The Gold Queen (Prequel)

***Mateo’s POV***

“Anyone care to explain why a mutt is straddling my future Queen?” the Prince snarls.

“Ju-Julian!” Sofia stutters, writhing beneath me and trying to free herself from my grip. “W-what are you doing here?”

I climb off of her and we both get to our feet, Julian’s glare never leaving me. I match his scowl.

“I came to have breakfast with you, my love,” he growls at me. “And here I find you rolling around with some mutt!”

“We were sparring,” I explain, irritably.

“Was I speaking too you?” He snaps. “Learn your place mutt. Speak when you are spoken too.”

Luis growls in displeasure. Shut him up or I will!

Before I can utter another word, Sofia steps in front of me.

“You do not speak to my soldiers like that,” she snaps, placing her hands on his chest.

The gesture is simple but for some reason angers me.

She shouldn’t be touching him at all!

“Come on, Julian. Let’s go,” she says quietly, interlocking their arms and pulling him away. I guess the i***t in me came out to play because, the next thing I know, I grab her arms and pull her back.

“You’re not actually going to go with him, are you? After what he did?” I hiss in her ear.

Her hand comes flying towards my cheek and I feel a sting across my face. Stunned, I stare at her in silence.

“Know your place, Captain,” she whispers, despair glazing her eyes with a few tears before she turns away.

The look in her eyes hurt more than the slap for some reason.

Julian smirks at me as he wraps an arm around her waist. Her body stiffens when he leans forward and presses his lips against hers, attempting to devour her. I swallow the bile in my throat as I watch her mechanically move her lips with his before pulling away.

“Let’s go,” she says, her cheeks tinging red as she tugs on his shirt sleeve. “Please.”

Julian smirks once more, giving me a once over. “Later, mutt,” he says as he turns, draping an arm across her shoulder.

I watch as they leave, an unbearable anger boiling my b***d. After a few deep breaths, I turn to see my little soldiers shifting nervously on their feet and looking around uncomfortably. I smile to myself; they remind me of my brother

“Attention!”

They straighten up immediately, getting in formation, I clasp my hands together, eager to get her Royal Highness out of my mind.

“Let’s get back to work…”

———

We finish training 2 hours later and I rush over to the house for a quick shower. After changing, I head down to the kitchen where I find several workers and soldiers eating.

They quickly make room for me and Casandra serves me some breakfast. A few soldiers eye me curiously but only one decides to introduce himself. Joel Estrada is 21 years old, with short black hair and tan skin. He was a soldier and stable boy for the Hacienda.

“So you’re the new recruit, huh?” He smiles. “You must have done something bad if you got assigned to be the Princess’s shadow.”

I shrug.

“Not much of talker, are you?” he chuckles as he takes a bite of his food. “So… is it true you’re a silver wolf? An Altamirano silver wolf?”

I nod quietly.

“So what’s your gift?”

That’s another thing I hate about being a silver wolf. You become a damn show monkey, performing your gift for people to gawk and stare at you. A look around the room let’s me know everyone is watching, eager to see the show. I sigh but decide there’s no point in hiding it. They’ll keep bothering me until I show them. Might as well get it out of the way now.

I scan the room and see someone has a small case of knives sitting on the counter. Concentrating on it, five knives lift up into the air on their own and come racing towards Joel.

He flinches as they stop a few inches from his face, floating in mid air in a ring surrounding him. Several wolves hoot and holler as I send the knives back to their case.

“That was awesome!” Joel cheers. “So you control things with your mind?”

I shrug. “Pretty much.”

His smile widens. “I heard you beat the Princess in a sparring circle. You’re insane for even going in with her.”

“How so?” I ask.

“No one has beaten her since she shifted,” he chuckles. “Besides, you don’t mess with the Princess unless you have a death wish.”

I smirk. “She’s not so bad. Just gotta catch her off guard.”

“It’s not her Highness that I’m referring too. I meant Prince Julian…” he whistles. “You touched his Princess. You don’t touch his Princess.”

“I’m not afraid of him.”

He laughs at me. “You should be.”

———

When breakfast is over, I head off the library upstairs. A short, stout, elderly woman with thick spectacles awaits there, muttering to herself as she searches amongst the shelves for something.

“Where the hell did I put it?” she mumbles as she searches the spines of every book she crosses.

“Buenos dias, doña {Good morning, madam},” I say as I enter. “I’m Mateo. Your new student-“

“Hola, mijo. Pasale. {Come in},” she waves absentmindedly. “I’m Guadalupe, your instructor. Sofia will be here in a few minutes.”

I take a seat at the center table, pulling out my book and the assignment Sofia had sent to me on human anatomy.

Moments later, Sofia waltzes in silently, slipping into her chair and pulling out her notebooks. I study her from my seat, scanning for injuries and am pleased to see none, though the sad look in her eyes worries me. For the first half of the class, Sofia does not speak nor ask questions, instead jotting everything down silently.

At some point in the class, Guadalupe begins discussing procreation.

“Mateo, what is a fool proof way to prevent pregnancy?” She asks.

Without skipping a beat, I reply, “Anal?”

Guadalupe’s eyes widen in shock while Sofia bursts into laughter, the first noise she’s made since returning from breakfast with that jerk. She has an incredible laugh. I wouldn’t mind hearing it everyday.

“Hijo de tu- {son of a-},” Guadalupe huffs.

I smile innocently at her and shrug, sending Sofia into tears.

“Both of you go to lunch. I can’t deal with you right now,” she snaps and we get up to leave the poor teacher alone.

As we walk down the hall in silence, I grab Sofia’s arm and pull her into a room.

“What are you-“

Cupping both of her cheeks, I inspect her head to toe before she finally frees herself from my grip.

“What the hell?” She snaps.

“I was just making sure that bastard didn’t hurt you,” I reply, my face hardening. “What did you two do for 2 hours?”

Her eyes narrow at me. “What my fiancé and I do together is none of your concern! He didn’t hurt me-“

“He did last time,” I mutter catching her hand as it comes flying towards my cheek. “You and your little demon hands need to stop touching me,” I smirk, making her cheeks flush pink as I pull her into my chest.

I can hear her heart racing in her chest and for some reason, I love having her this close to me. We stay like this a few more seconds and I find myself getting lost in her pools of honey.

“Does he make your heart race like this too?” I tease her..

She looks mortified by the question but quickly covers it up with a frown.

She pulls her hands from mine and crosses them over her chest. “I demand a rematch,” she says, changing the subject. “You cheated.”

“How so?” I say, raising my eyebrows in amusement

“You- you called me pretty!” She huffs.

“You are pretty,” I say nonchalantly, making her speechless. “Pretty gullible,” I add with a shrug.

She glares at me as I burst into laughter.

“You have got to be the most infuriating wolf I’ve ever met!” She says, stomping her foot. “I can’t believe I’m stuck with you for Goddess knows how long.”

“Hey, I didn’t ask to be brought here!”

“Then why are you here?” She demands to know, glaring at me with those golden eyes.

I fall silent, my shame making my throat dry.

“Don’t worry about it,” I say, pushing past her and heading towards the door. “Soon enough you’ll be in Estrella del Monte with your husband and we’ll never have to look at each other again.”

———

Night falls when I hear a tap on my door. I’m surprised to see Sofia standing there with her cheeks flushed. She avoids my gaze and I realize I’m only wearing some basket ball shorts.

“What can I do for you, your highness?” I ask, turning back into the room and slipping on my t-shirt.

“T-there’s a phone call for you,” she says timidly. “It’s your brother. The library phone.”

Fear settles into the pit of my stomach. I push past her and rush to the library, grabbing the land line.

“Hello? Emi? What’s wrong?”

“Teo!” he chirps happily. “Teo, Teo guess what?”

Judging by the tone of his voice, this isn’t an emergency, so I let myself relax. It was good to hear his happy voice again.

“What?” I ask, settling into a chair.

“We get to go visit you and the princess in two weeks!” he exclaims excitedly. “Two weeks!”

“Really?” I ask, sharing his excitement. It would be nice to have him and Vale around for a visit. “I-is Vale coming?” I ask.

She hadn’t spoken to me since the incident, refusing to send me off or take my calls.

“I-I don’t know,” He says solemnly. “I don’t think so.. “

“Put her on the phone,” I instruct him and I hear him speak to someone on the other side.

“She said she’s not home right now,” he whispers into the receiver. “Sorry.”

My heart sinks. I had failed my little sister, so I didn’t blame her for being angry. Regardless, I needed to hear her voice.

“Please, Emi. Just let me talk to her,” I plead.

I hear him talk to her again, seconds feeling like hours.

“She doesn’t want to talk to you, Teo,” he says quietly.

“Then just let me talk. Put me on speaker. Let her hear me out and if she still doesn’t want to talk to me, she can hang up. Just please. Let me talk.”

“Okay, ” he says and I wait for his signal. “Okay, you’re on speaker.”

“Vale?” I call out. “Valentina, I am so, so sorry for not being there for you when you needed me.”

I wait for a response and when I get none, I decide to continue. “Vale, I need you to understand that you and Emiliano are the most important people in my life. I-I would do anything, ANYTHING, to keep you safe-

“Then where were you?!” She snaps. “I called for you…” her voice breaks. “But you didn’t come!”

“I-I was an i***t who wasn’t thinking! I was being stupid and selfish and I’m sorry. I am so, so sorry. Please, I- I would do anything to take all the pain you felt that day away. Anything, I love you so much and I hate that you won’t speak to me or look at me. I miss you, Vale. I miss you so much. Please forgive me. Please…”

I hear Emiliano speak to her on my behalf and I wait anxiously for her reply.

“Okay,” she whispers.

“Okay?” I ask, my heart in my throat.

“Okay, I forgive you,” she mutters.

“Really?” I’m almost jumping with joy.

“Sure,” she sighs. “Who else is going to keep you in check when you mess up? Besides, I wanna see the princess. I like her.”

Almost as if on cue, Princess Sofia walks into the room, settling into an empty chair to read her book.

“So you’re coming?” I ask.

“Yes!”

We chat a little while more before I finally hang up the phone, resting easy now that my sister was no longer angry with me.

“Everything okay?” She asks.

I look up at her and nod, getting up from my chair to leave.

“I-I’m sorry,” Sofia mutters.

I freeze in my tracks. “What?”

“I’m sorry for slapping you earlier,” she sighs. “I was- Julian just always puts me on edge.”

“Then why are you marrying him?”

Her jaw clenches and she closes her eyes as she takes several deep breaths. “Look, let’s not talk about him, okay? Ever. Just… drop it.”

I frown at her. “Did he hurt you?”

She shakes her head but I see the sadness well up in her eyes, awakening something in my heart. I stand in front on her, towering over her tiny figure as she shifts her weight on her seat nervously.

I lift her to her feet, her gold eyes filling with tears as they look up at me. Without thinking, I lean into her and k**s her forehead. She gasps as I wrap my arms around her, remaining still for a few seconds before she finally buries her face in my chest and holds onto me.

“I’m sorry too.”