Note:
Thank you, dear Rose (Hollygolightly), for gifting another castle to this book yesterday. Your support means the world to me. xx
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Sophie waited anxiously for Leland to come home that, even though it was well past midnight, she stayed by the balcony overlooking the hill and waited for him to come back with his men.
When Sophie finally saw a small group return to their manor with a carriage, she noticed the urgency in their actions as the lycan castle opened and rushed the carriage in. She thought she smelled blood in the air.
She rushed down from the balcony and went out to meet the lycans but she already saw that several female lycans were waiting. If they didn't function as assassins, they were healers.
Fortunately, Sophie did not see any injured lycan men and women. On the contrary, they were only congratulated and patted on the back and everyone was in clear celebration.
The blood that Sophie smelled did not belong to any of the lycans but the humans they had killed instead.
Still, Sophie did not feel at ease and when she saw Leland standing amongst the pack, she rushed forward and threw her arms around him. The Alpha froze at Sophie's open affections but then softened up.
"I'm home."
"Come with me, Leland," Sophie whispered to her husband and soon dragged him to their chamber to the amusement of the Blood River Pack. A lot of the lycan men were whistling while the women were a bit silent.
"After a good hunt that gets my blood pumping, there's another thing that's pumping hard and raging as well," one of the male lycans joked to their companions.
One of the female lycans sighed. "I suppose I would also want to have sex with a warrior once he finished conquering our enemies. It is incredibly sexy and hot to do it while there's still blood."
At the words of the female lycan, the other men quickly turned to her and made faces. "Ew. You don't want to clean up first?"
"But is our Alpha and Luna really going to sleep together after he just came back after hunting?"
"Sweat is good," one of the women said.
"I mean, our Alpha must be exhausted. That bastard king was really devious." one of the lycan men said. "It's true that evil men die last because even though he was old, he actually fought hard until the end."
***
"Peel off your shirt," Sophie demanded Leland to his utter surprise and confusion. The two of them were alone in their chamber and the Alpha hadn't been able to discuss the results of the hunt with the entire pack.
Sophie did not care however and only looked at her husband with concern. She thought she could smell blood and while most of the lycans seemed alright and proudly said it was from nobility, Sophie didn't believe it.
The Alpha coughed and shook his head. He was sitting down on the edge of their bed and refused to lie down while he was still dirty. "I… Sophia, I would like to take a shower first."
"You're wounded." Sophie snapped at him and then softened. "I know that as an Alpha, you must remain strong within your pack and remain the appearance of absolute power… but please don't hide your injuries from me."
"I… you truly are my mate." Leland couldn't help but say.
"Why is that?" Sophie blinked.
"Even though I have successfully managed to hide it from my pack members, I could not hide it from you." He slowly took off his dark shirt and dropped it off the floor so as to not dirty up their bed.
It was impossible to figure out that it was Leland's blood because there was a combination of different scents that mixed and matched with his.
However, once Leland took off his shirt, Sophie immediately saw a large stab wound across his stomach. Her eyes widened and she looked at him worriedly. "I need to clean and disinfect that."
When Sophie turned away to retrieve some cleaning materials, she was stopped by Leland grabbing her hand and he pulled her into his lap. The Alpha immediately hugged her and kissed her head.
"I'm relieved that you're no longer upset with me," he whispered into her ear and kissed the back of her neck. The relief of knowing that his mate was not angry at him was quite enough to get him into a relaxed mood.
Sophie blushed as she felt her husband's lips pressed around her nape. His breath was incredibly hot and sent shivers across her spines but she cleared her throat. "How could I stay mad at the person I love?"
"I love you too."
Sophie tried to get up from his lap and wished she could get the almanac that Nicholas once gave to her. It may have something useful for her to help her husband.
"Leland, let me go so I can clean your wound though," Sophie scolded him. "You're injured and it needs to be treated by me."
"It will heal," Leland murmured.
"Why did it not heal when you came back here though? Your injuries should have healed after receiving them, right?" Sophie asked. "I thought lycans were supposed to have superior healing ability and regeneration…"
"Wolfsbane I suppose," Leland said with a shrug. "I think that old man kept a special dagger that has a type of metal alloy which also works well against my people and along with the flowers? It's poisonous."
"Then we need to get rid of it," Sophie said in concern.
"Don't worry about me." Leland chuckled. "I can already feel it healing already as my body is familiarizing itself with the poison. You are talking with the Alpha of the Blood River pack."
"I don't think a lycan has poison immunity as one of their natural abilities though." Sophie turned around to look at Leland's stomach. Just as he promised, it was already starting to knit together and then soon disappeared.
Leland cleared his throat. "I have an old friend who is great with poisons and my friend helped me to grow a certain immunity to them and for my body to adapt to it more than the average lycan."
"More than the average lycan?" Sophie looked at him worriedly.
"If that old king had struck anyone else from my pack," the Alpha's expression darkened. "I would have lost a valuable member, so I give my thanks that it was me who he stabbed and not anyone else."
Sophie was silent for a moment and realized that Leland had finally killed off the King of Riga and it meant that he was one step closer to achieving his goals. It meant that the queen or crown prince would take after.
Still, there was something that Sophie realized after the worry about her husband's injury faded away. Sophie blinked at her husband. "Wait. You had a friend that you never talked about?"
Leland looked at his wife and shrugged. "It never crossed my mind to speak about her because there is nothing to say about Eloise. She's always just been there."
"Huh." Sophie pursed her lips and looked at Leland questioningly. "Still… is she a member of this pack? I don't think I've ever encountered someone called Eloise. Wait, is she one of the allies that you were talking about before?"
Leland nodded. "Yes, Eloise is a powerful witch."
Sophie's eyes widened and then it sparkled. "Really? A witch? That's amazing. I was curious about who your allies were but they were witches? That's truly incredible and unexpected."
The Alpha didn't think that Sophie would be pleased to hear him talk about another woman but, on the contrary, she seemed to be enthusiastic about witches. Leland cleared his throat.
"It is because my mother introduced me to her when I was younger," Leland explained and tried not to grimace. There was nothing wrong with Eloise since she had been a helpful ally.
"Do you not like her then because she was kind of forced to be your friend?" Sophie asked. She realized that Leland knew everything that was about her past, her parents, and well, even Sophie's origins. However, most things about Leland were still a mystery.
"Yes, we both hated being around each other at first." Leland nodded. "Her mother and my mother were best friends… so naturally our mothers expected us to get along."
"That's quite nice." Sophie smiled and listened attentively.
Leland didn't know and couldn't tell if Sophie truly thought about it that way. For a moment, he thought that she learned how to hide her emotions away from him. He cleared his throat.
"I suppose it is, but I'm a lot happier to be with you." Leland genuinely said.
Sophie grinned and kissed him on the cheek. "I know."
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From Missrealitybites:
I am happy Tier 4 is live. We will have the last tier go live soon after I finish editing the last 10 chapters, and then I will throw a mini mass release.
Thank you so much for your support.
Th𝗲 most uptodate novels are published on free(w)ebnov(e)l.𝒄𝒐𝙢