[GIDEON]
"Are you always this nervous? For someone who wanted to murder the lycan king, you look different," the warrior said and Gideon just laughed sadly, again. It was almost like this was his fate, but the sooner he got this done, the sooner they could go home.
He didn't want Criselda to keep waiting for him, especially since he had been gone for too long already.
"Matters of the heart, young wolf. Matters of the heart scare me a lot," Gideon admitted finally.
"Okay then, let's do this, yeah," the werewolf warrior said.
Breathing in a deep sigh, Gideon took a few steps from his mate, because he couldn't do this while looking at him or even holding him. If he did it, then he was the one who wouldn't have been able to let go.
And that would be a shit storm into the weird.
"Okay. I, Alanor Gideon Wynter, lycan of Udrad, and the house Wynter, reject you, Grant Hindley, wolf of Acrod as my fated mate. May the bonds we shared not hamper you from meeting your true mate—"
It wasn't easy hiding who he was, or using his middle name to survive in the midlands, but Alanor had perfected it over time.
He had practiced and endured more than he needed to. He never knew that there would come a day when he would be wishing he didn't get too used to being called Gideon.
The shock on his mate's face was clear as day and the betrayal evident.
There were so many things that Alanor couldn't let himself witness, so he bowed his head. The man who had men and women bow for him, was bowing for his mate.
And somehow he was certain this would be the first and the last time he ever did something like this.
"Ala— the rogue lycan...the beast...you—"
Grant looked at Alanor, unsure of what he wanted to say or express. He had been mated to a monster, a beast that everyone was scared of. He was fated to be beside the man who killed without mercy.
This man right here was the reason the whole convention had happened and yet he had managed to ensure no one had found out his secret?
Now Grant finally understood all his anger.
He understood where Alanor was coming from and frankly he couldn't blame him.
The midlands knew what had happened to the house Wynter. there were rumors about the unjust deaths and the king being a pimp in all of it. There were rumors about the Wynters having opposed the cruel ways of the lycan king.
Everyone knew about it, but no one had the balls to step up and question Eddison, because they all knew he wasn't the kind of king who would take any opposition lightly. There were rumors that the lycan kid had been eaten by the hounds.
Now that Grant thought about the interactions between Ulrike and Gideon, he realized they were just banters between a friend and a friend, brothers who had been there for each other. Hell, whatever this was, it had to be crazy or a fantasy.
But then the murder of the Wynters, wasn't a fantasy.
it was something that had happened and the whole of the midlands hadn't done anything to help the young kid. They had instead left him to his fate.
"Wh— Alanor Wynter?" Grant asked again, his voice full of pain, not from the rejection, but from the fact that the man in front of him had gone through hell and back alone. Grant wanted to hug him, but he had already been rejected, so it just didn't make any sense.
He wanted to connect with Alanor and apologize on behalf of everyone, but that wouldn't be of any help to Alanor. Ae had already been broken by the same people who were supposed to protect him. He had seen hell and they all had watched.
"You're intelligent, Grant, otherwise the king of wolves wouldn't trust you with his life. You can find out whatever you want to know about me, but for now, I have to take my leave. And I'm sorry, for everything," Alanor said as he walked away from his mate.
Each step he took away from the man he had rejected, hurt more than he had prepared himself for. For a kid who had been in pain all his life, and for a man who had planned revenge since that day in the southern forest, Alanor wanted to cry today.
He wanted to shout at the Goddess and curse her for giving him a mate that understood him and yet he had to reject him. Alanor had seen the way Grant had looked at him. Sure, he had felt betrayed, but the eyes told a different story.
Even though Alanor had rejected him, Grant still had love in his eyes for the son of Wynter. He still wanted to be there for him, and Alanor was not ready for that. His whole life, Ulrike, Zelina, and the witches of Greroth were the only people who had shown up for him.
They had loved the broken boy and didn't even try to change him, no. They had worked together to make life better for the young Wynter and they had loved him like he was their younger brother. It was crazy how much had changed.
When Alanor and Criselda had walked into the conference room for the Acrod meeting, Zelina knew it was a bad idea and Ulrike had seconded her too.
Alanor and Eddison in the same room was not a good idea, and yet they had to pretend they didn't know that Alanor had perfected his weaponry skills only because he wanted to be ready for when he had to walk back into Udrad and punish everyone who had watched him suffer.
"I'm so sorry, love," Alanor heard just as he was about to take the final exit out of the Acrod castles. It was a voice he knew all too well, and one he had just heard barely minutes ago. He wanted to stop and look back, but he couldn't.
If he did look back, it would break him more than he was already broken.
Alanor had found love and lost it, all in one day, all thanks to the lycan King, and once again, he had more reasons to make Eddison pay.
He should have had to choose between his mate and his life, but Eddison had chosen for him. Eddison had made Alanor swear against having a mate.
Alanor didn't care whether his mate was a man or a woman.
All he cared about was his vengeance against Udrad, and there was just no way he would succeed in that if he had a soft spot. And right now, he had one that looked so perfect that he wanted to rush to him and take back his words.
He wanted to go to Grant and tell him that he was bluffing, he wanted to fix everything, but he couldn't and they both knew it.
Alanor wasn't allowed to have a soft spot. He wasn't allowed to be fragile, because if Eddison knew the beast of the midlands had a weakspot, then he would attack without mercy.
"Goodbye, Grant."