Nicholas left. The house became too quiet. Arella kept sitting on the sofa like a statue till the cook came and broke her peace.
In her mind, Nicholas's words roamed.
"Surrender to your Beast. Give it a reason to wake up."
Arella pondered over the words. When she was young, the Beast took over and willingly sacrificed itself for the sake of its soul companion. And now, even after spending so many days and nights with Adrian and the Ice Dragon, her Beast still hasn't woken up.
Other than Adrian, what else could be enticing enough to wake her Beast up? Arella thought and thought only to find a dead end every time.
Days passed like this, without any news from Adrian or any visit from Nicholas. She could only talk to Andrew to find peace of mind and Adrian's situation. A week was about to end. According to Nicholas, the mission should be over.
She waited for Adrian's arrival with bated breath. But neither his news nor he himself came. Arella had a bad premonition creeping up her spine. She called Andrew's number, but nobody picked up.
Arella was on the verge of breaking apart. Something was pulling her insides. She felt like going mad. She wanted to run wild and break things. A mad rush filled her to the brim. But she kept trying Andrew's number relentlessly, till it was finally picked up.
"Andrew? Where is Adrian?" Arella hoarsely questioned.
"Arella, we have lost contact with Adrian." A female voice answered instead. It was Princess Anna.
"Come to the office." Princess Anna spoke after a slight pause and cut the call.
An unhealthy pallor appeared on Arella's face. Her core hadn't stopped vibrating since the morning. She knew that something was wrong! She, without any delay, went to the office.
Inside the office, Prince, Princess Anna, and Andrew stood with solemn faces. The Prince looked at Arella with disapproval but did not voice out anything. Princess Anna brought her in and filled her up with the current situation.
"We have lost contact with Adrian. Even Nicholas couldn't be contacted." Princess gave Arella a glass of water as she spoke.
"We think that Adrian was caught." Arella sipped water, trying to appear calm but her trembling hands gave her away.
"Caught?" Arella repeated mechanically, trying to digest its meaning.
"We…are planning to send a backup." Princess dodged her eyes and uttered another sentence.
"Do you want to come?"
"Take me with you."
Two distinct voices were heard at the same time. One belonged to the Princess, another to Arella. Both had the same thought. Princess nodded and went ahead to make the necessary preparations.
Andrew looked at Arella with a silent gaze.
"You don't even know where he went and you want to go?" The Prince, who was silently observing everything questioned sharply.
Arella didn't respond but stared at the Prince with a determined expression. The potent gaze made him uncomfortable. But a mocking sentence came out of his mouth.
"A C-ranked bird and a D ranked mate with just one A ranked tamer. I thought Adrian was smart. I never knew that his emergency rescue team was made up so whimsically!" The Prince spat and left without looking back.
Only Andrew and Arella were left in the office once he left.
"Emergency rescue team?" Arella turned toward Andrew who had a frown etched on his face.
"Sir…was asked to make a backup team, just in case something happened. It had you, me, and Princess." Andrew spoke in a heavy tone.
"Come, everything is ready." Princess Anna opened the door and informed them.
Andrew walked ahead with Arella following mechanically behind. Once they were seated inside the airship, the ship flew at lightning speed.
"How much do you know about the mission?" Princess turned toward Arella and asked seriously.
"Nothing," Arella responded truthfully.
Princess took a deep breath after listening to her.
"We are going to Planet X. It's a planet that was abandoned by us because it only has a forest cover and nothing valuable." Princess imparted the basic information.
"This time, we were informed that our enemies had a base there. We thought they had gone extinct, but they were breeding in shadows, thriving on this planet instead." Princess Anna sighed once again.
"This time, the mission was to invade their planet and gather inside information. With Nicholas and Adrian, it shouldn't have been dangerous. But a few days ago, we stopped receiving any signals or intel from both of them. We think that they might have been caught." Princess Anna articulated without sugarcoating the bitter truth.
"Now that you are with us, you must not lose your composure. We can't take large forces with us, because we are still in the dark about their actual strength. We don't know what they do and how much have they evolved over the ages. We must always be on our guard." Princess Anna briefed Arella to the best of her knowledge.
"Madam…" As soon as Andrew opened his mouth, Princess gave him a death glare.
"Anna, she should know. She should be mentally prepared for what's coming." Andrew spoke solemnly. Arella had never seen Andrew so serious before.
"Madam, every soldier has the right to choose his emergency rescue team before going on any mission. He could choose anyone, even Prince and Princess. But Sir, he named us." Andrew didn't know how to put his conjecture across.
Being a seasoned veteran, Princess and he himself knew what it meant to have such a team.
"Maybe he wanted to see us before…" Andrew stopped speaking.
Arella nodded, showing that she understood. She knew what Andrew wanted to convey. Adrian himself was very strong. If he needed rescue, then that meant that he was in a dangerous situation and only wanted to see his loved ones before taking his final breath.
But Arella didn't believe it. She knew Adrian. The palpitations she had been feeling since the morning had told her. He was alive. She firmly believed it. He was only in a tricky situation, but he was fine.
Andrew was wrong. Maybe, he had gone berserk and wanted his mate? Or maybe everything was okay and Adrian just wanted to call them over. Or maybe something else? There were so many possibilities, so why consider the worst one?
Arella refused to believe Andrew's words. Moreover, Nicholas was there too. He was from the Star Alliance, he must have a way out. Arella didn't want to entertain any other possibilities at all. She wanted to divert her attention.
"Who's the enemy?" She asked quietly.
"It's a carnivorous clan which was hunted and kicked out long ago." Princess Anna whispered.
"The Hyenas," Andrew spoke with a murderous look flashing through his eyes.