“Oh, winter white!”
Diego just shook his head as the chaste smile on his face widened. “Remaining one chance.”
“It’s chocolate hazel. It is, right?” she confidently articulated that her voice amplified, sitting on top of the gigantic arch.
“And what if you’re wrong?” Diego provoked with both of his hands still behind his neck as he leaned on the high branch of a Sianthus tree parallel to the arch.
Larina tilted her head and look straight at his aquatic eyes. “I’ll be indebted to you,” she retorted, making Diego’s smile swap with a silly grin.
In a dash, he stood up and leap down. With a growl not so loud, he landed on the ground on four legs. Larina’s mouth formed round as she slide over to draw closer to the wolf.
“Y-You’re ash silver,” she slowly uttered amazed. Her hands gradually stretched out and felt the soft greyish coat on its body. His upright oaken ears flickered and still those blue eyes twinkled on this form of his. He stands tall and enormous.
Larina couldn’t stop but chuckle in astonishment. Still can’t believe she’s seeing Diego’s wolf form this kind she never expected it to be. This was her first time seeing a werewolf in her entire life, and couldn’t believe it to be this huge.
She was about to reach up to his ears when Diego quickly dodged and shook his head in warning. “Don’t,” his voice echoed inside the lady’s head.
“Why?” Larina asked with her fore creased.
“I-It’s not yet the time f-for that,” he answered stuttering and diverting his eyes away from her.
But her brows still furrowed, not until she got what it means that her entire face flashes all red and hot. “I get i-it.”
“Wanna go for a run?” he blurted, breaking the ice between them.
Larina smiled and nodded, “Wanna bet who’s gonna reach Amtala first?”
“Sure. What happens if I won?”
One of her eyebrows raised at him and sprinted in a flick of a second, “That won’t happen.”
Diego grunts, shaking his head, and chased her along in a dash. Running across the vast woods and green things, with only each other’s presence, is what they acknowledge. Not knowing what threat was lying around, secretly eyeing and observing.
Behind their sight swifts a creature under a pitch-black cloak. That someone that holds dark desires and ambitions that could cover the world in the most dangerous war and bloodshed.
“What’s the prize?” Larina sneers as her feet dip on the gushing river.
Afore her was the ash wolf arriving that seems to have no plan on stopping. His steps approached and closed the remaining distance between them. And the second blink of an eye, half their bodies was now submerged under the waters of Amtala.
“You owe me a debt and so am I to you,” uttered Diego, shifting back to his human form. His arms raised, calmly and slowly clinging around her waist. “Yours, save it. But mine, I won’t hesitate to claim it.”
Burst out a loud and deafening banging from inside of her, no words dared to come out of her lips. Her eyes were pinned on those sapphire orbs in front of her. Amidst the freezing waters coursing around them, only his warmth what was she felt.
Out of her control, her hands hitched up. Creeping through his bare chest and up to his nape. On his face was only a gentle and genuine smile was painted. Not spouting any more phrases and to her lips sealed his.
Under the moonlight’s shine, of the rushing waters and cold mid-autumn night, stands the only perilous witness of this illicit attachment between feuding creatures. Between a vampire and a werewolf’s forbidden amour, looms the mysterious hooded man.
*****
“Any progress?”
Larina couldn’t avert but scream with her lips widely opened as her hand gripped the prince’s arm tighter. “Kyaaahhh, he did. He already knows who am I!”
The guy with blonde hair smiled gallingly. “That’s great to hear, Rina.” The reactions and euphoria she’s in right now, it’s just like the way she makes and he receives letters from Larina before.
“It really is, Vander. I want to thank you.”
“You don’t have to.”
But this time, he was not the reason for those smiles on her face. Vander remained to stare at Larina as the seconds passes. Until the words awaiting to be spout out finally were liberated from him. “I think I understand how Alfarro feels that day.”
Larina quickly turned to him with a crease on her forehead.
“Every time you asked him what those phrases actually mean, it hits differently to him. And every time you say those words were intended for me, it hurts him even if he doesn’t admit.”
“Vander—”
The blonde prince only chortled seeing the smile on the princess’ face fade and be replaced by a compassionate one. “And perhaps it is what I feel right now. I don’t know why… but maybe because it was too late for me to admit that I have already fallen in love with you. And now that you’re happy with someone else… maybe there was nothing I can do but to let you go.”
“Vander, I’m sorry,” she sincerely whispered. Larina couldn’t look at him directly to his eyes. admitting guilty of the fact that she did play of her feelings, not knowing how much pain she could cause. Playing fire it is.
“You don’t have to. Maybe it was my fault,” he replied and smiled at her. “For falling out of a sudden. Tomorrow, the marriage alliance… I have already withdrawn it.”
She doesn’t know what to say. Or what to do. Of all this time, she was being selfish. Unaware… or maybe, didn’t care for how the others would feel for every decision she was choosing.
“I’m taking myself out of this before I could do anything unforgivable, Larina. And I have no regrets loving the girl who once shared her world with me. I love you.”
In a dash of a spin, Larina found herself drowned under a deep kiss initiated by the prince. Her eyes widened in shock. But before she could even move, a violent strike had blown him away.
Her eyes traveled behind her and saw a familiar muscular build. That disheveled pitch-black hair and the scent that lingered, those eyes that resembled the raging seas. His fists were clenched and trembling in anger.
She no longer couldn’t move, and the next thing she saw was the palace guards surrounding them. But what froze her completely was when she saw who was pacing in their direction.
“Your majesty.”
*****
“The beta of Sanguine pack has crossed our borders without any rationale motive,” decrees a woman wearing a long moss dress. Her hair was dropped long and on her head sits a crown, so as the precious gems in the pieces of jewelry she’s wearing. She’s sitting on a throne and a sword was settled on her side.
The court hall remained silent, not long until the big doors burst open.
“Mother, I beg you,” asserted a lady rushing forward, and unhesitatingly kneeled in front of the queen. Her clothes and even her hair were all messed up. “Gavin had done nothing against our laws.”
“And what do you consider this?” the queen furiously tensed up.
“It was a m-misunderstanding, Mother,” Larina answered with her voice started trembling.
But the queen’s eyes narrowed and her jaws gnashing in anger. “What do you think am I, Larina? A fool?” she yelled that echoed across the walls.
The courtroom was filled with witnesses and high officials of Daghum. Even in the absence of the King, Louisan could still arrange such trials under her control, especially the ones connected with the wolves of Sanguine and Madfur Okami.
“I’ve kept silent all these days thinking it was only your game trying to capture this wolf but it seems like I’m wrong. You are this wolf’s mate, that, I cannot accept!” Queen Louisan raved as she indignantly stood up and draw out her sword.
“No!” Larina screamed, pleading and crying but before she could stand up, high-ranked palace guards emerged from nowhere and pinned her down on her knees.
The queen paced closer to the man shackled with silver chains on his neck, hands, and ankle. Still being held by two guards.
“I never wished for my daughter to be with an enemy,” Louisan gritted her teeth and with great force, she seized Diego’s hair and lifted his head. Revealing his burning neck from the effects of silver and edge the blade to it. Her eyes met those azure pair of him.
“Mother I beg you,” Larina shouted. Tears were unstoppably rolling down her cheeks and forced her body to escape from the grips but still, she can’t.
Staring at Diego’s body covered with blood and wounds, with those chains burning him slowly, it was an unimaginable pain yet she didn’t hear any word from him. And the last thing she knew was the Queen’s blade slashed at a speed that blood gushed out.
“Diego!”