I was able to find the correct doors and hallways without even thinking about it, as if I had lived in the place for a long ti.
I reached the dungeon and pushed open the heavy door. Two guards stood on the other side. Taking one look at , they bowed their heads and let through. This woman was important, and it was strange to be revered that way as I walked along the stone floor.
The dungeon was dark and musty slling, much the sa way the place I had been held for all of those months was.
Brook had trailed along behind , and I heard her making little comnts under her breath about the sll and the dirty state of the place, and I almost laughed. I wondered how hard it had been for her to visit in the dungeon back ho.
When we arrived down by the cells, I saw a familiar face and almost froze in my tracks. The guard standing outside of the cell where Theo was being kept, talking to him through the bars, sounded much different than he had in the other world.
“Quiet down! You’re a prisoner now. And no, we won’t let you approach our lady again!” Jake... I wondered what he would feel if he rembered how he’d spoken to his Alpha when we get back to our world....
Theo was standing. His arms were across in front of his chest, and he was leaning against the wall casually. No matter what situation he was in, he always seed to have control of everything. I’d never seen him panicked, helpless, or weak in general.
It was as if he wasn’t a prisoner, but a prince who happened to pay a visit to the dungeon. He was, in fact, a prince—a powerful, cold, and extrely handso one, even when he was in jail.
As soon as Theo’s dark eyes settled on , he ignored the man who was his Beta in the real world and gave a nod. From his expression, obviously, he’d been expecting to co here relatively soon. “What took you so long?” he asked.
I opened my mouth to respond to him, but before I could get any words out, Brook said, “How dare you? You cannot speak to our lady that way! Especially after what you’ve done to her!”
“Am I speaking to you?” Theo threw her a cold and expressionless glare. He wasn’t happy with the situation at all—when it was obvious that Prince Theo wasn’t happy, it could get really scary.
Brook took several steps back. It looked for a mont like she might burst into tears.
“It’s all right,” I said to Brook, holding a hand out to steady her.
“Open the door,” Theo commanded.
This ti, Jake stepped in, as if he felt he had the obligation to stand up for the two won there. He scolded Theo, “You should be ashad of yourself. How unruly! You cannot speak to a lady this way!”
Theo’s expression was priceless.
He had probably never been spoken to in that way, especially by his own Beta.
What a world... as crazy as the situation was, I couldn’t help but find it a bit funny. Nevertheless, I pressed down the upcurl of my lips so that I didn’t irritate the already-cranky prince anymore.
“It’s okay,” I said to Jake in a calm voice. “Open it.”
“My lady!” Brook urged, her eyes widened at my decision.
“But my lady,” Jake said, turning to look at . “This man has been accused of committing heinous acts against you. Surely, you must see that he deserves to be punished for these awful activities?”
“Believe , it’s not exactly what you think,” I explained. “It’s okay. You can let him out.”
Like Brook, Jake’s eyes also bulged from his head. “Let him out?” he repeated. “But—”
“It’s my order,” I said, now that I knew for certain that he didn’t rember his reality either. If he had known that he was Theo’s Beta and that I was simply a mber of the prince’s consort, he wouldn’t say any of what he had just said in his wildest dreams.
Reluctantly, Jake reached to his waist where a keychain was held, and he unlocked the cell. Theo walked past him, coming at , and I thought Jake might try to hurt him to keep him from harming .
“It’s all right,” I assured Jake, for what seed like the hundredth ti. “I’ve got the situation well under control. You are dismissed.”
With that, I turned to walk back upstairs, and Theo ca with . Brook and Jake followed behind at a distance, but I wanted to go sowhere that no one else would follow us because Theo and I needed to speak about this situation alone.
I knew exactly where to go. It was so strange, knowing this place so well when I wasn’t even in my own reality. It was as if I’d inherited soone else’s mory.
My feet carried to a library, and when I pushed through the doors, Theo was with . I turned to Brook and said, “I’ll see you shortly.”
She raised an eyebrow, but I didn’t need to say more. She left. Jake wasn’t even there. He must’ve gone back to his assigned duties.
The library was large, with thousands of books on sturdy mahogany bookshelves. I led him to a couch across the room by a picture window that looked out on a beautiful garden.
“Um, sorry that you were put in the dungeon.” I decided to start the conversation with an apology, hoping he wouldn’t hold much of a grudge against for causing him to be thrown in the dungeon earlier. “It seems that we are the only ones who rember who we really are.”
“It appears so. I wonder why,” he said.
“No idea,” I shrugged. “But you’re supposed to be the Moon Goddess’ descendant, and maybe she just really likes ,” I joked.
He gave a strange look and took his seat on the couch. Then he signaled to sit next to him.
I secretly let out a sigh of relief—at least he didn’t seem to be too upset about being thrown in the dungeon earlier.
As soon as I sat down though, I imdiately regretted it because I was surrounded by his masculine scent, and my mind went back to what we had done earlier. My cheeks heated and I was having trouble looking at him.
Luckily, Theo didn’t seem to be focused on that. “Before I left the room, you were about to tell sothing. What was it?”
I cald my fast heartbeat and explained, “Yes, like you said, this world didn’t seem to be real. We ended up here because of the Moonlit Crystal.”
“I told you not to touch that thing!” he scolded. “It could be dangerous—”
“I already said I’m sorry!” I retorted, suddenly feeling aggrieved and without thinking, I added, “But Your Highness, allow to remind you, it was who suffered the most loss, okay?”
“Loss?”
Of course it was my loss! That was my precious first ti!!
It was supposed to be with the love of my life, under the starry night sky or sowhere romantic, not with soone such as an aloof prince who didn’t even care.
The more I thought about it, the more aggrieved I felt—especially since I couldn’t even bla him for it. Tears started to well up in my eyes, so I lowered my head. He didn’t need to see cry, because he would never understand that or even care about it. Why did I even bother telling him that to begin with?
“Was it... your first ti?”
“None of your business!” I snapped, and then I realized that he had leaned in and his tone was almost... tender. I took a deep breath in and tried to focus back on our issue at hand. “At any rate, we are here now, in so sort of alternate reality or sothing. And I think that you and I are the only ones who rember what happened, where we ca from.”
He stared at for a mont, and I saw emotions I couldn’t quite recognize mixed in his dark eyes. He didn’t respond to imdiately and I had no idea what was going through his mind.
“So, it really was your first ti?” he asked again.
Why, why, why? Why did he have to keep bringing it up? And why did he have that smirk on his face?!
I finally lost it and burst out yelling at him. “Yes, it was! You took my virginity! Are you happy now?!”
After a few seconds, he cleared his throat, shifted his gaze away from , and murmured, “I... I didn’t know.”
What did that even an? But I really didn’t want to continue that topic anymore. Whatever happened had already happened. There was nothing I could do about it, so I moved on. “Now can we please focus on the issue here, so that we can get out of this place and get that stupid berry working for you?”
When he turned back to look at again, he had his usual emotionless expression on. He nodded. “Okay. I agree, this wasn’t the real world. One thing I’m also sure about is that it was only consciousnesses pulled in here, not our physical bodies.”
“How do you know?”
He shook his head but didn’t tell the reason.
“So... that ans, everything we see here are just illusions?”
“Most likely,” he agreed. “Now we just need to know how to fulfill the last user’s wish.”
Wait a second. Did that an I hadn’t lost my virginity?
All of a sudden, I was overwheld by happiness and hope. What kind of emotional roller coaster I had been through? I prayed to the Goddess to please let that be the case.
Theo stared at as he waited for my response. I was sure he found the smile on my face suspicious, but he didn’t need to know everything in my mind.
“I think I’ve gotten that piece figured out.” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It seems the woman I am supposed to be is the last user of the crystal. She is the mistress of the king for years, but he is trying to marry soone else. So to fulfill her wish, since I’m playing her role now, I guess I’ll need to change the king’s mind, get him to marry , and make the Luna Queen instead.”
I tried to sort through the mories of the woman whose life I’d been dropped into, hoping to find so more information about the king in this world while Theo frowned and folded his arms across his chest, comnting, “That’s stupid.”
He was obviously not happy about it, but why? Was he upset with ? It wasn’t my idea!
“Listen, Your Highness, we have to get this accomplished for the sake of YOUR berry,” I reminded him.
After a long ti, he finally said, “Fine. So... let’s go with that.”
“That ans, I need to win the king’s heart, but...” I admitted to him. “It doesn’t sound easy.”
“What’s your concern?”
I rolled my eyes. “What if I fail? What if I’m not quite the vixen you’re giving credit for being?”
When I said vixen, he actually chuckled under his breath. “Then we do it the easy way.”
“What?”
“We’ll just force him to marry you. If he dares to disagree, we’ll threaten to kill him and his fiancée. I bet he’ll listen. No problem.”
My mouth dropped open, and I stared at him, trying to process that he had actually said that. “Are you serious right now? Why do you have to go straight to violence?”
Theo shrugged. “It’s a ans to an end.”
“No!”
“Why not? It isn’t real anyway.”
“I just don’t like killing anyone, or threatening to kill anyone. Real or not.” I shook my head at him. “I will figure it out.”
“Well, if you have to do it the boring way....”
An eyebrow arched, I looked at him for a mont, and I noticed a very slight upcurl on his lips. He was being facetious. I knew that. It was different for him, and that’s what made it so funny.
“Ciana, you can do it.” Theo seed very confident in what he was saying. “But Plan B is always an option.”
“You sure are giving an awful lot of credit, thinking I can easily make a man fall in love with .”
“Yes, I am,” Theo said, giving a pointed look, and I had to swallow a lump in my throat.
What did he an by that??
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