The Crown's Entrapment

Xenia laid down on the bed with a frown on her face. She still couldn't believe the way she was acting right now. She was annoyed, and yet there was nothing she could do about it. Looking up to the tent's ceiling, she didn't know how long she laid still like that. Sighing and tossing, she tried her best to sleep… but she couldn't.

Instead, she ended up getting consumed by the various thoughts running through her head.

'Is it my pride?' she inwardly thought, trying to justify and interpret her own emotions. She knew she was sulking to herself, stupidly trying to understand how Darius would marry her for the benefit of his kingdom when she didn't really need to.

'You're marrying him for the benefit of your kingdom too, aren't you?' She inwardly echoed back. It was a question in her head that she wasn't quite confident enough to answer yet.

Currently, Mineah was married to the Vampire King. Her sister had done her duty. Meanwhile, she was still not married to Darius… Looking at it now, didn't she have the opportunity to run away again and live her life as a wanderer?

Surely, the help from the Valcrez would be good enough to win this war. There was no need for them to proceed with the marriage as was agreed?

Yet even so… she found in herself that she didn't have the slightest urge to run away this time… Why?

"...Maybe because I already grew fond of him? Or maybe I trust him that much already…" she murmured to herself, still trying to give reason to her own inaction.

"Right… That's just it," she sighed in acceptance. "Besides, it wouldn't be good not to honor the agreement when everything's already finalized…"

Unlike the Valcrez, the Werewolf King, didn't bother demanding for a marriage to first happen before finalizing the agreement. Instead, he simply signed the agreement for a marriage alliance without so much as a wink. It was supposedly worth it, even if he had to wait for thirty days before their marriage took place.

Xenia bit her lower lip as she found herself staring towards the tent's exit. What was Darius even doing outside? Was the Werewolf King still near her tent?

With her curiosity getting the better of her, Xenia moved. At this rate, she wouldn't be able to sleep anyway, so she crawled out and carefully took a peek outside her tent.

Blinking, she gasped when she saw Darius sitting near her tent's entrance. To her surprise, his head also turned towards her direction. She froze. Their faces were too close.

"Can't sleep?" Darius asked.

Xenia simply nodded. He already caught her, so she might as well go out and join him. Sitting beside him, she whispered, "I just woke up and ate, so it'll probably take some time for me to get sleepy again. How about you?"

Looking around, she saw how everyone was already sleeping, Jayra included as they all settled into their own sleeping positions. Well, all except for Bartos and Gideon, it seemed, as the two looked like they just came back from somewhere inside the forest.

"I can't sleep yet," Darius replied. "I usually sleep at midnight."

He then continued, "It's good that you're out here. I thought you got mad with you leaving like that. I thought hard if I offended you with some of my words, but I just can't recall anything I said or did that could make you mad."

"You didn't even finish your dinner," he noted.

Xenia almost gasped at what she just heard. She was caught off guard with how direct his words were, but she quickly defended herself with what she hoped would be something decent.

"I'm not mad. It's just a woman thing," she reasoned out. "You see, it's one of my… how to say this… undesirable traits? Having this kind of mood swings..."

Darius chuckled as he replied, "Is that your way of telling me to back off from the agreement? Because if it is, it's far from working."

He then scoffed as he added, "Right now, the Mate Pull is so strong that you have no idea on the amount of control I'm currently exerting just to stop myself. Even as we are, everything within me is just screaming to mark you this instant just so we can already be connected through the Mate Bond."

Hearing his frankly absurd words, Xenia pouted her lips and scoffed, "Thank you for your great control then, my King."

"This isn't a joke, Xen. I am dead serious," he promptly replied before his eyes suddenly took a different glint than usual. "And speaking on this subject…"

Without so much as a warning, Darius turned to look at her closely. Xenia held her breath, his intense stare almost making her want to back down. However, she kept her resolve, refusing to lower her gaze as she fought his glare with her own.

The seconds ticked on, none of them daring to blink as they tried to assert each other's personal space.

"You wouldn't mind if I marked you anytime I wanted, right?" Darius suddenly spoke, his tone dripping with need.

At his words, Xenia finally blinked as she burst aloud, "No, you can't! I won't allow it!"

Darius blinked at her outburst. Letting out a long sigh, he murmured, "Just as I thought…"

Hearing the sudden shift in his tone, Xenia actually felt bothered enough to flinch. He looked sad enough that she slowly found her thoughts drifting back to his domineering threats.

'Wait… Why am I getting bothered with how he looks?!' she inwardly thought. 'I'm in the right! I shouldn't allow him to mark me just because he wanted to! I'm not even married to him yet! He should follow our traditions!'

As if reading her thoughts, Darius looked up to her and explained, "In my defense, forming the Mate Bond and marking one another as a mate is an equivalent to being married in our Kingdom. The mark will be the sign of our bond, and every werewolf will acknowledge the fact that you already belong to me as my mate. Or, well, wife if I'd use your own terms."

"Hmm… humans, especially in Cordon have a tradition to only do the so-called sacred things between a man and a woman after the blessing of a sacred marriage," Xenia laid out.

"I'm a werewolf though," Darius cheekily whispered out.

"And I am human," Xenia uttered back.

"Yeah… So I guess I have to exercise control while I'm with you. After all, I respect you as a woman, Xen," Darius shrugged. "I won't do anything that's against your will, and may the Almighty help me because I can't promise that I'll be able to keep it that way for long…"

Xenia didn't know whether to laugh or cry at how Darius sounded just now. It was surreal, to hear him cursing after yet another volley of his words.

"I can only hope you don't torment me," he added. "You'll be the death of me at that point."

'You'll be the death of me…' she inwardly repeated. Darius's voice and words… She had heard them several times now.

All of a sudden, Xenia's eyes widened as everything flashed right back through her head. That night…

"No way!" she gasped, her muddled memories finally becoming clearer. It was that night…

Her eyes rounded wide.

"What is it, Xen?" Darius asked, noticing her sudden change in demeanor. "Are you alright? What's wrong?"

She looked at him, horrified as she uttered, "It wasn't a hallucination… not a dream…"

"What?!" Darius asked her with a slight frown.

She shook her head and nervously murmured, "I think I'm sleepy now. Good night."

Her body was trembling as she almost crawled back inside the tent. How could she do that? She basically harassed the Werewolf King that night!