Alia walked into her room, completely unaware of Gloria’s death or the chaos it brought to everyone’s lives. She walked to the door and looked at the guards with a soft smile.
"Hey, can you do a favor?" She asked.
The guards imdiately bowed to her.
"We are here to serve you, princess. Please tell us what you need," the guard smiled politely.
Alia nodded with a childish smile.
"Can you arrange for so pasta? I am craving spicy pasta with a lot of gravy out of nowhere," Alia said, looking at them awkwardly.
The guards looked at her for a good few seconds before they smiled.
Just this small wish? She almost made it look like she wanted them to do sothing big.
"I’ll go and bring it from the best restaurant out there. I know a place." One of the guards suggested it, and Alia clapped her hands.
"Aweso." She grinned.
She was about to return to her room when one of the guards who was guarding the end of the corridor walked to her.
Alia’s nose twitched at the heavenly sll.
Her gaze imdiately shifted to the container in his hands.
"This is for you, Ma’am. Soone gave it to and asked to deliver it to you," the guard said.
Alia looked at the container containing spicy noodles along with a tumbler with cold coffee and imdiately took it.
"I am sure it’s your king who probably got a hunch of my craving," Alia said, and without waiting for their reply, she walked inside, closing the door behind her.
The guard who had offered to go and bring pasta for her stood there in confusion. Was he supposed to go or not? He looked to his friends for help, but they only shrugged in response.
Inside the room, Alia removed the lid and took a deep breath.
Her mouth watered, and she grabbed the fork. Yes, fork. She didn’t want to use chopsticks because she wasn’t very familiar with them and couldn’t be bothered to learn.
She removed the cover of the tumbler and took a whiff.
"It looks amazing," she said before bringing the tumbler close to her mouth.
The wolf, who had gone to et her mother to ask about the mages and stay prepared, returned inside her just in ti and stirred suddenly when the sll reached her senses.
"Alia, no—" she started, but it was too late.
Alia had already gulped a large amount of cold coffee before swallowing it.
"Hmm? What’s wrong?" She asked.
The wolf looked at Alia in remorse.
It was too late.
"You shouldn’t have drunk that." The wolf said before she felt a large shield blocking her, preventing her from talking to Alia.
The wolf’s eyes drooped with heaviness before it fell to the side in the mindspace, slipping into a deep sleep.
Alia grabbed the side of her head, suddenly feeling heavy and unstable.
Her brows furrowed as the container fell from her hand.
She was about to call for the guards to alert them about sothing being wrong when she heard so noise from behind her.
Alia turned to look at the window, her pupils dilating montarily when her gaze t with brown eyes that looked straight at her.
"W-what are you doing here?" She stuttered, finding it hard to speak.
The man looked at her apologetically.
"Forgive , but this is the only way I can have you. After you left, I realized how much I actually loved you and couldn’t live without you." The man walked to her before grabbing her hands.
Alia opened her mouth to scream and call for the guards when she felt her throat completely constricted, disabling her from uttering even a simple word.
Since she was not in actual threatening pain, none of her mates felt sothing was wrong with the bond.
"I am sorry, Alia," the man said before he pulled out the syringe from his pocket and stabbed it straight into her neck.
As soon as the chemical entered Alia’s system, she imdiately went limp, making the man catch her as he looked at her with intense emotions.
"I know it’s going to be painful initially, but I can promise you it will be worth it. You don’t belong with a monster like him. Look how much you suffered in his presence. He doesn’t deserve you. I don’t either. But I am willing to change for you. I love you, Alia Everleigh," the man said before kissing her forehead and then jumping from the window, taking her away.
~~~~~
In the main palace, Cyrus walked into the hall, his eyes scanning every mber as they rushed to arrange the things according to Grayson’s instructions. His heart was heavy with remorse and anger towards himself.
He grabbed a random blue curtain that was cascading from the chandelier and pulled it down.
The curtain was bound to other curtains in a circular flower, and as soon as he pulled it into one, the whole decoration fell on the ground with a loud thud.
The nearby maids shook in surprise while Grayson rushed out to see what it was.
Seeing Cyrus standing there with the curtains collected around his feet, he couldn’t help but glare at the event managers.
"What the hell are you doing? Is this the kind of thing I am paying for? What if it had fallen on my daughter-in-law?" Grayson snarled at the nearby lady.
He kept going on and on about how important this event was for him and what it ant to him, or how he wanted everything to be perfect for his daughter, and Cyrus couldn’t help but tighten his lips.
"Stop all the arrangents at once," Cyrus said.
Grayson, who was busy explaining things to everyone, turned with a serious expression.
"If this is a joke or so kind of prank, I don’t like it," Grayson said before he turned to Rosaline and asked her to put so sense into Cyrus’s head.
Rosaline smiled at her father before turning to her nephew. She was about to tell Cyrus to quit joking with their father when she observed the sadness in his eyes.
It wasn’t fake. It looked genuine. Her smile faltered.
Her father may have overlooked Cyrus’s expression because of how happy he was, but she couldn’t.
She walked to the man, her eyes softening before she extended her hand.
Cyrus looked at the woman with a stern expression.
Rosaline sighed. How could she forget? This man didn’t do any hugs. He was too tough for things like that, no? But she just wanted to ask him what was bothering him. Or if sothing was wrong.
She wanted to be there for the child, sothing she couldn’t do properly earlier by being an adult all the ti.
She was about to retreat her hands when, to her surprise, Cyrus bent and hugged the woman.
He placed his head on her neck, his body shaking with pain.
"She is gone, Aunt," Cyrus said, calling her aunt after such a long ti, and Rosaline’s heart clenched painfully.
"What do you an, son? What’s wrong? Who is gone?" She asked, more worried now.
"My mom. She left again, Aunt. She couldn’t even wait to et her other son. One mont she opened her eyes and called her son, and the other mont she went completely still," Cyrus sniffed.
No tears flowed from his eyes, but Rosaline could feel every second of his grief and couldn’t help but shed a few tears herself.
Grayson, whose attention shifted to the duo when he saw Cyrus hugging Rosaline, heard his words and froze in his place.
His smile vanished, replaced with sadness and pity.
"What exactly happened?" Grayson dismissed everyone before walking to Cyrus.
Cyrus told him everything that happened in the hospital, including what the doctor had told him.
Grayson sighed, not being able to hold his contempt for his elder son for breaking that woman so badly.
He placed his hand on his grandson’s shoulders to comfort him.
"Does Alia know? She deserves to know after everything she went through to save your mom," Grayson said.
Amora, who descended the stairs and heard what happened, couldn’t even bring herself to face Cyrus.
She was yet to co out of the guilt for even asking for justice for her elder son, who committed so many cris in broad daylight and broke her younger son’s family so brutally.
She thought that by taking care of Gloria once she arrived, she would be able to lessen so of her guilt, but no. The moon goddess didn’t want to give her that opportunity either.
Tears brimd in her eyes, and she took support of the pillar at the side to stabilize herself.
Cyrus looked at his grandfather. He had thought about calling Alia earlier, but the thought of hurting her and saddening her by telling her this kind of news made him stop.
He wanted to rush to her the first mont because he knew she was the only one who could help him through this grief, but he didn’t want to worry her, not when she was healing and needed a proper, stress-free rest, as the doctors said.
However, hearing his grandfather say the sa thing, he couldn’t help but hum in response.
He was right. She was his wife, the queen, the daughter-in-law of the woman who died, and the savior of his mother. She deserved to know.
But he wanted to tell her face-to-face, rather than discussing it over the phone.
He wanted to be there for her.
Thus, rather than calling the landline inside the hospital room, he called his subordinate Fabian.
"What is she doing?" Cyrus asked.
"She must be resting," Fabian said.
"Check and tell if she is awake," Cyrus said, his heart feeling clogged with so many emotions.
"Okay. I’ll call Troy," Fabian said.
Cyrus’s brows furrowed when he heard him.
"Why would you call Troy? Where are you?" He asked.
It was Fabian’s turn to look at the phone in confusion.
"What do you an, sir? Didn’t you ask to co to the Royal Palace because you wanted to talk about the Bentley estate?" Fabian asked.
Cyrus’s heart thumped loudly at his words.
Why? Because he never gave any such orders.
"I never ordered you anything." Cyrus’s voice rose, alerting everyone around him.
They looked at him in worry and confusion.
What was happening? Why did Cyrus look so panicked and angry?
"But sir, the guard from our team said you called him and—" Fabian paused.
Could it be that the guard wasn’t on their side or that soone colluded with others to harm them?
"I’ll go to the hospital right away, sir," Fabian said.
Cyrus called Troy.
"What is the princess doing?" He asked.
Troy smiled at the mory.
"She is eating spicy noodles and drinking cold coffee, sir," he said.
As soon as Cyrus heard him, he relaxed a bit.
Good. Nothing bad happened. But why was she eating such food while healing? And who even gave it to her in the hospital?
"Wasn’t her diet supposed to be monitored? Who gave her such junk?" Cyrus asked.
Troy furrowed his brows.
"What do you an, sir? Wasn’t it you who sent the parcel? The guard said soone gave it to him, and the princess took it happily. We all thought you sent it anonymously because she was craving sothing spicy and you felt it through the bond," Troy said.
As if he realized sothing was wrong, Troy imdiately walked to the door, pushing away the guards in his way before turning the knob.
To say he was surprised would be an understatent.
He saw the container of spicy noodles on the ground, along with the tumbler, and its contents had spilled.
"She is not here. Everyone! Look for the princess! Whoever took her shouldn’t have gone too far! Troy’s words registered in Cyrus’s mind, and he froze.
Rosaline looked at him, shaking his shoulders.
"Cyrus, what’s wrong? You are scaring us now." She said, her gaze shifting to Grayson for help.
Cyrus looked at his aunt.
"Soone took Alia away." He said this before rushing out of the palace.
"What is happening to this family? Why is everything turning against us? It feels like we have been cursed." Grayson said, falling on the couch.
Kyle, who had just entered the vampire kingdom and was busy looking at his mate’s photo on his phone while sitting in the car, raised his eyebrows when he saw Cyrus calling him.
He probably must’ve found out everything from Alia. Kyle took a deep breath before picking up the call.
"I know what you want to talk about and—" Kyle started, but before he could complete his sentence, Cyrus said sothing that made him feel stuck.
"Sobody took Alia."
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