The Werewolf King's Bride

(From Blue's Perspective)

"What are you eating?"

"Gosh!" I jumped out in surprise as I was attempting to take the first bite of my chocolate cake and read the letter Dem sent me the next day.

"That looks good. I want to have one," Cyan said.

The maids glanced at each other and then at me, alarmed. "This is my brother. His name is Cyan," I said. "Can you bring another piece of cake for him?"

"… Are you sure he is safe to be with, Your Highness?" Maria asked.

"Yes, he is," I nodded. "Go on. Bring one."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Where is your cat?" Cyan asked as he took a seat by me at the table. It was the middle of the night. Everyone was asleep. I craved chocolate cake suddenly. We had it during supper, but I wanted to have it again.

"She is sleeping on my bed," I said. "You came straight here. How did you know I was here?"

"Well, I went to your bedroom first. But you were not there. I didn't notice Sapphire. Then, I came here because you eat too much these days and I thought you would be here to eat again."

"How mean! I need to eat more food because I have a life growing inside me! How could you say… Ow!"

"What happened?" he asked, alarmed.

"Wait… It happened!" I exclaimed.

"Are you okay, Your Highness?" the maid asked.

"The baby kicked!" I exclaimed even louder than before. "The baby really kicked! I can't believe it!"

"What's there to be excited about though?" Cyan muttered, completely unbothered.

"There is! I just felt my baby for the first time!" I said.

Maria was back with cake already. She surprisingly brought Evan with her. Evan stared suspiciously at Cyan, who seemed to forget everything in the presence of his cake.

"Who is this, Blue?" Evan asked.

"You know, Evan, my baby kicked! Just now! It happened just now!" I said excitedly to Evan.

"That's great, but who is this young man, Blue?"

"Oh, please, King Ford, don't tell me you have a hard time understanding who I am?" Cyan grumbled.

"I know, just wanted to be sure," Evan said.

"You guys are so mean!" I mumbled as tears came to my eyes. "No one is excited that I felt my baby for the first time! Is it just me who is happy?"

"No, no, we are very happy, Your Highness!" the maids said unitedly. "We are really happy!"

"I am happy too," Evan said. "You wanted to feel the baby for a long time, after all. How can I not be happy for my friend?"

"Blue is so weird. Why are you crying about this? Are you a kid?" Cyan said.

After that, I did not remember how long I cried. It was not until Cyan apologized, thanks to Evan's constant urging. My own brother was not as thoughtful as the people who were nothing to me. He did not have to be so mean. I was just excited because my baby kicked for the first time. My baby must have been upset that it did not do it again.

"Really, I'm sorry," Cyan said, not so enthusiastically. "I did wrong, even though I don't know what."

"Please, just tell her you are sorry properly," Evan said.

"Alright, I'm sorry. It was very wrong of me and I was mean. I am sorry for it."

"See, he apologized. You should stop crying now," Evan said, handing me a handkerchief.

I took it from him and nodded. It was at that moment that I realized I had just wanted to read Dem's letter and had not read it yet.

I diverted my attention from them and to Dem's letter. I opened the envelope with as much care as possible.

Dem's clear handwriting felt so pure and familiar. The letter had two drops of blood. But I decided to read the letter before freaking out.

Dear beautiful wife,

It had been only a few days since I have seen your beautiful face, but it feels like a year if not more. In your letters, you said you are fine. What about now? Are you sure you feel no difficulty with your health? If you do, immediately summon Doctor Dimitri and let him check you. It would not be okay to neglect even a small change that makes you uncomfortable.
Enjoy new chapters from empire

And I am perfectly fine. I just noticed there are two drops of blood on the letter. They are not mine. My hand is just bloody since I have come back to my tent just a few minutes ago. I will wash my hand and continue the letter.

My dear, the battlefield is a crazy place. The situation is quite tense now. I am hopeful of getting everything under control as soon as possible. I will let you know everything once I become sure of my suspicion. As I have mentioned to you before, I believe your father is controlling the King of Mazazine, or probably someone close to them. I need to be sure of it and I will write to you about it.

Luc asked how you are. That bastard is freaking out about a paper cut that he got yesterday when he was writing to his wife. Can you believe it? And he is supposed to be the master of the magic tower!

Anyway, forget about him. Has King Ford been annoying you? You two are on good terms, though, so I do not think that is the case. Is everyone taking good care of you?

Well, you should be the one to mainly worry about your health and make sure not to do something that will give you stress. Do not worry about me, my love. Your husband will be just fine.

Did the baby kick yet? You seemed very excited about it in the previous letters. When it happens, let me know, okay?

Throughout the letter, Dem kept advising me to take care of myself and also said again and again that he was fine. He did not want me to worry about him. I wished I could relax a bit too, but it was impossible. No matter how much I tried, I always ended up stressing myself out.

I folded the paper back and kissed it gently. I looked ahead as I found the room quieter than normal and found my brother and Evan in a deep conversation about something. They were talking in whispers, making it impossible for me to hear anything.

"What are you two talking about?" I asked. "You guys should not leave me out."

"You were so engrossed in reading the letter King Demetrius sent that we could not bear to disturb you and started chatting among ourselves," Evan said.

"Your husband is so weird. Why does that paper have blood on it?" Cyan asked, his face crooked with annoyance. He always looked annoyed no matter what, except when he was in front of Sapphire. He treated my cat like she was the most important thing to him. I could not blame him as Sapphire was the cutest and most precious thing ever.

"His hand was bloody," I said. "It's not his."

"King Demetrius is on the battlefield. We cannot expect a clean piece of paper," Evan said. "It's hard to even get some water to drink, forget washing up. People smell like shit there. Lord Cyan must have always lived in privilege."

Evan let out a mockery chuckle. Cyan did not care. He was almost always unbothered. He was the type of person who was hard to mock since mockery meant nothing to him; he did not care what others thought of him or whether they made fun of him. I wished I could be like him. I cared much about others' opinions, at least more than he did.

"Anyway, I don't care what he is going through," Cyan shrugged. "I have come to tell you that maybe you should tell your husband to attack the King separately with the master of the magic tower."

"He is being controlled, isn't he?" I asked.

"Oh, you have gotten smarter," he said. "Yes, he is. There is no other way than to kill him."

"Either way, the King needs to die," Evan said. "If you want to win, he needs to die, along with the whole Imperial family if possible. The direct descendants at least need to be gotten rid of."

"But they are kids," I said.

"No, Blue. As a ruler of a kingdom, it is not possible to care for the kids of the king of another kingdom," Evan said. "We can be kind, but not to them. Be kind to your own people. They are not your people."

"But they are kids! We cannot just…"

"It is inevitable," he said. "You let go of one of them. They will come to kill you years later. A grudge is a dangerous thing. We cannot risk it, even if they are kids. King Demetrius knows it too."

I stared at him. I knew the war was a cruel thing. But did even the kids need to die?