Chapter 42: In Love

Laurel returned to her office with a deep sigh. The roses Adolph had given her the day before had wilted a bit. Her heart felt a bit wilted, worn down by time and realizations. She sighed and replaced the wilted roses with the new bouquet.
How long would it take for these roses to wilt?
“Ow!”
She hissed and put her bleeding finger into her mouth before her blood could drip everywhere.
She hadn’t realized the thorns hadn’t been removed from the roses. She rounded the table looking for bandages when the door burst open. She jumped, startled, and looked at the intruder to see Basil in the doorway, glaring at her and baring his teeth.
He crossed the room quickly, raising his hands as if he was going to grab her neck. She stumbled back as he crossed the room. She’d never seen him so angry before.
“How dare you!” He screeched. “How dare you use this room!”
“What?” Laurel frowned. His words didn’t make any sense. She kind of expected him to be upset about Delia, but he was talking about the office? “What are you talking about?”
“You bitch!” Basil slammed his hands on the desk, roaring at her. “Don't pretend to be innocent! Who knew that a pretty girl like you had a snake's heart! It's not enough that you ruthlessly drove so many people out of the castle, but to over my mother's room is too much!”
Laurel was stunned. She didn’t even know what she could say. She had never thought about the room, but to hear it was the luna’s office, the one room that she should have had access to in her past life and hadn’t ever seen, was a shock.
The office of Luna Olivia who Adolph reportedly loved so dearly.
She thought of the picture frame with the portrait of the young Adolph in it. It made sense. Laurel had loved the portrait at first sight. Who else in this castle would keep a framed picture of young Adolph on a desk if not the late luna?
Laurel's lips trembled. Her mind was filled with memories of their love story. Even Tina’s scorning words about Adolph sending his late wife’s favorite flowers to her seemed painfully sweet even as the thought burned her with humiliation. She was just a replacement Adolph put in the position of his late wife. She swallowed the sob of anger and humiliation and kept calm, meeting Basil’s eyes.
She didn’t want to show him any sort of vulnerability.
“Prince Basil, you have my apologies. I didn't know. His Majesty arranged this room for me—”
“Liar!” Basil barked, growling at her. “Do you expect me to believe that?”
He sneered at her, looking at her derisively, “There’s no way you are my father's mate, you shameless slut!”
Laurel gasped in horror. Basil had never spoken to her like this before.
“You can’t—”
“It's not enough to climb into my father's bed, but to try to replace my mother and become luna?”
“I’m not—”
“My wife—”
“Enough!” Laurel screamed. Alice roared and shook the air.
Basil shut his mouth, staring at Laurel as she leaned against the desk. Her jaw was clenched as she glared at him and tears ran down her cheeks. How could she be crying and looking so furious and dignified all at once? Her breathing was labored and she wiped her face roughly. Her chest heaved as she slowed her breathing and met his gaze with a regal, dignified air that felt uncanny.
He turned away from the thought of who she reminded him of and focused on his anger. No one was allowed in this room. Adolph had loved his mother so much that he had never married again and Basil had been faithful to her memory and kept the luna’s offices locked.
This girl had gone too far.
“I've had enough!” She said, her voice trembling with fury. “Why don't you ever listen to anyone?”
“You—“
“I told you, I don't know! I told you and you just keep screaming without listening to anything I have to say because it’s convenient for you to vent your anger—”
“How—”
“I’m not done!” She slammed her hand on the table glaring at him, baring her teeth. Basil gasped in shock, his eyes widened at her gall. “The king invited me to come to the imperial city. The king asked me to manage the school, the orphanage, and the hospital! The king gave me this office to manage the castle. The king has given me all these duties and I am just following orders!”
Basil opened his mouth, but she growled at him before he could get a word out.
“And I’m not his mistress!” She yelled. “And those damned servants I fired? Lazy, irresponsible, and *bribing* your nanny into getting lesser tasks! They don’t even do the work they bought their way into well and pawn it off on others! They spy on you and the royal family for their pack leaders using Tina’s greed as cover! I did this castle a favor, but you don’t care about that, do you? All you care about is how it makes you feel!”
“I—”
“Why do you never try to learn the truth? Why don’t you ever think beyond the obvious? Why don’t you ever just think? You listen to the people who make you feel important around you and blame others when things don’t go well!”
Basil was frozen, frowning as she yelled at him. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't. What would he say? Was she right? Was she telling the truth about the servants?
Even if she was, she didn’t have the right to talk to him like that.
“You can’t talk to me like that!”
“Who do you think you are?” Laurel screeched. “Is it fun to play with my feelings? To torment me when I don’t even want to be the damn luna? No one wants to be luna of this damned kingdom!”
She turned sharply, pushing the vase of roses to the ground. The vase shattered across the ground, spilling water and roses across the lush rug. She shoved past him with a little sob and more strength than Basil had expected before running out of the room sobbing.
Basil stared after her for a few moments wondering, gripped by the memory of Laura rushing away from him, the grey skirt of her plain dress billowing behind her, seeming to vanish into the distance like a ghost, sobbing.

******
Laurel knew shouldn’t have run, but staying in that room another moment with Basil would have broken her completely and she didn’t want that to happen.
“Miss Laurel?” Someone called after her. “What’s wrong?”
“Miss Laurel, wait!”
She hid her face, taking the fastest path down the stairs towards the front gates of the castle. She didn’t want this. She couldn’t do this again. She should have never come. Her heart felt squeezed in a vice.
Something solid and unyielding cut off her path, bouncing her back onto the ground and into the dirt. It felt slick like mud as she landed in it, but she didn’t care. The stone path nearby was that of the main path out of the castle. She’d at least made it out of the castle in her haste.
“My apologies—Laurel?”
She gasped looking up at the familiar voice and sniffling. Her vision was blurry as her eyes overflowed with tears, but she recognized the man. It was Eden. He crouched down beside her, cupping her shoulders as his eyes filled with concern.
“What's going on? What happened, Laurel?”
Eden’s gaze dropped her stinging palm. She looked down to the cut on her hand and the scrape before his hand shot out and closed around her wrist tight. She winced at the pressure.
“You’re hurt!” Eden gasped, his tone a bit strained and tense. It wasn’t exactly concern, but she didn’t know how to describe it. “Does it hurt? D-Do you need a bandage?”
She didn’t answer him, staring at the cut from the roses’ thorns. She thought of the portrait and Adolph and her chest felt tight as if a large boulder was sitting on her chest and every breath was a battle. She almost envied Laura. Being abandoned by Basil had been painful, but this was so much worse. At least Laura knew she was always just a stand-in. She’d had no delusions about mates and even her fantasies about romance had faded with time.
But now? Could she call this anything else?
Why her?
She sniffled. Hadn’t she known she was always meant to be just a stand-in? Why was she so upset?
Alice howled in pain seemingly on the edge of weeping and her agony rattled through Laurel.
*He’s our mate…* Alice moaned.
And she loved him.
After trying so hard to keep her distance, focusing on securing justice for Laura, and fighting it every step of the way, she’d lost.
She’d fallen for Adolph like some tragic heroine doomed to repeat her mistakes twice over.
“Laurel, you have to breathe!” Eden said, pulling her into his arms. She felt him lift her from the ground as she turned her face into his chest.
She clenched the lapel of his jacket in her fist, trying to hold back the cry of agony. She heard some poor woman sobbing loud and desperate nearby and Eden’s voice above her.
She understood that woman’s pain and wished she’d had the strength to let herself cry the same way.
She never realized that the woman she was hearing was her.