Ayra's gaze hardened once more as she saw Alana. It was surprising to Mordeu that her gaze had the ability to harden more than it had already. Once more, she scared him.
"Like I said, it is not an obligation nor an enforcement. I ask those who are willing to do this to please come forward and put down your names. If you don't want to protect him, then you shouldn't concern yourself with the issues plaguing our family," Alvitir said in a strict tone, his gaze laid on Alana.
She subtly squirmed.
"What's your deal with the Alvitirs?" Mordeu whispered to Alana.
The question caught her by surprise; her eyes went round; she looked away from him before answering, "Nothing."
Mordeu scanned her appearance; from what had just happened, it seemed that Ayra had recognized her, and from her refusal to say anything about the subject and her desire to dig dirt about the Alvitirs, it was palpable that they had history. Alvitir had openly scolded her; it couldn't be that they were just old friends.
Alvitir ended his speech, and a white sheet of paper was nailed to a wall; those people who desired to volunteer were expected to write their names down on that paper.
The crowd had dispersed, and the trio headed to where the paper was nailed.
As they arrived there, Fjall took the brush that was kept in a small containment beside the wall, and he scripted his name on the paper. Mordeu followed.
"For someone who seemed to be very against this hoax, you are in the first group of people to put down their names."
The trio turned around; their eyes went round as they saw who was talking to them.
"Your Highness," Fjall blurted out.
The princess chuckled, "Alvitir made sure to inform me that in these walls, I'm not royal, so please, call me Freya."
"Freya," Fjall blushed. Having to be able to call a princess by her given name was not something he would've anticipated in his life. But as Alvitir had said, in the walls of this camp, they were all equal.
"I see you're interested in putting down your names; why?" Freya asked, her tone was commanding, but her voice was welcoming, and her gaze held a kindness. However, their reasons whatever it may be was none of her business whether or not she was welcoming or nice. Mordeu did not feel obligated to share.
Fjall looked ahead to the path that Ayra takes to her chambers. "I have found my mate, and volunteering as a guard would bring me closer to her."
Mordeu almost face-palmed himself at the naivety of his brother.
Freya smiled at him and his obvious gullible trait; she turned to Mordeu, guessing he was the same. "And you, have you also found a mate?"
Mordeu chuckled, "No." He was direct.
"Then why are you volunteering?" She prodded, probably intentionally dismissing his tone.
"It's because I want to." He said in a tone that gave way to no more questions.
Freya rolled her eyes and turned to Alana; she must've finally caught on to what Mordeu wanted to relay to her. On seeing Alana, her gaze hardened. "Alana."
"Freya," Alana said with the same contempt that Freya had called her name with.
"Protecting Cillian is something I expected from any other person but you. Do you know no shame?" Freya asked derogatorily.
Alana rolled her eyes and scoffed, "I don't see how any of it is a business of yours."
"Ahh," Freya said like she had just had an epiphany. "Maybe your heart still longs for him?" She asked mockingly. "He openly rejected you, take a hint, sister. You shouldn't embarrass the coven with your lewdness, especially in a different Kingdom."
A hand went across her face. Freya's entourage gasped and moved to attack Alana, who was prepared, waiting for them to pounce on her. Surprisingly, Freya stopped them from attacking by lifting a hand.
She chuckled at Alana, "You must really enjoy hitting me, Alana, does it excite you?" Her smirk was seductive.
"Only a shameless, ugly-looking ogre would ever get excited by you, oh wait, one already has." Alana mocked.
It was Freya's turn to hit her, and so she did.
"Don't you dare bring him up." She seethed.
"Oh, you can bring up Cillian, but I can't bring up your stinky ogre?" Alana asked rhetorically. "How rich, very elven-like."
Freya humphed as she flipped her hair and walked away from them.
"So his name is Cillian?" Mordeu said, "and he rejected you?"
Hearing this piece of information from Freya piqued his interest. For Cillian to have rejected Alana meant that they must've had something or some arrangement of sorts, or probably Alana simply confessed her feelings to him.
It was quite risky; wolves were mostly mated with other wolves and were hardly mated to a witch or an elf, in fact, it had never been heard of.
Did Alana not know of this?
Or, maybe she did, maybe she knew Cillian was not mated or there was a huge possibility that he would not be mated with anyone else.
"Is that why you're so against them?" Fjall asked, disrupting Mordeu's trail of thoughts.
Alana ignored them and took the brush from Mordeu; regardless of what had just happened, she still scripted her name on the paper.
"I don't wanna talk about it." She said as she angrily dropped the brush in the containment where Fjall had picked it from.
The brothers looked at her without saying anything to convince her that she could open up to them. They only managed a simple "okay," and Fjall so graciously added a shrug.
And they made their way towards their room, perfectly ignoring Alana's existence and seemingly not to care if she followed them or not.
"Okay, fine." Alana called out dejectedly.
The brothers stopped in their tracks and turned to her, smug and victorious smiles on their faces. Alana rolled her eyes at them.
Their plan to act apathetic towards the issue had worked. They knew Alana wouldn't pass off an opportunity to talk shit about the Alvitirs, and the situation gave her all opportunities and rights to talk shit about them.
"My mother is a member of the Coven; to further the peace between our people, she proposed a marriage between Cillian and me." She started off to the brothers' surprise.
Mordeu found his attention torn between the first and last part of what Alana had said. First, he had guessed that she was a highborn, but it had never crossed his mind about how high her status laid.
Secondly, marriage!
She had been engaged to Cillian!?