Noah followed Blake out of the house and stood silently watching Lucas's back at him.
Lucas turned to him "You know that I hate you don't you?"
Noah nodded his head "I know, you hated me for all these years even without giving me a chance to explain myself"
He looked at Lucas with sad eyes and continued "Was our friendship so brittle in nature for you to believe someone else's words other than your best friend's"
Lucas frowned "What do you mean? Are you asking me to forgive you knowing what you did to my brother?"
Noah shook his head "As much as you like him because he is your brother, I looked up to him as a comrade, we fought the enemies together, shared our troubles, trained together. He was the only one who saved me from my brothers when they were bullying me. Do you know how much I regretted leaving him that night? I prayed for the moon goddess to turn back the time every day, It pained me to lose my only best friend. That is why I allow you to vent your anger on me without any complaints, to reduce my guilt"
Lucas clenched his teeth "If he was so important to you, then why did you abandon him to fight alone?"
"Speak! I'm giving you a chance to explain yourself, tell me what happened that night" Lucas shouted
Noah closed his eyes "That night..."
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TEN YEARS AGO
A bonfire was going on celebrating the end of the cold season in the city of beasts, many beastmen were happily decorating the plaza for the kings. Females from different tribes gathered near the bonfire with their mates.
The kings made their way to the plaza and observed everyone before the wolf king spoke "Mighty beastmen, we are gathered here to celebrate the end of harsh winter. It is a great opportunity for single beastmen to show their capabilities in front of their fancied females" He paused and said in a loud voice "Let the duel begin"
Beast men howled in a booming voice and entered the battle arena. While the fight proceeded, Lucas's brother Daniel nudged at Noah and said "Go and give a try, you are also a bachelor"
Noah rolled his eyes "You are older than me, you should give it a try instead"
Daniel chuckled "I'm fine being single, My priority is to protect the city of beasts"
Noah shook his head "Same for me" he paused and looked around "By the way, where is Lucas? I have not seen him anywhere near the bonfire"
"He is carrying some of my father's order out of the city of beasts, he may not return till tomorrow" he answered
Before Noah could reply an injured beastman staggered towards them "Young masters! we are under invasion, the stary beasts have taken custody of our frontier"
Daniel widened his eyes "What do you mean by that!? what were the guards doing?"
"We are outnumbered young master, enemies are entering the city" the guard answered
Daniel and Noah glanced at each other and howled loudly to stop the banquet. The kings on the plaza heard the warning and ran towards them. The fox king anxiously questioned "What is happening? what was the warning about?"
Noah answered "We have been attacked by the stray beasts"
The lion king looked at his son "That bastards! How did they even know about today's banquet? Many of our men have gone to exchange salt"
The wolf King patted his friend's shoulders "We should worry about the present, protecting females is our main goal" he turned to his son Daniel "We will gather the females to protect them, You and Noah bring some men to defend our city walls"
Daniel and Noah turned into their beast forms and sprinted towards the city walls. The fox king observed everything and opened his mouth "Isn't it better to protect their tribe's females themselves? We are short of men and can't risk our kind's life right?"
The leopard king growled at him "What do you mean by that? we all are living in the same place, and you want to divide us in the name of the tribes?"
The fox king narrowed his eyes "I didn't mean it like that! Why does the leopard king always oppose me?"
The leopard king snickered "Because your ideas are as selfish as you!" he then turned to his tribe's beastmen "We don't need anyone else's help, My men are brave enough to protect our females" he said and strolled away.
Jacob smirked inwardly 'What a stupid fellow? One provocation is all that took me to isolate him' he turned to his men and left to his castle.
The wolf king and Lion King sighed, then ordered females from both tribes to gather in the wolf king's castle.
Meanwhile, in the city gates, Noah and Daniel were fighting a brutal battle with the stray beasts. The stray beasts fought without any restraints like crazy beastmen they were, their only goal was to snatch the females to torture them. They were never this brave to attack the city of beasts which had four kings.
Noah turned to Daniel after slitting a stray beast "Why are they so recklessly attacking us? They can't even touch the females with the beast kings guarding them"
Daniel kicked an enemy and replied "That is what I can't understand, they are just killing our men without trying to enter the city"
He continued "But we are at a disadvantage because of our small number, If only Lucas and others were here, we could have easily defeated them"
Noah clenched his fists "It feels like we are falling into someone's trap, this is too many things at a time to be a mere coincidence. The bonfire, our men going to exchange salt, targeting our defense where it is weaker. Am I just being paranoid?"
Daniel shook his head "I also feel that something is wrong, they know our line of defense very well, Send someone to alert the kings"
Noah nodded his head, but before he could do something, a beastman ran towards him "Young master, the stray beasts have cornered the leopard king. Many sneaked into the city and snatched the females"
Daniel and Noah froze in their steps, Daniel stammered "Ho-how? weren't all the kings together?"
The beastman shook his head "The leopard king arrogantly declared that he didn't need anyone's help"
Noah frowned "Then he deserves this! Let him suffer"
Daniel turned at Noah "We can't do that Noah, the leopard tribe females have done nothing wrong, we should help them"
"But we can't leave the city gates," Noah said worriedly
"I'm not leaving but you are, I can manage here on my own, You should go and help them" Daniel replied
Noah shook his head "I'm not leaving you here alone, don't think about risking your life"
Daniel sighed "I'm not, many of the stray beasts here have been killed. Hurry and go, it will be bad if the one inside attacks the other tribes"
Noah furrowed his brows "I don't feel comfortable leaving you behind"
Daniel patted his shoulders "Being the princes of our tribes, we should put others before us. Go now, hurry and return"
Noah still hesitated but soon followed the beastman and entered the city, after reaching inside Noah's father still in his beast form questioned him "Why are you inside son? Weren't you supposed to guard the walls?"
Noah replied confusedly "What do you mean by that father? I heard that the leopard tribe was attacked and females were being kidnapped"
The lion king frowned "It was indeed true that the leopard tribe was attacked but we reached in time and solved it. No females or cubs were hurt, Who said this false news to you?"
Noah realized something and staggered in his steps "No! Daniel, it can't be" he said and sprinted towards the entrance.
The lion king turned to the wolf king and informed "Something is wrong, We must go to the entrance"
The wolf king didn't understand but still followed the lion king. What they saw when they reached the entrance made their body go numb. There were no stary beasts around the vicinity but bodies of their own laid cold and dead. The entire place was covered with crimson blood.
Amidst the corpses, the lion king saw his son holding a body with a blank look on his face, he heart ached to see him like that. The wolf king widened his eyes and ran towards them "Daniel!"
He took his son on his lap and shook his cold body "Son? wh-what are you doing lying like this? Get up!"
Lion king patted his friend's shoulders "Control yourself Helio, your son is a brave beastman who sacrificed himself for our city's safety. You should be proud of him"
The wolf king closed his eyes "How can I stay calm Leo? I have lost my eldest son, what will I answer to my mate?"
Lion king sighed and turned towards his son "It is not your fault Noah, don't blame yourself for this. You didn't answer me back there, tell me, who was the one who gave you false information?"
Noah shook his head and got up "It doesn't matter anymore, it was ultimately my mistake" he said and ran away.
The next morning Lucas returned and barged inside Noah's room in his castle and punched him "You dare hide from me!?"
Noah took the hit without retaliating. Lucas screamed and punched him again "You abandoned my brother in danger!? How dare you, bastard! I will kill you!"
Other guards in the castle heard the commotion and rushed inside and held Lucas "Calm down young master!"
"Let me go! I will kill that betrayer" Lucas bellowed as he was dragged out of the room.
Noah slumped on the ground after Lucas left and tears made their way to his face.
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Noah still cried remembering the past "I made sure that he was safe before leaving him behind, there were only a few stray beasts alive when I entered the city. To this day, I'm not able to find the fox beastman who delivered false news to us"
Lucas sighed "I think it was the same fox beastman who informed me about you abandoning my brother in a critical state"
Noah looked at him in confusion, Lucas sensed his gaze and explained "A fox beastman informed me about your betrayal when I returned to the city. Now that I hear your words, there was no other beastmen present when my brother died, but I foolishly believed someone else's words instead of talking to you"
Noah smiled faintly "Thank you for listening to me, I only had you and Daniel as my friends but one night made me lose both of you"
Lucas chuckled and shook his head "Isn't it funny that we got played by the fox king?"
Noah nodded his head "You realized? I also had my doubts about him, but after hearing that a fox beastman misguided us, I am positive that it is fox king's scheme"
Lucas smirked eerily "That piece of shit, I wish I could strangle him right now"
Noah glanced at him "We can't do that before finding his underlings, remember, he is after baby dove"
Lucas nodded and got up but turned around "Just because I forgave you for the past doesn't mean that I will allow you to become Ly's mate, Both are separate matters and you are still my love rival"
Noah chuckled and faced him "I liked baby dove the first time I met her and I was not planning to give up her even if our misunderstanding was not cleared"
Lucas smiled "Oh! is it? but I'm her mate and she loves me, and what if I request her to never accept you?"
Noah grinned "I'm confident in making her love me"
Lucas's smile dropped, he said raising an eyebrow "Let's see"
"Yeah, keep watching" Noah replied