Chapter 49: Final Decision

When Laurel left the inn around lunchtime, she noticed Eden was not among the diners. She wondered where Eden had gone. She wanted to tell Eden of her decision, but since Eden was not there, she decided to go to the castle first to find Adolph.
Sarah walked beside her to the castle. They stopped in front of the castle gates.
“I can go by myself.”
Sarah frowned, but nodded, leaving her side. Laurel faced the gates alone and walked across the lawn. She had to do this alone and carry the weight of her decision by herself. The guards of the castle smiled at her and gave her a little nod of recognition.
She walked through the corridors of the castle, taking in the tapestries and the stained glass windows. She’d lived in the palace for three years and had walked every inch of the castle, she was sure. Every inch had some memory hidden in them. A lot of them were painful, but the castle had been her home. It was her home now and there was nowhere she could go if she left here.
Laura had fled the castle with that knowledge. Now, as Laurel, she was returning with the same realization.
For centuries, the royal family, the Raymond family, ruled the werewolf kingdom from this castle. It was a symbol of power and a symbol of this kingdom.
She had seriously considered Eden's offer. She would have been happy to travel the world and deal with all sorts of people, but she didn't feel like she wanted to live that way for long. She was a werewolf. There were many people in the kingdom she cared about. She couldn't just leave and never come back. It felt irresponsible and treacherous.
She’d decided to face luna's duty, but not the way that Laura had faced it.
It had been a difficult decision to make. Thinking back to how much she’d relished being free of the luna’s duties and the pressures of the position, it seemed insane to think that she was choosing to go back to it.
In some ways, becoming luna as Laurel would be harder than becoming luna as Laura had been. She was only seventeen. There would be skepticism and resistance, disrespect, questions, and sneering that she hadn’t faced as Laura. A country girl with no status? At least Laura had been the daughter of the betas of a pack. Laurel’s father had been a soldier who had fallen in battle.
It was crazy, but thinking back she had never committed to escaping the roll of the luna. Since they’d met, she’d been accepting the jobs that Adolph gave her, the same jobs that would lead her to take the position of luna.
More than just accepting the jobs, she’d loved the work. They had been a part of her life as Laura and she’d made them a part of her life as Laurel in much the same way, considering the needs of the kingdom’s people before her needs.
She thought like a luna. She acted like a luna. It was time to accept that it was just a part of who she was now, embrace it, and do her best to be true to who she was.
It wasn’t a decision she would have made if Adolph, like Basil, had been disdainful and negligent towards her. If she hadn’t had Sarah, Sam, Lynn, and Lily, and everyone else who acknowledge her work as having value, she wouldn’t have decided to stay. She knew what little reward there was in doing her best with no one to affirm her worth.
She didn’t want to disappoint the people in her life who believed in her even when she didn’t.
She was sure of all of this, yet a part of her hesitated.
Adolph was the king and her mate. She could work as luna, but how could she protect her heart from becoming any more attached to Adolph? How could she work alongside him with his late wife still haunting her, like a thorn in her chest? She wasn’t sure if Adolph was telling the truth, but Adolph didn’t seem to want to talk about her. As long as they couldn’t talk about it, Laurel couldn’t accept Adolph.
She had to talk to him again. She could accept the duty of being a luna. She could work for Adolph and give everything to the werewolf kingdom just as she’d done as Laura, but she wouldn’t give her heart to a man who couldn’t love her. She loved Adolph. He was her mate, but that didn’t mean she had to give her heart to him the way she’d given it to Basil.
For the first time, Alice did not object. She seemed to agree, settling easily in her chest.
*It’s good that you have decided to control your future.*
Laurel smiled, glad that they agreed.
She entered the corridor that led up to Adolph’s office when she heard a woman crying. She saw a maid slumped against the wall, crying softly to herself. Her face was bruised and her clothes were mussed. She looked as though she had been attacked.
“What happened?” Laurel asked the young woman.
She sniffled, “M-Miss Laurel…”
“Who did this to you?”
Something tumbled and crashed in the distance and Laurel turned towards the sound. It seemed to be coming from the gardens.
“Lady Delia, please!”
Delia? Laurel frowned. She knew the woman was rude and impulsive, but it wasn’t normal for her to be raging against the maids. What was going on?
“Answer me!” Delia shrieked. “Wretched girl!”
Laurel turned back to look out the open door. Delia grabbed a maid, shaking her roughly and yelling at her.
“I don’t know!” The woman cried and Delia struck the maid across the face, making her fall to the ground. The others gasped and jumped back in terror.
Delia growled and whirled on them, “What are the rest of you looking at? Was it one of you? Huh? Answer me!”
Laurel rushed out of the back door towards her.

*******
After Eden left her chamber, Delia left her chambers to find the wretched maid who had said such things about her. Eden’s cool derision and rebuke had burned her. She was doing everything according to the plan. Who cared if no one in the castle liked her? She was luna and as soon as she got rid of Laurel, she’d kick all of the people who opposed her out! She didn’t care about Basil’s request. He’d get over it, and Adolph wouldn’t do anything to her for interrogating the maids. When she was done, none of them would be able to even think her name without trembling in fear.
“…Lady Delia.”
She frozed, straining to listen.
“In her room by order of the prince. Probably for talking about Miss Laurel the way she does.”
“You—” Delia marched around the corner to see the two maids standing in the hallway. They looked at her with wide, shocked eyes.
“L-Lady Delia, what—”
Delia grabbed the nearest one and slammed her against the wall. The serving tray in her hands fell and the teacups tumbled to the ground, breaking with a soft crash.
“You think you can just talk about me however you like, you wretched servant?” She jerked her up. “What else have you been saying about me? Who else talks about me like this?”
“I-I don’t know what you mean—”
Delia struck her across the face, “Don’t lie to me!”
She turned on the other maid who dropped the bag she was carrying and backed in terror from Delia.
“You!”
The woman cowered against the wall screaming that she didn’t know anything. She kicked the woman out of the way and continued down the hall until she reached the gardens. She recognized a few of the maids as those that had worked under Laura before she died. If there was anyone who would have said something like that it was one of them.
The thought of being compared to that stupid woman infuriated her. What was worse was the thought of being compared to Laurel, a stupid seventeen-year-old from the country.
“Lady Delia, I—”
She snatched the nearest maid by her gown and threw her to the ground, “You’ll pay for saying such things about me, you wretched girl! Who do you think you are?”
Someone grabbed her wrist and pulled her around.
“Unhand me! How dare you touch the wife of the prince!” Delia screamed, pulling away from the person until she could see them.
It was Laurel.
“What are you doing?” Laurel asked, calmly.
How dare this whore question her in her castle! Delia growled at her and bared her teeth in a hateful sneer. “Why are you here?” Delia asked, her eyes shifting as she seethed. “How dare you come back! Who do you think you are?”
First, there had been Laura in her way. Now, there was Laurel. The little bitch had the nerve to look so much like that woman. It was probably why Basil seemed so swayed when dealing with her. The little witch already had her claws in Adolph, now she was undoing all of Delia’s hard work.
She wouldn’t be pulled from this mission.
She wouldn’t disappoint Eden because of this little wench!
Laurel frowned seeing Delia. She glanced at the maids as they cowered before looking back at Delia. Something was off about her. She seemed fearful and furious, lashing out at anyone nearby.
“Why shouldn’t I be here?” Laurel asked calmly. “The king has put me in charge of the castle, and these maids are under my command. Why are you hitting her?”
“I'll hit her if want to!” Delia screeched. “I am the luna of the kingdom! Do I need to give you a reason to do something?”
Laurel couldn’t even reply before Delia had struck her across the face.