Chapter 219

“Of course,” Queen Yarrow said, “details like training successors aren't left to chance. The king and I already had arrangements made for a royal tutor, assuming that I would get pregnant one day. I'll connect you both with him. Hopefully, you can get started right away.”

“So?” I asked the judge. How exactly does this work? What do you mean? She asked, looking quizzically at me. “I mean, what do I do with myself? Where do I go from here? When does all of this happen now?”

She said, “The king will be escorted out of Orlune. They're probably already helping him pack. From there, he'll be on the next flight off the vampire kingdom. You get to move straight into the castle if you wish. It's essentially your house now.”

“There's no, there's no legal paperwork or anything like that?” I babbled. “It just seems so abrupt.”

The judge grinned. “I'll have all of that taken care of taken care of for you. So you don't have to worry about it, your majesty.”

“Come, my dear,” Queen Yarrow said, putting her arm around my shoulder. “Let's go make a joint press release so that the people of Orlune know exactly what they're getting now that their king is on the way out.”

“Wait,” I said. “Before I go running off to make any announcements, I haven't even checked over any of this with Charles.”

“Then you're a reliable partner.” The judge smiled at me. “It's nice to see that you include your significant other in your important life decisions.”

I nodded. “He's going to be my husband,” I said. “And I shouldn't make a decision like this without consulting him.”

The judge pressed a button on her desk, and a moment later, a bailiff came in.

He bowed to me and then turned to the judge. “What can I do for you, your honor?”

“I'd like Charles Rafe brought in, please.”

He turned and headed out and, a moment later, returned with Charles. Then, the bailiff stood outside with Theo and David.

Charles shut the door on the four of us. “What can I do for you, ladies?”

“Your honor.” He gave the judge a bow.

“Your Highness.” He gave Queen Yarrow a bow.

“My love.” He scooped up my hand and kissed the back of it in a very courtly gesture.

I tried to bite back a giggle. “We think we may have come up with a solution rather than just dumping ruling a kingdom on my head,” I said. “This way, I won't be pressed into being Queen before I'm ready, or before I know what I'm doing, or before I feel like I have the important activities of my life under control.”

He arched an eyebrow at me, and I blushed. “I might have said that I wanted to continue reporting. But the judge brought up a very good point, that I will be in the perfect position to be the ultimate reporter for Orlune from the throne. Because if some rulers have used that position for bad, I can use it for good.”

Charles nodded. “The solution?” he asked.

“Queen Yarrow will hold the throne as a regent for me. In the meantime, you and I will take classes on governance and get our affairs in order. Once everything is ready, then we'll take over.”

I saw him roll this around in his head while he switched positions several times, crossing and uncrossing his arms and shifting from one foot to the other. When he had finished pondering, he gave a short nod.

“I think that will work for us,” he said. “I take it the judge is going to work on putting this legality in writing?”

“I will do so immediately,” the judge said. “I'll have the paperwork drawn up and ready within the next day.”

“And Queen Yarrow was just about to make a press release with me, telling the public this,” I said. “I want you to come with us so that our announcement has the backing of one of the alphas in addition to the Queen Yarrow.”

She made a face. “I don't want to be queen for much longer,” she said. Here, she turned to the judge. “I will, of course, be filing for divorce.”

“I'll make sure that the papers find their way to the previous king and get signed,” she said.

Queen Yarrow made a face. “He's not going to make that easy on you.”

“He's not going to have a choice,” the judge said. “I had the means to keep Elena safe while we waited for this trial to unfold. I also have the means to make the former king sign the appropriate paperwork.” Here, she gave me and Queen Yarrow a wolfish grin.

Queen Yarrow and I made our announcement to the public, and despite my discomfort being in the public eye, Charles kept giving me encouraging gestures, wide smiles, thumbs up, and such. He might have been used to this, and I might have earned some notoriety. But I did all my writing from behind the scenes rather than in front of a camera.

When we finished, Queen Yarrow excused herself and promised that she would see both Charles and me soon to get a set up for our classes. This left Charles and I by ourselves outside the courtroom for the most part.

On either side of the door, David and Theo stood politely while the other four security guards watched the hall in both directions, waiting for us.

Charles leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Feel like being naughty?”

For all the times that he had requested sex recently, where I hadn't particularly been in the mood, this time, I was.

I giggled. “Sure.”

Something about having the weight of everything lifted off my shoulders turned me on. Or at least left me open to Charles turning me on.

He took my hand and looked at the security guard. “Elena is feeling overwhelmed. We're just going to step inside the courtroom for a few minutes and let her take a breather before we go out and face a new onslaught of paparazzi outside the courthouse.”

“I totally understood,” David said. “We'll watch the doors from here.”

Since there was only one way in or out of the courtroom that wasn't a door with an alarm, we would be perfectly safe without them accompanying us. Charles took my hand and led me inside. He drew me behind the judge’s bench and pushed me up against the end of it.

“Here?” I asked breathlessly, enjoying the naughty feel of it.

“There are no cameras inside the courtroom.”

“But what if somebody walks in?” I asked.

He sat me on the edge of the bench and knelt in front of me, spreading my legs. He lifted my skirt and pushed my panties to the side, taking long, warm licks at my sensitive spot.

“And you care?” he asked, his voice muffled by my flesh.

I let out a sigh and leaned back, taking my weight on my hands. I didn't answer. Instead, my legs parted on their own, giving him full access to all of my private areas.

“This is so wrong,” I murmured, though my head was tipped back, and my eyes were closed, and I was doing nothing to stop him.

Charles paused his attentions between my thighs, stopping what he was doing, and stood. Without opening my eyes, I could hear him undoing his buttons and zipper. Without further foreplay, he pressed himself inside me, and I gasped, reaching up and gripping his shoulders, pulling myself against him.

He nibbled at my ear. “Don’t worry about it. I guarantee this is the best use of a courtroom in Packhaven's history.”