Chapter 22: Second Chance Mate

She wouldn’t know who else to trust with the school. She’d planned the orphanage system, the school, and the hospitals, after all, but as far as Adolph knew, she was just a young woman from the country. Why would he give her the job? Why would he think a young woman could handle so much responsibility?
Maybe he just wanted to push it off on someone else, or maybe he didn’t care about having it all done well so much as getting it done. Anger burned in her chest and she huffed.
“You must be joking, Your Majesty. Are you trying to ruin this school by asking a country girl to handle all this?”
Adolph winked, “I didn't mean that, Laurel. You're my mate--”
Laurel glared at him, “So you’re giving me all this work just to show me how much you value me as your mate? I don't want that! How can you casually give the lives of so many people as a gift to a girl?”
Adolph stared at her, his expression was near placid as she glared at him and it only angered him more. There wasn’t a flicker of guilt on his face. Didn’t he care? Maybe he and Basil were more alike than she thought. Instead of being outright disdainful, Adolph just seemed to be flippant about it. She wasn’t sure which made her angrier.
No one spoke, though she felt Sarah’s trembling hand on her shoulder. The soldiers had gone pale and took a few steps back. She waited to see the terrible fury rise on Adolph’s face. She feared it, but her anger made her brave. She stared up at him waiting, yet his expression didn’t change.
His lack of reaction was confusion and was throwing water on her temper. Her shoulders relaxed as she stared at him.
Then, he spoke.
“...You're right,” Adolph said, his tone was a bit cautious. “Maybe I really was trying to please you...”
Adolph watched her anger flare again and he barely held back from smiling. She looked like a little kitten hissing at him. For a moment, he considered riling her up a little more and much more often just to see her this way.
She was adorable, but he refrained. It was fine if she was just a bit upset, being upset with him was inevitable, but he didn’t want her to actually be angry at him.
“However, I also think you can do the job. Look at your boldness and courage? I don't need or want people who are afraid to look into my eyes overseeing the well-being of my people… I need someone who isn’t afraid to argue with me for their welfare.”
“But--”
“You calmed Sam down, didn’t you?” Laurel’s mouth clicked shut and he smiled. “You’re very kind. It takes such kindness to take care of patients and children. I could let Chasel take over, but I need him focused on managing and installing soldiers around the kingdom and helping me take over various affairs from Basil. I can’t think of anyone better suited for the job than you.”
Laurel’s anger seemed to fizzle out, yet there was just a tinge of apprehension in her eyes.
“Are you afraid?”
She flushed, “I’m not! I'm just--”
Adolph grinned and nodded, “Good. Even if you were, there’s no reason to be. I won’t give you so much responsibility without support. Sam and Lynn will help you and anyone else you need will be made available to you.”
She couldn’t speak, flabbergasted and trapped in his cunning. He was as sneaky as he was cunning, basically eliminating all of the reasons she had to protest.
She hung her head in defeat. It seemed she would be starting down the path of being the acting luna again.

******
For the next few days, Laurel woke up every day and forced herself to leave her chambers with the long list of things she hadn’t completed the day before. The work was tedious, but it was just part of Luna's duties. However, it made her hands shake and her heart race sometimes as she fell into the familiar pattern of being the acting luna, but she pushed it aside and lost herself to the work from first light until dinner. Sometimes when she faced piles of documents on the table, she couldn’t tell if she was Laura or Laurel. She didn’t want it, but she’d done her best to do what was necessary for the good of the kingdom. She drafted a new proposal for funding from the royal family for the orphanage, school, and hospital after taking stock of their needs including recruiting additional staff.
She readied herself for the push back from the minister of finance and entered his office with her proposal. For a moment, she considered just handing her proposal to Adolph and leaving him to deal with the minister, but she pushed it away. Adolph had entrusted the job to her, and she had dealt with the minister of finance as Laura, she could face him as Laurel. She did not doubt that he was just as stingy about anything he deemed as not beneficial to his ends as he had been then, but Adolph had given her the job to do.
She put the proposal on his desk, “I’m here to submit this funding proposal.”
He picked it up and skimmed it. His lips curled into a sneer before he laughed.
“What is so--?”
He tossed her proposal at her.
“Guards, take this child out of here!”
“Wait!”
She huffed as the guards forced her out and closed the doors in her face. As luna, she’d spent hours arguing him down until she was forced to find a way around him.
As Laurel, a young girl with no standing, she should have realized she had no chance without Adolph.
We could ask, Alice suggested.
She turned away from that thought. She didn’t want to seem incompetent!
She walked away and saw Sam and Lynn who were waiting for her before she had an idea.
“Sam, Lynn, could you help me?”
Sam nodded and followed her. Lynn knocked on the door and the guards opened it.
“The minister has already--”
Lynn growled, “You are impeding her work as assigned by the king. Get out of the way.”
The guard flinched and stepped away. She glanced at Sam and Lynn in wonder. Maybe it was the fact that they were wearing their military uniforms and signs of their rank.
The minister looked at Laurel before glaring, “And what is it now, girl?”
Sam growled, lunging forward and barely keeping his claws from the man’s neck. The man rocked back in his seat in terror.
“You will speak to Miss Laurel with respect!”
Laurel placed the proposal back on his desk, “I need my proposal approved to re-establish funding for the orphanage, school, and hospitals the late luna established.”
His eyes jumped from her face to the page, and up to Sam’s face. His jaw trembled as if he wanted to speak, but he grabbed his seal and stamped the page.
“Thank you, minister, for your time.” She smiled, picked up the proposal, and left with Sam and Lynn. The doors closed behind them.
“Thanks for your help,” Laurel said.
Sam smiled, “You have been given a task by the king, and we have been charged with supporting you. You don’t need to thank me for doing what needed to be done.”
“Well, thank you anyway.”
“I’m happy to be of service.”
Lynn scoffed, “He’s happy to come running if it means he can see Miss Sarah.”
“Lynn!” Laurel smiled as Sam scowled at Lynn, his face turned bright red. “That’s not…”
It was so obvious that he had a crush on Sarah. Laurel pat his shoulder.
“It’s okay. You can see her whenever you’d like, so long as she’s okay with seeing you.”
“I-I would never,” he looked down. “My mate is gone, but I… When I saw Miss Sarah, I felt a spark between us. I think there could be something there. I’ll do everything I can to make her fall for me so the moon goddess will bless us as second chance mates.”
According to Sam, only when two people fell deeply in love would the goddess bless them as second chance mates. Laurel was surprised. She had felt a spark of instant attraction to Adolph and Alice had been so sure. It didn’t seem like finding a second chance mate was much different than finding the first to her, but either way, but it sounded romantic.
Then she remembered Basil asking Adolph if she was Adolph’s second chance mate.
She knew that Adolph was her mate, but was it possible that she was not Adolph's mate? The idea didn’t sit right with her. Once, he’d had a wife. Sure, he’d implied that he and his late wife hadn’t been mates, but that didn’t mean that Laurel was his mate.
Maybe he just saw her as a chance to get a luna.
Maybe she would end up just repeating the same mistakes she had in her past life but with a better partner…
Her heart ached at the thought. If she wasn't Adolph's mate, how long would it take for all of her work to not be enough? How long would it take before Adolph went looking for his true mate?
The thought should have made her happy since she didn’t want to be entangled with the Raymond family anymore, but the thought of Adolph finding someone else, finding his true mate if Laurel was just his second chance, hurt. Jealousy and despair warred within her thinking of him embracing some other woman the way he’d embraced her.
She gasped in shock and horror as a thought cut through her like lightning.
Had she fallen in love with him?
Her stomach churned. Was she just a poor woman always chasing after a love that would never be hers?
She turned away from the thought and held tight to her resolve. She couldn’t surrender her heart so easily. Not again. She wouldn’t survive the heartbreak again.