CHAPTER 77: MATE !
Dominic’s POV
Freshly showered and properly fed, I entered my private quarters to find my mates tangled with each other and completely lost in the deep, french kiss that they were sharing since God knows how long.
They looked like cute little pups in their slippery soft, silken pyjamas and I chuckled when their hands kept slipping out of their grip from each other’s bodies.All rights © NôvelDrama.Org.
Kai snuggled in Bella’s neck before he fell asleep in her arms, all cuddled up in a small ball in her lap while Bella rested her head on top of his and drifted off to Sleepy Land too.
I shook my head fondly at that adorable sight and covered them both with a blanket lightly.
They were still pups in adult bodies.
However, the university scandal was still bugging me and I did not want them to tear apart from each other because of it again.
I kissed the top of their heads before whispering, “I love you !” to the both of them when to my surprise the two of them groggily replied together, “Love you too” and went back to sleeping soundly, making me chuckle thinking if it was an automatic response or if they were really awake for that second.
Sigh !
They deserved to be happy, especially after what my devil of a father did to their pack and lives.
But Bella was right.
I had to calm the fuck down my antsy mind and focus on something resourceful instead.
And from resourceful, I remembered that I had to gauge the situation in the dungeons below and look at the POW (prisoners of war) conditions.
Immediate executions had been ordered for all the vicious ones but the soldiers who had been unwillingly dragged in the war or treated as slaves inhumanly were kept in the cells to judge their actions.
“Dylan !”, I mindlinked my gamma.
“Dominic !!”, he replied back pat. Always on alert and ready for anything. That was my good man and warrior !!
“I am going to the dungeons below. I need you to come with me. Ryan is with his mate in the pack hospital”, I ordered.
“Oh yes, I heard about the pregnancy !”, he chirped. “It will be good to see a cute, little ray of sunshine around in this huge palace”, he said but the silent sigh in the last part of the sentence did not go unnoticed, even if we were conversing through the mindlink.
Soon enough, our vampiric pace had taken us both towards the mouth of the hallway leading to the dungeons below, reaching the place together.
“What is wrong, Dylan ?”, I asked my gamma in a demanding voice.
“Nothing”, the old bastard lied.
I narrowed my eyes at him while flashing my red, vampiric eyes at him and without even uttering a word, forced him to spit out his woes.
“I am twenty fucking five years old, Domz ! Everyone is getting a mate or mates, and getting pregnant too, and here I am- not even anywhere near the first step !! I seek companionship too. I have been fulfilling my duties as your gamma since childhood and helped build this pack by your side. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed a lot and have felt satisfied with my work for the coven, all my life. However, I want to taste a piece of freedom too and that too with someone whom I can love and who loves me back unconditionally. A loyal supporter, faithful companion and my own personal cheerleader is what I want”, he sighed. And he needed to get laid like he needed to breathe. It was killing him but he kept that info to himself.
Who knew the Mother Goddess would grant his wish for a loyal mate just outside the prison cells !!
And here, there were coven members who cried their prayers and wishes out loud to the moon with numerous offerings, on the contrary, only to keep waiting for their wishes to turn true all their life.
The ironies of life.
Pfft !
Dylan looked up at the expression of my face worriedly but it had already softened when I heard him out.
“I am sorry”, I softly said. “I never noticed that you felt like that. I guess I was too caught with my own problems, coven work and mates that I did not realize you wanted some time for yourself and search for your mate !”, I apologized sincerely. “But don’t worry. Now that the war is over, all kinds of danger circumvented and every teenage warrior here rejoining the uni after this weekend, you can take a break off from here and travel until you find your mate”, I relieved him off his duties for a while and gave him the permission to go “mate searching”.
“But then there will be no one in your and Ryan’s absence to administer from here and look into the coven’s issues !!”, Dylan worriedly pointed out.
“Don’t worry about that !”, I chuckled. “You know we have a complete line up of higher ups for this job and if you are really worried, I can ask the tribal king to camp here with his members for some time. He will be glad to do so. The last time I heard, the old man was complaining about me forgetting him after meeting my mates”, I smiled while shaking my head on remembering about my foster father. “He can manage the fort here till the time you are gone and even if you find your mate earlier than expected then take a month’s time off and come back fresh and excited after making sure that your mate is comfortable with everything, ok ?”, I dealt with him.
“More thank ok !”, Dylan smiled happily, the glow on his vampiric, pale face radiating suddenly. “Thank you, Domz ! It means a lot”, he gratefully said but I thumped hard on his back making him stumble and choke on his own spit.
“Asshole ! Buddies don’t thank each other and you are one shitty friend. You should have told me about this sooner”, I rolled my eyes.
“I swear if we were not near the prisoners, I would have punched you back in the gut, king or not, right now”, he grumbled, making me chuckle in a good humored laugh before letting me take the lead on the narrow staircase, leading us to the dreaded dungeons of the Vampire King.
It was said that the place was hell itself for those charged guilty for their crimes, especially traitors.
It was not a miracle that the closely knitted secret of our coven location stayed unrevealed to the outside world for so long. We were quick to act and thwart any such attempts in time with warriors like Ryan and Dylan working round the clock along with me.
“Ok, I am sensing something strange here”, Dylan suddenly stopped mid step on the staircase while sniffing the air around him.
“Strange ? What kind of strange ?”, I asked with a raised eyebrow. Why couldn’t I, the Vampire King sense anything but my gamma could ?
“Did you order some fruity air fresheners and spray all of them all over this place ?”, the weirdo asked.
Has he fucking lost his mind ?
Why would I do that ?
“Ofcourse not”, I scoffed. “You must be overwhelmed by my new shower gel”, I teased him and a flippin middle finger was flashed by my gamma to his royal leader.
Ughh.
They had zero respect for the crown.
But then we were brothers in spirit if not by blood. Haha.
“Eww dude. What the fuck is wrong with you ? And since when did you start using fruity and feminine ones ?”, he teased me back, but I could tell that his primal instincts were starting to control his rational mind just like when I had found my-
“MATE !”, a female voice rang out from one of the cells and Dylan’s face lost all colour when he realized what was happening.
“Oh shit !”, he cursed when we looked at each other shocked, his face paling to an ash white colour at the same time. Gawwddd, why here ? I internally groaned.
“Is it what I think it is ?”, he mindlinked me, obviously stunned and partly aghast at the new discovery. “Is this some kind of a dirty joke or trick ?”, he trembled.
“The Moon Goddess is never wrong”, I reminded him through the mindlink.
“You want me to go for it ?”, he asked me wide eyed.
“Yes but not before testing her loyalty for the coven, its King and finally you- her mate”, I grinned. “You know what you have to do, buddy and don’t forget that she is a prisoner of war and a threat to the coven first, and then your mate”, I reminded him nonetheless.
“Yay ! Lucky me”, he sarcastically said before walking towards the source of his fate with more authority.
However, words failed him the moment he looked at the occupant of the cell in question while my blood boiled on looking at my personal “enemy”.
I snorted at the moony eyed look that Dylan gave his mate while I left no opportunity to glare at the incarcerated female wolf aka the former gamma of the Dark Overlord.
That infuriating woman was a close second to my father in the ‘People I Hate The Most’ list but right now, she was topping all charts when she smirked at me and exclaimed.
“Well hello there, Your Highness !”
Amanda’s POV
I contemplated on my failure of a life that I had lived so far in the last 22 years and felt utterly miserable for what I had done to my sweet, little brother in the last moments of the war.
I had taken care of him since he was a baby, especially when our cruel father had murdered our mom and in a way, sold my baby brother as a s*x slave to the heinous crime committer, the Dark Overlord.
I had saved the young Beta from the evil r*pist on multiple occasions by sacrificing myself instead, but the evil doer had still tarnished my pure brother.
I was a helpless, young wolf too afterall, limited by powers and support- actually no support.
Not a single day went by when I didn’t miss my mother, curse my murderous father and wish death for the evil war lord.
However, my sly father had known the importance of my femininity, strengths and powers, even if I was born a gamma and tricked me into taking the “Loyalty Oath for the Crown” with mine and my brother’s life as sacrifice to non compliance.
There were two regrets that I had in life- kissing my cousin brother, eww (but did not regret pursuing and loving him though. It helped me think of someone whom I thought as a lover and look forward to living for the next day, instead of just killing myself) and forcing myself to act according to the Loyalty Oath’s rules during the last moments of the Dark Overlord by threatening my innocent, pregnant brother’s life.
In my defence, I had to do something to save us both and he was the only poor thing near me at that moment.
What I did next was something that I was not proud of but I was glad to see Dominic’s sword stain with the villainous creature’s blood rightfully.
Atleast I saved my baby brother and his child, and went through the whole ordeal of the clandestine “Loyalty Oath” which even my brother was unaware of, all by myself successfully till the Dark Overlord’s last breath, even if it meant that my life was going to get cut short and I was never going to get an opportunity to love or be loved for even once in my life.
I guess this lifetime of mine on this beautiful planet, was only to see hardships and serve the demonic souls to pay off some kind of debt of previous lifetimes.
While I wallowed in my own sorrows in the corner of my cell and prayed for a better life in the next lifetime, during my last moments here, my otherwise silent wolf suddenly stirred out of her dormancy and got excited in my head.
“What is it, Lana ?”, I asked my wolf as she pranced around in joy in my head like a pup set free in a park.
“It’s Him !!”, she rejoiced while not making sense.
“The Vampire King ? Our prosecutors ? The torture guards ?”, I asked.
“No ! It is- …. ”
“MATE !”