"CHOKE ME! CHOKE ME MASTER!"
" I stifled a laugh at my bodyguard Mark Stevens' s face as Pati the parrot squawked in his cage. The parrot' s name said all you needed to know about its previous owner's sex life, and while some found him amusing, Mark Stevens did not. He hated birds. He said they reminded him of giant flying rats.
"One day, he and Pati are going to get into it." Linda Brooks, the director of Paws & Claws, clicked her tongue.
"Poor Mark Stevens." I held back another laugh even as I felt a small pang in my heart.
"Probably not. Mark Stevens' s leaving soon."
I tried not to think about it. Mark Stevens had been with me for four years, but he was leaving for paternity leave next week and staying in Yorkshire after, to be closer to his wife and newborn. I was happy for him, but I would miss him. He was not only my bodyguard but a friend, and I could only hope his replacement and I had the same rapport.
"Ah, yes, I forgot." Linda Brooks' s face softened. She was in her early sixties, with short, gray-streaked hair and warm brown eyes.
"Lots of changes for you in a short time, my dear."
She knew how much I hated goodbyes. I'd been volunteering at Paws & Claws, a local pet rescue shelter, since my sophomore year of college, and Linda Brooks had become a close friend and mentor.
Unfortunately, she, too, was leaving. She'd still be in Linoi, but she was retiring as the shelter director, which meant I would no longer see her every week.
"One of them doesn't have to happen," I said, only half-joking.
"You could stay ."
She shook her head. "I've run the shelter for almost a decade, and it's time for new blood. Someone who can clean the cages without her back and hips acting up."
"That's what volunteers are for." I gestured toward myself. I was belaboring the point, but I couldn't help it. Between Linda Brooks, Mark Stevens, and my impending graduation from Selimor University , where I was majoring in international relations as expected of a heiress, I had enough goodbyes to last me for the next five years.
"You are a sweetheart. Don't tell the others, but…" She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.
"You're my favorite volunteer. It's rare to find someone of your stature who does charity because she wants to, not because she's putting on a show for the cameras." My cheeks tinted pink at the compliment.
"It's my pleasure. I adore animals."
I took after my mother in that regard. It was one of the few pieces of her I had left. In another life, I would've been a veterinarian, but in this life? My path had been laid out for me since before I was born.
"You would make a great queen." Linda Brooks stepped aside to allow a staff member with a wriggling puppy in his arms to pass.
"Truly." I laughed at the thought. "Thank you, but I have no interest in being queen."
"Even if I did, the chances of me wearing the crown are slim." As the princess of Yoshire, a small European kingdom, I came closer to ruling than most people. My parents died when I was a kid; my mother at childbirth , my father in a car accident a few years later and so I was second in line to the throne. My brother Michael, who was four years my senior , had been training to take over for our grandfather Mr. William since he was old enough to walk. Once Michael had children, I would be bumped further down the line of succession, something I had zero complaints about.
I wanted to be queen as much as I wanted to bathe in a vat of acid. Linda Brooks frowned in disappointment. "Ah, well, the sentiment is the same." "Linda Brooks!" one of the other staff members called out. "We've got a situation with the cats."
She sighed. "It's always the cats," she muttered.
"Anyway , I wanted to tell you about my retirement before you heard it from anyone else. I'll still be here until the end of next week, so I'll see you on Tuesday ."
"Sounds good." I hugged her goodbye and watched her rush off to deal with a literal catfight, the pang in my chest growing. I was glad Linda Brooks hadn't told me about her retirement until the end of my shift, or it would've been in my head the whole time.
"Are you ready, Your Highness?" Mark Stevens asked, clearly eager to get away from Pati. "Yes. Let's go."
"Yes, let' s go!" Pati squawked as we exited. "Choke me!"
My laugh finally broke free at Mark Stevens's grimace.
"I'll miss you, and so will Pati. " I stuffed my hands in my coat pockets to protect them against the sharp autumn chill. "Tell me about the new bodyguard. What's he like?"
The leaves crunched beneath my boots as we walked toward my off-campus house, which was only fifteen minutes away. I adored fall and everything that came with it, the cozy clothes, the riot of earthy colors on the trees, the hint of cinnamon and smoke in the air. In Yoshire, I wouldn't be able to walk down the street without getting mobbed, but that was the great thing about Selimor. Its student population boasted so many royals and celebrity offspring, a heiress was no big deal. I could live my life like a relatively normal college girl.
"I don't know much about the new guard," Mark Stevens admitted. "He's a contractor." My eyebrows shot up.
"Really?"
The Family sometimes hired private security contractors to serve alongside the Royal Guard, but it was rare.