+CHAPTER 32+ An Inevitable Doom

Aric Hugged his long lost ally. A million questions were running in his mind.

Aidan had claimed to be a royal messenger for this Queen Amber which made no sense.

Dragon's don't work for anyone, they fucking make others their slave but here Aidan, the king of all dragons was proudly claiming to be someone else's slave.

Aric had not interacted with others but he wasn't unaware of the things that were going on with others. 

Dragons are extremely territorial and arrogant creatures. They don't come out of their kingdom unless they had to hunt their fated mates whom they like to call their brides.

There was a rumor of the dragon king who had gone missing. Centuries ago Aidan had come out of his kingdom to hunt his fated bride. It was the same time when Emmeline left Aric. They had searched for their soulmates together.

Aidan even found his bride but it seemed like his bride was running away from her own mate.

Aric still remembered that centuries ago Aidan had laid under the night sky along with Aric. He had told Aric about his insecurities. The dragon king for whom women yearn longed for his bride who seemed to be the only woman who doesn't want Aidan and she was the only one Aidan wanted.

Unlike Lycans, Dragons weren't bound to only have sex with their mates. Dragons have extremely high sex drives but they are extremely loyal. Aidan can sleep with any woman he wanted but his heart only wanted the one who didn't want him.

He has been loyal to someone who didn't even care about him~

While Aidan was filled with yearning, sadness and regret seeped within Aric's soul.

Aidan had yearned for his bride's acceptance while Aric had yearned for his mate's forgiveness.

One time after drinking drums of alcohol the only thing that the dragon king had told Aric about his bride was that she was crazy. If Aric quoted Aidan's words then his mate was a batshit crazy diamond.

Aidan even admitted that he was going to tie his batshit crazy diamond to his gold bed and he was going to fuck the idea of running away from him out of her tricky brain.

He had vowed to make his bride scream his name for months while he will fuck the daylight out of her.

Breaking the hug, stepping away from Aidan, Aric forced a sneer in his voice. "What the fuck were you talking about out there?" 

"When did you come back and where's your nephew Darach?" Ignoring Aric's question Aidan asked his own question while looking around the courtroom as if he was searching for someone.

"I don't have any idea about what's going on in my own kingdom. I just came back a few days ago. Tell me what the hell is going on with you and this royal messenger thing? The last time I checked you were searching for your bride." Aric grunted.

"That crazy witch is so good at hiding that even a Majestic Dragon King like me is having a hard time finding her. Plus while my stay at foreign lands I have signed on the job of Queen Amber's messenger. I need connections to find my bride and Queen Amber seemed to be the only person who can help me." Aidan pulled his hair in frustration. The way Aidan was acting clearly indicated that things weren't going according to his plan.

He used to act this way when their search for their soulmates lead them to a dead-end in the past.

A crazy witch~

Aidan's words ringed inside Aric's head but he didn't let the shock display on his face at Aidan's admission.

Another King was taken down by the witches. . .

"Why the hell would you work for a mad Queen who thinks that she has the power to break bonds? I know how witches work, even a crowned witch can't break a mate bond it's just a myth that they have the power." Instead of asking Aidan about his bride Aric changed the topic. Aidan's bride wasn't Aric's business. Plus If a crone had the ability to break mate bonds then Charlie would have broken Aric's mate bond centuries ago.

"It's not a myth. She has the power Aric and now she's going to use those powers. If you don't believe me then ask your niece and nephews. They were thrown out of her territory two days ago. I'm surprised they aren't present here. I mainly came here for Darach." Aidan admitted but he didn't tell Aric about Amber being Darach's mate and his daughter. The King of Beasts will definitely lose his shit if he came to know that he had a witch and lycan hybrid daughter who was mated to his nephew.

Worst case scenario, Aric might attack Aidan.

Aidan can't tell Aric about his daughter, not until he was sure about Amber's parentage himself.

"They haven't returned yet." Aric sighed.

Mathias had told Aric that Darach and Connor went to look for Lucia who went missing while searching for the lost mates of lycans.

Lucia has always been the one to stir trouble while trying to help others but this time the little princess had done something extreme. She didn't even tell her own mate about her plans, the mate who had cried like a pup and begged Aric to find Lucia this morning.

"You have to believe me on this Aric. If your people didn't accept her invitation then she's going to come for every single one of them. She's a crone and crone don't back out from their words. You from all people should know that." Aidan stated.

Aidan was right. Crone did not back out from their words.

Charlie had come back in his life to claim what she had thought was her. . .

She had lost her life but she didn't back out from her claim. . .

If Queen Amber was a Crone then Aric should be more worried about how to defeat her, not about the fact that Amber had the power to break the bonds or not. 

Amber was a threat to lycans, a threat that needed to be eliminated. . .

"Tell me how to stop her. Tell me how to defeat her Aidan. I can't let her break the mate bonds." Aric requested. The proud king was ready to do anything to help his people.

"You can't defeat her Aric. She won't be using any weapon at all because she's a born weapon with a Goddess at her side."

"A Goddess?" Aric inquired.

"I have seen her in the abandoned wood of wastelands, she talks to the Goddess of Nature as if they are old friends." Aidan admitted.

Aric looked at Aidan in shock. Aric was sure that things couldn't get any worse than this. Amber was a crone, it was closely impossible to defeat her and now with a Goddess at her sight, defeating her is out of the equation.

Amber was unbeatable but that didn't mean that she was unbreakable.

"If I can't defeat her then tell me how to break her." Aric asked hopefully.

"You can't break her Aric. If you break her wings she will attract with her claws." Aidan sighed.

"There must be a way to dethrone her." Aric insisted.

"Yes, there's a way!" Aidan said dramatically.

"Skip the riddles and come to the point Aidan." Aric snapped, getting more and more frustrated with each passing second.

He wasn't in the mood to deal with Aidan's dramatic ass.

"The only way to defeat her is if she wants to be defeated." When Aric gave him a warning look Aidan continued. "I have spent a decade in her territory but never in my life, I have met a woman who's comfortable with our type of violence. She's a child but she's more creative than us when it comes to torture or implementing punishments."

"What do you mean?" Confusion laced in Aric's tone.

"I have watched her fight for her throne. When I first entered her territory I was planning to challenge her but there was a demon warrior who challenged her before me. The bastard foolishly thought that he could kill her. He challenged her in front of everyone, sealing his miserable fate. The Cold Queen had pulled out his eyeballs with a hot silver spoon and fed it to the creatures of myth that reside in the wastelands." Aidan said with a distant look on his face as if he was reliving that incident. 

"Those creatures didn't harm her?" Aric asked. He was shocked, even beings like Aidan and Aric fear those creatures. The monsters of the myth that reside within those wastelands can even kill immortals like Aric and Aidan with ease.

Entering the wastelands was a way of committing suicide for immortals.

"They fucking listen to her every command as if those creatures are her slaves." Aric detected a hint of admiration in Aidan's tone.

"Did she fed that demon to those creatures too?" Aric asked, clearly caught up in the tale.

"No, she had hung the demon on an old oak tree by his own intestine and once the demon had healed she pulled his eyeballs from his eye sockets again and again until the proud demon had begged for mercy." Aidan shuddered.

"Did she kill him after that?" Aric inquired. He was impressed by Queen Amber. Aric was well aware of the fact that if you want to survive in the supernatural world you have to be ruthless.

Any sign of weakness can cost you your life~

"That's where the things get interesting because she didn't kill the demon but she had thrown him out of her Queendom as a living example of what she's capable of doing when provoked." This time the admiration shining in Aidan's eyes can't be ignored.

The Dragon King was clearly smitten by this child.

"And I thought we were brutal but this child is more ruthless than any of us and on top of that she's a woman." Aric muttered.

"Hell! I'm a dragon and even I wasn't able to sleep after witnessing that. I never want to hear those screams again. The rotten smell of the demon's eyes when it made contact with the hot spoon still turns my stomach. I wish I could erase it from my memory." Aidan shuddered again.

"I came here to lead the lycans to Amber's Queendom Aric. A person can't enter her Queendom without her permit your Nephews were the only ones who reached there without an invitation. I'm helping the Queen for my own good. I was planning on asking for a favor from Amber by being her Royal Messenger." Aidan admitted.

"And you were planning on throwing my people in front of her just for a favor from her?" Aric spat those words at Aidan. "I thought we were friends." He gave Aidan a look of disappointment.

"She's going to be the Queen of witches Aric. She's the only one who can find my bride. Don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same for Emmeline." Aidan snapped.

He was right. Aric would have done the same if he was in Aidan's place.

"I have given up on finding Emmeline. I have realized that you can't find someone who doesn't want to be found. I hope that my kingdom will lead me to Emmeline or it will lead her back to me. I wasn't around for centuries but that doesn't change the fact that I'm the King of Lycans. And as a king, I can't let my people go through the same pain that I went through. Earlier you told everyone that Queen Amber had invited everyone to her Queendom, I'm accepting her invitation." Aric declared in a strong and determined voice.

"I'll take you to her Queendom Aric but don't say that I didn't warn you before." Aidan mumbled the last part under his breath.

Aric looked at Aidan, he had a troubled look on his face. As if he wanted to ask Aric something but was hesitating.

"Ask away Aidan you know I won't bite you." Aric joked trying to lose the tense atmosphere.

"That night Aric, did Charlie actually died on that night? Is there a chance that Charlie might have survived that night?" There was hesitation on his face. The dragon king was hiding something from Aric. 

Aric's instinct was forcing him to confront Aidan but he ignored it.

Aric's beast can feel it deep in his bones that an inevitable doom was coming his way.

He didn't get this feeling since that cursed night when he lost his mate. . .

"Charlie died on that night Aidan and the barren forest that covers the south side of my castle is a proof of her death. The moment life left Charlie's eyes was the moment life escaped from those woods. Not a single living being resides in those cursed woods."

"But is there might still be a tiny chance of her survival?" Aidan asked again almost hopefully.

"You said earlier that Amber is soon to be the crowned Queen of all witches so there's no chance of Charlie's survival because only after the death of the last crone the witches crown the next Queen. Charlie was their last Queen."

"Then who is she. . ." Aidan whispered to himself but it didn't go unnoticed by Aric.

The King of Dragons was definitely hiding something~