Fated To The Cursed Lycan Prince

Laura’s POV:

Rufus rushed to clean the spilled tea and the nicked cup and sported a frown as he said, “Mom, be careful. The tea is hot.”

The chipped tea cup flew out of my mind. It was the least of my concerns right then. More precisely, I threw it aside and spoke for Sylvia, “The pack on the border pays their taxes in time every year, and they even fulfill their quota more than what is demanded of them. They seldom ask for resources from the royal family. They behave themselves just fine.”

But no matter how convicted I spoke, Rufus and I could not meet eye to eye. His brows furrowed even more deeply and replied, “I am aware, and that’s exactly why it’s strange. The border is far away from the imperial capital city—far from our eyes, if you can imagine—and the resources are scarce. However, the population has been increasing in the past few years. In fact, the rift that had long divided the three packs for years are now actually mended, and they’re even united! Whether they’re currently on truce is still unclear, but all the more uncanny that is. The way I see it, their merging doesn’t, in any way, benefit the royal family anything; the packs just relied on themselves. I’m afraid they’re only deceiving us, and they’ll attack when we’re complacent.”

“What kind of reason could they have in mind? I think their action reflects that of the Alpha’s. Think of it this way: the she-wolf in charge manages her subordinates well. Look around Rufus! The pack’s economy has progressed. That’s why more people moved in.” I began to fidget my hands in anxiety as I fumbled for a way to explain it to Rufus and make him see the situation in my perspective. Once Rufus had settled his mind that something was suspicious, it was always difficult to convince him otherwise. This was the case unless he could meet Sylvia and find out the truth.

But wouldn’t that rendezvous risk Rufus regaining his memory? It was too high a stake.

“As the lycan king, you should be happy to have such a capable Alpha to share the burden of your worries. Why can’t you shake off that fear and doubt?” I wanted to scream profanities at him to appease this ineffable frustration overwhelming me. I began to wonder who he inherited such a weird character from. Even Ethan back then wasn’t as paranoid as Rufus was now!

“That Alpha is indeed very capable,” Rufus commented coldly as he finished cleaning the mess I made. His eyes fell on the table.

A sigh of relief escaped my lips on his declaration. Just as I relished the thought that Rufus had finally seen things the way I did, him changing the subject all of a sudden reminded me that I did no good in persuading him.

“But at the same time, she’s also very ambitious. All these years, she’s been keeping to herself and has never come to visit me, to the point that it’s making me wonder if she’s trying to avoid getting under my radar. It seems as though she just wants me to forget that she exists, hoping it’ll eventually make me let my guard down,” Rufus analyzed. There was patience as he did so—something that was not there when he argued with me earlier. It sounded kind of reasonable that he almost succeeded in persuading me.

Little did he know that the reason why Sylvia hadn’t been to the capital city for so many years was indeed to make him forget her. However, instead of planning a rebellion, she was doing it for his sake.

I forced an awkward laugh out of my throat at the irony of the situation. I tried my luck again in speaking for Sylvia. “Maybe it’s just because it takes quite a journey to come here, so she hasn’t, perhaps, considered paying due respects to you.”

“Distance is not a problem if it meant she’d be able to visit me.” Seriousness masked his face as I reckoned him already treating Sylvia as an ambitious traitor—all because she hadn’t paid him a visit. I didn’t know whether to think of him as petty or simply guarded up.

I felt all my energy draining with the kind of conversation we were having, all before I could even convince him otherwise. It wasn’t like this when I talked with the others. Perhaps it cost too much to persuade him. Now I ran out of ideas on how to bring him around.

“As I try to connect the dots, it’s more likely that this particular Alpha is training private soldiers at the border.”

“How is that even possible? Keeping private soldiers is not like keeping a pet. People will know, and they will talk. Don’t you think you should be able to find out about it by now if that’s the case?” I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at him but failed. My annoyance shot through the roof. I had to take back what I said before. Rufus wasn’t a quiet and reticent man at all. The moment he talked about something with finality, he had the tendency to be very long-winded.

“Mom, I’m not being over-suspicious over nothing,” he leaned forward. “Think about it. The border separates our territory from the vampire’s, and so does the pack there. If they decide to collude with the vampires near the border, the consequences will be unimaginable—and you know there’s a fat chance of it happening. When we fought with the vampires back then, there were spies among us who leaked all our battle strategies. That’s how they stood a chance against us. I have to put my guard up against something this serious. I won’t allow something similar to happen again—not on my watch,” Rufus stated seriously.

Another sigh escaped my lips. I understood where he was coming from. It was not unusual for him to have doubts. He was the lycan king, so it was normal for him to think more about something than others: a bare minimum demanded from him. If he wasn’t prepared for danger in times of peace, the empire would easily be at stake.

The war brought nothing but pain. I knew that Rufus was in a dilemma. After all, he had the entire empire’s burden on his shoulders now.

But the problem at hand was that Sylvia couldn’t see Rufus at all! It was entirely a different picture.

An unspeakable anxiety was gorging me whole.

My head throbbed. How did I get myself sandwiched in this situation again? Anyway, I had to at least assure him that what he was thinking was far from happening. “Rufus, don’t worry. Anyone else can betray you, but not that Alpha.”

Rufus shot at me a baffled look. “Why are you defending that Alpha, Mom? You’ve never spoken for anyone like this before.”

For a moment, I didn’t know what to say.