<i>Zephyrine </i>
<b>96 </b>
<b>+5 </b>Free Colna
The water soothed my skin, making my eyelids flutter shut. Serenity filled the air. The tension melted like wind, and I sighed softly, trying to escape reality.
But the reality I escaped only lured me into another fairytale of fantasy. A bliss I had once felt, that night that never came to pass again.
I missed him. Lycannar. I missed him so much I thought I might die, now that I sat in the pool that reminded me of him.
We had bathed together in this very pool, and here, he had proposed marriage to me. He had told me the price of saving my brother was for me to spend the rest of my life with him.
I swallowed hard against the bitterness in my throat and fluttered my eyes open with a shaky sigh. <fnb735> The source of th?s content is find?novel</fnb735>
“Mydy, you cane out now,” Blue’s voice broke the silence. I lingered a moment before rising from the water, allowing her to wrap a towel around me.
She dressed me in my nightgown, left my hair damp, and guided me back toward my bedchamber, only for us both to freeze in the doorway.
Varyn was already inside.
He stood fully dressed, as though ready for an important meeting, no trace of the clothes he’d worn when he was about to make love to Dessyn.
His arms folded across his chest, he stood at the wardrobe side, eyes fixed on the white fur cloak Lycannar had once gifted me.
His jaw set as he stared at the crest embroidered upon it. Slowly, he turned to me and smiled.
That smile. The one he had used countless times to butter enemies into lowering their guard, the one that had won him wars without lifting a de.
The smile of a strategist. Calcted. Deadly.
“It bears the Lycan Kingdom crest,” he said softly. “I didn’t know our designers here had begun weaving crests other than Ashmere’s.”
I swallowed, taking a step into the chamber.
<b>9:22 </b><b>Sun</b><b>, </b><b>Sep </b><b>28 </b>
“It <b>was </b>a present from Lycannar. For ascending the Alpha <b>seat</b>.
“Oh, really?” he asked as he moved away from the cloak, walking toward me. My breath hitched, my body pausing. “That was thoughtful of him, wasn’t it?”
His fingers circled my wrist. He pulled me gently to the dining seat and lowered me down<b>. </b><b>His </b>hands brushed my shoulders, caressing lightly, easing the tension he had just stirred.
“Rx, little sister. Rx.” His voice was soft.
I swallowed.
He moved around and sat across from me, his smile steady.
“You should eat your meal. But before that, you need to take the potion.”
I hesitated.
“I am not pregnant, Varyn. Anal sex doesn’t impregnate women.”
His
gaze lifted sharply. That piercing gaze.
And then it softened. His brilliant green eyes dimmed with something else. He lowered his gaze, swallowed hard, and whispered,
“I failed.” The words startled me. “I failed in battle as strategist. I failed them as a son. I failed you as a brother.”
“Varyn…” I whispered, shaken.
He shook his head, sniffing hard. He fought it, but the tears came anyway, shattering me. “Leave us,” I said quickly to Blue. She bowed and slipped out, closing the door behind her.
My brother sat there, tears trailing his face as he leaned back against his chair, gaze distant. It was as if the memories dragged him back to that bloody day.
“We nearly won, Zephyr,” he said tiredly. “We nearly won. The victory was almost ours<i>. </i>Then he came. The formation I built was torn apart. The <i>blood </i>army at the front fell in moments. To defeat the Abyss army, I had already drafted the n. We almost had it, when he arrived.”
His jaw clenched at the weight of it. My own shoulders sagged under the bitterness.
“He sided with the demons. He had perfect ties with the Warlord <i>of </i>the Abyss. And he <b>killed </b>our father like nothing. Mother was there, Zephyr. She’s the war general. She <b>saw </b><b>it </b>all. She
<b><i>2/4 </i></b>
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shattered before my eyes. When we returned to camp… we were never the same.”
“Varyn…”
s
“I asked myself how could I tell you? How would you survive hearing that Father was killed at the very strategy I built? How would I live, knowing I failed him?” His voice cracked. “Even the soldiers… seeing our father cut down so easily, they lost their spirit. Ashmeres became a joke.”
His voice dropped low.
“He wed me, Zephyr. That wound never healed. That made me gwt weaken enough to be sold into ckwater.”
I froze.
“He wed soldiers too, and I swear to you, they dropped dead instantly.”
Slowly, he looked at me, his hand reaching, gripping mine with heartache.
“Apex Blood killed our father, Zephyr. He broke the Ashmeres. He is the greatest threat. Those council members? All their schemes, their betrayals, yes, they will die one by one. But none of them matterpared to him. Apex must pay for shedding our father’s blood.”
“Varyn…”
“He’s not a Lycan,” he confessed, shaking his head. “I’ve never seen anything like him. Have you seen him shift?”
A chill spread through me.
“Not really,” I whispered.
“You know he has fangs?”
Tears slid down my cheeks as I nodded faintly.
<i>“</i>You know he has wings?” I lifted my gaze, shaken, and he pressed again. “Do you know he has
horns?”
“Varyn… please…”
“You cannot marry such a man, little sister.” His voice hardened. “That Lycan maid in this pack… I don’t want her here. That carriage with his crest… I don’t want it in Father’s courtyard. That cloak… I don’t want it in
your
chamber. And…
<b>9:22 </b><b>Sun</b><b>, </b><b>Sep </b><b>28 </b>
His gaze dropped to my fingers.
0:0
“Those rings. Don’t you think it’s time you returned them?”
d
I shuddered. My heart paused in my chest as his eyes pinned me, waiting. The answer I gave would define his next move. His patience was thinning. And I understood his pain.
Lowering my gaze, tears trailed down.
“I will send back every gift he gave me. And the rings… I’ll return them tonight, Varyn.”
“And the potion to flush his seed out of your system?” he pressed.
A sob broke from me. My hands shook.
But without hesitation, I seized the potion and drank it down in one gulp.
When I looked back, he was rising from his chair. He came to embrace me warmly, holding me close.
“It is only you and I now, Zephyr,” he whispered. “And together, we will make them all pay. <i>I </i>
swear <i>it</i>.”