Chapter 4

Lucius stood up and walked to his working table at the end of the room. He opened the red with a gold-adorned curtain behind the desk and looked outside the palace. 

He was deep in his thoughts. 

Selene took a deep breath. Repeating what he said just now inside her head. 

“Ritual? Elders? Wha…” She retook a deep breath to calm herself. 

“Look… King Lucius…” she argued, well… she called him king because out of courtesy, of course.  She never met a king before, so this was at least what she could do and keep her neck safe in this uncertain situation.   

“As you know, I am not a citizen of this place. Please enlighten me. What do you mean by rituals? And who are the Elders? And why, I… the stranger, must attend this ritual? This is not making any sense to me.”

“Please explain!” demanded Selene. 

She was exhausted, cranky and hungry. 

“Why do you need to attend the ritual? Why darling, because you are the main star of this ritual.” Lucius answered her question. 

“What kind of ritual is that?” Selene tried to think positively. She was kinda afraid to hear his answer. 

Please, I begged you, not the sacrificial ritual or something like that…

“Well… to put it simply, it’s a marriage ritual.” Selene was going crazy upon hearing all of this nonsense. 

How could she marry a stranger? Even though he was the most handsome man she had ever seen. But still! She was not going to get trapped or get deceived by the crazy grand scheme or whatever it was!

“And to ease your rapidly beating heart right now, you will be married.. to me,” said Lucius calmly.

Silence took place inside Lucius’ bedroom. 

Lucius stared intently at the girl who occupied his bed right now. Her auburn hair was a curly mess. Her pale face was home to a pair of the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. Those eyes were big and had the greenest green, almost like moss in the Ariadne Forest. 

She was not the most beautiful girl he ever knew. 

But somehow, her smile made him skip a beat. And he felt that there was an invincible rope that drew him to be constantly near her. 

She was just like gravity to him. 

Is this magic that the Goddess Moon cast upon him?

To be completely besotted toward a stranger and ready to do anything for her? He hated this feeling but was helpless, and he could not resist the raging emotion whenever he heard Selene’s voice. 

Lucius saw Selene stand from the bed and fetch the water from the cabinet. Looked at her with her white nightgown like that made his inner wolf growl…

She was mine!

After she gulped and drained the water, she put the glass on the cabinet and walked toward him. 

She looked angry. Her eyes were determined, and she breathed faster, not to mention her face became rosy red as if she held her anger inside. 

Well... she had to get married to a stranger. It was also a bad option for the sacrificial ritual. It also chopped her freedom. She just wanted to be back home and leave all of this behind. And just thought of these events as a long, painful nightmare. 

“I’m to be married? To you?” Her voice was so low but full of anger. 

“Yes,” replied Lucius. 

“But why? You don’t know me. We are practically strangers!” she raised her voice. 

Lucius wanted to smile. She was very cute. 

“Yes, we are strangers. Too bad. But I’m almost sure that you are Luna.” 

“What the heck is Luna? I’m Selene, not Luna. You are mistaken. I think you’re talking with the wrong person.” Selene was exhausted, and she got angry with everything that happened to her since she was transported into this new world. 

“You want to know who Luna is?” Lucius stepped forward and stopped just an inch from her. She needed to step back to maintain the distance between them. 

Selene stared at him defiantly. Challenged him to talk more. 

“Or rather, should I show you what Luna is for me?” 

Before she could respond ‌to him, he kissed her lips.

A slow, burning kiss that built into a passionate, hungry kiss. It was maybe a three-second kiss, a minute, or even an hour full before Selene came to her senses. 

Selene tried to break the kiss, but his arms caged her body. 

Until she finally kicked his shin, and he broke the kiss. But his arms still encircled her. It did not make her hurt. But it sure made her stay in the place. 

“What did you do?” Selene shouted loudly. 

She prepared to kick his private area if he tried doing something like this. 

“Luna is a future queen of Lafazall Kingdom. She is the soulmate of the king and the alpha lycan wolf, the leader of the werewolf pack of this kingdom.” 

Selene heard what he said but still could not process the information logically. 

“What? A soulmate?” She whispered. 

Soulmate of the king, and soulmate of the alpha wolf… he said?

Selene shook her head. This was crazy!

She did not want to be married to this king, let alone to another stranger guy called the alpha wolf!

“This is straight out crazy! I don’t want to marry you and another person called alpha wolf or whatever his name is.” She screamed. 

Lucius lifted his eyebrow again. Oh, Selene hated to see that superior gesture by him. 

“I think we should straight out one or two facts first here.” 

“First, if you are Luna, there is no escape from this ritual. Either you do it, or you die.”

“Second one, who do you think is the alpha wolf?” Lucius dared her to answer his question. 

A wild thought crossed her mind. 

Impossible…

Could it be… that he was…

Lucius smiled as if he could hear what she thought. 

“I am the King of Lafazall, and the Alpha Wolf of this kingdom, my dear.”

***