Chapter 17

-Trynnian-

The immediate aftermath of Kit’s sudden disappearance was for the king to immediately use it as an excuse to wage war on the werewolves again. Luckily, my mother had predicted he’d pull that move, and threatened him with the good old ‘my country will invade if you do that’.

It was super effective.

Her country wouldn’t have waged war (or at least we think so? Cordiana seems confident they would, however), but the king doesn’t need to know that.

With Kit out of harm’s way, Norion and my mother moved ahead with the plan to get the king off the throne. We were all done with his bullshit. We wanted peace, and we weren’t going to let him ruin this chance.

The other problem we weren’t entirely sure how to deal with, was Riccaro. Other than being a dick, he did nothing wrong. So, for now, he just continued to be his same annoying and rude self. Until he did a very stupid thing.

Said stupid thing was listening to his father.

The king knew Norion was going to take him off the throne any day now, so, the most logical thing would be to, you know, kill Norion. And that’s what lead us to catch Riccaro trying to murder Norion in his sleep.

A very stupid move, considering Norion was literally awake when Riccaro attacked him. Like geez, at least check that he’s asleep. That’s like how to murder someone: a guide for beginners 101. Well, at least he made it easy for us to just throw him in prison.

Which we did, obviously. Riccaro is also not the most loyal person to ever exist, and so in favour of not losing his head, he immediately told Norion that it was their father who sent him. Norion didn’t even have to go through the whole ‘tell me who sent you or I’ll kill you’ spiel. He just volunteered the information himself.

Quite nice of him, honestly.

After that, we were just waiting for the right time to threaten the king with our demands, in order to get him to step down. It had all taken several months, and slowly, the emptiness I felt without Kit by my side dulled.

But, the pain was still sharp whenever someone mentioned him. To begin with, I thought after a few months I’d be able to slip back into my previous life style of sleeping around, having fun and not really caring about much other than my mother.

Only, the five cats I now have are a constant reminder of who I don’t have. I found myself unable to even think about holding hands with someone other than Kit. Holding hands, for fuck’s sake. Somehow, holding hands and the small kisses we shared felt like the most intimate and precious of actions.

I couldn’t even force myself to think about being with someone else. And I’d long since given up on pretending I wasn’t in love with Kit.

But it was no use.

He wouldn’t ever want me again, that’s why he took both our rings. I’m not sure what would have hurt less - him leaving me with both our rings, telling me loud and clear that we were done, or him taking both the rings so he could just destroy them.

I decided the latter still hurt more - if he’d left me with both, I would at least have something of his. Instead, all I have is a permanent ache in my chest.

To numb the emotional pain I felt, I thrust myself into my work. At least this way, I was working towards peace. I’d long since given up on the thought that achieving peace with the werewolves would mean he and I could be together - I knew he had moved on, and it was just me clinging to the memories.

It’d been 6 months since he left, without even saying goodbye. Riccaro has been in prison for one month, and the king is in a position where he can’t do anything. Everything is going according to plan. Well, we hadn’t planned for the king to have my mother’s brother’s wife assassinated, so that made things harder.

The queen was outraged; it was fairly obvious the king had done it to get back at us for throwing his one vaguely useful son in prison. He was probably hoping it would make my mother’s brother, the king of the neighbouring country, back off.

Instead, it had the opposite effect. Killing the queen wasn’t a great idea, and it made my ‘uncle’ very angry. Cordiana was almost as heart broken as her brother - my ‘aunt’ was her best friend, and it did set us back a little in the plan to over throw the king.

It broke my heart further to see my mother so upset, but it was the event to break the camel’s back - my mother was now fully ready to have her husband off the throne. And so, we were ready to move to the next stage of our plan.

Right now, I have to keep formulating ideas in my mind, or else it’ll wander back to Kit. Oh look, there it goes again.

The bed is cold without him, and even the five cats can’t replace his warmth. I do love them though, especially how they all sleep on the end of the bed in a fluffy pile. The oldest one has grown considerably in the 7 months since Kit brought her home, but bet Kit would barely recognise her, what with how much she’s grown in the 6 months without him.

All the cats miss Kit as much as I do, I can tell. It actually makes me feel better, to know that I wasn’t the only one who loved to be around him. My mother often catches herself, right when she is about to say she misses him.

She didn’t manage to stop herself the first few times, and every time ended up with me crying. It wasn’t something I was proud of, to burst out in tears at the mere mention of a name. But, absence does strange things to me.

That, and the fact that I have severe abandonment issues, from becoming orphaned at a young age and then surviving on the streets for two years. And yet I literally told him to leave me. So, I kind of did that one to myself.

But it’s ok. I’m sure that he’s happy now, with a lovely wolf whom he loves very much. And that’s all I could ever want for him.