004

Drenched was little a word compared to the state Kiran and Niva were currently in.

They were soaking wet.

The town's main road was nearly empty, save for a few strangers hurrying to escape the storm. The rain drummed against the cobblestone streets, forming murky puddles in the uneven cracks.

Niva shivered, hugging herself as water dripped from her hair, matting it against her skin. Kiran, on the other hand, barely seemed bothered.

"There." He pointed towards a two-story inn nestled between a bakery and a tailor’s shop. The words 'The Oak Hearth' barely visible under the rain's relentless assault.

"Still looks the same." Kiran remarked.

"This is the inn you talked about?"

He nodded. Moving forward whilst dripping of rain water.

An older woman behind the counter raised a brow. "You two look like you've wrestled the sea itself."

Kiran smirked, shaking out his wet hair. "Feels about right. We need food, a room, preferably one with a bath and a couple of clothes for her and I."

The woman snorted, grabbing a key from the wall. "Got coin?"

He gave Niva a knowing look. He had swiped few pouches of coin from the hands of a careless merchant as they made their way down here. She has argued that it wasn't an honest act, but they needed coin to get by and honesty wasn't going to get them that.

Kiran pulled a small pouch from his belt, tossing it onto the counter. It landed with a soft clink. The woman weighed it in her hand before nodding, satisfied.

"Up the stairs, third door to the left. Water's in the back. You break anything, you pay double."

Niva exhaled, casting one last glance around the inn before following Kiran upstairs. The warmth of the place did little to ease her nerves. She never liked inns.

••••••

The clothes they paid for had been delivered to them as soon as they entered the room. It was in folds of two's. Probably a night wear and a morning wear for the next day's journey. They had a touch of age, but would make do.

"I didn't expect inns to have such....modest rooms"

Niva looked around, it had a sturdy wooden bed, a small table, two seats, and a fireplace.

"It depends on the type of inn. This one has quite a reputation."

He dropped the pouches of coin under one of the pillows.

"I can feel you staring into my back like you would want to cut it open and dangle on my spine."

"I didn't know Dravemonts were also thieves."

"We needed the coin."

"If we stayed in my cottage then-"

"I always knew Everleighs were dumb, but you Niva.......must be the matriarch of empty brain cells." Her blue eyes appeared to look more icy than they did, angered even.

"Your cottage that your father probably knew of and oh......would probably search immediately after we left. Let's say we somehow got food and clothes while we were there. But tell me, what if your father showed up again with his search warrior party?"

"Then-" she hesitated, not knowing what to respond with.

"Exactly so just shut it and be fucking grateful for once. That merchant was sitting on a golden loot, it wasn't like I took from a man whose lifeline depended on it."

"Watch your tone Kiran." She rose, matching the rawness in his eyes.

"Watch your mouth then." He started shredding his soiled clothes. The rain has previously washed off the blood and made his stink bearable, but he needed a thorough bath.

••••••

He had been in there for quite a while.

"Are you planning on drowning yourself in the tub?"

A satisfied groan was heard along with ripples of the water.

"I haven't had a proper bath in five years, so I do not think it is a problem if I decide to stay here for an hour or two."

She scoffed and trodded angrily to the back where the copper tub sat. She opened the curtains and stormed inside. His head was ducked under water and the fragrance of something nice swirled in the air.

"What is this......pleasant smell?"

She sniffed the air, inhaling it deeply into her nostrils.

A laugh rang from inside the tub as his upper body came into view. Clean, wet, and ripped.

Fuck, he had gained more muscle mass and beef.

"That pleasant smell is the scent of a freshly washed Kiran."

"What?, but I couldn't smell...Dravemonts don't have scents."

He leaned back into the water, his grey eyes dazed with pleasure as his hands fingered his scalp.

"Common misconception. Dravemonts have scents, it's just not easily picked on except you have three perculiar things."

She averted her gaze and turned around, her eyes facing the wall. He had accidentally lifted up his torso too high and Niva didn't want to look long enough to see what was below.

"I know you lack manners, but do not raise your naked waist so high infront of a lady."

He chuckled.

"As I was saying, you can't pick up a Dravemonts scent except you have three things. One, the hunting abilities of a wraith, two, unless you have Dravemont blood running through your veins, and three" His eyes flickered to her neck. "......unless you bear the mark of a Dravemont."

Oh, grounds of Hades and Lucifer. Niva internally cursed, her fingers tracing the obsidian coloured claw-like mark on her neck.

"As soon as we get the wraith and put an end to my people's dilemma, this thing will disappear immediately, yes?"

"Ofcourse. It's the only thing protecting you, your father and your pack from being hurt by me, so.....since I plan to annihilate all of you, badly after this. It needs to disappear the moment I hold up my part of the deal."

She bite her inner cheek, it was time for her to use this opportunity to start taking mental notes about Kiran, anything she could use to fight him again when his turn came to come for them.

"Niva?" He called out, coming out of the tub and planting his wet feets on the ground with a bathrobe curling around his figure.

She was too busy taking mental notes to notice him, so when his long finger flicked the side of her neck where the mark sat, she jumped. Startled.

"Be not deluded with whatever you manage to learn or gather about me in the course of our temporary alliance, I promise you that I have no weaknesses whatsoever."

His mind briefly flashed back to December 29th, the day of his coronation, the day Lady Elaine Roosevelt came to him, dressed in a beautiful red and green dress. She was to be his wife, they weren't mates no, they were childhood friends and deemed themselves compatible together.

Even if he didn't share the emotion called love with her, he treasured her as a dear friend. The dearest of all.

"Elaine Roosevelt was my only weakness. The only reason you captured me was because I was distracted trying to look for her. And when I found her, sobbing and laying in her own pool of blood near your father's black fur, I was already in shackles."

She gulped, the pheromones he was exuding thickening the room.

"But Elaine and every other person I cared about is dead and gone, meaning all my attachments, connections and weaknesses are gone. So be rest assured Niva," he trailed a sharp nail on her cheek, "That the next I come for all you love, there will be no capturing me."

She slapped his finger away.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there. For now, get out. I want to draw fresh bathwater and bathe too."