A Wolf's Duty (21 page)

She stood wringing her
hands. “I didn’t want the nightmares to come again and you made
them go away that first night so I thought that maybe if I stayed
with you then I could sleep properly.” She looked up and seeing the
almost stricken expression on his face, felt her confidence waver.
“Never mind it was a stupid idea, I’ll just sleep in my own room.”
Turning, she began to head for the door, before his hand on her arm
stopped her.

“It wasn’t a bad idea
dearest, it just took me a minute to get control of myself. Of
course you can stay here but are you sure you want to? Remember I
sleep naked,” he grinned.

“After what we just did I
think I can deal with it.” Turning again, she leapt into the bed,
throwing the duvet over herself.

It’s not you
I’m worried about.
Reaching into one of his
drawers, he pulled out a pair of boxers, quickly pulling them
on.

“I thought you slept
naked,” she questioned.

“I normally do,
but I think in this case it’s probably safer for us to have as many
layers between us as possible to keep me from doing something I
shouldn’t.”
Or more specifically to keep
my wolf from doing something stupid. Listen, you just let her
sleep, don’t try and do anything funny.

Would I do
anything like that?
the wolf responded,
trying to inject a measure of righteous indignation into his
tone.

Yes,
Tobias answered simply, slipping between the
sheets and pulling Alex into the warmth of his arms. Her back
against his chest, Alex pulled his arms closer around her,
determined to be as close to him as possible, instantly feeling at
ease within his embrace.

I think I’m
falling in love with you Tobias, so don’t leave me, or I swear to
God I’ll hunt your ass down.
The words
floated through his mind with such clarity that he knew she had
meant them, the emotions behind them strong and true.

I know I love
you dearest and one day I’m sure you’ll feel brave enough to tell
me out loud.

Chapter
Twenty

Sitting across from Tobias
on his large bed eating breakfast, Alex felt her heart fall a
little deeper into his keeping. She had woken to the delicious
smells of hot, cooked food and fresh fruit to find Tobias waving a
tray of food under her nose. The bed was now covered in an
assortment of foods, because having apparently taken her desire to
have choices to heart, he had asked the chef to cook a little of
everything in the kitchen before bringing them up to
her.

“Open,” he commanded,
bringing a ripe peach slice to her lips. She did as he asked and
allowed the fruit to enter her mouth, licking her lips to remove
all traces of the sweet juice.

“Tobias?”

“Yes?”

“I have a question.” She
began; he nodded, urging her to continue. “Exactly how old are
you?”

“Why do you want to
know?”

“I’ve heard people throw
around things like decades and centuries when talking about you and
it got me thinking. I mean I don’t think you ever told me how old
you are, the first time I asked all I got was an ‘older than I
look’. Will you tell me?”

“That depends,” he
responded cryptically.

“On what?”

“Will you think less of me
if I tell you? Will you try and run from me?”

She looked at the serious
expression on his face and instantly decided he wasn’t joking. “No
Tobias, I’ve decided to stay so I won’t run and I won’t think any
less of you either.”

He sighed, “I’m three
hundred and sixteen years old.”

“Three hundred and what?”
she spluttered clearly shocked.

“I’m three hundred and
sixteen years old and will be three hundred and seventeen in a few
months.”

“You’re kidding
right?”

“No. What did you expect?
People have after all been speaking of centuries when talking about
me haven’t they? Open.” She responded automatically, allowing him
to slip another piece of fruit into her mouth although she wasn’t
sure what it was.

Chewing rapidly, she
swallowed the unknown fruit before pressing on with her former line
of inquiry. “Talk about robbing the cradle, I’m a baby compared to
you.”

“I’m aware of that, but I
haven’t been this old all that time. I spent my first ninety odd
years maturing.”

“So how long exactly have
you been looking for me then?” she asked, reaching blindly forward
to grab something from a plate and bring it to her
mouth.

“About two hundred
years.”

“That long?”

“Yes.”

“I suppose your
possessiveness makes sense when you put it like that.”

“I’m glad to see that
you’re finally coming around and seeing things from my point of
view.”

“Tobias I have another
question.”

“What is it?”

“I just realised that if
you’re three hundred plus years old then you’re parents have got to
be even older.”

“That’s a logical
conclusion; parents are always older than their children,” he
chuckled.

“So how old exactly are
they?”

“My father is about seven
hundred years old and my mother is about six hundred and
fifty.”

She stayed quiet for a
moment absorbing the information. “This might sound odd Tobias, but
if they’re that old then why are you an only child? I mean, at
first I thought that you guys could only give birth once. You’re an
only child and Ryan and Sebastian are twins so one birth for each
of your parents but after meeting Ilyanna, I know that can’t be
right. Ilyanna has the triplets and baby Alice so she’s given birth
at least twice, so I just wondered why you didn’t have any brothers
or sisters.”

The hand that had been
reaching for another item of food suddenly stopped as a sad
expression came over his features. “That isn’t quite true; wolves
like us are never born into this world alone. They always have
siblings from birth. I had both a brother and a sister.”

“What happened to them
Tobias?”

“They died,” he said
starkly, before proceeding to explain the entire story. “My mother
had trouble conceiving and when she did, she miscarried. It broke
her heart but she wasn’t strong enough to carry them to term
despite appearances. My father didn’t want to keep putting her
through it but his father and the Council of advisors demanded an
heir and they were relentless so they kept trying and she kept
losing the children. This went on for over a century but then she
conceived again and didn’t miscarry in the first term and went on
to the second. They were really hopeful that she’d manage to carry
to full term but she just couldn’t and so we were all born
premature, my brother, my sister and me.

“From what my father told
me all the clans celebrated that day, but things were different
back then, they didn’t have the technology that exists today for
premature babies and my sister died not long after she was born. My
brother and I grew up together though, we both made it past the
early stages. There was an incident when we were approaching
maturity, people hunted us relentlessly back then and they killed
him. My father moved us here to protect me until I reached maturity
and once I did he told his advisors that he refused to put my
mother through that again, they had an heir and that was the only
one they would get. So here I am, the last one left.”

Disregarding the plates of
food that were between them, Alex launched herself into his arms,
managing to avoid spilling any food onto herself, the sheets around
them however weren’t so fortunate. “I never should have asked,” she
muttered, holding him tighter.

“You have every right to
want to know these things dearest, it all happened a long time ago.
Don’t beat yourself up about it, ok?” She nodded sniffling.
“Promise?”

“I swear.”

“Good, anymore questions?”
he inquired, lightly caressing the side of her face, reassuring her
that it was fine to continue and appease her inquisitive
nature.

“Is it that hard for all
wolves to get pregnant?”

“No, it’s just like it is
for normal humans, some people can have babies really easily and
others can’t.”

“If we mated –”

“When we mate,” he
interrupted, kissing her lightly on the nose.

“Fine,
when
we mate, I hear that
I’ll be Queen.”

“That’s true.”

“Will you expect an heir
like that Council expected of your mum?”

“I expect nothing more
than for you to stay with me. The council and my parents on the
other hand, will be expecting children; the council because they
want an heir, and my parents because they want grandchildren,
especially my mother. She absolutely dotes on children probably
because she had so much trouble having them and she will be egging
you on in that department.”

A shadow came over her
face as a thought occurred to her. “Tobias you said it took you
ninety years to reach maturity, what did you mean?”

“It takes wolf children a
longer time to grow up because they have to learn to control their
inner wolf. If we grew at the rate humans did we’d probably go mad
from our instinct and be a menace to everyone. The time it takes
for a child to reach maturity does differ from child to child but
it takes on average a hundred years. Take Ilyanna’s children as an
example, baby Alice is probably 2 years old now and Ilyanna’s
triplets are probably about 15 in human years.”

“So what you’re saying is
that if we had children I wouldn’t live long enough to watch them
grow up.”

“What are you talking
about Xandria?”

“I’m human Tobias, if I
made it to a hundred it would be a miracle.”

“Xandria, I only get one
mate in my lifetime, do you think I’d a let a little thing like
dying of old age take you away from me?”

“It seems like a pretty
big thing from where I’m sitting.”

“You worry too much
Xandria,” he chuckled. “It’s all part of the claiming ceremony. I
give a little bit of myself into your keeping and that links us so
that you only leave this earth when I do and trust me Xandria, I
have no intention of letting that be anytime soon.” Smiling, he
bent his head and brushed his lips against hers in a gentle kiss.
She felt the tension she had unknowingly built up disappear as she
held him closer to her.

A knock on the door forced
them to spring apart. “Your highness?”

“Yes,” Tobias
growled.

“May I come
in?”

Tobias allowed his eyes to
wander the length of Alex’s frame, taking in the large amount of
bared flesh before turning to scowl at the closed door, the extent
of his possessiveness frightening even him. “If you want me to end
your life then by all means come in.”

“Tobias!” Alex
scolded.

“What?” he inquired
innocently.

“Go and see what he
wants.”

Grumbling, he stood and
headed towards the door. Opening the door a crack, he allowed his
head to peep round the corner, sheltering Alex from the man’s gaze.
“What do you want?” he snapped.

A hand against his back
told him of Alex’s proximity and he closed the door a little,
trapping his head outside. “Be nicer to him Tobias, he hasn’t done
anything wrong,” she whispered.

“What do you want?” he
reiterated.

“Your highness, your
presence is requested in the audience chamber.”

“Fine,” he snapped, moving
to close the door. A hand in the frame prevented the completion of
the move. “Is there something else?”

“Yes, her majesty would
like to speak to Princess Alexandria in her quarters.”

“Fine. Now I assume I can
close the door?” The messenger nodded and Tobias shut the door,
with more force than was necessary.

“You really need to learn
to be nicer to people Tobias.”

“There’s only one person I
need to be nice to and she’s right here.” He grinned, pulling her
close into the warmth of his embrace and kissing her
lightly.

“Now I hear that we have
things to do today,” she reminded him lightly.

“Well there goes my plan
of lying with you in here all day.”

“Yes, there it goes, I
suggest you wave goodbye to it now.” She laughed, stepping out of
his arms and headed back to her room.

Chapter
Twenty-One

“Are you sure I look
alright?” Alex questioned again, smoothing her hands down the skirt
of her blue dress.

“You look fine dearest.”
He sighed, “I don’t know what you’re so worried about, it’s not
like you haven’t met her before.”

“Yes, but then I didn’t
really care if she liked me or not.”

“You have absolutely
nothing to be worried about.” Trying to calm her, he reached out to
her and pulled her close.