The Werewolf King's Bride

"Huh?" I mumbled as I struggled to get up.

"... His Highness went overboard," she muttered and wiped my body with a wet towel. "I knew this would happen if His Highness finds out. That guy was trying too hard for no reason."

"I don\'t really know how I got home or what happened after that. My head feels blank. When I woke up, Dem was there," I muttered. All I could remember was the time when we were in the diner and then when I woke up, I found an angry Dem. He looked like he could eat me. And after waking up this morning, I found Ruby keep mumbling to herself while wiping down my body.

There were a lot of marks on my body and it was a lot more than usual as if Dem wanted to make sure that every part of my body had his mark. Last night, we told \'I love you\' to each other together for the first time.

Though a lot of things happened and a lot of things were going on, I still was kind of happy. Finally, he had come back. I had missed him a lot.

"Your Highness, you\'re hungry, aren\'t you?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, please get me something," I nodded.

My whole body was hurting and it was hard to move. Ruby helped me take a bath and then I had returned to bed again. Lately, I had been taking care of some documents for Dem. They were easy to deal with, so it did not give me much of a hard time.

Ruby brought my documents to my room and I had been checking them sitting on the bed while Ruby fed me some food.

"Your Highness, your handwriting is beautiful," she said.

"Is that so? Dem\'s is better though," I said, not taking my eyes off the documents.

Before I thought that it would be troublesome and boring to take care of documents. But I was proven wrong very quickly. It did not feel boring at all. Rather, it felt good to have something to take care of.

Ruby told me that queens did not usually have anything to do. But I did not want to be like that. It was good to rest, but even resting felt annoying for too long. That was why I had written to Dem that I wanted to deal with some documents as well to help him. He gave me permission to deal with the expenses of the palace.

It took me the whole noon to make sure that the expenses were not unnecessary. There was still something wrong with it. It seemed someone was smuggling the palace\'s kitchen\'s expenses.

"What are you doing?"

I looked towards the door hearing the familiar masculine voice. "Oh, Dem," I said. "Are you done with your work?"

"Yes," he said. He still looked kind of angry. To be honest, I wanted to hug him and rest my head on his shoulder. But I could not take the initiative.

He walked towards me and sat in front of me. He took a look at the documents. His eyes looked serious all of a sudden.

"Is someone smuggling the kitchen expenses?" he muttered.

It surprised me how quickly he noticed it. He only took a look and found out about it while it took me a long time to find the difference in the amount of money.

"Hm," I muttered. "I found out about it just now."

"Alright, I will just take a walk around the palace. Their thoughts will be clear and the person will be executed immediately," he said.

"Executed? Just for this?" I asked, shocked. I knew that the punishment was going to be serious, but I had no idea that it would be this extreme.

"Yes, the punishment needs to be extreme so no one dares to do it again."

"I took care of all of them. You can check to see if there is anything wrong or missing," I said.

"Hmm, later," he muttered and put the documents on the bedside table. He inched closer and hugged me suddenly.

"Dem?"

"Let\'s stay like this for a while," he said. I could not say that I wanted the same. Perhaps it was because my eyes felt teary and my throat was heavy. I had grown too emotional after coming here. At my home, I barely ever cried, but here, I could never control myself. "Do you perhaps think that I have locked you up?"

I was surprised at the sudden question. Why would he ask something like this all of a sudden? Did Ezekiel say something to him?

"Why... why are you asking this all of a sudden?"

"I feel like it," he said. It was obviously a lie. He was not someone to mention it just because he felt like it. "What\'s your answer?"

"No... I don\'t think so," I said, "since I like to stay inside the palace ground as well."

He pulled back from the hug and gave me a peck on the lips and nose. He placed his head on my chest and nudged his face against me.

\'Is he on the affectionate mode- I wonder?\'

"I love you," he mumbled.

"Me too," I said and ran my fingers through his hair.

"I was really angry last night, you know. I don\'t like it when others touch you, men especially," he said. "When I saw him kissing your precious skin, I wanted to kill him. He fled, or I would have killed him right away."

Ruby told me the same thing. She said that no one knew where he went or why he fled. Only Demetrius and Ruby knew exactly what happened.

"I went to Luc this morning to ask him what he knew. He told me that he noticed that bastard trying to get you against me and warned him, but obviously, that fucking bastard did not listen," he said, gritting his teeth. "Luc even said that you were having a weird dream."

"Yeah," I said. "It was like someone was chatting with me in my dream."

"What?"

"It was a person, but I could never see their face or hear their voice," I said. "It was really strange."

"That\'s really strange," he mumbled.

"Right?"

"Is that why you talk this much in your sleep? Did you meet that person again in your sleep last night?"

"No... It was a different person. I could feel it though I still don\'t hear their voice or see their face. It\'s always dark," I said. "Wait a moment! Did I talk in my sleep out loud?"

"Do you remember what you said?"

"Not really..."

"You didn\'t talk much," he said. "Just a few words. It was cute..."

I turned bright red the moment he said cute. I could not control myself from being too happy. Perhaps it was because it had been almost a month that I could not see him.

"Oh..."

"There were a lot of mosquitos to take care of this time, but I finished the work as soon as possible. I missed you so much that the moment I went there, I wanted to come back," he said. He was still pressing his face against my chest while I ran my fingers through his hair. He looked very spoiled this way. But I liked him being like this.

"Is that so? I missed you too," I said.

"Well, that said, Luc told me that we need to take care of the necklace soon since the banquet is only a month away."

The necklace that prevented Dem from reading my mind shone brightly, but only Dem and I could see it. And some high-class magicians could also see it.

"You sure you want to give your blood?" Dem asked.

Both of our blood and moonstone were required for the process, but Dem had been opposing the idea of me giving blood though I did not have any problem with it. Even now, his tone said it clearly that he did not want me to do it.

"Yeah, I\'m fine with it," I said.

"... Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it\'s no problem," I said and patted on his head. "Don\'t worry too much."

"Then is it okay if we go to the magic tower tonight?"

"Sure," I said. "I don\'t have anything to do anyway. And besides, I need to talk to Luc about something as well."

"What is it?" he asked, suddenly jumping up.

"Well, is it okay if Luc is around for some days?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I just had some weird dreams these days. And I heard that black mages are able to manipulate people\'s minds," I said. "So, if Luc is around, he can trace the mana."

"Black mage? Who gave you that idea?"

"Er... Ezekiel..."

"That... What did he say?" he asked as if he was controlling his anger. The moment I said Ezekiel, he had been angry.

I told him everything Ezekiel told me about black mages. Dem did not believe that there could be black mages around us and said that they were extremely rare.

"But it\'s not impossible," I protested. "They are rare, but it\'s not like they are not real."

"Alright, though I don\'t think it\'s the case, you can talk to Luc," he said. "I will give him permission to be around you."