The White Wolf Chapter 101: He Looked Pale

It seemed as if Prince Dristan was determined to be a nuisance. His private secretary sent Gabe a list of items needed that were absurd.

After the war of flowers, Enzo made himself scarce, leaving only Gabe to deliver the message.

Unwilling he gave the list to Harley who presented it to the Queen. As she read the words her lip curled in disgust. “Clean sheet? Clean sheets? He asked for clean sheets does he believe us to be paupers?”

The king and queen had just set down for dinner when the letter arrived. A quick meal together as their time had been spent mostly apart. The small hope of a quiet evening together was dashed.

The stress was showing on the queen’s features causing her mate to immediately worry. He knew how hard she worked and that she wanted the visit to be a success but not at the expense of her health.

Placing his utensils down on his plate before Grasping her hand in his, he brought it to his lips for a kiss. If he had seen the list before it was given to her, he would have burned it but it came at dinner and he wasn’t paying Gabe any attention when he told him.

The filet that Alexia had been eating no longer appealed to her. With obvious disgust, she handed the paper back to Harley. “I hope we are able to manage this.”

After receiving the paper, Harley bowed and left the room in order to finish last-minute items.

Caspian gave her hand a squeeze “Don’t let the little prick get under your skin. If he knows he has irked you he will just keep doing.”

A slow nod was the only response she gave to his words. Reaching for her glass, Alexia held the stem between her fingers as she swirled its contents. After she watched her red wine race around its container, she took a drink before setting it back down.

“Consider this the first round of sparring. He is only going to be more insufferable when he arrives.” He did his best to convey his wisdom to her without speaking in a patronizing tone.

Knowing Caspian spoke the truth, Alexia let a groan of protest. “I wish we could launch him out of a cannon.”

Gabe snorted. “A similar idea has been proposed. Personally, I’d like to him hoisted up the flag pole but unfortunately, I was overruled.” Adding a dramatic flair to his statement Alexia cracked a smile.

Praising Gabe, she said “Who on earth would veto such a marvelous idea?”

“Yes, who would do such a thing? Your majesty?” He turned to look at the king.

Holding his free hand up as if to shield himself he said “As much as I love the idea, I don’t think his parents would be pleased.”

“Pish posh. You can take the old man or are you scared?” The mischief played in the beta’s eyes as he looked at the king.

Barely deigning to give a response he held his head high and his nose pointed up as his pride swelled. “Never.”

“Then I see no problem. Up the flag pole, he goes!” Gabe said enthusiastically causing the queen to chuckle in delight at his antics.

Finding the beta’s weak spot, Caspian said “Fine, but it will be you who will be dealing with the paperwork that follows.”

A groan came in protest. “Why does everything have to be accompanied by paperwork? Why can we not do the deed and be done with it!”

Caspian barely sparred him a glance as he muttered “Diplomacy requires it.”

“Diplomacy. I have a new goal, hear me out.” He added as he held up his hands seeing the skeptical look the royals gave him. “You take over the world.”

“That’s not funny.” Tired from the day, Caspian rolled his eyes.

“I’m only half joking. But seriously the paperwork is too much. When we were training for our positions, I imagined us more out doing cool things. Not being stuck behind a desk. ”

“Like what?” Alexia questioned.

“Like killing bad guys and rescuing damsels. The normal stuff young males enjoy.”

“And what were you like as a young male.” Her eyes zeroed in on her mate as the corner of her mouth tugged into a smirk.

“I was a fine young male who was very respectable.” His voice was aloof as he tried to distract his mate and began eating again.

Gabe scoffed. “Respectable? More like devious who did not get caught.”

Caspian shot Gabe a warning a glare, an action that Alexia tracked like a hawk. “Oh do go on.” She encouraged "Please sit next to me.".

Caspian stabbed a piece of meat with gusto as if it were Gabe’s heart. Sliding into the seat next to the queen, Gabe looked lost in thought.

Treading lightly, Gabe began to recall tales of their youth. “Well, we had this cranky old warrior in charge of our recognizance training.”

The tension in Caspian’s shoulders seemed to relax as Gabe picked a suitable tale to tell.

Before Gabe could continue, Caspian cut off and picked up telling the story. “He made our life miserable. We could not stand him. He should have retired years before this but I guess the powers that be, also known as my father, decided he should be in charge of our reconnaissance.”

Alexia waited in suspense wondering what trouble he had got in too.

“Well, the old dog one day decided to yell at us for our gear not being correctly packed. It was something stupid like where we should place our canteens before we were going on a training exercise in the woods.”

Gabe seemed to recall the exchange as he nodded in agreement. "If he could have whipped us he would have."

“He yelled at us three till he was red in the face. Saying we were disgraced to the kingdom. If we cannot do the simplest of tasks right how will we ever amount to anything? Along with some expletives that I will not repeat in front of you.”

Alexia looked taken aback. Never would one of her father's warriors speak to her harshly. The bravery to speak to a prince so unbridled astounded her.

“So we set off on our little exercise and I am mad. I cannot even think straight I don’t even remember what our objective was.”

“That’s right because you didn’t do anything. You followed Enzo and I muttering under your breath while we did all the work.” Stopping his eating of the food that had been placed in front of him during the discussion, Gabe added.

“That…. Is probably true.” Caspian laughed before continuing.

“By the time we’re done. I’ve decided I don’t want to follow his instructions and I’m going to enjoy my evening under the stars. So we found a nice campsite and slept in the woods that night. .” a sly smile spread across his face.

“You see we were only supposed to be gone a few hours. By morning there was a royal search party sent out led by the king.

“I can only imagine how antsy he was as the hours ticked by and we did return and then he had to let the king know we were missing. I will say he never yelled at us again after that.”

The king had been livid when he was awoken, a bit of information his mother had informed him later.

“Did you not get in trouble?”The shock was across her face.

As innocently as he could muster the king responded. “We had such difficulty understanding the instructions we got lost.”

“You cheeky boy.” She scolded fighting a smile.

“You wound me, my love.” He chided back.

“It’s a miracle you did not kill due to stress from losing the crown prince.” She looked at her mate seriously.

“That did not cross my mind but now that I think about it, he did look a bit pale when they found us.” He pursed his lips.

“You mean boy.” She chided before Have joined in the reprimand.

Caspian allowed himself to be the butt of teasing as he saw Alexia relax. He would gladly be run over by a train if it made her happy so he let the beta continue with his assault.

The air lightened with the banter helping Alexia relax a little.

Not wanting to let the pompous prince ruin her evening, the queen straighter her shoulders and squeezed her mate's hand. Before she resumed eating, she offered him a smile that did not quite reach her eyes.