*Isla*
My head is a little fuzzy when I open my eyes later that morning after Maddox has left. I run a hand through my hair and stretch my other hand over to the bed where his body had been. It’s not even warm anymore.
I sit up, slowly. I still don’t feel completely right after everything I went through yesterday, but I feel a little better than I did before I went back to sleep.
I remember what he said about calling my parents. Should I even bother to do that? Alpha King Maddox has explained to me why he thinks it’s worth it, but I’m not sure he really understands how Willow pack works. If it’s true that Alpha Ernest is no longer in power, that doesn’t mean that he won’t find someone to let him out of prison. He’s a little worm, and he has people working for him that Maddox would’ve never suspected wouldn’t be loyal to him.
I have to wonder, as I sit there pondering everything that’s happened recently, how many people truly are loyal to Maddox?
It’s not something that’s ever crossed my mind before. When I was in Willow pack, I was busy trying to help my family and survive. I didn’t have time to give much thought to the Alpha King. Whether or not there was about to be a civil uprising never occurred to me. I didn’t even remember the first one I’d gone through, and I just assumed everyone was loyal to the king.
That might not be the case, though, and if Alpha Jordan and his daughter were willing to go to these lengths to stir things up, what were others who were supposed to be loyal to Maddox doing?
I can’t say….
I decide to go ahead and call my parents, but I need a shower first. Poppy scrubbed me down last night, but I still feel disgusting. I head to the bathroom, not wanting to bother the maid. I can get my own outfit together.
While I’m standing beneath the hot water, hoping that every last minuscule amount of residue from the basement, from Private Wylie, from Zabrina, from everyone involved off my body, down the drain, and as far away from me as possible.
I also think about what Maddox said to me when I told him that I love him.
Picking up a bar of soap, I rub it over my body, not for the first time. I can’t get clean enough…
It wasn’t like I expected him to say that he loves me, too. Of course, not. I mean, he is the Alpha King, after all, and I’m just his breeder.
The shampoo I’m using is vanilla-scented, and I breathe it in deeply as I lather up my hair for the second time. At this rate, I’ll be in the shower longer than the water will stay warm.
“He’s the Alpha King. You’re his breeder,” I remind myself. “Why would he love you?”
No answer for that pops into my mind. While I do think there’s a chance he cares about me, I’m not vain enough to think it’s love. After all, I haven’t even fulfilled my duties as a breeder yet. Maybe if I was the mother of his child it would be easy for him to fall in love with me, but I’m not.
Not yet.
I am a woman whom he seems to prefer to spend his time with, though, so maybe that means he has feelings for me.
Perhaps he sees me as a friend, maybe even a close friend.
But he’d said that it was dangerous for me to have feelings for him. While I can see now why that would be true, I’ve survived this attack. Who’s to say I won’t survive another?
I don’t want there to be another, but if I have to choose between staying close to Maddox and being safe, I choose Maddox.
No one ever said being in love is easy—and I know, despite his response, I mean what I said.
I love him.
I finish rinsing my hair, apply the conditioner, and let it sit for a few minutes while I think about calling my parents. I rinse it out, get out, dry off, get myself cleaned up, and go into my room to see Poppy there.
“Hi, how are you?” she asks. “How are you feeling?”
“Okay,” is about all I can say. She’s brought some brunch foods—bagels, muffins, ham and cheese to put on the bagels I suppose.
“Get dressed, have a seat, eat something,” she tells me.
I do as she says, taking the yellow sundress and underclothing into the bathroom with me to get dressed. When I’m finished, I come back out and eat a little bit, but I’m not hungry.
“What are your plans for today?” Poppy asks me.
“Uh, I am going to go try to call my parents,” I tell her.
Her eyes widen. “Wow. Okay. To tell them what happened to you yesterday?”
Shaking my head, I tell her, “No, I don’t want to worry them. I’m just going to tell them I’m doing well, that sort of thing.”
Poppy stares at me from across the room where she had been straightening things that were already straight. “And… what about the information Mystica gave you yesterday? Are you going to ask about that?”
I take a deep breath, hold it, and let it out slowly. “Uhm, I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about that, but I’m not sure.”
“I think you should,” she says. “You know. Ask them. Feel them out.”
I nod. “Maybe. It just doesn’t seem that important at the moment.”
“You don’t think being a princess is that important?” she asks me.
My stomach feels unsettled. Maybe it’s from this conversation. Maybe it’s from all of the stress of the last few days. “I don’t know,” I say. I set the muffin I had been eating down. I don’t want my parents to feel like I’m upset about not knowing the truth or that I feel like anything is different because I know the truth now.
If it is even the truth….
When I am done eating, I realize that I have something I need to say to Poppy. “I’m not sure I properly thanked you,” I tell her. “You did so much to help me yesterday. I feel bad even asking you to continue to be my maid after all of that.”
She smiles at me. “You’re welcome. I was glad to help. For a little while, It was like the king and I were good friends and not just the king and a lady who works for him, you know?” She chuckles under her breath. “I think we’re back to normal now.”
“Well, we’re not,” I say. “You’re a dear friend to me, Poppy. You always have been, and yesterday, you just further proved it.”
Her smile widens. “You’re welcome,” she says again. Then she comes a bit closer to me and says, “Maybe when you’re queen, you’ll remember me and make me a duchess or something?”
I can’t help the laugh that escapes my lips. “I won’t ever be queen, Poppy. King Maddox has already said he will never take another wife, right?”
She shrugs like what I’m saying is inconsequential. “When a man falls in love—”
I shake my head and interrupt her. “He doesn’t love, Poppy.”
She stares at me, her eyes still wide, before she asks, “What makes you say that?”
It’s my turn to shrug. “He just doesn’t. I told him I love him, and he didn’t say the same. He doesn’t. Why would he?”
She laughs for a long moment, and I stare at her like she’s lost her mind. She finally says, “Well, no, he’s not gonna just say it. Dudes don’t do that, Isla. Especially not dudes that are king. But, trust me, since I saw him yesterday, the way he was frantically looking for you… I’m certain, Isla. Regardless of what he’s said, that man loves you.”
I want to believe her, but I don’t even know what to say to her. I mean… what can I say in response? “Okay,” is all I can get out.
Pushing back from the table, I tell her, “I’m going to go make a phone call. Where do I go for that?”
“Oh, uh, you can probably use King Maddox’s office. He won’t mind.”
“Won’t it be locked?” I ask her. “I don’t want to pick anymore locks.”
“No, probably not. He doesn’t have much to hide. Come on.” She waves for me to come with her, so I do.
I can’t imagine King Maddox has nothing to hide, but I’ll go see if his office is unlocked.
Lost in my thoughts, I go over what I’ll say to my parents as I follow Poppy to his office, and when we get there, we find the door is unlocked. I look around the hall to make sure that no one is looking, and we duck inside.
His office is immaculate, just as I expect it to be. No papers piled up, nothing out of place, not even a speck of dust.
I know he has people to clean his office, but I’m impressed that everything is so nice and neat.
Poppy picks up the receiver on the table and looks in a Rolodex next to it. I’ve only ever seen one of those on Alpha Ernest’s desk the few times I’ve been in his office.
“Willow pack?” she asks, and I nod.
She dials and then hands me the phone.
I take it, staring at it for a second, before I hold it to my ear. I haven’t ever talked on one of these much.
“I’ll wait outside,” she says, and Poppy leaves.
I sit down in a seat across from the desk and wait. After several rings, a voice I think I recognize answers. “Willow pack. Beta Miguel.”
“Uh… hi, Beta Miguel,” I stammer. “This is… Isla Moon. King Maddox said it would be possible for me to speak to my parents. Is that… is that true?”
“Oh, hi, Isla.” He sounds like he remembers me, which is surprising because I’ve never spent much time around the Beta. “Yeah, sure. Hold on. I’ll send someone to your house. What’s the address?”
I tell him, and he says to hold on again, so I do.
About five minutes later, I hear my mother’s voice. “Isla? Is it really you?”
I can hear she’s been crying, and knowing that makes me burst into tears, too “Yes, hi, Mom!”
“Oh, thank goodness you’re safe!” she says. “Are you at the castle?”
“I am,” I tell her. “Where’s Dad?”
“He’s at work. Oh, tell me how things are there.”
I don’t want to tell her what happened to me the day before, so I don’t. I tell her a lot of other things, though, that I’m getting to know King Maddox, that I work directly for him. I tell her about Poppy and how she’s such a good friend, and I tell her that I miss all of them so much.
“We miss you, too, but we love you so much, Isla. What you’ve done for our family is… indescribable. I went to the grocery store yesterday, and for the first time in many years… I didn’t have to worry about money. Thank you so much, honey.”
“I’m glad to hear that, Mom,” I tell her. “I hope it stays that way.”
“As long as you keep doing a good job for the king, I’m sure it will.”
I hesitate for a moment, thinking about what I wanted to tell her about what Mystica told me the day before. I don’t want to upset her, but I have to know. “Mom, have you ever heard of an island called… Maatua?”
My mom is quiet for a moment before she repeats the word. “Maatua? Uh… why do you ask?”
“Well, I met this woman named Mystica, and she was telling me all about this war that happened there. She says that the displaced king and queen were named Daniel and Constance. Mom, she seems to think I’m a lost princess. Isn’t that… wild?” I pause, hoping she’ll confirm what Mystica has told her is true.
She continues to be quiet for a long moment before she says, “Uh, yeah, baby. That is… wild. Maatua? I’ve never even heard of it.”