Her Forever
(Book 3)- Chapter 22

Willa’s POV

Orion had already showered and had his crisp royal garb on. It was an olive green with hints of white and beige with gold threading. He was wearing gold crown that looked like an intricate weave of vines, branches and thorns. In the center near his forehead held a single yellow diamond that sparkled when the light hit it just right.

“Are you sure you will be alright?” He fixed his collar and tugged on his sleeves. The cape or cloak, I’m not sure what to call it, made his look more dashing. Orion looked like one of those regal kings or princes ready to go off into battle and claim what he wanted. My poor body was shuddering at the thought of him claiming me.

“Yes, I’m sure!” I chirped as I stood up from the sitting area. He picked out my dress again today, something he likes to do, and I enjoy. It shows me he cares what he puts me in and dress me. My parents never once thought to look at the clothes I wore to school to make me look good. Several years of yearbook pictures at school proved that time and time again. I really did look like a two-year-old dressed me for years. “And I’ll listen to all the rules you gave me,” I rolled my eyes.

“Good girl,” he purred as he walked closer. “You know the punishment if you don’t.” Giving him a small smile, “But is it really a punishment?” I chided.

“It definitely can be if you don’t behave,” Orion growled in warning.

“I will be good, I promise. Don’t leave the guards, stay quiet, don’t draw attention, wear the cloak, hide my face,” I started spouting off all his rules until he silenced me with a finger.

“That’s all I ask, until you have fully decided.” Orion pecked my lips and walked to the door. His white cape trailing behind him. One last look at me and he was gone.

Molly few up behind me and sat on my shoulder, “damn, he is one fine specimen. If I wasn’t banging Annan, I’d try and get up on that. She waved her finger around and stuck it in her mouth.”

“Excuse me, but he is my mate!” I pushed her off my shoulder.

“A fairy can look. And hun, you need to make up your mind or some other fae is going to come in and grab that fine piece of a*s.” I rolled my eyes and grabbed my olive-green cloak that matched Orion’s color of the day.

“You remind me of my friend Violet, a piece of work.” Molly tinkled a laugh and woke up Eudora that was sleeping on the bed.

“He sure worked you yesterday, all that hand to butt slapping was turning me on and I wasn’t even in the room!” I gasped as my face turned tomato red.

“You heard that!?” I yelled. Molly and Eudora started laughing.

“f**k, come for me baby!” Eudora mocked a deeper voice while Molly squealed, “Oh, I’m coming!” as she faked fainted.

My entire body turned red as I ran to the bathroom and locked the door. The laughs and the cat calls coming from the other side of the door was deafening. I couldn’t believe they heard all that. How could they hear all that?!

“Willa dear! The guards are here! Come on so we can get to the marketplace before it gets to crowded,” Molly sang.

“No! I can’t face you any longer! I have never been so embarrassed!” Eudora came closer to the door and whispered into the keyhole, “fine, I’ll go tell the red-bearded brothers of your frolic in the punishment department!”

I quickly opened the door, face still red and a few tears hiding behind my eyes. “How. Did. You. Hear?” I spat my words out.

“We just want to be the first to know when you are bonded. Gossip runs wild around here and being the first to spread is high status to us,” Eudora laughed. “Don’t worry, we won’t do it again. His Highness felt our aura and scolded us.” I let out a frustrated sigh and grabbed the bag of coins that Orion gave me and met Eamon, Fionn and Brenden in the living room.

“Aight, lass you ready?” Fionn spoke as he took my bag. All three of them were dressed in regular clothes, no royal uniforms, or emblems of any kind. “His highness is wanting to keep a low profile; I will stand beside you while my brothers keep a look out on other sides.” I nodded and we headed out the door.

After dodging a few royals behind the palace they led me to a door that opened up straight into the market place. It was already busy for it being so early and there were food vendors around every corner. There were many foods I recognized but many that I did not. Fionn tried to tell me what animals they were but I stood their frozen not understanding what animal, fruit or vegetable his was talking about.

Once we passed the food section of the market we came upon trinkets, clothing, jewelry and even animals up for sale as pets. Fionn kept trying to get me to look at the jewelry but I continued to walk, not interested. I’ve never owned a piece of jewelry my entire life and I wasn’t really wanting to start now.

There were many foxes in an assortment of colors and I instantly fell in love with a white one with light blue tips on its ears and feet. “That there is a frost fairy fox.” The fox looked up at me sadly through the bars of the cage. The poor thing looked so lonely. I pet his head in sympathy as it nuzzled into my hand. This wasn’t the normal fox you would see on Earth, this one had several tails behind it and was about the size of a raccoon. “They get larger,” Fionn spoke as he gave it a nut to eat. “When they are captured, they purposely put them in a small space and the fox shrinks down to a comfortable size inside the cage.

“That’s awful,” I whined. I wondered if Orion would let me get a pet. I’ve never had one before, not unless you counted Violet as my wolf pet. I snickered internally. There was yelling on the other side of the market, a small boy and a food fender holding onto his arm. The boy was crying for him to let go but the food vender ripped the large loaf of bread out of his hand and continued to scold him.

“I’ve told you how many times to stop stealing from me! I’m having you arrested!” The fae sneered.

“Please sir, I’m sorry, my sister and I are just hungry!” The man growled.

“I don’t care if half the kingdom is starved, I will get paid!” He pushed him to the ground a few guards started walking up. “This boy tried to steal from me!” The young child was about 5 years old, dirty face, hands, and clothes, he was alone and had no one to stand up to him. Fionn was talking to the pet vendor, so I grabbed my coin bag quickly and ran up and stood in front of the boy.

“I’m sorry, I forgot to give him some money. Will you please accept this for the misunderstanding?” The sign said one pence so I grabbed the smallest coins that had ‘pence’ written across them. “Here, double the price for the trouble.” I kept my head down and the bread smith swiped the money out of my hand.

“I guess this will do,” he scoffed. “Don’t let me catch you around here again.” The man walked off as some of the guards looked at me warily. “Who are you?” one of them spoke cautiously. “Are you new here?”

“Um, yes! I am just traveling; I’m visiting my friend in the Moon Kingdom and thought I would sight see a bit.” It wasn’t a lie, so I hope he bought it. “I ask the boy to get me some bread because I am not familiar with your city and forgot to give him some money.” The boy grabbed a hold of my cloak and didn’t let go.

“Let us see your face.” One of the bellowed. “We don’t normally allow many strangers here.” My heart was beating in my chest until Fionn showed up. “Ah, Fargus!” the guard turned around. Fionn waved his hand for me to go and the little boy grabbed my hand and nodded his head to the ally.

Following the boy, I saw several kids in the ally way staring intently at the bread. They quickly divided the bread and started to eat. The little fae children were so small and dirty, and I was sure were homeless. I could hear Fionn still speaking with the guard and Eamon and Brenden showed up.

“Willa, ya sure do know how to get in trouble quickly. What were ya thinkin’?” Eamon scolded.

“I couldn’t let him get in trouble; it isn’t his fault he was hungry! Why are the children like this? Are there more of them?” Eamon nodded his head sadly.

“Ya, there are more. There is an orphanage just outside the capital that houses them, I’m not sure why they are here.” The little boy came up and grabbed my hand and pulled me down to talk to him.

“There is no more food and the women who take care of us don’t have any money. They work during the day so they can come home and feed us, but we were just so hungry,” the little boy’s eyes welled up in tears. I grabbed him and held him to my chest holding on to my own pain these children are having. I pulled him from me and moved his hair away from his face. “What’s your name?”

“Cricket,” he sniffed

“Well, Cricket,” I stood up and dusted off my dress. “We are going to get some food to take back to the orphanage.” The kids looked up excitedly. Brenden walked towards me was a suspicious look, “Your highness,” he whispered, “you are to keep a low profile.” I glared back at him.

“And we shall. We will split up the money three ways and meet at the edge of the city. Fionn can come with me while you and Eamon gather the rest. The children will take us to the orphanage once finished.” Brenden scratched the back of his head, questioning my decision.

“It’s an order, Brenden.” He looked down into my eyes and gave a smirk. “Aight, lets get to it then.” Fionn, and once briefed, Fionn agreed to my demands. We gathered as much food as we possibly could with the coins Orion gave me, which was a substantial amount ,and headed to the orphanage.

Once we left the main part of the city, the homes were more dispersed. Some homes were shacks while others were well maintained. Each home was equipped with a garden and a few hen-like creatures and maybe a cow. The orphanage was the furthest house from the initial break away from the fancier homes in the city.

It was a modest building that said, “Her Love of Light.” It reminded me of a smaller pack house and a bit older, some bricks were misplaced, and a few steps were broken but the roof, walls and doors were intact to keep out the weather and animals. Walking in there was a large living space with rugs, couches and books laying in the room.

Several children ran up to us wondering what we were doing in the home. Many children called out the name, “Nana,” and Cricket quickly told us she runs the household. During the day her and three other women work to earn money so the children can eat but can only bring back so much a day. They run errands and send messages to near by towns of The Light Kingdom which doesn’t pay much. The women needed a flexible schedule to come back during the day if needed.

The guards, being big burly men had no idea what to do with the food or with the situation, so I motioned for them to put the food on the counter. Taking off my cloak and hanging it on the hook many children gasped while the guards g*****d.

Right, wasn’t supposed to take that off.

“What are you!?” Cricket came up to me and held my hand again. The children equally as absorbed started pulling and poking my skin while I laughed or gasped as they pinched me. “I’m human.” An noticeable gasp left their lips again.

“I thought they were fairy tales, like the ones that get eaten by witches!” A wide toothless grin smiled from across the room. Several fae children snickered as I snorted back a laugh.

“No, we are real. Where I come from, we all thing YOU are not real!” They all stood in shock as the took the new information. “No way!” Cricket yelped. I nodded my head, “yes, way!”

After introductions were concluded and they were able to touch my ears and check my back for any wings I got to work stocking the kitchen and make them a warm pot of chili with the meat that Fionn had picked out.

“Your highness, all these children know who you are now,” Eamon hissed at me. I waved my hand and continued to chop the onion. “If you keep saying, ‘your highness,’ then they are really going to know. They just think I’m passing through, don’t worry about it.” I continued to chop while the infamous brothers bickered in the corner.

Molly and Eudora who had been absent since we stepped foot into the marketplace fluttered in the door and sat on the kitchen counter while I cooked. “How did you find me?” I asked unamused.

“It’s a secret,” Molly giggled. I didn’t trust Molly and Eudora one bit, these fairies always had something up their sleeve or up their dresses.

“Molly was visiting, a, ahem, friend,” Eudora said cheekily.

“Yes, and Eudora was also visiting a, ahem, friend.” I rolled my eyes as I threw the rest of the food into the pot.

The smell was beginning to waft into the air, children began sitting at the table waiting for me to pour them a large portion of chili when the door came open.

Four exhausted fae women walked through the door and hung their cloaks but immediately perked up as the smelled the chili on the stove cooking. Cricket came bursting through the kitchen and held on to the more worn looking fae woman. “Nana! I met a friend today! She made us all food!” Nana whipped her head into the kitchen and stared at my giant posse behind me.

“I-I,” she spoke as the shocked look on her face began to dwindle. “T-thank you.” I smiled at her warmly and handed her a bowl of chili.

“Here, come sit,” I gathered her to a table and gave her the first bowl, she didn’t look old by any means because aging wasn’t a thing here, but she oozed experience. The worry she held in her eyes, the pain, suffering was all there. Several of the older children grabbed rolls and bowls for the younger and finally fed themselves. Nana kept glancing at my ears and my short stature but didn’t utter a word.

The three girls continued to hold onto their cloaks and looked at my bodyguards with wide eyes. Once the infamous red heads looked up their own eyes opened wide. Confusion was set on my face until they all said one four letter word…