Number 33

’That isn’t the way to the exit,’ his wolf said, then he paused abruptly. ‘What? Why did you stop?’
‘Do I not first have to inform Lorelei of my departure?’ he asked sounding a little bit frustrated due to the silly questions his wolf kept asking.
‘Yeah right.’ Roman rolled his eyeballs.
‘Dumbass,' he jeered jovially, they both laughed.
“You’re leaving for The Crimson Fangs right away?!” Lei exclaimed.
“I have to. It has to be done secretly, so I really don’t have the whole day to spare.”
“Is there a problem?” she asked out of untainted concern.
“Not necessarily. Pending when the war comes to an end, I have to be home with my people as the king’s son. It’s sort of like a responsibility delegated to me. I can’t just stay back and send my people to the forefront,” he made known his plight imperturbably.
“Yeahh…the war,” she recalled.
“I didn’t want to leave without a word so I decided inform you first on the journey I’ll be embarking on. What do you say?”
“Ummm…,” she fondled with her fingers, eyes wobbly.
“What is the problem?” he covered both her hands with his huge palm.
“Do you really have to go?” she asked, giving him a really meek stare like that of a distressed baby.
“Lorelei, I have to.” She heaved a sigh. “It’s my land were talking about right now. There are procedures I must go through as the heir,” he explained kindly.
“Right! I’m being selfish right now, right?” she chuckled and adjusted herself.
Roman smiled. “You’re not being selfish, okay?” he assured. “I just have to be home. You’ll wait for me , right?”
“Do I have any other place to go to?” she smiled.
“You have to wait for me,” he said while caressing her cheek with one hand.
“I will,” she nodded.
“When everything is settled, I’ll come back for you, and that’s a promise,” he gave her his word. She did nothing but nod repeatedly.
“But what about Damien though? What if he tries to harm me in your absence?” she finally voiced her biggest fear.
“He has a lot on his plate to ditch and come over to bother you. Right about now, I bet you’re the least of his worries. He’s preparing for war against the Crimson Fangs!” he said, laying emphasis on ‘Crimson Fangs’, “it’s not to be taken lightly,” he finished. “So you have nothing to fear,” he uttered soothing words to relieve his beloved’s bated breath.
“Right?”
“Yeah! Rest easy, Lei. I’ll be back in no time, okay?”
“Alright,” she nodded.
He then placed the other palm on her cheek, pulled her head in closer and planted a peck on her forehead. “I love you,” he whispered. She wrapped her tiny hands around his waistline, diving into his cuddle.
“You have to come back,” she sniffled.
“That’s a given,” he gave her a mild pat on her occiput.
While she dreaded the idea of Damien appearing like a thief in the night, she was completely helpless knowing she just had to forgo. They were all getting ready for war so maybe, she didn’t have to bother her tiny brain after all, she thought.
***
Like they speculated, Damien was in fact preoccupied with fortifying his troupes for the war that would make history. He condoned no other unnecessary thoughts – which included Lorelei’s – of failure, visualizing his grand victory.
They purchased wagons, horses riffles, swords, tamed beasts, war chariots for transporting war supplies to the warfront and everything necessary to up their chances of emerging victors. They left no stone unturned.
The horses’ neighs and sound of their gallops could be heard while being ridden, the carriages were also ridden by distinct pack members, others were being maintained to rid off any faults, some pack members dueled between themselves with swords, and some others fought in their wolf forms, while a few others still, kept themselves busy with building barricades with different durable materials at their disposal, etc. The king felt an intense self-satisfying feeling, watching the beautiful scenery – his troupes very much immersed in their graith for the upcoming war.
“My king,” the Chief guard ran up to the king. Kneeling with his right knee, his left forearm crossed horizontally over the other leg placed perpendicularly to the floor, with his sword pinned to the ground by the right hand, he bowed.
“I can see things are going on pretty well over here,” he nodded appraisingly. “The count down has long begun and we have just two days left. Hasten things up here,” he ordered.
“Yes, my king!” He maintained his posture.
*The day before the D-Day*
Everyone felt a rush of excitement, laced with a bit of tension as the long awaited day was just the night away.
“My Lord,” Irene called out when she entered the room and found Damien sitting on the sofa, looking spaced out. Getting no response, she called out again, “my Lord.” She sat beside him.
“Oh!” he jerked mildly.
“Are you okay? What is it that troubles the king’s heart?”
“Nothing really. Just thinking about tomorrow,” he lied. Lied????!!!
Yes, lied. He wasn’t thinking of the big day. He was indeed thinking of Lorelei. Shoot! Her biggest dread was about to come to fruition.
“The war? What’s there to think about, my husband?” she placed her hand over his shoulders. “I’m sure you’re definitely going to pull through. Let’s sleep and think of tomorrow when it comes, okay?” she goaded.
“Fine,” he yielded.
The lights were turned off, it was bed time! Bed time for Irene, Damien had other intentions for the night since the night was still quite young.
Few minutes later after Irene slept off, Damien gently pulled himself away from Irene as she always loved to cuddle to bed. He sat upright, took a second glance at his queen to check if she was still sound asleep; she indeed was. He stood up and walked out the room. Where was he headed at that time of the night? You guessed right, to Lorelei’s!!!
He walked deeply into forest alone ; out of eye and ear shot – without calling his guards to accompany him there.
His nails started growing longer, evolving into claws, enormous amount of hair came forth his skin, his eye color changed to red, took the shape of an almond and became slanted, lining up with the outer base of his ears, he began to shrivel, growing hind and forelegs, longer ears, assuming the shape of a wolf. Upon his transformation, he howled.
He probably deduced that if he was going to sneak into another’s territory – The Dead Moon pack – in search of his ex-Luna, transforming into his wolf form was best. He galloped deeper into the forest, as he journeyed in his hunt.
In about forty-five minutes, he was already in The Dead Moon’s. He pulled the deed off – he managed to sneak in that night through the forests unscathed. Walking through the forest, he held his head down with his nose close to the ground to pick up the slightest scent that could serve as a clue in his venture.
After minutes of rummaging the entire forest to the area with residential houses, he got his clue. He immediately transformed back to his human form and silently made his way following the trail of Lei’s scent.
On getting to her door, it was locked but that was far from being a hassle. He had the power to elongate and shapeshift his nails to the size of a needle whilst in his human form. He did that and opened the door, granting himself access inside the house.
On getting in, it was a bit dark so using his hands, he searched the wall beside the door by rubbing it against the wall. On finding a switch, he clicked it and viola! He saw Lorelei frozen in her tracks with the little boy in her arms, dumbstruck. Her biggest fear from nowhere appeared before her. Any other reaction would not only be illogical, but also ridiculous.
“You’re still up?” he scoffed.
“What are you doing here?” she quavered.
“Relax. If you comply, there’d be nothing to worry about,” he said as he approached her.
“If you don’t leave now, I’ll scream,” she threatened Damien who neither paused nor stopped.
“Ah…,” just as she was about to raise alarm, he was already in front of her with his hands over her mouth tightly.
“Mummy,” Xander cried out. The poor boy must have been scared to death.
Damien and Lei had quite a struggle trying to take him from her.
“Let me have my child.” They struggled.
“Over my dead body!” she refuted. Damien pushed her aside using brute force, and took the child from her.
“Mummy!!!!,” poor Xander wailed and immediately, he got shut up by Damien.
He overpowered Lei and had Damien in his possession now. The next logical thing to do was to leave, right? But no! He kept the little boy aside and dragged Lei down to a level ground as she was lying in an elated position with her head against the wall, over the couch.
He sat on top of her with her legs between his, and started undressing her. He unbuttoned her nightie, exposing her bare chest to him, her nipples standing pointed on her moderately huge jugs. Throughout the whole drama, Lorelei didn’t budge. It was then it occurred to him that she was actually unconscious. Shoot! This wasn’t how things were supposed to go down.
He clicked his tongue, stood up on his feet and dashed out with the crying child in his arms.