Chapter 68

Never in her life had Zezi feared the coming of the night, not once since she could remember, had she so much wished that the moon would never come up in the dark sky; never had she dreaded that white glowing, majestic ball of the night, as she did tonight.

"Milady." Gwen's voice called to her, as she put away the food on the table that her Mistress had refused to eat. She had also skipped lunch and with the way things were going, she would skip dinner too.

"Are you sure that you are strong enough to hold me down, Gwen?"

She nodded.

In true honesty, Gwen didn't share the fear of her Mistress. In fact, she was only trying to hide her excitement out of respect and worry for her Mistress.

Gwen was beyond glad that this was happening and the only reason why she would even be an obstacle to this was because her Mistress had asked her to be.

If the 'Heat' she had read about was what would be happening tonight, then her efforts to stop her would definitely be rendered useless.

Because not only would she be searching for the King, the King would be doing the same for her.

Fantastic!

A night like this had finally come.

Lady Delice was right; they didn't really need any push. Fate would bring them together at the right time, and once they marked each other, they would do the wedding, and Lavida would finally have a good Queen after so long.

A kingdom would never reach her full glory without a Queen.

Their Kingdom would be twice as happy, because of how wonderfully happy the King would be after the wedding.

She prayed that no matter how much skill or effort she tried to use to stop her Mistress, she would be ten times stronger and defeat her. She just hoped her husband still had that lotion to help different cuts, because she obviously wouldn't be able to walk away from this without scratches here and there. Gwen also felt giddy about how she would tell her little bats about tonight, leaving out a lot of details but surely ending it with the fact that they would soon have a Queen.

Yayyyyyyy!

Tonight would be perfect.

"I have strong and large arms." She said proudly, flexing. "I usually carry all of my little bats at once."

Zezi stopped, her hands stilled on the buttons of the gown she was pulling on. The logic behind it was that it should take a long time to get rid of all of these dresses, just in case she actually did run to the King tonight, and hopefully, before anything went anywhere, she would get back her senses.

The only possible defeat of the plan was that, gowns could easily be raised up.

Ah, if only she had gone for that wardrobe change, maybe she would have better options.

Anyways, she just hoped her mate bond controlled mind wouldn't think of that when the time came.

"How many kids do you have?"

"Eight," Gwen said with a grin, and she stared down at the floor, looking bashful. "We are trying for a ninth. My husband thinks we should stop at 10, so we can be a dozen altogether, but I think we should stop at twelve, so both of us will be the cherry on top of the dozen." She said, moving her head to emphasize the last words of that sentence.

"What do think, Milady?" She asked, her voice in an almost whisper from how excited she was.

"About?" Zezi asked with a drag.

She was beyond shocked.

The largest number of children she had heard anyone have was six, and that was back in her real pack, before the Capital. Back then, she had thought that would be the highest number from two mates. In fact, their sixth child had been, something of a surprise to even the mates.

Eight was a large number and they wanted to stop at twelve or ten?

Wonderful.

"Twelve or ten? Where do you think we should stop?"

"I'm still wondering how you have so much strength to give birth to eight." She paused, blinking. "Eight! You are really strong, Gwen."

"Awwn. Milady, you flatter me. Right," she titled her head to the side, her grin widening. "We'll stop at twelve."

"I did--n't say---"

"I know. It's just your compliment, it warms my heart. Makes me want to do better. Twelve it is!"

Well, that was a strange thinking process.

Zezi wanted to say something to that, but the wind from outside blew the curtains up, and Zezi caught a glimpse of the slowly darkening sky.

She let out a breath, pacing around the room.

Breathing in and out to calm her nerves.

In

Out.

In

Out.

Maybe if she exhausted herself enough by training again, she would be too tired to even give in to her primal instincts later on.

She picked up the sword, her hands shaky around the hilt from how tired she was, making her hold onto the sword with both her hands instead of one.

Ever since the King had told her about tonight being the full moon, this was what she had been doing.

Training relentlessly, till it was enough to send her to the ground with fatigue.

"Milady, you must stop. You'll strain yourself this way."

Zezi chuckled, trying to hold on to the sword that finally slipped out of her grip and hit the floor with a clank. "Looks like it already happening."

She slid to the floor with a thud.

"I'm so tired." Her voice was breathy.

Gwen sat down next to her on the floor, carrying her in her arms, then laying her on the bed.

"Don't leave me tonight," Zezi said weakly, her chest rising and falling as she tried to catch her breath.

"I won't."

"Make sure I don't give in. Make sure I don't find him."

"Milady."

Gwen's eyebrows furrowed with worry, and convincing words were at the tip of her tongue but Zezi spoke up before she had the chance.

"Now bind me to the bed."

"W-we are still doing this?!" She couldn't contain her shock. "But Milady I thought I convinced you--"

"I order you to bind me. Now."

Defeated, Gwen nodded and bound her to the bed with the silver chains that she had been ordered to get earlier, making sure the only thing coming in contact with her skin was the leather straps on her wrists and ankles.

"Ah, Milady. If you'll just give our King a chance. The King is not that bad."

Zezi said nothing. Instead, she allowed her eyelids to fall shut, letting sleep take her away.

_____

There were terrible ways to wake up.

But for Zezi, this was, by far, the worst.

Bound with silver, she woke up to pain worse than the chains heating up against her flesh and the agony of George's mark, once again, fading away from her neck.

Her gaze shifting quickly from black to blue, feral cries ringing out from the depth of her throat, as she pulled against the silver chains to free herself from this bondage, but the hotness that lashed against her skin at contact made her let go immediately.

Gwen stood up from the chair she had been sitting in, putting down the blood sachet she had just emptied on the dressing table.

This was it.

It was happening.

It had begun.

"Milady---"

"Don't," Zezi ordered in a growl, warning her against even the thoughts of freeing her.

She stretched taut, twisted, and turned, her eyes wide in pain, George's mark vanishing slowly and painfully.

"Should I put ice---" Gwen started to offer but Zezi snapped at her, baring her canines, making Gwen stagger back.

"I'm sorry--" she started to say before she gnashed her teeth from the consuming agony that hit her, she could feel the sweat rolling down her forehead, her hands tightened around the chains, the pain she felt more than that of silver torment and finally, a howl tore through her throat.

Long.

Deafening.

Gwen quickly pulled her hands over her ears, watching the mark on her Mistress's neck slowly and finally disappear, her body moving up till all that was left was a smooth, untouched skin in its wake, and her body collapsed into the bed.

Then silence.

Zezi's body went limp, her grip on the chains loose, her eyes shut, and under the dim yellow light of the room, it seemed as if she wasn't breathing.

Gwen moved closer, watching, waiting for her to move.

Just as she was starting to fear that her Mistress had passed out and was in quick need of help, or worse, Zezi's eyelids flew open, revealing her full blue orbs.

Her gaze snapped to Gwen, then past her, to the door.

She felt different.

Raw.

Wild.

Primal.

Like an unmated wolf in heat...

And there was a sweet smell calling unto her.

She must follow.

She must search...

...and she must find.

Her mate.