[Zeve’s POV] I sat on the throne with Amor seated beside me. In the beginning of the reception ceremony, Amor apologised for the delay and after that, one by one, all the members of the royal family introduced themselves to me. I greeted them with courtesy and a warm smile. Amor’s family was enormous. There were so many people and it was compulsory for me to recognize each one of them with their faces and names. Then the nobles with powerful family influence and higher ranks in the pack introduced themselves to me. I had to memorise their names too. As the political faces disclosed in front of me, I could make out the political system and the pack hierarchy. The one on top was Alpha of the pack, Alpha Amor Blaze. But after marriage, I became his luna and held a rank equal to his. He was the emperor of the complete Aurora empire. Below him was the royal family, holding the most power. After the royal family came the other politically powerful families of nobles who were known
[Zeve’s POV] The man strutted into the hall as if he owned the entire pack and didn’t actually care about who the actual alpha was. He stopped before stepping on the stairs that led to us. He lifted his arcane gaze. My eyes met his eyes. I couldn’t show it on my face, but his gaze made me self-conscious. It was as if I had already read him through and through. All that’s left was to decipher him. His straight, dark blue hair was longer than mine, fluttering behind him as he stepped on the stair. He was dressed in a white shirt, pants with cloud pattern and no accessory, and a long black kimono coat with the prints of a golden dragon on back and on its long sleeves. His kimono coat and sleeves fluttered like dark waves behind him. The katana sword hung from his sword waist belt, peeked now and then from behind his kimono coat. His iris were dark blue in the centre and were outlined with a golden colour. He had a unique eye colour I had never seen before. His aura was warm and w
[Zeve’s POV] No one dared stop Hikari. It was as if everyone in the hall knew Hikari wasn’t a force that could be stopped with swords or power. Like Morfan said, Hikari was the feral wind from the North. But according to me, he was already a storm with a broken, hurting and unmended heart. “That’s enough for the reception!” Amor yelled and scooped me up in his arms. I panicked, seeing all gazes on us as he walked down the stairs. But I thought resisting to be picked up in a bridal style would only cause more chaos so I just lowered my gaze. We left the hall with Morfan, mother and Lucella joining him on his way back to our room. He laid me on the bed. Amor clenched and unclenched his teeth, sitting beside me on the bed while Lucella checked me. “Does your chest still hurt?” She asked. Amor’s impatient gaze made me more restless. What did Hikari say to Amor? Why was Amor so restless and scared? What happened to me? What was that sharp pain in my chest earlier? I shook my
[Zeve’s POV] Did I really roll all the way into his arms, using his biceps as my pillows while sleeping? Yes, I did. I incoherently screamed at myself in my head. I held my breath and stared at Amor, sleeping almost on the edge of the bed. I quietly got up from his hand. It was so embarrassing that I didn’t want him to wake up before I could get far away from him. But he was on the edge of the bed. If he moved an inch more, he would fall on the floor. He tensed his brows while sleeping. Fearing he’d fall off the bed, I held his arm on the floor side. “Amor! You’ll fall!” He lethargically opened his eyes. He widened his eyes and flinched back. “Waah~” he tumbled off the bed on the ground with a scream. He crossed his hands over his bare chest. “W-what are you doing?” I stared at him with a stoic smile. “You were about to fall from the bed and now you have already fallen.” I almost sang my words. “I was trying to save you, but maybe falling was your fate.” I gave a shrug. He
[Zeve’s POV] “Luna, it is the pack secret of the Kazumi culture. It would be indecent for us outsiders to interfere,” Morfan said. “Really? Outsiders? But I thought their pack was a part of the Aurora pack.” “Yes, they are a part of our Aurora pack, luna,” Morfan said. “If so then, they are not outsiders, they are family. And families don’t keep secrets from one another.” He looked at me blankly, as if he had nothing to counter what I said. “They don’t accept us as family, luna.” “Acceptance is from both sides. You don’t consider them as family either. Right now, you said they were outsiders. But it’s ok. We aren’t creating a family, anyway. It’s business.” “May I ask why do you want to know about his training and swords?” Morfan asked. “Simple. If we add even a bit of their sword skill to the training regime of our soldiers, what happened yesterday would never happen again. Strength is strength, and knowledge is knowledge. They don’t have culture or pack. You borrow them from
[Zeve’s POV] We stopped at a considerable distance from one another. His gaze skimmed from the floor to my eyes. With a straight spine, I held his gaze. My heart instantly caught an erratic beat. Calm down, Zeve. He can’t hurt you in front of so many people. There’s nothing to fear. Keep an impassive face like you practiced. My maids sunk their heads into a bow, stiffening their bodies. There were no guards in the hallway, of course, for the privacy reasons of the family. I thought he left yesterday. What the hell was he doing there? Maintaining our eye-contact, we stepped closer to one another. Finally, we stopped at a hand’s distance from each other. I smiled, “greeting alpha Hikari.” He peered at me with an unruffled face. He was wearing a black shirt and pants with a white belt and shoes. A white kimono coat with wind patterns on the back and on its long sleeves fluttered around him while he strutted. He bowed, “greeting to her highness the luna.” He looked around me.
[Zeve’s POV] I let out a sigh and stood in front of him, face to face. “I want your skills.” He tilted his head, squinting his eyes. “Your sword skills fascinated me yesterday, so I want you to teach ten of my people all the skills needed to reach your level.” He crossed his arms across his chest and peered at me with his eyes having a golden glow. Was it his wolf again? Like yesterday? He had the same glow in his eyes. My body broke into a cold sweat. But I didn’t waver from my facade. I know he was glaring at me and I stared back at him, standing firm, waiting for his response. I let out a cold sigh. “I will take your silence as no. I expected so, albeit thank you for hearing me out.” I walked past him when he said. “When you knew my answer, why did you embarrass yourself by asking?” He said without looking at me. My back faced him as I faced the endlessness of the hallway. “If you don’t ask, it’s always a no. But if you ask, chances of that ‘no’ tuning to ‘maybe’ or e
[Zeve’s POV] I took the last turn in the hallway leading to my room and saw Amor with Morfan and the four maids I sent. Amor’s gaze met mine. Not caring about the bloodlust reeking from him or the daunting aura around him with the unsheathed sword in his hand, I dashed to him and hugged him tightly, almost crashing into him. “Zeve?” I heard his hoarse voice. I clenched Amor’s sleeping robe on his back in my shaking fists. Maybe because I was with him, I felt it was ok to be weak. Because it was him, I didn’t need to feign anything because he knew me through and through. His arm blanketed my back with his free hand. “Morfan, cancel everything for today. Make sure no one disturbs us.” He ordered Morfan. “As you wish, Alpha. I will take care of it,” Morfan left. “Make sure no one enters our room today. No one, not even my mother. Don’t come until called,” he ordered the maids. They bowed and left. The hallway was empty, with me hugging him. I had no intentions of parting from