by Sable Sylvan
Chapter Eight
It was her insulin pump: she’d forgotten about it all night. She checked the insulin pump, plugged into her side: she hadn’t carried her phone with her to the party so she hadn’t had her reminder to take her insulin and her blood sugar levels were getting dangerously low. If she didn’t get some insulin fast, she could be in some serious trouble. She had enough time to head home to take insulin, but she had her diabetes kit in the Asher dressing room she’d first met Mrs. Asher in. If she could just get to the insulin, she’d be in smooth straits.
She reached out to Aspen, but then pulled her hand back. She’d gotten him in enough trouble that night: there was no reason to make him worry any further. She could handle this herself. She ran barefoot through the maze back to the entrance, to the ballroom, and out of the ballroom into the halls of the Asher Manor proper. Running through the maze, she nearly knocked into various people that were coming to see what all the noise was about.
Eleanor found her way back to the room where she’d first been assigned to help Mrs. Asher. She wished she’d never come to the ball: she’d messed up everything for the Asher family, causing such a commotion at the ball. She’d ruined the ball. It was better if she just left and didn’t cause any more problems for them.
Eleanor looked through the work bag she carried: she couldn’t find her insulin pouch. Eleanor hadn’t had time to tell Aspen that she was a diabetic, that she needed to go take her insulin, because he was in bear form, but now, her insulin was missing entirely. Was it at the school? Had she left it in the fridge at work? It didn’t matter: her anxiety started to kick in and her fight or flight reaction started working in overdrive. Eleanor needed her insulin, and she needed it quick, but there was no way she could go traipsing through the streets of Seattle in the clothes she was wearing.
Eleanor slipped out of the dress, managing to undo the zipper, and she took off the shoes and got back into the clothes she’d worn to the party, her catering clothes, before checking to ensure she had her wallet and her bus pass. She did, and she headed out towards the Seattle streets, running to catch a bus across the street from the manor, the bus that would take her back home.
All Eleanor could think of on her way back home was how she’d left Aspen without any explanation, her mind alternating between a game of he loves me, he loves me not, except with each plucking of a petal, her head told her one thing, and her heart told her another. Her head kept telling her that there was no way a girl like her could ever be with a man like Aspen, a man who was expected to marry a wealthy shifter, and her heart told her to run back to him, while her blood levels begged for insulin. The magic of the night had been broken and the princess was now a pauper again.
Eleanor got back home and saw the lights were off. She hoped that she’d be able to slip up and into her room unnoticed.
“And where were you tonight?” said a voice as Eleanor turned on the lights. Sitting in the living room, arms crossed over an armchair, was her stepmother Lisa.
“I was working,” said Eleanor.
“My girls said you were at that ball, that you embarrassed them in front of the most eligible man at the party,” said Lisa.
“I was working,” repeated Eleanor. Technically, it was the truth.
Lisa rose from her chair and ran a fingernail along Eleanor’s cheek, sending a shiver down her spine. “Let’s hope you’re telling the truth. Go to bed. I’ll talk to your stepsisters about this again tomorrow, Eleanor, and if it turns out you were lying...you’ll have hell to pay.”
“Yes, Lisa,” said Eleanor, and she went up the stairs with her bag to her attic room, where she opened the minifridge: her spare insulin was in there. She took one of the insulin pens and held it against her thigh and as the insulin entered her body, she felt psychological relief even though the insulin was very cold, which made it hurt physically as it entered her body.
Eleanor hung up the clothes in her bag: that’s when she realized she’d forgotten to leave one of the crystal shoes back in Mrs. Asher’s room. She turned the shoe over in her hand and started to sob as she realized that her night as a princess, the only night she’d ever had where she’d felt special and loved, was over, and that her life as her family’s servant girl was about to start again. She had Aspen’s name, but that wasn’t enough: if she called up the Asher Manor (were they even in the Yellow Pages?) and asked to talk to Mrs. Asher or her son, she would’ve been called crazy. She hadn’t gotten Aspen’s number or email, and it seemed like her one chance at true love had been squandered, all because somebody had messed with her insulin.
Eleanor got into her small bed, with its threadbare sheets barely covering her, and held the shoe, now dim and transparent as there was nothing left to light it, in her arms as she cried herself to sleep.
***
The next morning Eleanor was woken up by the sound of sirens. She looked out the attic window: two police cars were parked outside her house, along with a large black stretch limo with tinted windows. She hopped out of bed in her pajamas and opened the attic door and headed downstairs to see what the commotion was about: her two stepsisters were sitting on the couch, handcuffed by police officers, who were standing around them in case they tried to make a move, two hunky wolf shifters who were on the shifter squad which had enough manpower to take down almost any shifter.
“My girls are innocent, uncuff them at once!” a hysterical voice screamed: Eleanor turned and looked in the kitchen, where Lisa was yelling at another wolf shifter cop. She looked just in time to see Lisa push the cop and get handcuffed at lightning speed.
The cop looked at Eleanor and smiled. He couldn’t resist those curvy humans: shifter women were just too bony most of the time, but human women with luscious curves were right up his alley. “Eleanor Albertson?”
“That’s me,” said Eleanor, confused. “What’s going on here?”
“We had a report of a theft at the Asher Manor last night. Your stepsisters are being arrested, as we have evidence that they were the ones who stole your insulin from a room at Asher Manor last night,” said the officer.
“Evidence? What evidence?” asked Eleanor.
“There’s video evidence of those two cats entering a certain room and leaving with a black pouch we later found in their room, a pouch containing insulin supplies labeled with your name,” explained the officer. “And your stepmother here just assaulted a cop, which is a crime, but she will be investigated in relation to the crimes committed as well.”
“The charges could include attempted murder,” said one of the cops in the living room. As a wolf shifter, he had a natural calling to the law enforcement field and he was passionate about protecting all citizens within his territory, even humans. “Given that your insulin supplies are medical items and there seems to be intent, given the text messages we’ve read on their phones. Don’t worry, we have a warrant.”
“I’m not worried,” said Eleanor. “But...how did you get the evidence?
“A Mr. Asher called as soon as he saw the footage from his security cameras” said the cop. “He’s outside if you want to talk to him.”
“Do you need a witness statement from me?” asked Eleanor.
“Swing by the station later,” said the cop, giving Eleanor his card. “We have enough evidence to put these dirt bags away: you’ll have to press charges, of course, but right now, I think you should go see that boy.”
“Thank you all so much,” said Eleanor, and she resisted the urge to say anything scathing to her stepsisters or her stepmom, but she flashed them a huge smile, because although they’d attempted to ruin her night, they’d only helped Aspen prove that he loved Eleanor more than anything in the world.
Eleanor opened her front door and Aspen walked out of the limo, walking up to her with a single shoe...but it wasn’t the fancy party shoe, the one to match the crystal shoe up in her bedroom: it was a grey, ratty, muddy shoe that Eleanor barely recognized as her own.
“I think this belongs.
..to you,” said Aspen. “And unlike your stepsisters, I didn’t steal it.”
““Aspen, you’re okay! I was so worried,” said Eleanor as she took Aspen into her arms and hugged him tight around the chest, her head barely reaching the center of Aspen’s pecs. “But...why do you have a ratty old shoe, and how do you know it’s mine?”
Aspen held the shoe out to Eleanor. “I know this isn’t how the Cinderella story goes,” said Aspen. “But I’ve known that you were my fated mate since I first saw you at that lake.”
“”You were the bear at the lake?” asked Eleanor. “But why didn’t you just tell me?”
“I felt something for you, Ella...but I needed to know you felt something for me,” said Aspen. “I know humans don’t have fated mates, but I know you can fall in love, just like shifters. I didn’t want you to feel pressured to marry me, to get away from your circumstances, but I fell for you that day, hard. I didn’t want to do anything that would scare you away...but I did, that day at the park. I forget that in the city, people don’t exactly expect bears to walk up to them in the dark. When I saw you again at the ball, I couldn’t believe I’d had a second chance, and hopefully, the impression I made was much better. I know we moved fast, but I know you’re my fated mate, so it was all worth it. I tried to move slower, but the bear in me...well, let’s say he was getting impatient about finding a mate.”
“Aspen, I fell for you over and over again last night,” said Ella. “And when I saw your mate mark...I knew that you were the man for me...and the bear for me.”
“Bears mate for life, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Ella, you’re my mate. And more importantly, Ella, you’re the only woman who I’ve ever felt something this powerful for,” said Aspen. “And when you left, I thought it was because I shifted in front of you, because I was scared that you had left because I’d scared you.”
“Aspen, the only thing I’m scared of is losing you again,” said Ella, wiping a tear from her eye. “I never want to be apart from you again.”
“Ella, you don’t have to be,” said Aspen. “We’ll be together forever. The men from last night were reported for assault, and as there are cameras in the labyrinth, we received enough footage to have them put away as well. You’ll never have to worry about them again.”
“How did you find me?” asked Eleanor.
“He didn’t,” said a voice. “But I did.” The limo window rolled down and inside was Jennifer Asher.
“Mrs. Asher...?” asked Eleanor. “How did you know where I live?”
“My son and his cousins may be bear shifters,” said Mrs. Asher. “But I’m more than just a Canadian: I’m a Canadian goose shifter.”
“You mean...” started Eleanor. “You’re Gary, the goose?”
“That’s right, but I like to think of myself as...Mother Goose, if you’ll pardon the pun,” said Mrs. Asher. “All those times you fed my goose friends in the winter, I was there. So many people hate geese, but you showed compassion to a fellow animal. I learned a lot from listening to you talk to me, and what I learned was that you were the only woman in Seattle that was right for my son. “
“So why didn’t you just introduce us?” asked Eleanor.
“I wanted to give you a special night, because a girl like you deserves it. Of course, while I wanted to act as your fairy godmother, what I didn’t account for was that you’d end up like Cinderella, having to come home at the end of the ball,” explained Mrs. Asher. “The ball was always arranged as a way for Aspen to meet the women of Seattle: this time, I arranged it as a way for him to meet the woman I was sure was his fated mate.”
“So how did you ensure that he’d meet me, and I’d meet him?” asked Eleanor. “We could’ve missed each other entirely last night.”
“My son would also come down to feed us sometimes, and I pulled some strings with the catering company to ensure that you would be hired for the event. In fact, the event was moved because of your schedule,” explained Mrs. Asher. “I had Aspen come down to the lake to make sure he felt something for you, and the rest, well...call it manipulation if you want, I’ll call it magic. Of course, what I didn’t account for was you rushing home for your insulin...but of course, I knew you must live in this area. Aspen told me about your awful stepsisters, so I checked the address we’d mailed their invitations to and figured you might live with them.”
“Mrs. Asher, I can never thank you enough for all this,” said Eleanor, wiping a tear from her eye. “I never would have thought that looking like a loon and talking to a goose would bring me the greatest joy in my life, but it has.”
“Well, let’s see if I can top that,” said Aspen, taking both of Eleanor’s hands in his so she was facing him. Aspen got down on one knee. “Eleanor Albertson...you made me the most content man in the world last night when you were revealed to be my fated mate, and there’s no other woman that I’d rather have been paired with, by fate or by my mom’s magic. Now, can I be so greedy as to ask you for one last thing? Will you make me the happiest man in the world, and become my wife?” Aspen pulled out a small simple black box out of the ratty grey shoe: inside was a huge diamond ring surrounded by many blue gems, sapphires that matched the one from her gown and the color of her eyes down to the way they shimmered, on a golden band.
“Yes, Aspen, a million times yes,” said Eleanor. Aspen beamed and slid the ring onto her finger, his hazel eyes flashing as the bear roared inside of him, in celebration of finally being with his fated mate.
“Do you have anything left to say to your old family?” asked Mrs. Asher. “Or will you leave them to the professionals?”
“No, I won’t give them the satisfaction of hearing me say anything mean,” said Eleanor, the future Mrs. Asher. “I should go upstairs and get changed and pack my things, though.”
“Darling, you’re an Asher now,” said Mrs. Asher with a knowing smile and a raise of the eyebrows. “We’ll send for your things...and as part of this family, you’ll never go for want again.”
Aspen opened the door to the limo for his new fiancée, and as soon as she was buckled in, he spirited her away from her old life as her family’s servant and into a world where she’d be the princess she’d been for a single night, a world where he’d treat her like a queen every day for the rest of her lives, for she was his fated mate, and they’d have their happily ever after.
Epilogue
Three Months Later
In the last three months, Eleanor’s life had flipped upside down. She’d moved into Aspen’s rural house in Joyce, Washington, if the three thousand square foot home could be called a “house” and not a mansion. It was right by the water as well as by Olympic National Park, and other bear shifter families lived in the area. Aspen kept the apartment in Seattle so that Eleanor could start attending the University of Puget Sound for the summer semester, which the Ashers paid for, and Aspen and Eleanor stayed at their apartment in Seattle during the weeks and flew back out for weekends.
Eleanor’s stepfamily had been jailed, and Lisa’s first husband, a millionaire tiger shifter, refused to bail them out, as they had caused such a scandal in both the Seattle and the shifter communities. As Eleanor’s stepmother had neglected Eleanor, the estate that her father had left Lisa was transferred in whole to Eleanor, with Lisa sentenced to pay Eleanor restitution for the amount of the estate she’d withdrawn since Mr. Albertson’s death, with interest to adjust for inflation and the emotional damages she’d caused Eleanor. Neither Laura nor Janet ever found their fated mate. The men who assaulted Aspen that night were also sent to jail for assault, although their stays were much shorter as their crimes did not include attempted murder.
While Eleanor would have been satisfied with a long engagement, as long as she got to spend her days with the man who loved her more than anything else, the Asher clan accepted Eleanor as one of their own within days of meeting her, and the bear shifter clan rallied together to organize a wedding the likes of which Seattle would be talking about
for the next century (or at least, until the next Asher Ball).
The day of Eleanor’s wedding had finally arrived. Dressed from head to toe in white, she wore the beautiful crystal shoes that she’d been gifted by Mrs. Asher as her “something blue”, as the shoes shone bright blue. Mandy, from Be Our Guest Catering, was one of her bridesmaids and her other friends from work attended. While Eleanor was an orphan without a family, the Asher clan was big enough to fill in both sides of the wedding aisle, and as Eleanor walked down the aisle in her gorgeous white dress, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.
Aspen Asher had never seen a woman as beautiful as Eleanor and he had never seen her look more beautiful than she did on her wedding day, and as he watched her walk down the aisle, he fingered the ring in his pocket, the bear in him was for once telling the man to keep it together and not get overemotional and impulsive.
“You look amazing,” he whispered to her.
“You do too,”” she whispered back. Aspen was in a black tailored tux with the same accessories he’d worn on the night of the annual ball.
“Eleanor Albertson, I promise to love you, with all my heart, for the rest of my life,” said Aspen Asher. “And I ask you today to take my name, and join my family, and become Eleanor Asher, my wife.”
“Aspen Asher, I accept your hand in marriage,” said Eleanor, a tear running down her cheek. “And I ask today to take your name, and to join your family, and to become Eleanor Asher...your wife. Do you accept me?”
“I do,” said Aspen, slipping a golden band onto Eleanor’s finger. “And do you accept me?”
“I do,” said Eleanor, slipping a matching golden band onto Aspen’s finger, and Aspen pulled her close by the waist and wrapping a hand around the back of her head and pulling her tight as he kissed her on the lips in front of their friends and family. Everybody cheered loudly and Aspen had to stop himself from kissing her any longer than was appropriate, although his cock twitched during the rest of the festivities, waiting for its moment to shine.