Chapter 86: Inseparable

Daphne

I’ve never kept secrets from my brothers. Or from Bella. But maybe that’s because I never had a secret worth keeping.

I pulled up to the stone-and-timber pack house that had been my home since the day I was born. It had always been the place where I felt safe, protected, and welcomed. But I felt strangely empty as I pulled my luggage out of the back of my car and used the pull-bar to drag it toward the front door.

I was only home for a few days, and then I would be re-packing for my move to the King’s palace outside of Quebec. Maybe that was why the familiar halls of my home didn’t seem to illicit the same kind of joy and peace as they usually did. Maybe it had nothing to do with the fact that I was coming home pregnant, without a mate, or even a boyfriend.

I put my bag in my room. I would conscript my brothers to unload the rest of my boxes from the car later. I looked around my purple room, and felt strangely numb to it all, like it wasn’t even my room any more. Shaking it off as just a funk, maybe a result of my raging hormones. I knew my family was in the dining room already, enjoying a hearty lunch at the family table. I dragged a brush through my hair and dabbed on a bit of lip gloss to try and brighten up my appearance, and then I went to meet them.

I should just tell them. Get it off my chest and out in the open. It wasn’t like I could keep it a secret forever. Within a few weeks, even if I wasn’t showing, they would be able to smell the changes in my body chemistry. I sucked in a deep breath, and felt like I was walking to my own execution.

They wouldn’t be angry with me, but they would be disappointed, and that was even worse. Still, I had to pull on my big-girl underware and face the consequences of my own behavior and my own choices. I hadn’t been purely reckless, but somehow, the protection had failed. As the nurse practitoner at the clinic had told me, no birth control method is one-hundred percent effective.

No, my mistake was not in family planning, but in my choice of sexual partners.

But I was going to tell my brothers and Bella. No time like the present.

Except, when I entered the dining room, there was an extra person sitting at the table. I stumbled to a stop in the doorway.

King Louis was seated at the table, with Liam balanced on his lap. His hair was darker and thicker than I remembered, closer to black than brown, with just a little streak of white near one temple. His face was clean-shaven, with a healthy glow that seemed to boast of fresh air, exercise, and excellent nutrition. How had I never noticed the rugged line of his jaw, the slight indent of his chin, or the dimples when he smiled. The way his eyes crinkled at the edges when he smiled, or the breadth of his shoulders.

I remembered him being so thin and bony, but he wasn’t thin now. His shoulders stretched his shirt, and his tanned arms were corded with muscle as he played with Liam, helping the baby to balance on his thigh as he practiced standing and bouncing. The baby babbled happily, and the king laughed in response.

And that laugh made me feel strange inside.

Bella spotted me first. “Daphne! Come sit with us! We were just about to eat!”

The only empty chair was between my brother Wyatt and the king. I greeted my brothers and then squared my shoulders to face the man who was about to become my new employer. “Hello, King Louis” I said. It was always a bit awkward. Was I suppoed to use his title? Call him “your highness” or “your majesty”?

He looked up at me, and his pleasant expression froze on his face when our eyes connected. It only lasted a moment, a moment when he didn’t seem to breath, or blink, or move a single muscle. “Daphne, welcome home,” he said smoothly. “Please, just call me Louis. We are…family after all.”

And then, to my horror, he stood up and held out the chair for me. I had no choice but to sit, and allow him to push me in. Like… like…?

He returned to his own chair, sat down, and as he pushed himself in, I thought he made an effort to slide his chair even closer to me. “It’s good to see you again,” he said, like he was just making casual conversation. But I sensed there was something lurking beneath the words. “You seem… different, from the last time I saw you.”

“So do you,” I blurted, and then kicked myself for saying the words out loud. “I mean, it’s good to see you too. I thought we weren’t expecting you until tomorrow?”

“Ah, well, I was impatient to get here, and my schedule cleared so I was able to come early.” He turned his attention back to the baby in his arms. “I couldn’t wait to see this little guy.”

Hailey appeared with some other members of the kitchen staff to serve the lunch, which consisted of big bowls of soup, and sandwiches on warm, crusty, fresh baked bread and little cups of fresh fruit. Conversation swirled around the table as my family began to eat, but my appetite, as had been happening so often lately, was non-existant. But I knew my family would notice if I didn’t eat at all, so I picked up a soup spoon and sipped on the rich broth.

All the while, I was much too aware of the king sitting beside me. And it wasn’t just because he was a king. I wasn’t overly awed or impressed with his title. After all, we American wolves don’t have a king. We govern ourselves. No, there was something else about Louis that was holding me entralled, and I could tell it was affecting him too. I could feel his eyes on me, far to often to be a casual glance. And I could feel the warmth of his body, so close, but not quite touching mine.

And I could smell him. How had I never particluarly noticed his scent before?

It was an earthy smell, like rain on mossy rocks. It was suprisingly sweet and appealing, and I found myself fighting the urge to lean closer to him, to press my nose into his neck to get more of that enticing odor.

This wasn’t right. This couldn’t be happening. I mean, I’d met the King at least a half a dozen times before, and I had never felt this way before. He’d always been just a man, the father of my best friend.

All thoughts of telling my family about my pregnancy flew right out the window. I couldn’t, not with Louis sitting there. Suddenly, his opinion of me mattered even more than did my brothers’ and my best friend.

Would he change his mind about hiring me if he knew he was about to hire a single mom? Would it change how he was looking at me right now? Because his eyes, those rich, chocolate brown orbs with flecks of gold and green in them were looking at me so intensely. I couldn’t stand the thought that they might suddenly grow dull with disrespect once I revealed my secret.

“Daph? You feeling okay? You haven’t even touched your sandwich?” Bella asked. The baby had changed hands several times during the meal, and was now seated back on Bella’s lap, where he had a crusty roll in his baby hands, which he was chewing on. Very little bread actually got in his mouth, but he seemed to be enjoying turning the roll into a soggy mess.

I turned my attention back to my own sandwich, thick layers of roast beef, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and pickles, all speared together with toothpicks shaped like swords. But all I could see was the gooey, chewed mess in my nephew’s hand. The idea of putting that bread in my mouth almost made me gag outloud.

Unexpectly, the king’s hand descended on my back, and rubbed a small soothing circle. A warm, tingling sensation spread under his palm, slow and soothing, so much like another touch I had so recently craved. I gasped a little and tried to hide it in a cough and glanced quickly around the table to see if anyone else had noticed the strange, intimate energy flowing between us. Wyatt was busy stuffing another bite of sandwich in his mouth, and Byron had leaned over to pick up the slimey bit of bun that Liam had dropped on the floor. Only Bella was looking at me expectantly.

“Oh, I ate on the way here,” I said lamely, as I picked up the fruit cup and stabbed a piece of melon with my fork. “I was starving and I couldn’t wait.” I chewed the fruit carefully and swallowed it before I smiled, “But you know, nothing like second lunch.”

Satisfied, Bella turned her attention back to the baby, and I nervously turned back to Louis, who had not removed his hand from my back. His eyes were intense, but his smile was easy and casual. “Perhaps, when we’ve finished eating, we could go for a walk?” He suggested, but there was that slight hint of a command under the question.

I knew I could say no. I could make the excuse that I still needed to unload the car and unpack my things, and maybe I was too tired from the long drive over there, but when I looked into his eyes, my excuses scattered like frightened birds, and I found I didn’t want to say no. “Okay,” I said, a little breathlessly. “I could use a walk, stretch my legs…”

His smile widened, creasing his cheeks, making his eyes crinkle at the corners again. “Good. Me too.”