Ayra’s Uncertainty.

After leaving Alana, he went to his room and stayed there till the sun gave way to the moon. The only time he went out was after lunch, when he knew everyone would be busy with one thing or another. He had gone to the kitchen to beg for food. The cook had called him handsome before giving him a meal.

Mordeu ate in the shadows, hiding from Alana. He could not bring himself to look at her the same way. He lacked the understanding of her feelings: they had just met and she was already harboring such emotions for him.

What did she expect him to do with that?

If it was back at home, he would’ve just had his fun with her—heck, he would’ve even had fun with the princess. However, he wished not to bring his whorish nature to the camp. He already had a reputation in his village; he did not long for another.

Maybe if Alana was someone else, he would’ve given it a try, but she was his friend, and it was unacceptable to him.

Mordeu slept, woke up, slept, worked out, slept, imagined what Fjall was doing, the adventures he and Cillian would be experiencing, and the joy bumbling in Fjall’s heart from being with his mate.

His thoughts drifted far and near that he almost ran out of things to think about. He was bored just like he had been since the minute he walked away from Alana.

The door to his room creaked open. The room was illuminated by a lantern resting on the tall dresser in their room.

Fjall dragged his feet lazily into the room, stretching and grumping. On seeing him, Mordeu rose from the bed and stood to his feet, urging Fjall into the room.

“How are you?” Mordeu decided to beat around the bush in order not to come off as uncaring for his brother.

Fjall walked past him to sit on his own bed that was placed in the other corner of the room, a good distance from Mordeu’s bed.

“I’m tired, brother.” He yawned.

Mordeu’s heart rang with interest as he joined Fjall on the bed. “What did you do?”

Fjall shook his head. “Nothing. It was really boring. The only time I did not find it unbearable was when Ayra came by. She didn’t stay for long though, but we had a conversation…”

Fjall kept talking about his interaction with Ayra to the dismay of Mordeu. He was more interested in something else, but Fjall was not getting to that part. He was busy talking about how delicious Ayra smelled or how her hair was too beautiful.

“Tell me about Cillian,” Mordeu interrupted him. “I’ll get the one guarding him tomorrow. I need to know what he’s like.”

Fjall shrugged and relaxed, resting his back against the wall. “There’s nothing much. The only thing he does is eat and practice the sword. Oh yeah, he also took a nap, but that was it. He’s quite boring, you know. There’s nothing adventurous about protecting him. Brother, I believe that he’ll bore you to death.”

Mordeu chuckled. He had been expecting more from Cillian, but a part of him knew that this was how he would actually be. He had the laziness in his eyes and the apathy in his movement. Somehow, Mordeu had predicted it.

“Well, I guess I’ll be suffering through it tomorrow,” Mordeu said as he rose from the bed.

Although he sounded as if he had been let down by the piece of information reaching him, in actuality, it only affected his excitement for the adventure a little. There were things he was bound to discover, and whether or not Cillian was boring, he still wanted to discover them.

Reaching his own bed, the possibility of Cillian not being boring arose in his head. He thought it could just be that Fjall was too focused on other things, for example his mate, that he didn’t have time to carefully screen Cillian. Not just that, Fjall himself was a boring soul; he would not say anything unless being spoken to.

Mordeu guessed that if he had initiated a conversation first, maybe Cillian would have followed his trail. However, it seemed like the two of them were alike in that manner.

It was unlike Mordeu.

With the fire of excitement burning in his chest, Mordeu drifted off to sleep.

The morning came and Mordeu was wide awake before the sun rose. He was up and ready for action. He wasted no time to get himself bathed and cleaned up for his shift as Cillian’s protector for the day. He was jittery and excited. He couldn’t stay still for a moment. The thought of being responsible for someone was keeping him on his toes—excited and happy?

He wasn’t sure what he was feeling, but he didn’t care. He was more concerned with the feeling of seeing Ayra.

And when she arrived with two guards standing beside her, all of them in white, the same minute the sun rose from behind the mountains, Mordeu was standing by the entrance to the rooms of the trainees.

The air that morning was a bit cold, but Mordeu’s heart was warm, already heated up for action. He made eye contact accompanied with a smile as he saw Ayra walking towards him.

A pink blush covered her cheeks as she looked away. “You seem excited for this. Are you a fan of my brother?”

Mordeu shook his head, trying to hide the shy smile that seemed to relay too much of his intentions to Ayra. “No, I’m not a fan. I’m just tired of doing nothing all day.”

Ayra chuckled and began leading him away to the small path beside the pedestal. “I doubt that your stay here has been boring.”

Mordeu groaned. “It has. I’m not like my brother that has already found his mate. For me, it’s a treacherous bore.”

Ayra cleared her throat. “Your brother, Fjall, already found his mate?”

Mordeu’s smile stilled and turned to his side. He saw the look of slight jealousy and uncertainty in her features. He tried hard to fight off the feeling of jamming his hand on her face to wake her up.

“Yeah, he has. He’s very lucky.”

Ayra cleared her throat again and forced out a smile. “Though you don’t have a mate yet, there are surely girls who are interested in you. For example, Alana.”

Mordeu laughed a little. “No, Alana and I are just friends.”

Ayra nodded her head, mouthing, “I see.”

Mordeu chuckled. “Yeah.”

They took several turns that Mordeu could almost not recognize. He doubted that he would be able to find his way back to the housing buildings, but it was not the moment to bring it up.

After the last turn, what was standing in front of them was a building almost like the housing building: painted white. It was not a storey building but a bungalow. It had a wide, green lawn, and the forest was only a few steps away from the house.

Mordeu smiled. “Alana told me about her engagement with Cillian.”

Ayra smiled. “It’s surprising that she’s able to talk about that. Cillian had really hurt her feelings, and every day he feels guilty for causing her such pain.”

Mordeu followed Ayra into the house that smelled like daffodils and sandalwood. The place was quiet and bigger than it looked from the outside. The floors were made of smooth white wood, and the only thing that brought color to the place was the pink cherry blossom tree sitting in the middle of the inner courtyard.

The beauty of the flowers raining from the tree was nothing compared to the beauty sitting underneath the tree reading a book.

His white hair was glistening as always, and his eyes held a bore. It was like an infinite void, expressionless and cold, even as he read a book. He was clothed in white attire, and his skin was almost the shade of his clothes.

Again, the cherry blossoms could not compare to the stolid beauty that was before Mordeu.

“Cillian could not bring himself to deceive her any further. His heart did not lie with her, and so he couldn’t marry her,” Ayra explained.

Mordeu swallowed, adjusting to the sudden uprising of his heartbeat and the heat flowing in his veins. “I thought it was because he would surely be mated to a wolf.”

Ayra shook her head, her eyes also falling on her brother. The tone and pitch of her voice dropped, appearing to be filled with sadness as she said, “My brother is a mateless wolf.”