Chapter 759: ROYAL FAMILY

RUBY’S POV

The journey to the pack had been fun and chatty with Bale.

It had been more uplifting than I had expected.

When I had asked if a guard should follow us, Bale had been against it.

"This is the first time I’ve been on my own in...." He trailed off and seemed to thinking for eternity.

He looked down at his hands.

"I’ll just like to be on my own for a while." He said.

I nodded.

Bale was sweet and yet very strange at the same time.

I had always wondered what being next in line to pack was like.

Or wondered what it was like toe even be the member of a pack.

And here he was, with everything combined and yet, he wasn’t fulfilled.

"Then I think you and I should go with my horse." I said as I went to the stables and brought at Gale.

She neighed at us and rubbed her head around his face.

He laughed.

"We would have to share." I offered. "Your leg is still weak. Riding your own horse can prove to be dangerous. It’s the one requirement that I ask of you."

He was still leaning on his walking stick.

He sighed. "Alright."

I climbed on Gale while one of the stable boys offered to assist Bale on the horse.

"Hold me tight." I urged to him at the back. "If you fall and break your neck, I’ll be offered as sacrifice to the goddess."

Then I felt his hands creep by sides and he held fervently.

I gave a hiah and we raced off together.

"Hold stead Bale." I told him.

I had a habit of running wild and free in Gale. It always felt like one.

I was not used to having someone else accompany me with her.

I raced on through the forests.

I intentionally avoided the markets because I didn’t want to come across our debtors.

"You didn’t tell me why you were sitting alone in the forest that day." I remarked.

He went quiet, his hands firmly gripped to my side.

"I just wanted to study my books on my own." He said quietly.

I nodded.

He didn’t want to speak more on it so I let it go.

"You’re fascinating Ruby." I heard him say.

"What?" I asked unsure of what I had actually heard.

I could feel his hands tremble as he began to stutter through words.

"I’m sorry.... Errr... I apologize ..... I didn’t mean to-

I laughed aloud at his composure and I could feel him blush.

"Heavens Bale. You don’t need to apologize for that. I just wanted to be sure I had heard what you said." I said blushing myself. "It’s a rare compliment that I appreciate. Thank you."

He was quiet and then. "You’re mocking me. I’m sure you’ve had people compliment you all the time."

I tilted my head as Gale slowed down.

She grumbled and I roughed her side.

"Well.... I have. But not the type of compliments I appreciate . Yours is innocent and genuine." I said.

I always heard how beautiful I was.

How breathtaking.

How glamorous I was.

And mostly from people whose eyes filled with lust and desire to take what wasn’t theirs.

But Bale.

He sounded like a true friend.

And I liked that.

"Well the thing is... I’ve never even met anyone with the color of your hair for starters." He said.

I snorted.

I had always grown up the only red head in the entire territory, but it was now a norm.

No one saw it as something so different.

After all we hadn’t had any visitors since I had been born here.

"So I’ve heard." I said.

"You know..." he went on. "We always believed that only members of the royal family are red heads."

I cocked a brow. "The royal family?"

"Yes." He nodded. "Queen Rose and her entire lineage." He remarked.

I pushed an extend branch of tree as we went through the forest.

"They bear names similar to their hair." He explained. "Cherry, Auburn, Crimson. It’s very.... Fascinating. The Queen rules currently. Power is passed down and the crown chooses."

Our pack was so far away from civilization that we barely knew much or cared about much of the royal wolf family.

We knew they existed but we were a backward and local Territory with nothing special.

There was no reason why we would know much about them.

"I heard she was the one who banned magic." I said with a frown. "That’s cruel."

"She also banned communication with waterbodies. She’s complicated. But she has been through a lot of trauma. Her brother who was supposed to be king, Crimson died in a ship wreck with both parents. Her sister who was supposed to be Queen was rejected by the crown and instead she was forced to be Queen. A few years down the line one of her daughters died. She is a bit mad with grief." He explained to me.

That did touch me.

Going through all of that.

It did for a split second and then I clocked my tongue. "That still doesn’t mean she would do what she did. Magic is good for everyone as much as it’s bad. One wolf shouldn’t have the sole decision to decide whether we use or not. If the Queen hadn’t banned magic, there are people who could have been healed."

We all had trauma one way or the other but that didn’t mean we would lash it out on everyone.

I looked down at my hands.

My slender hands that had magically decided to heal people since I was young.

I didn’t have a say to who i healed.

It was what It was.

But I would be executed for a path I was already born to?

A path that i hadn’t chosen.

I was glad I was in my small pack.

The outside world seemed like a bunch of stuck up elites who didn’t care about anyone but themselves.

Bale started to say something but I stopped him.

"We’re here." I nodded at the old isolated cottage in the forest.

I felt the goosebumps on my body rise.

It had always given me the creeps.