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"I'm asking you to climb on me, Thea."

"Can I?"

I could've sworn that I saw the wolf grinning before he answered me in my head,

"Only you can. I'm your wolf after all, my future crest holder."

An unknown emotion crawled over me as I gingerly placed my hand on his furry shoulder for support before straddling him. He was huge and his size had made it difficult for me to get a good grip on him. I was trying to clutch his back with my thighs but his built was so broad that it left my legs wide open while sitting on top of him.

"Where do you want to go?"

His question surprised me. Not only was he letting me ride on top of him but he was also letting me choose the place. I wasn't used to superiors being this mellow.

"The Barren Lands."

Silence followed my answer.

'Fuck.'

Only after I had said it, did I realize what stupidity I had committed in my sheer excitement.

The Barren Lands was the place where The Great War between the Rogues and The Werewolf King had taken place almost two decades ago. The same place where, without the mass's knowledge, King Erebus' body had gone into a deep sleep.

'Did I upset him?'

"You did not upset me. I'm just going through your memories to find a route without any patrolling guards around you pack's territory."

His voice that echoed in my head didn't hold any scolding tone. He had explained everything very calmly to me, even though he didn't need to.

"Hold tight."

Trying to grip his back somehow, I leaned down towards his shoulders. Before I knew it, he had already started sprinting forward.

The first thing I registered was the speed we were going at. His giant wolf seemed to be soaring through the darkness. My eyesight was better than a normal human but not as good as an adult werewolf's vision due to which I could hardly see our surroundings. Everything around has turned into one big blob for me, Erebus on the other hand seemed like he was seeing exceptionally well despite the pace he was going at.

Subconsciously I let my arms encircle the back of Erebus's black wolf as the chilly wind slapping my cheeks got a bit too much to bear. Erebus didn't seem much fazed by it.

He was giving off a warmth that I had never once experienced. I had witnessed such interactions between mates, one saying the exact thing that the other wanted to hear. Their presence providing silent comfort to the other. It was a beautiful exchange to behold. I would be lying if I said I had never wanted that for myself, I did.

I was a child who had grown up in an environment filled with love and adoration. I was an Alpha's sole heir born after many years of trials. My parents treated me like a blessing, my father especially until the day I turned eighteen without experiencing my first shift. It was probably because he couldn't pass his title on to a child that had failed to turn into a wolf. In my eyes, his worry was justified which is why I could never bring myself to hate him. He had spoiled me to my bones while I was growing up yet I couldn't give him one thing that he required of me. I couldn't inherit his title.

The thought made me tighten my hold around Erebus's fur.

Turning into a loner after growing up as the child who was loved by everyone was hard. My relationship with my parents had deteriorated and I didn't have any friends or relatives to rely on for emotional support. But for the first time in years I had someone to lean on, practically.

I didn't want to let this feeling go.

"A king can never a mate, Thea."

Suddenly I remembered what he had said to me not long ago, making a frown settle on my face.

'Is the price of having a strong wolf is to be mateless my whole life?'

"The path to the throne is indeed a very lonely voyage, Thea."

It was still weird, not being able to think quietly without him hearing my thoughts. Surprisingly, I didn't mind that, In fact, I wanted someone to hear me without having to use eloquent words while trying to express my feelings.

"Didn't you ever feel lonely, My King?"

Just as I finished saying this, an unfamiliar scene flashed before my eyes. A ground filled with countless dead bodies, corpses of wolves lining its boundaries, gray skies hanging above her head and waves of a vast emptiness crashing inside my heart. A stifled gasp escaped my lips as the strange thought left my chest hurting physically.

'What was that?'

"A memory from the last day of the war, just before I lost consciousness in The Barren Lands."

He had answered my thought with a monotonous voice.

'Is that what you felt before your body went into a deep slumber?'

Instead of asking the questions out loud like I had been doing previously, I decided to continue the conversation with him inside my mind. The wind would've made talking to him difficult anyways.

"Yes."

'You heart must've been hurting a lot.'

Slowly I had started stroking the nape of his neck with the pad of my left thumb. My mother did that to me whenever I got hurt as a child.

"It was, but then I was able to close my eyes peacefully after hearing your cries. Your existence took half my pain away."

I couldn't help the way my heart skipped a beat upon hearing his words.

'Did my birth hold that much meaning for someone?'

"It did. I had passed the crest on to an alpha's heir, the only alpha left alive after The Great War. I had left my people in safe hands. Surely I was relieved."

"Oh."

The disappointment that had leaked into my voice was way too obvious.

"We are here."

As his feet came to halt, I cast a quick glance at my surroundings and to my amazement, the view looked eerier than I had imagined. The moon, in its full glory, was casting a pale yellow curtain of moonlight on the few shrubs and multiple rocks scattered on the rough grounds. The texture of the earth, the darkness engulfing us, the lacking greenery, the rocks, it felt as if we were standing on the moon itself. It was haunting yet so bewitching at the same time.

"I can sense your excitement."

I was busy admiring the view when the deep voice echoing inside my mind made me jolt back to reality. Every romance novel that I had read before in my life came rushing back to me all at once when I heard him say the word 'excitement'.

Suddenly my mind became hyperaware of the tingles that I was feeling on my exposed thighs as they rubbed against the fur on his back.

The comfort and warmth that his presence provided me with, his melodious voice, the way he called my name, every action of his was clearly screaming it in my face that he was in fact my mate.

His existence as my mate was like a forbidden fruit and now that I had tasted it, I felt like I couldn't forget about this joy, ever. The thought of having a mate was slowly becoming more desirable than having a wolf.

"It still looks the same, as if it was just yesterday when we were preparing for a war against those Rogues."

His voice held a tinge of sadness making me wonder whether I had done wrong by bringing him there.

"We will be training you here from now on."

My eyebrows furrowed on the sudden change of topic. Carefully, I slipped down his back to walk and stand in front of him.

"Here? Are you sure?"

"Yes. Pay respect to the dead warriors first then I'll share rest of the information with you."

His voice had gotten firm. Since I had started talking to him, this was the first time that I felt like I was talking to a person of higher authority.

"Yes, My King."

Lowering my head slightly, I sent a quick silent prayer for the warriors that had died in this ground.

"My demand may seem unreasonable to you. But please understand that they were my comrades. I remember their faces, their voices, their stories. I'm carrying them with me."

"I respect that, My King."

"Erebus."

"Yes?"

"You can call me Erebus. Being called 'My King' seems odd with a person who shares a soul with me."

"But calling a King by their name is disrespectful."

"Don't Lunas call their Alphas by name despite the rank difference?"

My breath got stuck in my throat as I realized what he had said.

"Are you accepting me as your mate?"

"I am."

The wolf's golden eyes were looking into the distance as he answered me impassively. He seemed like he was in deep thought.

"But didn't you just say that Kings can't have mates?"

My heart had started beating abnormally fast.

"They can't, Thea. We are an exception. We are the result of a failed ritual. Unintentionally we broke the rules of the nature and formed a forbidden connection, but the connection is there now and we can't deny its existence. We are mates, although not for a long time."

His wolf's eyes that had been looking far into the distance slowly turned to stare square into my eyes making my breath hitch. My heart that had been beating furiously inside my chest for the past few second was threatening to jump out of its rib cage by then.

"Can't we-"

I was going to ask him about any chances of us being together after he was done transferring the crest to me but before I could do that, a new voice interrupted our interaction,

"A crest holder's wolf?"