Chapter 72
At the King’s question, the Rostova Elder felt his breath hitching in his throat. The room was suddenly getting hotter and he could feel his knees weakening. This was the worst of subjects for him, but then he also knew that he was an Elder of the royal council, and it was just a matter of time for everything to come to light and he had to face that reality. He was not sure how to interact with the King or queen and expectedly, the Ekler had kept his distance. What his daughter, Polina, had done was a disgrace to the Kingdom, and something that he would always be forced to wear like a badge of shame.
There was no one alive who could take it out for him, or maybe there was, right? Besides, there had never been such a meeting for the people who were executed for treason. There was never a need for follow up and no one was ever going to waste their time trying to figure out the ins and outs of treason. After all, treason was always going to be treason, whether the person who committed it was a regular Lycan, a stranger, or someone in a high position in the Kingdom. Those were the rules and they wouldn’t be bent for anyone, not even for one of the oldest Elders in the royal council
Elder Rostova already knew that.
“She committed the crime. There was proof beyond any doubt, Your Highness, or do you think otherwise?” Elder Rostova said, his voice so respectful you would think he even had enough time to mourn his daughter.
Children were special to their parents and no matter how devilish they were or turned out to be, parents always hoped to see their children again. And yet Elder Rostova never got to say goodbye to his dear daughter. He didn’t even know what had happened to her until the rumors spread. There was a lot that had happened at that time, and even to this day, he hadn’t yet internalized that his dear Polina was never coming back.
King Miroslav looked at the Elder standing before him. The man looked tired and worn out. He looked like he had been through a hundred hells and was expecting more. He seemed so tired of life and everything that came with it. He had tried his best to show up to the council but it was more than obvious that being here with the King and the queen was taking a toll on Elder Rostova. He was a lonely man, one whose light had dimmed and it wasn’t hard to tell why, especially now that his daughter was no longer alive to be with him.
The Lycan King knew that the Elder had been hard on his daughter for years and years. He had enacted her to be the bidet | warrior, to be the one that the King trusted. And Polina gave her all to earn the title of the King’s best friend. Of course, that wasn’t a responsibility, but it had come a little too naturally to Polina, seeing as she had spent years training to serve her King at her best. Everyone in the Kingdom already knew that Ekler Rostova was easily the strictest father in the Kingdom.
Of course, others wanted to assume that he was long in preparation for his daughter to be the Lycan Queen someday, but then if that had been so, the King wouldn’t have waited so many years to find a mate. Hell, he never even went looking for mate. The universe had dragged him to where Ralph was. Polina surely had to have already known that, which was why the King wanted to know more about the space. All the investigation he had done into finding out whether the Elder had sent his daughter to fall in love with the King yielded different answers.
“You are her father, perhaps you can give us more information the King said, his voice soft as he looked at the man who had lost his only child. This was an unimaginable thing but then King Miroslav knew he had to rule with his head and not with his heart. Decisions had to be made, and soon.
In his investigation, the answers that King Miroslav had gotten weren’t incriminating. He had been taught by his parents to know the importance of all the pieces on his chessboard. And he knew that the Rostova family was important to the throne. They wouldn’t have done anything to compromise that, especially given that Elder Rostova was a man who believed in loyalty and servitude to the crown. Theirs was the kind of loyalty that they took pride in and perhaps that was why the Elder looked like he had even though all the available hells and had long given up.
“Your majesty, I fear I have nothing to say in that regard. I can only hope that you do not bear anger for the house Rostova. I sincerely apologize for what my daughter did, and will spend the remainder of my long life paying the price for her wrong upbringing.” Elder Rostova said and the Lycan King felt a pinch in his heart. This wasn’t what he had expected. The Elder was always loud, always sure of what he said, and yet today, he was reduced to the father of a traitor.
Everything he had worked so damn hard for had faded in the distance, with the memory of his daughter, a child he had loved too much. King Miroslav had never felt hurt like he was in that moment, especially when the Elder bowed at ninety degrees to him. It was like the man had given up and that was expected. But still, it broke the Lycan King’s heart.
Chapter 72
The Lycan queen, Ralphine who was watching, could feel her heart clench for the Elder. She could tell how genuine the man was and even his apology. He looked so defeated and broken, and Ralph couldn’t help but think back to what Polina had done to her. On all accounts, Polina leading her with Drescher, her very abuser that he had been saved from, was the worst of things that could have happened to Ralphine, really. It was a dangerous game and yet Polina had played it nonetheless.
There had to have been something that motivated the girl to go against everything her family stood for, to risk the chaos. that existed at the moment, Polina had ruined everything and the Kingdom had hated her for that. They had known her and still never stood beside her, or even hoped that there was a wrong conviction then again, what kind of wrong conviction could there be, when the King and his queen were the perfect witnesses of the mess that had resulted from all of that?
“Alright, please take your seat. We shall move to the next subject Drescher Volkov,” King Miroslav said and Elder Rostova just nodded. He couldn’t do shit, but even he could tell that something had changed with the King, King Miroslav Ibrahimovich wasn’t the kind to ask questions whose answers he didn’t already have. If he had questioned the Elder about his daughter then the King had to have found something else. And from the way the King kept sighing slowly, Ralph assumed that too.
She wanted to ask what it was that he had found out. She wanted to ask the King if she could be of any help to him, if she would be useful to him, but she couldn’t. The King had made his decision and they all had to respect it. And so, for the rest of the day, they talked about Drescher and the sins Drescher had on the committee. They didn’t leave out anything, and somehow decided on what the punishment would be for Drescher. It wasn’t surprising though that death was the ultimate punishment. What surprised everyone was that the King didn’t even bother to set a date for the execution. That right there was scary as fuck.
“Are you okay… Today must have been the toughest day for you, askim,” King Miroslav asked once everyone had been dismissed and it was just the two of them in the throne room. The guards were outside the throne room, giving them their privacy, but was there any use for that when they were both too tired to even think straight right now?
It was a relay. You did great, my love. It was impressive seeing you be in charge. That was so sexy of you,” Queen Ralphine said to her husband who was deep in thought. She had noticed that from the moment they started discussing Drescher earlier. There were so many things that had to be worked out but then Ralph was just glad that justice would finally be served. It wasn’t going to be easy, but they would eventually have to work it out.
“What did you think about Polina’s father?” the King asked as he looked into the eyes of his queen. He was indulging her in the conversations of power, because she was finally one of them. This particular one wasn’t the easiest, but then it wasn’t like they had much of a choice. At the end of the day, it was one that impacted one of the people in the Kingdom; one that was too great a number for King Miroslav when it came to his people and whether convicted or not, he would always get to the bottom of everything.
“He was a father who had lost his child. He still is grieving, or rather he hasn’t started to grieve yet. He keeps drowning himself in work in the hope that that part of his reality will go away. Today, it seemed like the first time he thought of his daughter and the sins she had committed. He was still in disbelief, but he didn’t want to question the authority of the King and Queen, so he didn’t say anything. He is still hurting and is in denial that his daughter, the same girl from a prestigious family would be that disrespectful to the crown,” Ralphine said earnestly as she held her Erasthai’s eyes.
“You seem to think the same too, Ibrahim, and I can’t name you for that. She was your best friend,” Ralph added and the King just sighed. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place this time. He had to make the toughest of decisions and they all involved his erasthai who had been in pain because of those who were brought forward. The Polina one had to be the hardest on him, and Ralph was already aware of that. The only question being whether she would use that against him or she would try and be compassionate.
“It was too easy,” King Miroslav admitted as he stared into the distance.
“What?” Ralph asked, not sure what he was talking about. The day had been long and tiring really.
“The way she led Drescher to you. It was too easy. Polina was known for her strategies. She never did things without thinking. There was a reason she was the best warrior. Everything to her was about war, even her love life. She never wanted mate in the first place, because she believed that she could probably lose her life in war and would leave her mate out there in pain,” the King said with a sad laugh. Life was seriously making a joke out of the people in his life and it was succeeding with every
breath that the King took. It was like he was haunted by a lot, and that there were things he couldn’t go back in
time to.
Chapter 72
“That doesn’t sound like her, She looked clingy and-” Ralph began before her voice faderl
“Exactly. You know we Lycans never die, but in the event that we do or are killed, our mates get to feel the brunt of it all. A. 1ycan who lost their mate is the equivalent of a warrior who has nothing to lose anymore. A warrior who goes to war with a heart of stone, one that won’t even have to reconsider their morals. Such a warrior in war is the most dangerous. That is why when a Lycan dies, their mate is killed on the same day, in less than an hour after the death. Because otherwise there would be massacres and storm rages,” the King explained.
Ralphine was a keen listener and she had long understood that from the books of the old times. However, hearing it from the King made her understand that the books weren’t just talking about fiction, but it was all true. That in itself made her wonder what the first Lycan to lose their mate had done for such a rule to be set in stone. Of course, in her culture, when wolves died, their mates would live for a few more years before passing away because of depression or heartbreak, but they never went berserk. This was all so interesting.
“Polina hated affection, Ralph. She never believed in love and the allure of it all. She hated the vulnerability that came with mate bonds. She even used magic to block her mate bond, so she wouldn’t ever have to find a mate. And that was a permanent decision. Hei, Viktor, and I tried to talk her out of it, but she had made up her mind. Hell, we even took her to that temple ourselves. Which is why it’s still hard to believe that she did all that just because she was in love with me. My best friend despised love,” King Miroslav explained and Ralph felt her heart break for a moment there.
Had she really been wrong with the first Lycan life that she took?
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