I sat at the table in the dining room, watching Queen as she carefully maneuvered through the glass on the floor to make her way toward me. The windows in the room were open, inviting in the sunlight that allowed me to see her in all her glory. My black shirt hung down to the midpoint of her thighs and her hair was in a beautiful mess on her head.

A smile showcasing her dimples was on her face as eyed the floor and I couldn't take my eyes away from her. I never liked the word luck since I didn't believe it existed, but as I looked at her, I couldn't think of another word. I was lucky.

"I made you breakfast," she sang as she placed the tray down in front of me.

"Is it good?" I eyed the plate of eggs and bacon, picking up the fork on the tray.

"Probably not." She smiled, planting herself on my lap. "I can't cook, but I tried my best." I wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close before taking a scoop of the eggs and putting it in my mouth.

A sharp taste of salt slapped my senses as I ate the eggs, but with her eyes on me expectantly, I chewed through the disgust. "Mmm." I held a thumbs up.

"Yay!"

I ate the entire plate, holding back a gag at the somehow salty toast. I downed the orange juice, hoping that it would wash away everything I tasted, and when I was done, I set it down and relaxed into the seat. The pain was all worth it as she grinned at me and clapped for herself. "You did good, Princess."

"Thank you! If you want I can start making you breakfast every mor-"

"No!" I responded quickly, making her smile drop. "I mean, I can make you breakfast. You should save yours for special occasions, you know?"

"Like holidays?" She smiled. "Christmas, birthdays, and all of that?"

"I was thinking New Years." I nodded. "And only New Years."

"New Years just passed though."

"Then I guess the next one." I kissed her cheek. She glanced around at the state of the dining room and sighed. Even I had to admit that my wolf did more damage than usual. The only bright side of the situation was that there were no dead bodies that I would have to explain away this time. I suppose for that, I should've been thankful. "Don't worry, I'll clean it all up before they get back."

"I'll help you," she said, her brows furrowed in determination.

"Really?"

"Yeah," she grimaced. "I sort of contributed to some of it."

"Is that so?" I rested my chin on her shoulder and let my eyes scan the messy room. "What did you do, Princess?"

"See that broken wine glass on the floor?" She pointed to the spot on the marble floor a few feet away from us and I glanced at it with a scoff. "I did that."

My eyes moved to all the other crushed glass on the floor, a couple of broken chairs obliterated beside the table, and the claw marks on the curtains. The entire room was in a state of decay from what I did last night. "Oooh, you're bad," I whispered, playing a kiss on her neck.

"I hate you." She giggled as she removed herself from my arms and stood up. "I'll go get the cleaning supplies."

"Be careful on the glass," I warned as she dashed out of the room. When she finally made it out unharmed, I let out a relieved breath and rubbed my temples. A phone began ringing in the room and I traced the sound to the spot in the room where Queen's jeans lay.

I picked them up, taking the phone out of the pocket and looking at it in confusion. It wasn't her phone. I saw my mother's name flashing across it and I answered it, flipping it open and holding it against my ear. "Mother," I answered.

"Syn, hi! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Is Queen-"

"She's fine too."

"Good," she said with an exhale of breath. "Because I have some really bad news."

"What?"

"Last night, I panicked after seeing Queen's dead body, and I called her parents and told them what happened. I explained to them that Queen was okay this morning, but they're coming this afternoon and they want Mia to be executed."

"That sounds like great news to me."

"That's not all," she said. "They're demanding Queen return to Heaven with them for her own safety."

"That's not happening."

"Well, I don't know how you plan on stopping them. They sounded serious."

"Tell them to meet Xyla and me for dinner at Jane's in Juva for dinner to discuss whatever worries they have," I replied. "Until then, I need the palace clear until at least twelve so I can clean up the mess I made."

"I'll do my best. By the way, tell Queen that I found Matilda. The phone I'm calling on is hers, but I freaked out when I couldn't find her last night."

"Okay. I'll see you soon." There was an odd lingering satisfaction mixed with sadness that Matilda was alright. Her and I weren't close anymore, but when I was a child, she was more of a mother to me than my own mother. That was before she became like everyone else here. There were some things she did that I wished I could forget, but I pushed it down and focused on the positives; Without her, I would've truly been a bigger monster than everyone already believed me to be. She was the one who taught me how to read people.

"Okay, I'm back," Queen said, lugging in enough cleaning supplies to clean the entire palace if we wanted to. "Should we-"

"My mother found Matilda."

"That's great, I was getting worried," she admitted as she set the things down on the table.

"I guess we should get started, huh?"

"If we want to finish sometime today..." she passed me a broom. "...I'd say yes."

I decided against telling her about her parents for the time being. If everything went as I planned at dinner, then she wouldn't ever have to know that they were even in Jeradua. I didn't like lying to her, but I wasn't sure this was a truth she'd want to know. How do I say...

Queen, I'm going to be blackmailing your parents tonight?

"Princess?" I called, making her look up at me. "Can you promise me something?"

"What?"

"Promise me that you're mine."

"I'm yours," she said with a smile.

"You're not running away?" I really wanted to ask if she was worth all the trouble I was going to get myself into tonight. I knew she was, and I'd risk a lot more for her, but I didn't want to take the step off the deep end if she wasn't going in with me.

"I'm not going anywhere, Syn," she assured me. A dark look flashed across her face, making her smile slightly drop as she held the broom in her hand. "If I can help it that is."

"What does that mean?"

"You're marrying Xyla, Syn. And as much as I want you for myself, I'm not going to be selfish," she said. "But I will leave if seeing you with her starts to hurt."

"That's not going to happen." I pulled her closer to me. "What I have with Xyla is a contract, okay? One that I hardly want to do. I want to be with you." I never thought I'd be like my father. The type of man to throw away everything for a girl, but as I looked down at mine, I couldn't stop the next words from falling from my mouth. "If it starts to hurt, tell me and we'll run away together."

Queen burst out into laughter, most likely taking my words as a joke, but I've never been more serious. My father had backed out of plans for my mother and encouraged us to find new ways to get Heaven plenty of times before. There was no way he could bitch about it if I did it once.

It was against all rules I had set up for myself, but I'd do it for her.