[KAWAI]

'I'm a dead woman if I don't tell him. And I'll still end up dead if I tell him,' a woman in a maidservant apron said as she lingered in the forbidden hallways of the Lycan palace of the Kawai kingdom.

She was painfully aware that it was a crime to be lingering, but the news she had would make the master have her head if she so much as breathed the wrong word. She was sure today would be her end, but what else could she do?

What she had to say was more important than the fate of the Lycans in the kingdom.

'What if I run away?... Then again, he will suspect me and hunt me till the end of the world. What do I do, dammit,' she said as she tugged at her hair roots, probably risking them falling on the ground.

She would definitely go bald if she kept at it for long, then again, what difference would it make if she was bald and dead? She wouldn't even realize it anyway, right; oh, but she was tense.

'Maybe I should wait for the bells to ring, right?' she asked herself right as she heard the sound of heavy footsteps coming in her direction, snapping her out of her trance. She was risking a lot by being here, but then she didn't have much of an option.

'Fuck,' she grumbled as she looked for a hiding place in the hallways. There was none, but a desperate woman with everything to lose tonight, she just had to try her luck. Maybe she would be able to control her heartbeats to stop them from knowing she was here, right?

And with that, she rushed to hide behind one of the huge flower pots in the hallway. The damn hallway itself was wide enough for at least twenty full-grown Lycan warriors to walk through, if they were in a straight line.

It was too huge like a wide path, though right now, as she hid and prayed to the goddess to save her from whatever was coming her way, she was counting on the possibility that the flower pot would be her refuge.

"You have five seconds to get out of there before I blast you with the damn pot," an awfully familiar voice said. It was the voice that everyone in Kawai would rather choke on spikes than hear mentioning their existence.

It was the voice of the cruelest man to ever reign the realm as they knew it, the one man who was feared by anyone and everyone. His very existence was a threat to the living.

He was the Lycan King of Kawai.

King Zaffuto, a man whose face no one knew save for his warriors, but only because he went to war with them.

But even they had been warned against mentioning what the king looked like to anyone, because if that happened, the warriors would be dead before they finished talking about him. They all believed he was cursed, but was he?

'He can't be talking about me, right?' the woman asked herself as she curled up to the wall even more, hoping to the goddess that she hadn't fallen into King Zaffuto's radar.

"Arabella... Should I come to get you or will you do it yourself? Your heartbeats are betraying you and you smell like a birthing hall. So what would it be?" the king's enforcer, Sadako said, his tone so stiff.

It was almost like he was trying to tell maidservant Arabella, that the longer they made the King wait, the worse her punishment would be, especially given what the day was today. It was supposed to be a good day and for the life of everyone, they hoped that it ended well.

Sadako was the face that everyone knew instead of their king, because he always represented the man. But right now, hearing Sadako's stiff and stern voice here and now, was like a stab in the heart for Arabella.

"I… I didn't see anything, I swear. I didn't hear anything or see anything... Oh gosh, I'm rambling again. I'm sorry, please forgive me. I won't ever come to these hallways, if I survive this. Forgive me, your highness, and My lord.

"I should have just waited… Why am I still talking?" Arabella rambled on as she got out from behind the flower pot, her eyes closed and her hands clutching her apron so tight that if she wasn't careful, she would rip the cloth into shreds. But that too, didn't matter right now.

"Show your face, woman," King Zaffuto said and Arabella pushed herself against the wall, before carefully lifting her head, even though her eyes were still closed tightly.

If she was going to die today, she would pray to get to the moon with the goddess, but only if her soul wasn't punished for interrupting the great king's walk.

"I'm sorry… I swear on my life, I didn't mean to. I'm so sorry. I won't do this again, please spare my life," Arabella cried out softly, her voice trembling, knowing the circumstances that were waiting for her.

Everyone knew that crossing the dark King meant that life was no longer going to be livable. It would be hell, because no one had ever crossed the king's path and lived to see the next day.

The man was dangerous in every possible way and his Lycans knew that, to the point that they acted like they didn't have a King. That way, they would avoid being put in a position where their lives were ruined. He was the one Lycan that scared the hell out of everyone.

Maybe him minding his business all the time and leading the Lycans well, was his redeemable feature, but was that enough to paint him as a saint, when he murdered the traitors in broad daylight, in front of everyone including the kids?

"I will stay in the sun for a month if I have to, please spare my li—"

"Are you a parrot by any chance? Why the fuck are you talking a lot? Bring her to the spare chambers this instant. This is why I hate pesky little Lycans. They ruin my mood every day," King Zaffuto said, and Arabella felt her heart sink in her mouth.

The spare chamber was the chamber where people went, never to be seen again, or so the rumors in the Kawai kingdom said. That chamber was one of the many reasons people stayed away from the palace, but Arabella just had to find herself at the palace and now, she would be headed to the spare chamber.

'Just my luck, hmm? What if I never see my mother again? What if everything goes awry? Oh goddess, I shouldn't have agreed to the shift change dammit. I had a fucking free day and decided to be charitable and now my life is on the line?

'Shit,' Arabella thought angrily to herself as she shivered like a soaked cat.

She was scared and had every right to be. However, scared as she was, what she did next was probably the craziest thing she had ever done in her whole life. Then again, desperate times sure did call for desperate measures, right?

"Your Highness, I came from the queen's birthing hall, I was sent to bring you the news about…" Arabella choked as she swallowed thickly, scared that her next words would get her into the chamber that people never came from alive.