"Who in the seven hells thought it was a good idea to make me do formal dancing?"
Jax grumbled as he made his way through the duke's house.
Everyone had already gone off to do their own things.
Aiden had headed out to visit some store or something.
Selene was doing her writing practice.
Liora was napping.
Thalia was making her little dolls.
Jax would have hoped Kaelen might be somewhere nearby, but he had been called into some meeting with his parents.
Which meant they had left their intrepid leader all on his lonesome.
Be it out of boredom or curiosity, Jax found himself exploring the duke's house.
Compared to home, this place was so fancy it made him feel like a beggar who had wandered in by accident.
So, as a good beggar, he had a quest.
Jax had been a good wolf.
He had sat patiently.
He had stayed quiet about the dancing, the noble manners, and everything else.
But there was one thing he could not ignore.
They had cut off the alcohol cold turkey.
Apparently after almost a week of going to the in house bar daily they decided he was expensive to keep serving.
Who did that to a willing patron?
For this reason, Jax was on a mission.
He sniffed the air around him, locking onto the sharp smell buried in his memory as he walked through the house.
Beer.
Wine.
Something strong enough to make the dancing instructors sound far away.
He did not care what form it took.
He was determined to find some today.
He had been sneaky, dodging kitchen staff and following the scent for the past hour. His years of practice in stalking had helped him in ways he had never thought possible.
However, he now stood before the greatest hurdle of his quest.
Head Chef Jackson.
An elven man with a no-nonsense appearance and a bald head that reflected light like a mirror.
He had caught Jax three times over the past four days.
But he would not catch him today.
Jax was inside a food cart.
He had snuck into one that had been used to serve snacks at the duchess's tea party.
And while he would never admit it, he may have been distracted by the juicy noble gossip for a while before he managed to focus.
Still, his goal had been reaffirmed.
Even if Count Fendric was most definitely cheating on his wife with a maid, and Lady Salaenza was absolutely overdressing to make up for her inferiority complex.
"No. Focus."
Jax mumbled to himself as the food cart continued toward the kitchen.
His ears perked as he listened for the lilt of his enemy's voice.
A few tense moments passed.
Then he heard it.
"Make sure to check the carts returning to the kitchen," Chef Jackson barked. "I refuse to let that mutt into my holy ground!"
The line of carts ahead of Jax was checked one by one.
Crap.
He needed a new place to hide.
Jax looked around frantically and saw a doorway next to his cart.
He waited for the right moment.
Then he dove.
He slipped through the door and into the other room, the cart rolling on as if nothing had changed.
Jax looked around.
A piano sat in the corner.
Drapes hung from the windows.
The room itself seemed set up to welcome guests to the estate.
Sadly, he did not have long to admire the place before two shouting voices echoed from the hallway.
In a moment of what Jax would proudly call pure genius, he jumped, dove into the piano, and shut the lid so he was hidden inside.
Try finding me now, you crafty chef, Jax thought with a chuckle.
He pressed the lid up just enough to see a small sliver of the room and waited for Chef Jackson to walk in and search for him.
To his surprise, it was not Chef Jackson who entered.
It was Kaelen and his father.
Both looked tense.
Both were yelling.
"You know what my decision with the princess was!" Kaelen shouted. "Just because it makes your lie fall apart doesn't have anything to do with me!"
His father spun around, anger clear on his face.
"That lie is the only way we avoided having you and the entirety of this estate executed!"
Duke Alvin's voice boomed with enough force to make Jax's ears press flat.
Jax had always seen Kaelen as frail, at least compared to someone like his father.
But despite that, Kaelen stood his ground.
"I never asked you to lie!" Kaelen yelled. "And you and Mom never listened to me about anything. Why can't you understand that I don't want a marriage where there is no love?"
His hands balled into fists.
"You loved Mom and got to marry her. Why can't I have that?"
Kaelen grabbed a nearby plate off a table and threw it at the duke.
Alvin caught it as if it had been casually tossed to him.
"We gave you every opportunity," Duke Alvin snapped. "We told you time and time again. Don't put on a face. Act normal. Show them who you really are."
The duke's jaw tightened.
"You said the biggest thing you hated was that they didn't understand you, but you never gave anyone a chance. How can anyone possibly understand you if you are always showing them a fake persona?"
The duke grabbed at his own hair and began pacing the room.
Jax found himself conflicted.
One part of him said that Kaelen and his father's drama should not be overheard. This should stay in their family.
Another part of him was actively smothering that first part while chanting, juicy gossip, over and over. This combined with not being able to leave without revealing himself cemented his fate of listening in.
"Like they would have cared," Kaelen hissed. "That image you and Mom formed of me for the public was all they saw. The polite young boy who was handsome enough to entice the princess. Why should I show them anything else if all they wanted to see was that?"
Kaelen swept his arm across a table.
The vase on top fell and shattered against the floor.
"So what were you expecting, Kaelen?" Duke Alvin asked. "You always asked for true love, but that only happens if you actually show people who you are."
His voice twisted into a mocking tone.
"Were you expecting some noble lady to look at you and say, Oh, you're faking actually wanting to be here, but that's okay. I forgive you. Why don't you tell me about the real you?"
The duke's expression hardened.
"Can you not hear how ridiculous that sounds?"
Kaelen clenched his teeth.
"I wanted time," he growled. "Time so I could find someone I could trust the real me with."
The duke suddenly seemed to pulse with energy.
His voice deepened, and rage more palpable than before billowed forth.
"We gave you fifty years, Kaelen!"
Jax's fur stood on end.
"Some of those ladies spent their whole lives single, hoping you would give them the time of day! And instead, you thought they weren't around long enough to trust them?"
The duke's voice cracked through the room.
"That's bullshit, and you know it!"
Kaelen staggered back, surprised by the pulse of rage and danger rising from his father.
Jax felt every hair along his back stand up.
"So what?" Kaelen snapped. "That doesn't give you the right to just hand me away to any broad that—"
It may have been because of Jax's time as the party's tank.
Or because of the surge of violence that rose from the duke.
Either way, Jax jumped out.
He put himself between Kaelen and his father.
The duke's face was hidden in shadow, but Jax could feel the heat, tension, and power in his presence.
His hand was raised in a punch that might have only stopped because Jax had jumped between them.
"Y-Your Grace," Jax said, his entire body rigid with fear and tension, "I am aware that you are very angry, but that amount of force will kill him."
For a moment, Jax was reminded of the fear he had felt while fighting Ymer.
Watching him rip into the others while Jax lay unable to do anything.
Behind him, Kaelen seemed surprised.
Both by Jax's presence and by the fact that his father's arm had been cocked back to hit him with that much force.
"He has no right to call the princess such names," Duke Alvin said. "Especially with what he did."
His burning eyes sank into Jax like the tips of spears.
"Or has he not told you what he did?"
Jax found himself starting to sink down in fear.
He gritted his teeth and forced himself to stand.
Then he turned to Kaelen.
Kaelen refused to meet his eyes.
The duke swung his arm to the side.
The force sent the piano, which must have weighed hundreds of pounds, flying through the wall and into the garden below.
He had not even touched it.
Duke Alvin's gaze returned to Jax.
"You are Kaelen's party leader, right?" he asked. "What did my son tell you about his past?"
The duke's stare was as piercing and powerful as his sword swings.
Jax had to take a moment to center himself before answering.
"Kaelen said he ended up running after being married off to someone he had barely met. He found a church, began worship, and started traveling to spread his faith."
Behind him, Kaelen winced.
His father let out a sharp, joyless, bark of a laugh.
"Is that what he said?"
Duke Alvin looked past Jax.
"Well, son? Are you going to tell him, or will I?"
"T-There were parts I couldn't just say to people I had barely just met," Kaelen said his eyes covered in shadows so Jax couldn't see his expression.
He still refused to meet Jax's gaze.
"Yes. Small details," Duke Alvin hissed. "Like how you put everyone in danger. Like how your mother, siblings, and I were tied up and about to be executed for what you did."
His voice grew colder.
"Like how you were asked numerous times if you even wanted to do the wedding in the first place, and you said yes every time because of your cowardice."
Jax slowly turned to look at Kaelen.
The sinking feeling in his chest only grew as Kaelen kept looking away.
"And like how hundreds of people gathered to witness the marriage of the princess," Duke Alvin continued, "only to watch as she was left at the fucking altar."
Jax stared at Kaelen.
Kaelen still would not look at him.