The Werewolf King's Bride

"I don\'t wanna though...," I mumbled.

Sapphire was on my head, rubbing her head against my hair. Her fluffy tail kept falling on my nose.

"The doctor said it\'s time for Your Highness to try to move your body," she said.

"But Sapphire and I don\'t want to move. We want to stay in bed only," I protested.

Even a few days ago, they kept telling me to rest. And now they were telling me to move when I got accustomed to resting?

"Your Highness, please try to understand..."

"Ugh, alright," I grumbled.

"Please hold my hand. Should I call Perita as well?"

"No, it\'s fine," I said. Perita was a bit noisy. My little Sapphire was scared of her and whenever Perita came to my room, Sapphire would hide under the bed and would not come out.

Ruby helped me walk around the room. It had been two weeks since I had been unconscious for two days. I was improving, slowly but effectively. But now I did not want to move at all. I only wanted to laze around and talk to Sapphire.

"I feel nauseous again, Ruby..."

"Ack! What to do? Let\'s go to the restroom quickly, Your Highness!" Ruby panicked.

Ruby quickly led me to the restroom. It was a common thing now. I had to come here so many times that I even knew how many steps it would take to reach the restroom from my bed.

"Get down, Sapphire," I said, urging her to get down my head.

Ruby tried to take her away, but she held my hair with her paws. She got way too attached to me. She did not like to part with me, even for a moment.

"She won\'t get off... Ah, Your..."

"Ruby?" I muttered, hearing her shocked voice.

"How troublesome..."

The cat was easily taken off my head this time. But it was not Ruby who did it. "Dem...?"

Did he always have to come here when I was in this kind of pathetic situation? It had been more than six times that he had witnessed me vomiting. And no matter how many times I told him to get out, he just would not.

I could not protest much since I was already throwing everything off. Just like every other time, Dem held my hair back with his hand.

"Ugh..."

"Where does it hurt, baby?" he asked.

"My throat... It stings..."

"It\'s probably because you are throwing up quite often," he muttered.

"I will get some hot water for Your Highness," Ruby said and I heard footsteps walking away.

"Hehe, Sapphire... likes you," I grinned.

Though Dem held Sapphire clumsily, she still snuggled in his arms. Dem\'s face did not look amused, but I found the whole scene pretty cute.

"What are you saying all of a sudden? It\'s not time to talk about silly things," he muttered, a little uneasily. "You washed your mouth, right?"

"Hmm..."

"Then wipe your face with the towel."

"Ok..."

Dem helped me go back to my bed. I sat down and Sapphire jumped on my lap. She was truly very clingy, but it was cute.

Ruby had already brought hot water for me and milk for Sapphire. I took the glass from her and she placed the bowl containing milk on the floor. Sapphire jumped off my lap quickly. It seemed she was a milk lover.

"Drink the water slowly," Dem said. "I will wash my hands."

"Why?"

"... I held the cat."

"..."

At least, he did not take a shower now after holding the cat. It was an improvement, I would say.

"You know, I got twenty letters again this morning," I said after Dem came back from the restroom.

"Is that so?"

"Uh-huh," I nodded. I had been getting invitations for tea parties a lot. Even if they did not like me, they still would try to get close to me since I was the Queen of Querencia. "And one of them is from..."

"From who?"

"Princess Laetitia," I replied.

She was the princess of Lacuna. I heard she had a huge crush on my husband and persuaded him, but failed gravely. Dem threw her out of the palace of Querencia and also forbade her from entering Querencia again.

She was known for her beauty. Ruby had shown me her portrait. She was beautiful like a goddess.

"Did you decline?" he asked.

"Yes, I did. I declined all of them."

For now, it was better to not get close to anyone. Anyone could have malicious thoughts. I did not have the intention of making a friend on to get betrayed in the end. I would rather not have any friends. Besides, I had enough people on my side now. I did not need anyone else.

"That\'s good. It\'s better not to go to any of the tea parties," he said.

It was a very important task for a queen to attend tea parties and other gatherings. But Dem extremely opposed it and I did not like to do it as well. It was mostly because I would be a target in most of them since I was a human.

"I know," I said. "Isn\'t that why I have been declining every single of them? But I think I should accept at least one these days."

"Absolutely not!" he shook his head fiercely. "You are sick now. Your body is sick. But more importantly, they are sick as well. I can\'t let you mix with other sick people except me."

"Eh? What are you saying? I don\'t understand..."

"You see, they are sick in the head. I am sick in the head too, but I know what is good for my wife. As you told me, I am not crossing the line; at least, I am trying not to. But will they do the same? They will try to harm you. And I can\'t let that happen."

He said he was sick in the head? Well, it was true that Dem thought quite differently than normal people. They were somewhat twisted sometimes, but I would not call him sick in the head for that. At least, as far as I had seen, it was not that serious yet.

"Dem, don\'t put yourself on the same level as them. You are different," I said.

"Ah, my sweet wife at least thinks I am different," he chuckled. "But different in which way?"

"What I mean is, you are better than them. And because you are better than them, you take care of me and love me this much."

"Haa, my wife does not seem to understand," he sighed and bent down, bringing his face closer to mine.

"W-What...?"

"You see, even a beast can choose who they want to protect. No matter how sick they are in the head, they may have someone they want to protect and someone they want to remove from their way. In their case, you are the one they want to remove. But in my case, my wife is the one I want to protect because I care about you, and I love you.

And to be honest, everyone else is the ones I want to get rid of."

"Everyone else?"

"Of course," he nodded with a dangerous smirk. "I just hate everyone else. And if you want to, I can get rid of them."

"Even your sister and her family? Your mother?"

"Do you want me to?"

"Dem!" I yelled, holding his face with both of my hands while the glass slipped out of my grasp. "You can\'t think like that! I was only... Just because I want to, you can\'t do everything. Why would you want to get rid of your mother? Your sister?

Her husband? And what about little Ava? You can\'t..."

He just shrugged and laughed. I was scared. He was not serious, was he? I knew the answer, yet I could not believe it.

He did not like his mother, but it could not be so excessive that he would want to get rid of her if I told him to, right? And his sister did not even do anything wrong. Her husband was very gentle and he was a very good person. Their daughter Ava had turned five this month.

I knew he loved me the most. But that did not mean he could think like that. Was this what he meant when he said he was sick in the head?

"Anyway, let\'s forget that," he said. That scary smile was replaced with a gentle one. "Do you want to have some milkshake now? You wanted it last time after you threw off."

"Forget that...?"

I only could focus on the first part. Just how far did his twisted thoughts go?