Chapter 23: The Invitation

After leaving the minister’s office, Laurel threw herself into her work. If she kept busy, she wouldn’t have time to worry about Adolph, mates, or anything else.
Basil and Delia's wedding was coming up, so the entire castle was alive with movement. Sarah had been called from Laurel’s side to help due to the staffing shortage. Tina’s voice, shouting orders, echoed down the luxurious hallways of the castle as servants scrambled to put up decorations everywhere. The air was thick with the scent of lilies and roses.
The sight of it made her sick. Every newly shined candelabra and polished piece of silverware made her want to run back to her room and avoid the festivities altogether. Basil's attention to this wedding made her and Basil’s wedding looked like a joke. Roses were everywhere on the palace grounds for Delia, yet the only roses in Laura’s wedding had been the four in her bouquet.
She supposed that was the difference between a marked mate and a true mate.
She stopped at the grand open window that faced the back of the palace where her orchard was. She’d been so busy rebuilding her projects in the city that she’d nearly forgotten about the orchard. If there were still troops stationed at the border, they would still need safe food.
It should have been easy to get that project on the list of things to do, but Basil had ordered the orchard sealed away. She doubted any of the fruit had been picked after Laura died. It would be great if they could salvage some of the last season’s harvest, but to get it unsealed, she would have to go see Basil.
It was the last thing she wanted to do and Basil was busy preparing for the wedding, it would be best to revisit the matter of the orchard after he was wrapped in nuptial bliss with Delia.
“Miss Laurel, are you okay?” Sam asked from nearby.
“Let’s go visit the school.”
Sam and Lynn escorted her out of the castle. They had cleaned the rest of the flower petals from the streets, but the air still carried the faint scent of them. If everything had been going well, the school should be back to functioning: full of students, full of teachers, and the attached orphanage should have been starting to assign rooms again.
As she headed towards the school, she realized that the path was full of people. In place of the petals on the streets, large ornate banners lined the streets. Children were walking along with their parents pointing at various sites and the crowd seemed merry.
“Is there some kind of festival going on?”
“It’s a part of the prince’s pending wedding,” Sam said. “They’re getting ready for the parade.”
She was surprised that Basil would want to do something like that. Basil hated commoners and she was sure that he thought Delia was too precious to even breathe the same air as a commoner let alone participate in the parade.
“I’m rather surprised given his attitude…”
“It was arranged by the king. The king even opened the front lawn of the castle and sent invitations out to the masses in addition to the nobles.”
Lynn grinned, “Even soldiers like us will be there!”
Laurel was confused. Why would Adolph do such a thing? She guessed it wasn’t strange to want to celebrate his son’s marriage, but why invite the entire city to the festivities? Maybe he felt a bit guilty about not being able to attend his wedding to Laura and was trying to make up for it.
Whatever the reason, she wasn't too happy about it either. It was a good thing she hadn't received an invitation. She didn't want to go to her ex-husband's wedding at all.

Hours later, she, Sam, and Lynn returned to the castle. The school and orphanage were running as well as she expected, and she’d spent a bit of time playing with the kids when they had free time. As they headed towards the guest suites, she heard Basil’s voice, loud and angry, ringing through the halls.
“Why can't they provide enough wine? Normally, I need twenty barrels of wine for a small party! Isn't it proper to use fifty barrels for my wedding?”
Laurel stopped and tilted her head, listening to the conversations. She was curious about who could make Basil so angry. Gavin was her first thought, but Gavin had never denied Basil anything. Why would he start now?
She drew closer to the end of the hallway leading the opposite direction and peeked around the corner. She saw Basil and Chasel standing there. Basil was drawn up to his full height in fury, but Chasel seemed as unbothered as ever. They made quite the comical sight.
“The king has ordered it.” Chasel’s voice was calm and patient. It made her think of a parent speaking to a child having a tantrum. She smothered the little giggle in her hand as Chasel continued. “The entire city is to attend the celebration. He also invited many other pack members to participate and ordered provisions to be spread across the attendees equally. Thus, the barrels of wine have been allocated to the separated parts of the celebration according to the number of attendees. The nobles don’t number enough to require twenty barrels, let alone fifty.”
“Commoners do not need to drink—“
“This is the king’s order,” Chasel said, his tone was oddly cheery. “I just carry out the order. If the prince has any objections, you can go directly to the king.
Basil flushed with anger, “How dare you--!”
Laurel turned quickly before she lost control of her laughter and retreated towards the guest's suits. There were only a few people who could stand against Basil and deny him anything. She hadn’t realized that Chasel was among that small number. As the royal beta, he was a fearsome warrior who owed his only allegiance to the king. No one stood above him except for Adolph, so Basil was helpless against him.
Laurel skipped back to her room, humming and remembering the conversation fondly. Sam and Lynn followed her with curious expressions.
Lynn asked, “Why do you hate the prince?”
Laurel threw up her hands, “How could I not? He's such an arrogant guy!”
Sam nodded his agreement but Lynn asked, “How do you know that?”
Her heart sped up as she tried to come up with something that would be reasonable for a young woman who had never personally spoken to Basil. She settled on pointing to the conversation.
“It’s obvious. He’s such an elitist! How wasteful is it to have twenty barrels of wine just for the noblemen? And how selfish to want to deny the common people wine at a wedding celebration!”
Sam grinned, “Well, you have a point. I’m glad we’ll be able to drink. What kind of celebration would it be if we couldn’t?”
Laurel grinned with relief. She had to be more careful about her reactions to Basil. She didn’t need anyone getting suspicious about her.
“We deserve to have fun too!” Lynn cheered and they laughed.

******
Sam and Lynn escorted her to her room. Sam greeted Sarah kindly before they left and Laurel chuckled at how adorable and flustered her seemed. Sarah seemed a bit flattered but quickly focused on the news that had her waiting nervously at the door for her.
“Miss Laurel, the guards sent this!”
She held up a golden envelope and Laurel groaned. It was a wedding invitation. She didn't want to go to Basil's wedding at all. Then, she thought about the festival preparations in the city. Maybe her invitation was to the civilian celebration in the imperial city? If that was the case, she could reconsider. A night of celebration among the people could be fun. Maybe she and Sarah could go and enjoy it, or at least, she could enjoy it with Sam and Lynn.
She thanked Sarah and took the envelope.
“They also brought this!” Sarah took her hand and pulled her further into the room towards her bed. “I didn't know what to do with it, so I put them on the bed. What do you think of it, Miss Laurel?”
Laurel gasped at the sight of the boxes on the bed. Each of them was emblazoned with the seal of one of the best dressmakers in the Imperial City. With a trembling hand, she opened the largest box and froze. As Laura, she’d had several lovely dresses, but none from this maker as it was deemed too. The gown was the finest blood-red silk and embroidered with fine golden thread that gleamed in the light. She had never seen such an elegant dress before. The other boxes were a set of high heels and jewels set in gold to match.
There was no way she could wear this to the commoner’s celebrations!
She tore the envelope open and pulled out the card.
There was only one sentence on it.
*Will you accompany me to the celebration?*