Chapter 155

Third Person POV

Mia stood shell-shocked after Xaden’s outburst. He turned his anger towards his father now and it was clear that he was fighting against his wolf from taking control. His father went from furious at Xaden’s outburst, to shocked and confused as he took in the new paternity test results.

Queen Leanora was still trying to calm Xaden down.

“There has to be an explanation,” Leonora said to him, rubbing his back soothingly. “Try not to overreact and say such cruel things to your family. Have you tried calling her?”

“She left her phone behind,” Xaden said, shaking his head. “She left everything…”

“Everything?” Char asked, confused. “Why would she leave everything?”

“I have no idea. I came here hoping that you would know,” Xaden said, turning to his sister.

“You don’t think something happened to her, do you?” Char asked, her eyes shining with worry.

Mia’s chest tightened.

There was an elephant in the room, and she knew that she was the reason it was there. It was her fault that Maeve left… from what was said and what Mia had overheard, Maeve saw the two of them together in the gardens and possibly heard some of the strange things Xaden was saying.

She left because her mate was with another woman.

This was all her fault. She knew that Xaden was taken with a baby on the way, and she still pursued him. This wasn’t her… she wasn’t a homewrecker. She glanced around the room, barely paying attention to a thing anyone was saying anymore. They were in deep conversation, and it was obvious she had no business being there with any of them. They didn’t want her there… they thought of her as a homewrecker.

Her eyes found the King and he seemed to be talking to his wife about something, both looking serious. Even he was clearly exhibiting signs of regret about having Xaden spend all that time with Mia.

“Princess…” Emily said softly from beside her, sensing her deeply rooted anxiety. “Just breathe. It’s going to be okay…”

Mia shook her head as tears filled her eyes. The way that Xaden spoke to her was like no other. She had never been spoken to like that before; no one had ever had the guts to yell at her as he did. He blamed her for everything, and he was right… this was her fault. She never thought that her actions could potentially put this girl and her baby in danger.

“How about her phone?” Char asked, bringing Mia out of her thoughts for a moment. “You mentioned that she left her phone behind too. Had she contacted anyone?”

Xaden fished the phone out of his pocket and swiped across the screen. His brows furrowed as he went through the recent call log, and he tilted his head.

“She spoke to someone last night, but it shows up as an unknown number. It’s weird because she was the one who called it… but the number itself won’t show up,” he said, his eyes fixed on the phone.

“I’ll have someone take a look at the log and see if they can come up with something,” King Arlan said, taking the phone from his son. “We will utilize all recourses to find her and my grandson.”

Hearing the King’s worry made Mia’s heart crack even more. She took a step back from everyone. She didn’t belong here. This was her mess and now they had to clean it up. If anything happened to Maeve, she would never forgive herself.

“Princess…?” Emily whispered, eyeing Mia cautiously.

“I need some air…” Mia whispered back, her voice coming out hoarse. “Please don’t follow me.”

She quickly turned and hurried away from the foyer, knowing in her heart that only her people were the ones who noticed.

Or so she thought.

Lucas stood by his brother’s side, supporting his family as they talked about Maeve and her whereabouts, however, his eyes were fixated on Mia’s retreating form. He saw the panicked look on her face and the way it looked as if she was punched in the stomach. He saw how worried Emily was for her princess and how the Vixen warriors looked as if they wanted to fight the world to protect her. It was clear she was battling an inner demon and Lucas had a strange urge to comfort her and protect her.

The second she left; he wanted to go after her. He heard her whispering to her people to not follow her and though Emily looked as if she wanted to go after her as well, she refrained from doing so.

“Meanwhile, we should go into town and see if anyone has heard from her. We can ask all the drivers too,” Char suggested. “She must be around here somewhere. She couldn’t have gotten far without her stuff.”

“Unless she was taken,” Xaden said.

“Let’s not think like that,” their mother said gently. “Let’s just find a trail and go from there.”

“Come on,” Char said, tugging at Xaden’s hand and grabbing her mother’s arm. “Let’s go into town while Father traces the phone call.”

They started towards the doorway and then paused when they noticed Lucas wasn’t going with them.

“Lucas, are you coming?” Queen Leonora asked.

“Yeah, I’ll meet up with you,” Lucas said over his shoulder as he started towards the back door.

“Are you okay?” Char asked, confused.

“Just give me a few minutes.”

Lucas could feel their stares, but he didn’t care. He rushed out the backdoor, following the florescent scent of the princess. He knew that she took a liking to the garden; since arriving at the palace, it had become her happy place. He didn’t need to track her scent to know that was where she was heading, but he did anyway, just in case.

As predicted, she was seated on the stone bench that sat in the middle of the rose garden. She had tears streaking down her cheeks and she was wrapping her arms around her body like she was trying to hold herself together.

He remained quiet as he approached her, silently observing how she folded in on herself. She sniffled and wiped at her damp cheeks and when he stepped on a twig, breaking it, she tensed and quickly turned to face him. Her eyes were filled with tears and when she noticed him for the first time, she tried to hide it, but he had already seen it. She was broken his chest tightened at the sight.

“What are you doing out here?” She asked, turning away from him.

“I came to make sure you were okay,” he told her gently. “Are you…okay?”

“I’m sure you came out here to laugh at me,” she murmured, shaking her head. “No, I’m not okay, Lucas.”

“I’m not here to laugh at you,” he assured her, stepping closer to the stone bench. “Why would I do that?”

“Because I made a fool out of myself…” she murmured. “And because of that, Maeve is gone. Either she left out of her own free will, or she was taken. Regardless, it was my fault.”

“What Xaden said was out of anger,” Lucas told her. “He didn’t mean it. It wasn’t your fault.”

She turned to glare up at him, her lips pressing in a thin line.

“That’s not the truth,” she murmured. “It was my fault and we both know it. If I hadn’t bothered to pursue him, she wouldn’t have left. Or she wouldn’t have been vulnerable enough to get taken so easily…”

Lucas shook his head.

“We don’t know what happened yet…” he told her. “You can’t beat yourself up over something you have no idea about.”

“I chased after a man I knew was mated and expecting a baby. That’s not who I am. What’s wrong with me?” Mia asked more to herself than to Lucas.

Lucas sighed and sat beside her on the bench, staring down at his hands as if he expected the answers to her questions to be written on them.

“Sometimes love can make you do crazy things,” Lucas muttered. “I’m not saying you were in love with him, but you could have fallen in love with him if given the chance. You spent time learning things about him that you liked, and you were leaning towards love. You didn’t ask for any of this. This is a thing that’s happening to you… not for you.”

“I would do anything for my people,” she sighed. “Even if I have to marry someone I barely know. I’m sure you feel the same about your people as well. You would do anything for them, right?”

Lucas was quiet for a moment as he processed her words.

“I would do anything to get my father off my back,” he finally settled on saying. “Even if it means marrying a conniving little bitch.”

He meant it has a joke, though he was poking a jab at her at the same time. The words kind of slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them. The way she was looking at him made him feel a little small; he knew she was going to go off on him and a fight would soon start, just as it always did when he over spoke.

But then to his surprise, her face morphed into a smile and then she started to laugh! She was actually laughing.

“I thought you came out here to cheer me up?” She asked, still chuckling. “If that’s your idea of a pep talk… you really suck, Lucas.”

She continued to laugh until tears came out of her eyes; it made Lucas laugh as well. He too held his stomach as he laughed; they must have looked ridiculous laughing like this, but at the moment, neither of them cared. It felt good to laugh.

“I can see you’re naturally a jerk,” she chuckled. “Have you ever heard a compliment?”

“I give compliments all the time,” Lucas laughed. “But you have to earn them.”

“And what do I need to do to earn them?” She asked, her laughter dying down, but she still had a faint smile on her lips as she peeked up at him. He almost made her want to earn a compliment from the infinite dick of a prince.

“Not be a bitch,” he laughed.

She laughed too and smacked his arm.

“I’ll stop being a bitch when you stop being a dick,” she laughed.

He held out his hand for her to shake.

“You have a deal,” he told her.

She grabbed his hand, ignoring the way her heart skipped a beat. His touch was warm, and she felt an electric pull towards him that made goosebumps form on her flesh and her cheeks grow warm.

The way she blushed made the light freckles around her nose and cheeks blossom and Lucas couldn’t help but find her so beautiful at that moment. Despite her being a bitch most of the time, she was also kind of endearing in a way, and it was clear she had a heart because she felt bad about Maeve. Her smile made her face light up and her eyes sparkled as she laughed.

Lucas knew that he should be out there searching for Maeve with the rest of his family, but he couldn’t help but want to stay a little longer and make Mia laugh again and again.