86. Feed the Beast

"Sara..." Dev summoned Akshara, who had withdrawn from the training field shortly after everything was announced, saying she didn't want to be spotted with the Crown Prince after being humiliated enough in recent days.
Dev followed Akshara, his heart full of joy. Once she realised Dev was following her, her scowling expression slowly changed to a smile.
For a while, Dev was eager to take her into his wings despite her attempts to play the hard to get game for a while. Akshara was moving forward, occasionally looking back to see if Dev was there, when she suddenly tripped over something and closed her eyes, imagining who it might be.
Akshara made a concerted effort to cover her smile and force a look of anger onto her perfect face while she tried to avoid his gaze. Dev came up to her and gave her a big smile as he opened wide his arms to embrace her.
"Where is my wound?" Akshara demanded as she halted him. Dev was confused, "What! You had nothing else to ask besides about your wound?" The moment Akshara began to say, "Last night," Dev cut her off, saying, "Hmm, we missed the romantic night."
"Last night... (sighs) I wounded myself yesterday and the same cannot be found this morning," Akshara said again, her eyes sharp and fiery.
"Hmm... and then?" Dev questioned her about whether she wanted to hear her complaints.
"Then?" "Then what, Devil, you say?" Akshara asked, arched her brows, folded her hands under her chest, and turned her face to the other side.
"Hey Sara, you know that I'm a healer in nature," Dev said to Akshara, who had been blazing like fire. Akshara's face was expressionless. "I won't let you suffer," he said.
"Huh," Akshara sighed loudly and replied, "I have a lot of work to do this following day, if you allow me..."
Dev asked her with knitted brows, "Work? What work?"
"Feeding the beast," Akshara told him, mentioning the ferocious animal back in the dungeon, but Dev misunderstood the word "beast" that Akshara was mentioning to him.
"Are you sure you are ready to feed my beast?" Dev double confirmed with her with his mischievous smile.
"That’s what I do every night." Akshara told him with a little frustration in her tone, thinking of her hard days how she would clean the dungeon followed by feeding the ferocious beast, which in turn serves as a little appetite quencher for Akshara and her pet birds.
When Akshara lifted her eyes after thinking about her routine work in the dungeon, Dev fixed his eyes on her seductively. Dev smirked cunningly, thinking that she was mentioning him for not letting her sleep at night. Instead, he had been occupying her every night.
When both Akshara and Dev were indulged in their thoughts, Nora appeared in front of them, sneaking them from behind a big pillar. Though Nora burst into anger, she wanted to give it a try for one last time.
Nora called Dev, "Dev, I..."
"We played hide and seek for quite a long time," Dev interrupted Nora and said to Akshara, "I’m not waiting any longer."
But, Nora was awestruck by his words and sighed in happy relief. She moved forward to approach him, but Dev opened his wings and snatched Akshara from the ground without giving her any signals.
Dev barely noticed Nora’s presence and took his love, Akshara, with him. "Devil..." Akshara held him tightly as much as she could while screaming inside his ears, "Where are we going?"
"To feed the beast," Dev replied in her ear in his husky tone.
Akshara was puzzled and asked him, "How many more beasts do you own?"
*****
In the Magma Chamber,
"My lord?" Zohan reached his lord, Karen Redclaws, who had been sick for a long time as a forlorn lover. Karen’s amber eyes were out of light with much depression of not getting any word from Nora.
"Got any news?" Karen asked Zohan, who just shook his head no.
"My lord, why don’t we barge into the castle and help ourselves?" Zohan suggested, "I don’t feel positive with that dragon."
Karen took a deep breath and thought through it. "If I took extra care of her, she wouldn’t be gone."
"My lord, let’s move forward. This land is freezing us. We must act out. Please do reconsider it." Zohan pleaded.
"We left our homeland for a long time, and we can't stay here forever," one of the soldiers said after Zohan.
Another soldier spoke for Zohan. "It had been more than two decades since he had seen his mother and father."
"So let's finish this and return to our land," Zohan said to Karen, expressing the thoughts of his fellow soldiers. All of his pack members joined in chorus and awaited word from Karen, who felt like he was swimming in the deep ocean in the hope of someday reaching land. He sighed and looked around at everyone who had been waiting for his response.
"Uh..." before Karen could say anything, a sizzling voice reached out to him, changing everything that he planned for.
"My lord? My Lord?" When Zohan was calling Karen again and again, Karen felt zoned out and gestured to Zohan to shush and concentrate more on his ears.
Zohan and other warrior pack werewolves listened as he gestured and commented on it, "Uh, general, we didn’t hear anything. Do you hear anything?"
Zohan nodded negatively and said, "I didn’t hear anything, my lord."
"Zohan, I need some alone time to get my mind clear before I take any actions." Karen tells them and gets excused from them, and even his legs don’t know where his mind is going.
Karen walked like a sleep walker towards the voice that drew him like a mermaid calling to a lonely sailor. He passed through the tall trees of the woods and found a silhouette of a girl near the big tree, standing with a smiling face.
The girl was wearing a white long gown with a red furred thick coat covering her. She rubbed her palms together and placed them over her cheeks. She turned her flawless face with much excitement of chillness in the mist spread deep forest of crystals.
His heart was almost dropped, and he felt like he had missed the gravity under his feet to see her face. It was the most expected face of all these years, Akshara.
Karen’s mind voiced to him with happiness, "Axe! I never thought I would see you here. I'm only a few feet away. I won’t miss you this time, whatever the cost I have to pay to anyone. How can I approach her? She hasn’t had my memories. I am a mere stranger to her and her childhood friend. Though I have to try to get her back."
Karen extended his right arm to touch her shoulder before his hand could reach her shoulder; she spoke, "Why do you take so long? I’m freezing here."
"I... I searched for you everywhere. I couldn’t find... It’s my fault for leaving you out there alone. I’m sorry, Axe. " Karen spoke to her through the thick filament of mist.
Before his voice could reach Akshara, Dev suddenly appeared in front of her and held her in his arms, apologizing, "Are you freezing, my eternal bliss?"
Akshara wrapped her hands around Dev’s neck and spoke in a soft voice, "Warm me up then."
Dev embraced Akshara in his arms, where she rested her head on his shoulder to feel his warmth. Dev patted and rubbed on her spines to help her ease the freezing cold.
Karen closed his open fingers and retracted his hand while tears emerged in his eyes. His trembling breath increased his flaming wrath that had been burning inside his heart since Akshara was abducted from the witch palace.
His moisturized amber eyes were still fixed on the ever flawless face of Akshara, whose mind was fully occupied with Dev and his alluring charms. Karen could see happiness in Akshara’s exotic eyes for being with Dev.
Karen’s broken heart was broken into pieces again, and a hand pulled him back to reality from behind. Karen’s tears filled amber eyes and couldn’t be made to look at the person standing before him.
The person shook Karen and spoke to him audibly, "My Prince, what are you doing here?"
Karen pushed the person aside and his legs covered the last inches of forest ground without his knowledge. Yet, the person followed him, repeatedly addressing him as, "My Prince!"
Karen stepped into a hollow space, which made him fall and roll over the ground. The person who was following him hurried to aid him in his miserable condition, "My Prince, let me help you."
"Do I need your help?" Karen asked the person who was helping him to get on his feet.
"Yes, my prince, terribly." The person answered him while supporting him.
"Rona, I’m not your concern." Karen told her without looking at her face. "Leave me alone."
Karen pushed D'Rona away and walked without a destination. D’Rona, the daughter of Delta Neguvex, found Karen in a miserable state while returning from the Ice Castle of Ayruzglow. She decided to help him and fulfill her promise to Luna of Ukada, i.e., Karen’s mother, Yadivah Redclaws.