"Did you hear about Eternal Dawn's Beta finding his lost son?" "Apparently his youngest child had been stolen and sold when he was only three years old!" "I also heard he was a zeta." "A zeta?!!" "Wasn't he an omega?" "How outrageous!" "That poor child." "That's awful."

The buzz about Syri being the lost child of Tora and Iliya spread like wildfire through the palace, and by the time everyone was seated for dinner, Tora and Iliya were being congratulated left and right and receiving comments on how they were blessed to have a son who was so beautiful and well-mannered.

Syri felt many an eye turn to him when he and Jae entered the dining hall. This was a dinner to bid a very fond farewell to Eternal Dawn, who would be the first of the visiting packs to leave Crimson Night and return to their land, but Insea and Aki had made arrangements to remain in Crimson Night for a few more weeks to spend time with Syri before rejoining Tora in Eternal Dawn.

Syri was sat with his family as an official member of Eternal Dawn's order, and Jae sat in the middle of Crimson Night's table with Yejin on his right and Kace on his left. Each table had a spread of turkey and chicken for the main dishes, rice and water spinach for the sides, and cake and pistachio pastries for dessert. Everyone was having a grand time; the spirits were high, and the mood was light. However, Syri could not shake the feeling that someone was watching him, and, unlike the dinner where he saw Aki for the first time, this felt dangerous and dark.

Looking around the room, Syri saw several attendees from various packs observing him while talking to their friends and family, but Syri knew they did not mean harm; they were just curious about him. Syri was unused to people knowing his identity as a zeta, but he was also unused to belonging to a family who had the power to protect him from experiencing the backlash of those rumors. After scanning nearly the entire room, Syri came to Black Moon's table and ran his gaze over the pack's order to make eye contact with Black Moon's crown prince, Seth.

Syri grew cold when he found himself staring into Seth's blood-orange eyes. Realizing the zeta had discovered him, Seth gave Syri a dark smile before fliting his gaze to the glass of wine in his hand and taking a sip of the red substance. The way Seth was staring at Syri made him feel very uncomfortable, almost like Seth was a predator and Syri was his prey. Aki, who was sitting to Syri's right, felt his brother grow uneasy, so he turned his gaze in the direction Syri was staring. Aki's jaw clenched when he saw Black Moon's prince lustfully looking at his brother.

Rising from his seat, Aki made his way around the dining hall through the chaos of the workers constantly bringing out trays of food and drinks and attendees milling about and conversing with each other. The hall was so busy that Aki walking up to Seth and pulling him out of the hall remained fairly unnoticed except for Syri and Insea who had watched Aki from the moment he left his seat.

"What do you think you're doing?" Aki asked Seth when the two came to face each other in the corridor outside the dining hall.

Seth let out a scoff at the beta's words. "I don't follow."

"Don't give me your shit, Seth," Aki returned. "Why were you staring at my brother?"

Seth pursed his lips before responding, "Is it illegal to look at someone?"

Ignoring Seth's step-around answer, Aki got straight to the point. "You know Syri is spoken for, so you'd better stop before you regret it."

"Is that a threat, beta?" Seth stepped closer to Aki and slid his hands into his pant pockets. The alpha squared his shoulders to try to make the one-inch (2.5cm) height difference between them feel larger.

Aki was not impressed by Seth's attempted intimidation method and merely replied, "It's me telling you to leave my brother alone. You have no business making him feel even the slightest bit uncomfortable in any way."

"I don't like the way you're talking to me, beta." Seth lowered his voice and crossed his arms while Aki remained still and bored holes into the prince unphased.

Seth and Sina were the two wolves of the upcoming orders of the five packs that the rest of the younger generation stayed away from. And Aki was reminded why the males of the new orders made it a point to keep Seth away from any female or lower-ranking wolf. Now, he would have to protect his brother from the predator of the new order.

"You don't get to dictate how I speak to you, Seth. I belong to Eternal Dawn, not Black Moon, and neither does Syri, and he never will. So end your disgusting advances and stay in your lane." With that, Aki turned and left Seth standing in the corridor with a clenched jaw and injured ego. The alpha snarled under his breath as he watched Aki re-enter the dining hall, and a deep hatred for the beta was kindled within Black Moon's crown prince.

"Is everything alright?" Insea asked her eldest son as Aki returned to the table.

Aki nodded his head in response before explaining in a low voice, "Seth was making Syri uncomfortable, so I had a few words with him."

"Good, thank you." Insea nodded her head in approval of her son and patted Aki's back affectionately.

Insea smiled softly as she watched her two sons eat together for the first time in fifteen years. She regretted that she could not protect Syri's identity as a zeta as her son's rank had been made known when he was born. This was the reason he was kidnapped, so Insea desperately wished she could deny the fact that Syri was a zeta, but the world already knew that her zeta son who had been missing had returned. She was glad to have him back, but she knew Syri would have to marry into a strong family who could protect him from the world that only wished to use zetas for power and strength.

Now that it was known Syri was the missing zeta son of Eternal Dawn's Beta order, Insea knew the suitors would come pouring in. Zetas may be shunned in the lower class, but in royalty, they are highly vied for. Wolves of all ranks and genders would want Syri as their mate, and as long as he remained single, Syri would have to deal with wolves constantly hounding him to be their mate.

Insea wished her son would not have to endure such things and that he could remain unmated if that was what he wanted, but she was well aware that Syri loved Crimson Night's young Alpha. And she was happy that Syri had found someone who could care for him and protect him from the cruel world.

A warm hand on Syri's back startled the zeta, but he quickly relaxed when he turned to see Jae standing behind him. The true blood had seen the situation with Seth and had come to make sure Syri was alright.

"Are you okay?" Jae asked softly.

Syri smiled up at Jae affectionately and nodded his head. "Mm," he sounded in response. "I'm okay."

Jae released a small breath of relief and bent down to kiss Syri on the forehead before regrettably returning to his spot at Crimson Night's table. Once Jae left Syri's side, the zeta felt that cold gaze return. Syri held his breath as he turned to see Seth staring at him with a dark expression.

He did not like seeing Jae kiss Syri. Syri took a deep breath before confidently staring Seth down and not batting an eye. He was now a son of Eternal Dawn and love of Crimson Night's Alpha, and he decided he would not let a creep like Seth ruin his night of happiness at being with his family again.

But...no matter how much Syri did not let Seth's uncomfortable gaze affect him, he could not shake the feeling that Seth was capable of more than just staring at him the entire night.