The Werewolf King's Bride

(From Demetrius's Perspective)

The day after my birthday, Mother's funeral was held. Although the body was not found, according to all the evidence, she was dead.

Mother's sudden suicide affected my reputation, mainly my wife's reputation. There was a rumor that she told me to send Mother to a distant island and since I was madly in love with her, I listened to her.

What bullshit!

Rather than making me the bad person, they were making my wife look bad, who was the kindest person I met. More importantly, none of us had any hand in it. Blue could not eat properly or sleep at night. She was restless.

My mother's death affected her more than it affected me. To be frank, it did not affect me at all. I did not care. It was more like- I could not care. There was no reason for me to bother about something like that.

I thought it would affect me a bit, but it did not. It surprised me as well.

I questioned the maids and the mage last night. It was a bit noisy and took a long time. All of them led to the same answer. Find exclusive stories on empire

When I had returned to the bedroom, I found Blue pacing back and forth in the room. She kept asking me various things the whole night and tried to make a lot of theories as to what might have happened and what might have led Mother to take such a decision.

During breakfast, she did not talk much. We usually did not have breakfast together since we got up at different times. But today, we had breakfast together. She was just answering if I asked something and talked very less more than that.

At the funeral, she was even more gloomy. My extended family members came too. Some of them were the ones I met very less, one or two times. Evelyn and Merrick came quickly from Mazazine hiring a mage. Ava returned from the academy and Luc's family, now Blue's adoptive parents, joined too as they were basically my in-laws.

"She looks so young and innocent…"

"Don't you know the innocent-looking ones are the real snakes?"

"That's true. The rumors don't seem to be false at all. I have never seen His Majesty act that way. Did you see the way he wiped the sweat off her face with his own hand? He is kept around her finger for sure."

"Yeah, some kind of random bitch… Ugh!"

'So noisy… Should I just kill them right here?'

"Dem, stop it…," Blue said urgently. "It's you, isn't it? What are you doing? They seem to be in pain… Moreover, they are your family."

"Fuck him!"

I stopped controlling his blood after my wife pleaded too much. The three people who trash-talked my wife suffered only a bit considering what they did. I wanted to kill them. Who cared about some random people from my extended family?

Everyone seemed to know immediately why I did that. Reading their minds, I found out that these three trashes talked shit about my wife before too, just not in front of me. Others knew that I heard them and thus, they got the results. To warn others, I imprisoned them immediately. They were taken away by the knights.

"What did they do?" Blue whispered to me.

"Just said nonsense," I shrugged. "Don't worry about it."

"Were they talking about me?"

"You don't have to care about that, honey."

"… There are rumors flying around. It's just normal. I am fine."

"I can't let someone go who trash talks my beloved right in front of me, can I? What kind of husband am I then? I am not the silent type, you know that, right?"

"I see… Thanks then."

We were the first ones to place flowers on the empty coffin. Then, others followed. No one came from the mother's side. I had never met the people who raised her.

"How are you, brother?" Evelyn asked, coming up to us.

"I am okay," I said. "… What about you?"

"You asked me how I am?" she mumbled, surprised. "I… I am fine."

"That's good then."

"What about you, Blue? You don't look okay," she muttered.

"It's… shocking," Blue said slowly. "I did not expect it at all…"

"Yeah, it is indeed shocking," Evelyn nodded and hugged her.

I did not understand why my wife was more affected than any of us when she was the one who knew Mother the least. Evelyn was not affected much too. Was it because Blue was too gentle and kind?

"I have something to say, Blue. I know you are not okay right now, but Merrick and I will go to Mazazine again today. So, will you listen to me?"

"Right now? O-Okay," Blue gave a nod. "Shall we move somewhere else?"

"Yes," Evelyn said. "Do you want to come with us, Demetrius?"

"Alright."

We moved far from the crowd. Because of the ring I was wearing, no one would hear anything we were discussing even if they were near.

"You see, I mainly went to Mazazine in search of Mother's so-called family," Evelyn said. "It was her uncle as I heard. Merrick and I searched a lot of places based on the things Mother told her previous maids. I collected information from them. I found Mother's aunt. She is very sick and in her death bed.

Her uncle had been dead for at least twenty years now. I don't know how he died. No one knows because they suddenly found his dead body in the forest. There was no hint of poison or anything. You get what I mean? He was murdered by someone."

"Did her aunt say anything else?"

"I asked her if she knew where Mother was. She knows that Mother got married to the previous king of Querencia, but that's all. Mother did not contact her again," she said. "Rather than that, there is another interesting part. That woman said Mother had been dating another man. Even just a few days ago, before she got married, she was seen hanging out with another man."

"I don't expect anything good, you know," I said. "But why are you going that far?"

"I… I wanted to see everything from Mother's perspective. I wanted to know why, why she acted like that all our lives. We all have different reasons for what we do. I wanted to know hers. The best way to know about her is to know about her life more. That's why I wanted to do it since I have enough time in hand to do that."

"… What about that man, Evelyn?" Blue asked.

"He… He has blackish hair. She never could see his face," Evelyn replied. "Mother's aunt never asked her about that man. She said they were not close enough to talk about things like that. That's all I know for now. It might seem like a normal thing, but… When we were roaming around the same place where Mother's uncle's body was found, we were attacked by a beast… I have seen something like that.

It was a very different type of monster than I ever encountered. It could change its shape frequently, like get big or get smaller in the blink of an eye. So, it was hard to keep track of its movement. That time, the potion Blue gave me came to use."Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"You told me to use it in the time of danger regarding mages or animals," Evelyn continued, looking at Blue. "I threw it at that beast and… it turned into ashes quickly. After that, we were not attacked again. What I don't understand is what kind of potion is that."

"That's something that works against all kinds of magic and beasts. If you want more, I can give you more of that."

"I won't refuse. It helped a lot."

"That time, I can swear I saw a man with black hair and the same height Mother's aunt told me. It matched the description of the man who was seen with Mother. I can't help but feel that something is wrong and there is a connection between all of these."

"I see…"

"That's why I want to return and try to find out more things," Evelyn said. "I want to know everything."

"I wish you the best. And thanks for telling us about it," Blue said.

"I promised you, didn't I?" Evelyn grinned.

Blue looked very shaken after the conversation with Evelyn. Her mind kept wandering off every now and then. When someone called her, she was startled.

"Are you okay, Blue?" Marchioness Aisha asked.

"… Mom? Yeah…"

"Dad is very worried about you," the Marquis said. "You must be going through a hard time."

"Yes, I can only imagine how shocking it is for you," Marchioness Aisha nodded.

"I am a bit… I am not feeling that okay, Mom and Dad. I think I…"

"It's okay. Take your time. We will talk to others now anyway. Just send us a letter later when you feel alright, sweetie."