neck. Was that the light that Eden had warned her about?
How much time did she have left?
“And when Laurel showed up…” Basil groaned. “I should have seen it. I should have known and done something before we were married. We wouldn’t be here now if I had!”
“Basil, what are you–”
“Three years of marital abstinence and refusing her because of my pride, and now she’s married and mated to my father with a child on the way!” He huffed, “The goddess is truly cruel when she wishes.”
Delia covered her mouth in horror.
Laurel was Laura? That was impossible.
“You’re drunk,” Delia gasped as the panic threatened to take her breath away. “She just looks like her. I get it but…”
Basil glared at her. His eyes were unwavering and certain. Another flicker of light went through her. His sneer turned into a mocking sneer.
“Do I look drunk to you?”
His eyes narrowed and flickered with a bit of rogue-red light. Her heart lurched in fear. If someone else saw that, her cover would be completely blown. An alpha wolf would only go rogue in extreme distress without a mate.
Goddess, help her. She had to fix this. Had to calm him somehow.
Delia softened her tone, reaching out to him.
“Alpha–”
“Don’t!” He sneered, pulling back from her as if he had been burned. A glint of golden light broke as he turned. “Just… stay in your rooms until the party. Don’t expect me to dance with you.”
“You can’t treat me like this,” Delia said. “I’m your wife! Your mate! It doesn’t matter what you think is true. She’s dead and you divorced her to marry me!”
Basil paused and looked at her, “The only reason why I haven’t divorced you yet is that my wolf still has some sort of attachment to you.”
Delia gasped, “You… You can’t.”
*You can’t!*
She flinched at the sound of Laura’s words from so long ago. Her teary face that she had found so humorous before. Every smudge of dirt on her face and stain on Laura’s dress had been laughable at the time. Delia’s insides turned cold as she looked at Basil.
“I will do as I please.” His lips twitched at the irony of the words as her stomach churned with discomfort. “I won’t simply banish you from the castle as you have no pack to return to. I’m sure there’s some pack that would be willing to take you.”
She couldn’t breathe as he turned away from her and walked down the hall. Delia would have chased after him, but the sight of the light flickering off him only froze her in place.
It was breaking, barely on its last legs. She couldn’t chase him now.
She shuddered. How had she forgotten that at his core he was just a selfish prince? Just another man content to get what he wanted for as long as he could and quick to move on to whatever else struck his fancy.
She had grown complacent because of the enchantment, but she couldn’t afford that any longer.
His words were honest. As soon as the enchantment ended, he would be divorcing her. The tentative mating bond they had was stretched thin, held in place only by the enchantment.
Yet that wasn’t the only thing she had to worry about!
Laura was Laurel? How could this have happened?
She thought back to when Laurel first arrived and groaned. The little bit of fear in her eyes, she’d mistaken it for fear of Delia, but it wasn’t. She wasn’t afraid of much of anything now with Adolph at her side. Whatever misunderstandings there had been between them, in the beginning, were gone now.
Delia would end up dead if she stayed much longer, but she couldn’t just escape now!
She turned quickly back to her room and closed the door as her breathing came in quick pants and for the moment she dissolved into panic.

Basil walked down the corridor to his rooms from childhood and found his grandfather seated in his parlor. He looked at the old man with an odd sense of fury.
“What do you want, grandfather?”
Gavin’s eyes narrowed, “How dare you talk to me like that?”
Basil scoffed, “I’d rather not talk to you at all, honestly. What do you want? Shouldn’t you be preparing for your celebration?”
“Where is Lady Delia?” Gavin asked, “I expected her to stay with you.”
“Funny thing about expectations…” Basil hissed, scowling as he crossed the room and poured himself a cup of water. He wished it was stronger. He knew where all the alcohol in the estate was and the servants would give him anything he asked for. It wouldn’t be hard to find a place to hide and drink himself numb and calm again, but he turned away from the thought.
His father asked for so little from him. Not drinking wasn’t the worst of it. He’d live. He drank from his glass with a grunt. A low burning fury and frustration were burning beneath his skin, itching to get out. He rubbed his chest where the pain seemed centered, trying to focus.
“This is not the time to be obstinate,” Gavin said. “That woman is pregnant with the king’s child.”
“I know that.”
“Then you know there is a chance that it will be a boy! Your position in the kingdom is in danger.”
“... you mean your position in the kingdom is in danger.”
Gavin gasped, the teacup slipping from his hand. 
“What… did you just say?”
Basil turned to him, his eyes narrowed and suspicious as he looked at him.
“Boy. Girl. It won’t matter. I will always be a prince for as long as I am a Raymond,” he tilted his head, “The Minister Ex Officio... You, Gavin Mirabelle, however, have your position as a matter of ceremony, and your power is based on your connection to a future king.”
He scoffed, “You didn’t even have the sense in your head to befriend my father and secure your position.”
Gavin flinched, “What. You–You know nothing, boy! I have raised you and–”
“Taught me nothing!” Basil laughed. “Because I would be easier to control that way, right? Aunt Raven is right… I owe Irene a nice piece of jewelry.”
Gavin glared at him, “You were talking to those women? You know they have everything to gain by turning you against me–”
“Like what, Count Mirabelle?”
“Basil!”
Basil laughed, gleeful even as his eyes seemed hazy, yet Gavin knew he hadn’t been drinking. He was too coordinated and conscious. His stomach churned as Basil continued to laugh, the mocking derision turned to something manic as he crossed the room and threw himself onto a couch.
“You know nothing, Basil. You are my grandson–”
“I am your meal ticket,” Basil said wearily. “And that is all I have ever been to you… just as my mother was.”
“You– I loved Olivia–”
“Yet you let her waste away for want of my father knowing that he did not love her!” Basil bared his teeth, his voice shaking the air. “Do not lie and say that you did not know the truth! Spoon-feeding me tales of their love when you knew it was all a lie! Wasting my youth turning me into a puppet when you should have been teaching me the truth of my station.”
Basil shook his head, clenching his jaw, “I… I will never forgive you, grandfather, for taking my birthright from me.”
“I prepared you to be a proper prince–”
“Liar!” Basil roared, making Gavin stumble back at the wave of anger that shook the air. A flicker of red light went through his eyes and rushed around him.
Gavin stared at him in horror and shock. Rogue light or was it… was it something to do with the strength of the Raymond line? Adolph had Laurel yet that light had come when she had nearly been killed.
Delia was perfectly safe in the manor.
Were they truly mates?
“You taught me nothing! Not how to govern anyone least of all myself. You kept me from learning the sword. From martial training stating that I was above it when you knew how important such a thing was to the Raymond line. Do not lie and say it was about wanting to keep me safe from the war!”
Gavin flinched at his tone. How had he known what he would say?
“You made sure that you could control me. You made sure that if my father came back he would barely recognize me and I… I cannot forgive you for that.” He shuddered sitting down, “Perhaps I sent her away but you blinded me from childhood to know what she was worth, and I cannot forgive you for that either… Please leave, grandfather. While I can still stand to call you that.”
Gavin swallowed and rose, leaving silently. The door closed behind him as a soft cry of pain came from Basil.
He turned his gaze down the hall, considering his next move. Basil would need time before he could calm him.
“Where is Lady Delia staying?”
“The east wing.”
“Take me there.”