Chapter 16 - Something So Trivial

Chapter 16 - Something So Trivial
The guest wing felt different as I walked through its familiar corridors. The servants and subjects I passed greeted me with their usual deference, bowing their heads and murmuring "Your Highness" as I moved past them.
But there was something in their manner, a tension in the air that made my skin prickle with unease.

I made a mental note to tell her to move to my room. The guest wing probably added to her reason for overreacting.

My heart was racing for reasons I couldn't explain, beating against my ribs like a caged bird desperate for freedom. My wolf, usually so vocal and present, had gone strangely quiet. The silence in my head was unnerving, as if some essential part of myself had simply... vanished.

I reached Yasmin's door and knocked, the sound echoing in the empty hallway. No response. I waited a moment, then knocked again, harder this time.

"Yasmin? It's me. We need to talk."

Still nothing.

Worry traced down my spine. She couldn't be in her study—I'd given those rooms to Hana yesterday in a moment of petty vindictiveness. I'd apologize for that too, I decided. Add it to the growing list of things I needed to make right.

But where else would she be? My friend Durian had mentioned that she hadn't appeared for the pack's morning meal, something that was highly unusual for her. Yasmin was nothing if not punctual, dedicated to maintaining appearances even when her world was crumbling around her.

Fear began to claw at my chest, irrational but insistent. What if she'd done something desperate? What if her pain had driven her to...

No. I couldn't think like that. Yasmin was strong, stronger than anyone I knew. She wouldn't hurt herself, wouldn't take such a permanent solution to what was ultimately a temporary problem.

But the silence behind the door was deafening.

I tried the handle and found it unlocked. Heart pounding, I pushed inside and called her name again. The sitting room was empty, everything in its proper place but somehow feeling abandoned. I moved quickly to the bedroom, my boots loud on the floor.

The sight that greeted me stopped my heart completely.

The room was neat. Too neat. The bed was made to perfection, the surfaces clear of the small personal items that should've this space uniquely hers.
I rushed to the wardrobe and threw open the doors, only to find empty hangers swaying gently in the sudden breeze.

The dresser drawers were the same. Nothing. Not a single piece of jewelry, not one of her beloved books, not even the small portrait of her family that had always sat on her nightstand.

Panic froze my bones. I tore through the room with urgency, checking every corner, every hiding place, desperate to find some sign that this was temporary, that she'd simply moved her things for cleaning or some other mundane reason.

But deep down, I knew the truth. She'd said she intended to leave by morning. I just hadn't believed she would actually do it. Not for something so small, so easily fixed with a conversation and mutual understanding.

How could she leave me? How could she walk away from four years of marriage, of love, of building a life together? We'd weathered so many storms, overcome so many obstacles. This was just another challenge to navigate, another problem to solve together.

Wasn't it?

I stumbled out of the bedroom and down the hallway, my mind reeling. Servants scattered out of my way as I bellowed for the guards, my voice echoing off the stone walls with desperate authority.

"Search everywhere," I commanded when they assembled before me, their faces carefully neutral despite the obvious panic in my demeanor. "Find Princess Yasmin immediately. Check every room, every corner of this palace. She may be hurt, or... just find her. Now!"

They scattered like leaves in a hurricane, their boots echoing through the corridors as they began their systematic search. I stood in the middle of the chaos I'd created, my chest heaving with the effort of maintaining control.

She wouldn't leave me. She couldn't. Not my Yasmin, not the woman who'd given up everything to be by my side. This was just another one of her dramatic gestures, a way to make me realize how much I needed her. She'd be back before nightfall, probably with some elaborate explanation and a demand for groveling apologies.

But Yasmin...is never dramatic.

The thought comforted me for all of thirty seconds before one of the younger guards approached, his face pale with nervousness.

"Your Highness," he said, his voice carefully measured. "We, ah... we helped the Crown Princess move her belongings yesterday evening. Into General Zeirik's carriage."

What?
What the fuck does that mean?

The air left my lungs in a rush, and for a moment I couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but stare at the guard's frightened face.

"What did you say?" My voice was deadly quiet.

"She... she had us load trunks and boxes into the General's carriage, sir. Said she was... relocating," The man squirmed under my insistent stare.

Fire exploded through my veins, white-hot rage that made my vision blur red around the edges.

Zeirik. Of course it was Zeirik.

My brother, who'd already taken the attention of our father that was meant for me, who'd stolen the admiration that should have been mine, who'd made me look weak and ineffective by comparison.
The bastard who couldn't just do me the favor of dying!

Now he'd taken my wife.

My fists clenched tightly by my eyes, my wolf barely contained, making my skin tight and burning through with rage.

Yasmin could have done this alone.
She knows how much I hate him!
This wasn't just abandonment, it was a calculated assault on everything I held dear. My wife, my position, my dignity, all undermined by the one person who should have supported me unconditionally.

I opened my mouth to roar my fury, to demand explanations and heads on spikes, when running footsteps echoed in the hallway. One of the priest's aides appeared, breathless and wide-eyed, clutching a rolled parchment in his trembling hands.

"Your Highness!" he gasped, skidding to a halt before me. "Father Benedict sends this with utmost urgency. He requires your immediate signature, as all stated reasons for dissolution are deemed viable under pack law."

I stared at him blankly for a moment, my rage-fogged mind struggling to process his words. "What dissolution? What are you talking about?" I turned fully to face him, my control slowly slipping.

The aide thrust the parchment toward me with shaking hands. "The marriage annulment, Your Highness. Between yourself and Princess Yasmin," The aide explained, eyes darting everywhere else but me.

The words seemed to echo from a distance. I took the document with numb fingers, unrolling it with movements that felt disconnected from my body. The ink was still wet, the formal language swimming before my eyes as I tried to make sense of what I was seeing.

Marriage Annulment Petition... Crown Prince Cassien Elysium... Princess Yasmin Elysium... grounds for dissolution include abandonment of marital duties, adultery, insubordination, public humiliation, and physical violence...

My name. Her name. Our marriage, reduced to a sheet of paper and cold facts that stripped away four years of love and partnership and left nothing but a tainted view.

She'd actually done it. Filed the papers, presented her case to the priest, set in motion what would erase our bond as if it had never existed.

The parchment crumpled in my grip as my hands began to shake with the force of my emotions. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. Not over something so trivial.

But the evidence was there in black and white, demanding my signature to make our separation official and final.

Yasmin was gone. And she wasn't coming back.
Not to me.