SEQUEL: ONE

(The night before the Annual Conference)

Roman strode back into the dimly lit hall, straightening his tie and itching to take out a cigar for a smoke. His icy blue eyes unerringly found Lukas’ human mate, and he looked away just as she looked up, intending to go out once more and have that damn smoke.
“Roman?” Alpha King Costin’s voice stopped him just as he was about to turn around and head out.
Roman’s face and side still stung, he supposed he deserved that reaction from Lukas, and he was lucky that his nose wasn’t broken. He wasn’t exactly on good terms with Alpha Costin, he had been avoiding the other Alpha King ever since the time he paid a visit to him.
It didn’t help that his daughter was seated at the table, the thought of sitting with them made him crave a smoke even more but he couldn’t turn Alpha King Costin’s beckons down, so he was forced to go over.
“Anton,” He replied, smiling mirthlessly as he drew out a chair and fluidly sat.
“How did the conversation with Lukas go?” The older Alpha King asked with humor glinting in his eyes as he lifted his drink to his lips.
Roman clicked his teeth, he should have known that nothing got past the old geezer. “Amicably,” He said stiffly.
Anton just chuckled, looking thoroughly entertained by the entire conversation.“I figured.”
Roman cut a look at him, “I suppose you didn’t call me over to poke jabs at me,” He noted, his eyes reluctantly flicking over to Alina who had been blatantly ignoring his presence the entire time - he preferred it that way.
“I didn’t even though you seem to have so much time on your hands, I’d like to make you a proposition.” The Alpha King sat up slightly, his voice dropping. “Unfortunately, it’s on a rather sensitive topic so we’ll have to have this conversation after the dinner party is concluded.” He leaned back after getting his information across, picking up his glass again.
Roman would have agreed to just about anything for the chance to leave the table, “Very well, I’ll take my leave now.” He said in a rush, rising to his feet.
He didn’t bother giving Alina another look before heading for the doors of the hall, he had seen a balcony a couple of hallways down, he just needed a bit of privacy.
Halfway to the doors, someone interrupted his path, a gorgeous dark-skinned woman with perfect teeth smile at him, her dress literally molded to her body.
Roman frowned, he didn’t appreciate getting punched by two different people in a single night because of entanglements with their mates. With Claire, he could admit to walking right into that but with South African Luna Queen Imani, he wished she would walk right away from him.
He didn’t slow down, sidestepping the Luna Queen and continuing his journey to the exit. Imani was mated and although Roman didn’t encourage social conversations between himself and the other werewolf royalties, she always went out of her way to find him.
Roman didn’t just go around showing interest in every mated Luna Queen, he had standards and that was Lukas’ human Fated mate. It made him question a lot of things, it was why he had made an effort to get closer to her.
He kept up the pace till he came to the balcony he had seen earlier, the soft hum of conversation that filled the hall where the dinner party was hosted didn’t reach the balcony.
It was a cozy alcove that overlooked the bright lights of the bustling city of New York, it was soothing. He could smoke in peace here but after coming all the way to this balcony for a smoke, he found that he didn’t feel like it anymore.
So he just held an unlighted cigar between the pointer and middle finger of his right hand, rings adorning both fingers as he looked down at the sight below. He rested his hands on the wooden railings, the cool night wind blowing through his suit jacket and the slicked-back locks of his hair.
He couldn’t keep obsessing over Lukas and his Fated mate, with every passing year, he got older and it was becoming more evident as the years went by that he would never be one of those lucky werewolves who were blessed by Fate to find their Fated mate.
Before the thought of that used to fill him with anger at the injustice - *‘was it that he didn’t search hard enough?’* - He had even tried searching amongst humans after learning that Lukas’ Fated mate had turned out to be a human but he still hadn’t found her yet.
That was months ago, now he was just exhausted, he couldn’t even bring himself to keep on with his hate-fueled mission of ruining Lukas’ mating. In the span of a couple more months, they would have a child, it would just be pathetic on Roman’s part if he were to keep on making efforts that were definitely going to fail.
He searched in his pockets for a gold lighter, *‘maybe he would take that smoke, after all’*, he really needed it. White smoke wafted up from his face into the night sky above as he unwittingly faced the hard fact that he would never find his Fated mate.
There was no reason to mate just for the sake of it because all the love he was capable of was reserved for his Fated mate, he didn’t even care what specie they were, werewolf or not, he would just be happy to find them.
If he weren’t required to sire a child for the sake of continuing his line, he would have just retired to his home and lived out the rest of his days focusing on his citizens and expanding his settlement.
It sounded tragic but he would take it over the choice of having to live the rest of his life with someone he could never love. At the age of twenty-seven, he had spent close to a decade searching for someone who probably never existed.
He could probably still go on searching but his heart simply couldn’t take the disappointment anymore, he didn’t have any more hope to put into the search for his Fated mate. He could see who so many gave up, searching took a toll on your emotions, there was only so much a single person could take.
It was probably underhanded of him to try to ruin Lukas’ happiness but it was difficult watching other people be so happy when you knew that you would never find your own happiness.