Chapter 8: Grief

Laurel felt the tears welling up and spilling down her face before she had fully realized what he said.
Her father? Dead? There had to be a mistake.
She shook her head, “N-No. you must be mistaken, Your Majesty. I have written him many letters--”
“I know,” he said and gestured behind him as he kept his voice calm. “We have kept your letters along with his belongings.”
Laurel shook her head as a soldier came forward and offered her a bundle. She recognized her father’s cloak and shoes along with the neatly bound letters she’d written him. Blood stained the cloak still faintly smelling of fire. She knew from her past life that every wolf killed by a vampire was burned to keep them from becoming vampires, yet the absence of his body only made the ache worse.
“No…” Her legs gave out and she sank to the ground, staring at the bundle as she tried to hold in her sobbing. “No!”
Adolph’s scent enveloped her as his arms pulled her close, stroking her hair. She leaned into him, sobbing as he tried to calm her.
“Your father was a brave man. He killed many vampires… He died protecting me, Laurel. He died a warrior’s death.”
It should have been some form of comfort, she knew, yet she could not stop sobbing into his chest. She couldn’t think or care about a warrior’s death or honor.
Her father was dead, and she had never even gotten a chance to meet him.
She had no idea how long she cried, but when she had the strength to stand again, her tears had dried leaving a great emptiness in her chest. She sniffed, taking the bundle from the soldier reverently, cradling it. This close, she could almost smell her father beneath the ash.
“T-Thank you, Your Majesty… I am… glad he died a warrior’s death in defense of the kingdom... I will take his things home now. I-I can get back on my own from here.”
Adolph swallowed the protest as she turned from him and forced himself to remain still and watch her walk towards Sapphire Lake, crying silently. The scent of her tears burned his nose. Adam urged him to go after her, but he refused.
She had lost her father. He could not push her nor chase her now. He knew where she lived and how to find her now, there was time to court her properly in the future.
“Your Majesty,” Chasel said, sliding off his horse to stand beside him. Chase Fitch was Adolph’s royal beta. He’d known Jack personally and had told Adolph of her before.
He remembered Chasel saying she was a dutiful daughter. He felt her grief as if it were his own.
“She has grown a lot in these four years,” Chasel said. “She used to be so shy…”
“She takes after her father. I didn’t realize it until now.”
Chasel smiled, “Well, even the Vampire Destroyer is bound to lose his sanity upon meeting his mate.”
Adolph laughed as Chasel pressed his hands together in mock prayer, “Thank you, Great and Merciful Goddess for putting us all out of our misery and giving him something else to focus on!”
The knights laughed. Adolph chuckled a bit at his antics, but his thoughts were still focused on Laurel. He had waited all these years for her.
What were a few more days? Weeks? Months? However long it took, he’d wait.

******
Laurel drifted through the empty town, went to her house, closed all the blinds, and cried well into the night, clutching Jack’s belongings, curled up in bed and broken-hearted.
The darkness of sleep gave way to a blinding white then a forest too beautiful and vibrant to be real. In the distance, she saw a little girl with long black hair and vibrant green eyes rushing up the hill to where a man with black hair sat patiently on a fallen tree.
“Daddy!” The little girl cried. The man turned with a bright smile and the same green eyes. Laurel gasped.
He had to be Jack.
He kneeled and wrapped her in a warm embrace that made Laurel’s heart clench with tenderness.
They pulled back and he pressed a kiss to her forehead before taking her hand and leading her through the forest. The little girl stopped for a moment and looked back at her before smiling brightly and waving. Jack looked back and nodded at her.
Laurel nodded as her eyes burned and she watched them walk into the forest until they disappeared into the trees.
When she woke up, her tears had dried and the ache in her chest had eased. Had it been a vision or something her mind had conjured to assuage her pain? Regardless, it was a sign. Jack and Laurel were no longer in this world, thus what she did and how she lived were completely her choices.
She buried Jack’s belongings behind the house beside a laurel tree and offered up a prayer for their everlasting peace.
Jack and Laurel had died on the same day if Adolph was to be believed. It seemed that the moon goddess had found a body for her that would have no hindrances for her missions.
Her stomach grumbled, and she winced. She hadn’t eaten in nearly a day. She hunted without her usual enthusiasm and a fresh rabbit. She trudged through the forest back toward her house and stopped as she recognized the man standing near her door.
It was Adolph, dressed in plain traveling clothes and a sword on his belt. He wore no armor, but he seemed no smaller or less dangerous for it. The sun caught in his hair and set a sparkle in his eyes that made her knees a little weak.
Alice purred, *A man among men. I told you, didn’t I?*
She scoffed at Alice’s remark and approached him slowly. He smiled at her and his eyes brightened as if he had been waiting all morning to see her.
“Forgive me, Laurel,” he bowed his head slightly. “I know the news was quite the blow.”
“You don’t need to apologize to me, Your Majesty. My father died a warrior’s death… I know he died proudly, and I am proud of him.”
Adolph nodded, “You look a bit better than yesterday… To have such resolve, I am overjoyed to have you as my mate.”
She almost cringed at the word. Mate. She couldn’t be this man’s mate. Even if she was, it couldn’t go anywhere. She couldn’t go back to the Imperial City. She could not relive her life as Laura. She wouldn’t.
“I’m… just a rude country girl, Your Majesty. I am not anything remarkable.” She shook her head, “You must be mistaken about me.”
Alice howled and thrashed in her chest,* Don’t be stupid!*
Laurel forced her to be quiet. She had only just started to heal from Basil and her last life. She could not and would not undo all of her hard work for anything. She couldn’t handle another heartbreak.
“... It seems you are the one mistaken,” Adolph said softly. “There is nothing I have seen or heard of you that is not extraordinary.”
Laurel’s face warmed with embarrassment and Alice settled down, almost preening, “Y-Your Majesty…”
“I knew you were my mate from the moment I saw you. No one can deny that, not even you.”
Laurel’s heart swooped at his words and she clenched her fist in frustration. Though his voice was as sweet as honey and so very warm, his words carried all the force and insistence of a dictator. Would he not give her even an inch to escape?
She wouldn’t be trapped again.
She lifted her gaze, defiant and angry, “So what? Are you going to take me back to the Imperial City, marry me, and make a country girl the luna of the kingdom?”
She scoffed, “Don’t be--”
“Yes,” Adolph said. “We can leave within the hour if you are ready.”
She sputtered. What a man!
*What a mate*, Alice purred.
The man was insane. She had figured out rather quickly that she had come back roughly around the time that Basil had originally forced her from the palace; thus, Delia was either already married to Basil or would soon be. Didn’t he know? Didn’t he care?
She grit her teeth, “Your heir already has a luna. There is no need for that.”
Adolph shook his head, “Basil’s marriage has nothing to do with me, and it was only ever temporary. You are mate and the true luna of this kingdom so long as I am the king.”
*“Don’t call her luna!”* She shuddered at the phantom of Basil’s sneering face that shook her.
“My mate,” Adolph’s voice pulled her out of her memories as he offered her his hand. “Will you come with me and be my wife and my luna?”
His expression was so sweet, inviting. His voice was drawing her into the fantasies of her youth about love and her fated mate. She wanted so badly to believe in it, to be swept away in it, but could she go back there?
Would she?