We ate supper with Arthur's parents again that night. My throat was not quite as tight, and they were as genial to me as the previous day. Apparently Arthur's mother had indeed decided that she approved of me now that she believed I had no weird skeletons in my closet.
Arthur and I spent the evening alone together and it was really nice. I liked hearing about his childhood in the palace, so different than my own, yet there were some similarities like the embarrassment of dealing with mate-bonded parents. Apparently it was painful regardless of class.
He seemed, as impossible as it sounded, to enjoy hearing about mine as well. I did not think there was anything particularly interesting about it, but he appeared fascinated. I supposed that my childhood seemed as foreign to him as his did to me.
When we parted for the night, I could not help but wish that we were a little further along in the Three M's process than we were so that I could stay with him for the night.
I schooled myself to patience, although it did not make me happy.
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I was woken the next morning by my phone alarm, only to discover it was actually a call from my mother.
"Yeah?" I yawned.
"Good morning, honey."
"How're you?" I asked, wondering what she wanted.
"We got invitations to your welcoming celebration," she told me quickly.
"Okay?"
"Do you want us there?"
"Of course you're welcome," I said. What a silly reason to call me in the morning.
I could hear the smile in her voice. "I just wanted to check first. I don't want to be cramping your style if you don't want us there. Your father and I aren't quite as cool as we used to be."
I doubted that they ever were cool at all, but I did not tell her that. "It's fine."
"So then I suppose we'll travel up with your sister, so we'll get there tomorrow."
"Sounds great," I said. Not as great as still being asleep, but quite nice.
"Is everything going alright?" she asked.
So this was the real reason for the call. "Yeah, it's pretty nice here and Arthur is, of course, wonderful."
"That's good to hear. My wolf misses her pup, and wants you to know that." My mother and my mother's wolf were usually indistinguishable so it was sort of comforting to hear what her wolf side thought. Maybe it had even been her wolfish nature that had prompted this all too early call.
"Thanks mom," I said and yawned again. I was glad that they were coming.
"Sorry if I woke you, sweetie."
"No prob. Bye mom. See you soon."
"Bye."
I hung up and rolled out of bed. I kind of wanted to keep sleeping, but more than that I really wanted to see Arthur.
Once I was in his bed I'd probably never have a good reason to leave, I thought with a little wicked smile.
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I made my way out of my bedroom and found Arthur in the kitchen area with a cup of coffee in his hand. He was usually relaxing on the couch with it when I exited my room, so I really was up earlier than normal.
My face muscles stretched out into a completely involuntary expression of my pure joy at his presence. No wonder, it had been almost a full nine hours since I last saw him.
It felt like about nine years.
How in the world was I going to manage if he had to go somewhere else on royal business for a few days?
People said it got easier with time, but that seemed a bit like saying mountain climbing would be easier next year due to erosion. Negligible.
"Good morning," he said. His pleasure at my appearance was obvious, although I had done little more than straighten my hair a bit and pull on a robe.
Mate bonds had a definite upside. I could probably fall in a sewer and he would still think me attractive and vice versa. Mate coloured glasses for the win.
I returned the greeting as I walked forward and got myself a glass of water.
"So what are we going to do today?" I asked.
"I'm afraid I failed to completely clear the schedule for the day. The royal clothier claims you need a final fitting and my mother insists we practice dancing, although I convinced her to let us practice alone."
"That's not too bad." I could do dancing with just him since he was the only good part of the practice.
"Glad you feel that way. Is there anything you want to do today, Anne?"
I considered the question. I had already seen so much in the capital and done so many things that I felt like I had no energy to do anything else.
"Could we, mostly, just stay here and find something to do? Maybe just a bit of time to, you know, let everything settle in my mind? I don't really want to spend time with anyone but you."
If possible, he looked even more satisfied than I had seen him look before. He looked good wrapped in satisfaction. The way he held himself with his relaxed confidence, the flow of his muscles as he moved just doing regular things...
I slipped my hand along my chin surreptitiously and was pleased to find there was no wayward drool dripping down. That would be horribly embarrassing.
"Sure. Whatever you want," he agreed. There was already a tray of breakfast pastries on the counter and I selected one as I followed Arthur to the couch. I sat down and he pulled me closer to him, as if an inch of space was far too much between us.
I revelled in the little signs that he was as ridiculously obsessed with me as I was with him.
After we finished breakfast, we both retreated to our rooms to get ready for the day.
Around the time I came out of the shower, Velda came into the room with a smile. "Ready to get ready?"
I smiled back. I was going to have a proper day with my mate.
"Yes, please, although we're just going to largely have a relaxing day today."
Velda helped me get ready, as if I had not been managing to get myself ready since I was about five years old.
I supposed it was technically delegating. I was going to have a very busy life so it made sense to let other people take care of some of my needs. I resolved to ensure that I still would do certain things so that I would not completely lose my life skills. I wanted to stay grounded, I did not want to lose touch with what it was like to be an average person.
When Velda was done with me I looked very casually nice, which was just great. I wore comfy leggings and a loose fitting shirt and it felt really good to just be like I had always been. I hoped Arthur would not mind and I imagined he would not. I had not been dressed up when we had found each other and he had still liked me quite a lot then.
As expected, he did not seem to care what I wore. I glanced at him and discovered that he could make casual pants and t-shirts look as great as shirts and suits and bike gear.
He could probably make trash bag clothing a trend if he decided to.
"So what shall we do?" he asked.
I supposed that making out for the entire day would push our patience too far. "Want to play a game of some sort?"
"Sure. What sort do you have?"
"Well, I've got pretty much any game system on the market, and there's a tennis, bowling, ping pong, pool, board games..."
"Wow. Um, board game?" That seemed like a way we could just be alone.
"Which one?"
"Which ones do you have?"
"Try me."
"Peril?"
"Ah, your reservations about world domination don't stretch to board games? Although we'd need more players."
"It's how I work out my temptation. But never mind that then." I pictured playing a world domination strategy game with Fleur or Serenity or Carena and rejected the horrible idea. I was not going to introduce anyone else into our day together. I ran through the games I could think of and realized most of them took more players.
"Backgammon?"
"I'll have someone bring us a board." He tapped into his phone.
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If someone had told me a week previously that I would spend the large chunk of even one day of my life lazing around with Prince Arthur, I would have told them they were moon touched.
If someone had told me I would be relaxed while I had fun with him, feeling totally secure, I would have laughed them out of the room.
But again, I would never have believed I would end up the unlikely girl who hit the Arthur jackpot. The odds were clearly phenomenally low and yet here I was.
Arthur was intelligent and quick-witted, but I had been forced to play a lot of games on family game night growing up, so I had the experience advantage on him. Plus, he had probably been too busy learning all the courtly prince stuff that he no doubt had less time to play than I did.
I felt a bit of sympathy for him growing up, but I supposed I should save it for myself since I was the one relatively unequipped to deal with my mate's world.
I still had trouble properly worrying about any of that when he was with me.
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After spending the day together, one would think that I might get to the point where I could tire of being with Arthur, but the moment never came. He came along to my final fitting and waited patiently for the clothier to finish with me. We spent hours in the ballroom alone together, working through the unfamiliar steps that I would need to know for my first official moment meeting people.
Ultimately, whether we were doing something inane together, kissing, touching or just sitting around doing nothing at all, he was all I wanted.
The mate bond constantly tugged at me and urged me forward. It was no wonder that werewolves ended up having such large families with our magic pushing away at our restraint.
But we endured.
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The next morning, I woke up and my day flew into motion.
My phone had a bunch of messages from Kayla, detailing every moment of her journey. She described gas stations and took hilarious pictures with Rory at every landmark and a bunch of random things.
My favourite was a picture of the two of them smiling simply with the highway at their back.
Arthur and I ate and we parted to get ready for the day and then returned to each other, like we were magnets with opposite poles.
My phone dinged.
Kayla [We're here!!!!!!]
"Rory and Kayla are here," I told Arthur. I grinned my excitement that my best friends were nearby. It had only been a few days but the idea of seeing familiar faces widened the smile that Arthur near constantly kept on my face.
"Will they need some time to settle in?" Arthur asked me.
"No amount of time will make Kayla settle in."
Arthur simply chuckled knowingly. He clearly had figured Kayla out already. "Let's go find them, then."
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