I am lying on my side of the bed, covered in sheets, waiting for Aiden to arrive. I was tired by the time I arrived at the cottage. This time, many more Weres guard the cottage. It is evident that Aiden is very serious about security.

I hear the sounds of footsteps. Waves of power cradle me, like I am gently floating in an ocean. The door creaks open, accompanied by Aiden's scent. I close my eyes, not wanting him to know that I am awake.

I hear him move around the room but keep my eyes shut. Soon, I hear the sound of a door opening and closing. I tense up in response.

Is he going to leave the room?

But then I let out a breath in relief as I heard the sounds of water. He is in the bathroom. I try to relax and hear the door open and close, followed by the feeling of the bed on his side dipping.

I hear rustling of sheets. He must be setting his covers. I try to maintain a regular rhythm of my breaths to make sure that I don't give away the fact that I am awake.

The bed dips again and the room goes silent. All the sounds that I hear are our breaths. His breathing is staggered, meaning he is not asleep yet. I then felt him move and sense a touch near my cheeks.

Tiny sparks erupt over my cheek as he takes a strand of my hair and tucks it behind my ear. My beast is overjoyed at the contact and I would be lying if I said I was not pleased. However, I am overtaken by emotions at his gesture.

His gesture implies that he is not rejecting me but is angry with me for my lack of acceptance of him. Soon, his hand moves away from me. I stay like that for a while, taking in his scent.

Sleep overtakes me and I fall into a deep slumber.

....................................................

By the time I wake up, Aiden is gone. A note is placed on my bedside stating that we leave at Nine a.m. I check the time on my phone to see that it is already eight. Jumping up, I hurry through my morning rituals and pack up my bags. The rest of the time at the cottage is a blurry of suitcases and cars while we travel to the airport.

Aiden sits beside me but he is calm as he gazes out the window. I open my mouth, thinking of talking to him but then close it, confused about what to say.

What can I say to him? I am sorry I am not accepting you as my mate but you should not be upset with me.

Even in my head, it sounds so bad. As if I am not holding him to the same standards as myself. Letting out an internal sigh, I turn towards the window and watch nature pass by. However, I feel him peeking at me now and then, when he thinks I am not noticing.

......................................................

The rest of the onboarding process is uneventful and soon we are seated in his private jet. This time, there is no disguise for boarding a commercial airline. The bright side is that I have a window seat. The downside is that Aiden is still not talking to me.

Henry, Bill, and other Weres occupy seats behind us. The hostess has just served us drinks and I am served my favourite drink, no doubt, courtesy of Aiden.

I glance at Aiden to see him staring at me but as soon as he sees me looking at him, he stiffens and hastily turns forward.

I put my drink aside and looked at him openly. I see him peeking from the corner of his eyes and then acting as if he has not just looked at me. Internally, my beast chuckles at his gestures. She finds him cute.

I am amused too, but if we call him cute, I am sure we will be glared at and I can almost imagine him saying, I am the Alpha King. Nobody has ever called me cute and neither will you.

I need to have a discussion with him regarding my research. I had emailed one of my acquaintances, who was a software engineer.

She had replied that she could develop the software but she needed some time. At least two weeks. We did not have that long to solve the mystery.

"Aiden." I call out to him tentatively.

His head whips towards me at lightning speed, and his eyes are bright and full of expectations. "Yes."

"I wanted to talk to you about my research."

His face drops at my words and is a block of stone again. I flinch at seeing his change of expression. He must have been thinking that I wanted to talk about us. He takes a deep breath and then says, "Yes, Aurelia."

His tone is cold and cuts through the silence on the plane. I gulp and turn a little more towards him.

"You know, yesterday the vampire was talking about having genome scientists on their side. Combine with that the fact that they are after my research and the strange words spoken at your castle's dungeon. Maybe decoding those words can help us."

Aiden scratches his chin in a thinking gesture but then nods. "You are right. What were those words told by him again?"

"A drop of lupus, a drop of mare, a drop of fate. one more step, one more drop—that is, vos and collate. Within them lies your indagation and so does ours. for the salus and damnatio go hand in hand." I repeat those words.

Aiden listens to them with full focus. "Hmm. From his words, I could say he had proficiency in languages. He had used the word ensnare while talking. It's not a word used in day-to-day life. and the words lupus, mare, fate, and indagation. I think they mean something else."

"Yes, well, Lupus means weres in Latin. A drop of lupus. What does that mean? He could have directly said werewolf. But he used lupus. May be the words fate and mare too relate to supernatural creatures. I need pen and paper and a laptop to search for alternate meanings of the words."

Aiden's eyes widen at my words, and he barks out, "A notepad, a pen, and a laptop with Wi-Fi connected. Get me those things fast."

I see an air hostess scrambling and rushing. Soon, she carries a tray with a notepad, a pen, and another Were, who assists her in carrying a laptop. The laptop is open in his hands.

Both of them lean towards us and Aiden reaches for the laptop first and hands it over to me before taking the notepad and the pen from the tray. He waves them off with a gesture of his hand and they retreat.

I open the browser on the laptop and type those words. I get results. The Google search results show the different meanings of those words in English.

Fate may refer to fae. Fae is derived from the Latin word fatum, which might mean fae. I find similar meanings for mare. Mare refers to the Mer people. And indagation means investigation.

Those are the results displayed on the screen. Aiden leans towards me, the notepad open in his lap while he taps the pen against it. He is looking at the screen in focus and looking back at his notepad.

"Indagation can be construed as research. Vos means you in old English. Now drop. What can a drop mean?" He is now looking at me for my input.

"I don't know." I say, my shoulders dropping in disappointment.

Then suddenly, the night at the palace flashes before my eyes. The vials of blood dropped throughout the corridor. I jump as a switch in my brain turns on and I look at him in excitement.

"Wait, they left vials of blood on the hallway floor in the palace."

Aiden's eyes widen at my words. "Maybe a drop means blood. And if indagation means research, they need your blood as the last piece of the puzzle. That is why the vampire that was captured yesterday carried empty syringes. He wanted your blood."

"Of course, the day Adrian was attacked that morning, I had just completed processing the DNA and only comparison was left. That is when the lab tech, Harry, arrived, and I had to stop it. That means they have spies at the lab too. And all that I have left to do is compare the results." I say, understanding dawning upon me.

"Hmm. Well, until now, I was just the majority shareholder in Ilios. Even though I had the power of attorney, it was a public enterprise. Maybe I need to change it to a private enterprise and take control." He murmurs to himself.

"Henry!" He shouts.

Henry rushes forward and angles his neck in submission. Aiden jerks his hand and he stands straight.

"Schedule a board meeting with all Ilios shareholders and board of directors right now. Online. I want to buy out the company. All remaining shares. Including the ones of Dr. Cyrus. Complete control. Make sure all this is over by the time we arrive. After we land, we are directly going to Ilios Labs. Give all the employees an extended leave.

I want the lab to be empty until we arrive.Schedule personal interrogations by our finest Kappas tomorrow. I want to know the spies. Make sure to bring the prisoners to the dungeons and start interrogating them too. I want their brains cracked open. Whatever they know, I want to know."

Henry nods at him and then rushes. Several gammas, including Bill, stand up, and the plane bustles with activity. There's another laptop being set up with a camera and headphones, notepads, and files being printed from a printer I did not notice.

All the while, Aiden has his jaws clenched and teeth grinding. Well, the perks of being a royal are that these menial tasks are carried out by others. Soon he raises up and walks towards the other laptop, puts on the headphones and starts discussions.

Well, it looks like I am going to have no work till we reach the lab.

Word Count: 1720