"You're hurting me..." Eloise whispered with a choked voice.
"Oh, am I?" Elias raised a brow and loosened his grip on her arm. "I am sorry, wifey. I got too carried away."
He apologized for his outburst, however, his expression didn't change. It was hard to know whether he was truly sorry for, hurting her or not. Eloise stepped back and massaged her pained arm and scoffed. "Please leave me alone."
"Why is that?" Elias crossed his arms on his chest. "I am your mate. I have the right to be here by your side."
Eloise wanted to roll her eyes. She regretted accepting Elias to be her mate four years ago. At that time, she was feeling heartbroken because of Leland and was filled with so much rage and jealousy. After she pondered for a while, she decided to make Leland pay.
She didn't think killing his children was enough to make up for the heartbreak she felt when he just decided to marry another woman. She wanted to make him suffer. She knew he wanted to become the lycan king and his mission in life was to kill the royal family of Riga.
Right then, Eloise decided to marry another Alpha who could be Leland's competition to become the lycan king. She wanted to take what he wanted and see him suffer. She wanted Leland to understand what it was like to see something he dreamed of being snatched from him by a stranger.
Of all the other Alphas around in that annual meeting, she thought Alpha Elias was a good candidate. He was recently single, quite young, and head over heels for her. Eloise thought she could easily control him.
However, apparently, it was not as easy as she thought. Being mates, there were some things that she was unable to do to Elias. She couldn't hurt him. Since Elias imprinted his mark on her, she was connected to him and was not able to hurt her mate.
Elias could not hurt her either, but there were some instances where he would act jealous and upset and things would become heated.
Over time, this became more and more annoying and Eloise wished she could end his life after she was bored with him. However, she couldn't do it. Elias would know what she was feeling and she couldn't plot against him. That damn mate bond!
Eloise had to lay low for a long time while trying to find ways to remove Elias' imprint on her so she could free herself from him. Right now, he could feel if she was upset and she had to work hard to hide things from him.
"I am just tired." Eloise pursed her lips. "I need to do some rituals to prepare for the annual pack meeting in Gazi Desert. Or do you not want me to continue?"
She distracted him from her by talking about the upcoming annual Alpha meeting. Elias had plans for the event and she wanted him to focus there.
Elias immediately remembered the important event. Every year around the same time, all the leaderships from many different packs would gather under the full moon and talk about matters of their tribe.
It was such an important event where many powerful Alphas would show their domination to perhaps get some support to become the next lycan king.
They hadn't had a king for almost thirty years now and it was only a matter of time until they would finally vote for a new one. Being the king of their tribe would come with so many advantages. For one, the lycan king would be able to use the packs' resources, like their manpower, and other things.
After The Obsidian Sand Pack unexpectedly invaded Armeria and won, Elias and his pack had been enjoying a life of luxury. This was not a life that belonged to him because he didn't have any royal blood running through his veins, unlike Anne Hansley, the late King Malachi's only daughter.
You could say that Elias won the war and invaded because he was sneaky, and lucky, not merely because of his power. He came at an unexpected time when the royal family of Armeria was under weak security, so he could quickly kill the guards and captured the royalty.
Eloise also helped with her magic. She used a powerful spell in addition to special smoke to make everyone in the royal palace lulled to sleep and lowered their guard.
However, if Elias wanted to attack other countries, he had to do it differently because the royalties in the kingdoms around Armeria had learned from Armeria's fate. They had upped their security, especially in the royal palace, with layers and layers of additional protection. It would be hard to pull the same trick twice.
That means Elias and his pack would have to work super harder to invade other countries. For that, he would need more werewolves, those who would help him during the war against humans.
At this moment, just the members of the Obisidian Sand Pack were not enough. The only way to get all the werewolves in their continent to work for him, was for Elias to become their king. Then he could easily use them to invade whatever countries he wanted next.
This made the annual meeting with the other Alphas in the Gazi Desert become so important. After almost thirty years, it was finally time to appoint a new king. Elias wanted that to be him.
"Do you still want to be the lycan king or not?" Eloise looked at Elias sharply.
Elias pursed his lip and nodded. "Yeah. I want you to continue."
"Then... leave me alone," Eloise snorted and then turned around to leave Elias alone in their room. Even though she said she wanted him to leave her alone, she decided to be the one to leave.
She felt suffocated around him and wanted to leave Armeria. The weeks she spent outside, under disguise as Karenina felt like a breather. She realized today that she wanted out again.
Perhaps... she could go somewhere else this time?
Eloise was glad because Elias didn't follow her and she continued her steps toward her special room. It was where she kept all her prized possessions. There were some magical items, her most important jewelry, and, of course, her disguises...
CREAK!
Eloise closed the door behind her and cast her glance around. The room was big and spacious with four floor-to-ceiling windows that provided ample lighting from the outside.
She walked gracefully toward a tall cabinet in the corner of the room and reached out her hand to several well-preserved heads lining up the top shelves.
The one at the far right was the head of Karenina Verhoven whom she just used to trick Nicholas into thinking that he had broken off his engagement with his fiancee.
Karenina had served her purpose. If the Obsidian Sand Pack planned to attack the royal palace of Riga, they could easily enter by having 'Karenina' with them. Nicholas had given her the privilege to keep her princess title and allowed her to come and go to the royal palace as she pleased.
It showed how badly the king wanted to get rid of her and break off their engagement, that he was willing to give her whatever she wanted.
Eloise lowered her hand. She had seen another head. A woman in her thirties who had decorated her cabinet for several years now. Eloise didn't know why she kept this head back then because the woman was no one important. She was not powerful nor beautiful, but Eloise thought to just keep her there.
Today, suddenly, she realized she could use this head for her interest.
"Ha. I am really smart," Eloise muttered to herself with a chuckle. She reached out her hand again and took the head from the shelf. "Finally, I have some use for you."
She smiled so broadly when she thought about what she could do with that head. Eloise's mood suddenly improved.
***
Nicholas began his plan to pave the way for Jan and Luciel to the throne of Riga by sending peace treaty offers to small packs of lycans scattered in various areas of Riga. He sent many messengers to convey a message of peace to the Alphas of the werewolf packs.
According to him, if he brought peace between the human citizens and the lycans and made everyone understand that the lycans were no different from humans, he could unite all people in Riga and there would be peace.
Not all lycans were bad, some of them were good and some are bad... just like humans.
Vice versa, he also needed to make the lycans understand that humans didn't actually hate lycans but they were afraid that the lycans would kill them, so they hunted lycans to protect their lives.
When humans and lycans could accept each other's existence, Jan or Luciel's coronation as heirs to the throne of Riga would not be opposed by various parties on the grounds that they were both lycans.
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