The Alpha's Blind Fate
Chapter 165: At The Wake Of His Absence

Chapter 165: At The Wake Of His Absence

ZINA

Yesterday night, I couldn’t get to say it to you, but the stars must have been jealous of you because you stole their radiance. Diamonds have never looked as good as it did you. And I don’t have a favourite colour, but I think it’s now red.

Mate.

Days rolled by, and all Zina had to hold onto of Daemon was the crumpled letter that was delivered to her the night of the banquet.

The next morning, she had woken up only to be informed that Daemon had travelled to the mountains to... meditate.

That had been it. No cold goodbyes, just a lingering silence in the wake of his disappearance.

Zina had struggled to rein in the feeling of disappointment and that pressing feeling to feel like a disposable thing altogether. But the trauma of her abandonment issues had proven to be far stronger as she crawled back to her shell, forgetting about the promises shared and the vows made.

Thankfully, Daemon had taken Yaren with him but Marcus had been left behind to look over things together with her. And by things, it meant that she and the equally infuriating man had to prepare for Daemon’s coronation and the tournament which Zina still had no details of.

While Yaren was infuriating in a cold way, Marcus seemed to derive genuine joy in seeing Zina flustered. The man was a horrible goader, great emphasis on the horrible.

So adding to the list of things she was angry at Daemon for minus the fact that he had up and left with any proper notice was the fact that he had thrusted Marcus DireWolf on her without any warning.

So three weeks later and only four days left until Daemon’s coronation, there she was arguing with Marcus on who should make it to the upper echelon guest list while Daemon was still nowhere to be found.

"I still stand by my decision that the BloodMoon’s including the other four high ranked packs should be included as Upper Echelon Guests." Zina gritted, repeating the words for the third time that day.

They were sitting on the round table that was supposed to be a meeting table for the Alpha King and his five direct subordinates. They had chosen the meeting room for its architecture that drowned their voices no matter how much they snarled and yelled at each other.

Marcus sat with his legs crossed on the table like a lazy thing even though Zina knew the man was far from being one. Asides from her and Marcus’ banter, the rest of the world had been surprisingly silent which had given Zina ample time to discover just the kind of man the DireWolf Beta was.

The man could pass off as a NorthSteed for there was hardly any difference in the way he and Daemon think except for the fact that he was far more shrewd in a twisted way.

Or maybe her opinion formed from the fact that she hardly knew anything of the man that so happened to be her mate.

Zina shook her head internally, pushing away the bitter thought while Marcus stared at her with eyes filled with amusement, his fingers tapping against the marble table.

"Believe me, the last thing we want is for those Five to think they’re anything that important." Marcus repeated the same lame excuse he had always given.

Zina didn’t know when it happened, but she snapped as she slapped her hand hard against the marble table, slowly rising to her heights as she glared at the man.

Her palm hurt something terrible, but she ignored the pain whilst she glowered at the other man.

In the three weeks of Daemon’s absence, her life felt like it had gone on a stand still as work and more work took over her mind until she feared she would go crazy.

After consulting with Sybril with her life problems including her vow of chastity and how to get over it, she had returned to her room at the Temple that night, eager to break the news to Daemon....

....the news that her vow could be broken even if it meant so much pain on her side. The next morning, she had quickly returned back to the Castle only for Daemon’s letter and his absence to greet her.

Yesterday night, I couldn’t get to say it to you, but the stars must have been jealous of you because you stole their radiance. Diamonds have never looked as good as it did you. And I don’t have a favourite colour, but I think it’s now red.

Despite her anger, she had been unable to throw the letter away. Not when its crumpled state spoke of his hesitation to send the letter in the first place.

So she slept to the letter and woke to it. Every word of it was ingrained in her brain, and she had the elegant strokes of his writing memorised. The letter had become even more crumpled just as her frustration grew even more.

Her revenge against Igar had been temporarily put on hold as she found she could not make a proper move when Daemon had disappeared so abruptly while making strong back up plans in his absence. His abrupt journey didn’t seem so abrupt anymore as the guards guarding Fionna would not even let Zina see the woman.

No, his journey seemed to have been well calculated for a long time. That, or maybe Daemon was just extremely good at planning for abrupt contingencies.

Zina wasn’t convinced at the latter and that only made her unrest deeper and her hesitance to get rid of her vow to grow more.

"And yet you’re already ridding yourself of the vow. I would say you’re far too eager to get rid of it so stop pretending like you’re not!"

Zina rolled her eyes as her wolf sassed back at her. Marcus raised an eyebrow, probably thinking the gesture was directed at him.

"Oh, I am so scared." He said sarcastically, taking great joy at Zina’s discomfort. The man was a masochist for pain and self glorification, she was beginning to realise.

Zina breathed deeply, praying for strength above. She attempted to try reasoning with the man as she spoke in a more amenable voice. "Dae... I mean his majesty has already offended the four houses as it is. No, he is still offending them, don’t you think it is bad to offend the Five High Ranked Packs as well at this critical time?"

Marcus appeared to be genuinely thinking over his words as his eyebrows pulled together in thought. Almost immediately, a grin broke off his lips as he shook his head. "No, I don’t think so."

Zina wished more than anything that she could conjure a stone and haul it at Marcus. But she knew that even if she could, she could not afford to.

Not when Marcus seemed to be the only one holding together the sanity in the Arctic North. News of the tournament had spread so far and wide that hundreds of people were making their way to Bolem, the capital city. Pack defectors, rogues, miscreants, and every calibre of persons one could think of was part of the fray and only Marcus was preventing chaos from breaking out in the city.

It was that reasoning that Zina used to convince herself not to strangle the man just yet.

She stormed away from the room as she had always—childishly—done doing their meetings when his next words stopped her in her tracks.

"It’s been three weeks and you still haven’t asked me of his whereabouts."

Zina turned to the man who was still drumming his fingers against the table nonchalantly. "Inquiring about the whereabouts of his majesty is beyond the scope of my duties as Theta, Beta DireWolf." She said with all the authority she could muster, causing Marcus to chuckle.

Of course she was curious to know where Daemon went to and why he had not informed her of anything about his sojourn. But between her wounded pride and her curiosity, the former won over.

"I must admit, hearing you sound so unaffected makes me think you’re fit to be the perfect Luna Queen."

The seductive words stilled her, causing her heart to beat wildly in her chest. But she refused to allow Marcus get under her skin for she was sure that was what he was attempting to do.

Before she could respond with something scathing, one of his men bursted into the room, holding a scroll in his hand. He held it out for Marcus who stood from where he’d been lounging lazily, unfolding the parchment.

Zina rushed to his side as she watched his expression darken over the words on the parchment. She read them too and the pit of her stomach dropped while her entire body shook from profound anger.

"Yuri NorthSteed has been sold to the Red Sisters. I told you, Daemon, did I not? That I shall rain hell on you if you take another instead of me? Goodluck proving to the people how good an uncle you’re!"