The Love of a Lycan

Eaton lowered his head and balled his fists, as the pain upon hearing that one hateful memory surged to the surface. He lost his mate because of Janus's doing.

There was one moment of craziness when Janus accidentally sacrificed Liz to prolong Diana's life and since that accident, Eaton's loyalty was no longer with him. He couldn't serve the mad king who had killed his mate.

When the anger started to bubble up in his throat, Eaton felt Jedrek squeezing his shoulder reassuringly. "When Serefina left, I went feral. Therefore, if I lost my destined mate, there is no need to say that I will go beyond that now."

It was easy to order Maximus to kill Lilac when she was just a baby and Jedrek had not yet met her, but now, as much as he hated to admit it, the mate bond had gotten stronger over time. It was impossible for him to feel nothing if he lost Lilac.

There was a moment of silence as Eaton readjusted his feelings before he continued his line of questions. "But, why the mating ceremony? You can introduce her in another way. You seem to be in a rush about this one particular thing." Eaton glanced at Jedrek. "What happened?"

Right, Jedrekdid have another way to introduce Lilac to his people, but he insisted that the mating ceremony was the right event for that.

"Like what the girl said; war is drawing near. The two gates of Tartarus have opened. It was only a matter of time before those people started to rebel to inquire about their missing family," Jedrek replied to him, but he didn't really give the specific answer to the question Eaton really wanted to know.

"And you want to mess with eastern region by killing Maximus?" Eaton added.

"I will take care all of that at once," Jedrek spoke rigidly, his eyes still trained to the far distance, filled with… longing.

"We can deal with Maximus later." Eaton was still trying to change Jedrek's decision. However, that was not an easy task to accomplish.

"No, I will not have my enemies live under my roof again." Jedrek had had enough and he would not start it again by keeping Maximus, even as his prisoner. If the eastern region couldn't accept this, they must know who their king was!

Eaton sighed deeply. He relented. However, he still had other questions that remained unanswered. "But, it doesn't answer my question though. Why must you rush the mating ceremony?"

Jedrek didn't answer that question, instead he resigned himself. "Goodnight, Eaton." And then he walked away toward his chamber.

Right, Jedrek was indeed rushing it. He had to do it.

Of the many selfish things that had been decided lately, this was the most selfish thing he had to do for himself.

Jedrek was well aware about the fact that he would meet with Serefina soon and in spite of the fact that his feelings for Lilac had gotten stronger, he still needed a solid reason to stay with her. He was not sure how he would feel when he met up with Serefina after so many heartache nights that he had been through.

It didn't seem like the witch would come back to continue their relationship. Jedrek didn't want it too. He had been trying to forget her for centuries and only he knew what kind of effort he had to put in to keep going since she left him, and all of that would dissipate if he forgive her so easily.

Jedrek wouldn't do that.

However, in contrary, he didn't even know himself how sure he was.

Therefore, he needed this. The mating ceremony would solidify the mate bond between him and Lilac. After that, he didn't need unnecessary distraction and he could place his focus solely on the upcoming war.

This was a mess…

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When the sun went down finally, all the bones of the children from the cave had been buried near the waterfall, with a beautiful scenery and flower petals covered their final resting place.

It was their tradition. While the hunters would have fire when they died, the children would have the ground for them.

During this time, Raine stayed behind, inside the cave to figure out the strange feeling that she felt near it, yet she couldn't find anything.

She got overly anxious throughout the process, but that was it.

"Did you find anything?" Serefina folded her arms in front of her chest, narrowing her eyes at Raine.

Raine shook her head. She felt dejected when Serefina sighed regretfully. The witch was disappointed in her and Raine was disappointed in herself too. She didn't need for her to show it. It only added to her depression.

Even the scenery from this place, where the picturesque waterfall pounding the rocks and the rich hues of red blended with orange at the horizon, wasn't able to appease Raine's uneasiness.

"I will go with Hope to see the priestess," Raine mumbled and walked away.

When Raine walked away, Serefina turned around and glared at Calleb behind her. "Don't you dare to comfort her now, there is something she needs to do and she had to do it alone!" She warned the Gamma, who was about to go after Raine.

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"So, the mating ceremony, huh?" Lilac finally found Jedrek in the throne room, sitting in his throne while staring at her, yet she couldn't read what kind of emotion was swirling in those cold eyes. "I would never have thought that the thing between us will escalate so fast."

Lilac walked across the quiet room which was soon filled with the soft sound from her feet on the stone floor now, toward the King on his throne.

"First, you want to kill me and now you want me to be your queen." Lilac stopped right in front of Jedrek, staring straight into his dark blue eyes.

Jedrek kept his eyes on her, even though she was being sarcastic, all he could see was that she was charmingly fascinating.

"What was the reason behind all this? I can't see what exactly the mating ceremony had anything to do with this war."