Am I afraid to fall for you?

Baffling me yet again with his question that seemed so twisted, I shake my head even though I was lying to myself. I flinch deliberately when his hand lifts up to my face and my eyes close to enhance the picture in front of him.

"Why are you so afraid of me?" He asks, his hand surprisingly still against my face so when I look at it, it was at a position where he wanted to tuck the lose strand of hair behind my ear. Shoot. I really ruined his morning.

"I- I'm not afraid of you—"

"Stop lying." Suddenly, he pulls me into a hug that tells me, "I'm not a monster. Please believe me."

I couldn't let myself understand him, going into his shoes and trying to understand from his perspective. Everyone in this world who knows about the man considers him as a killing machine, or an entity who captured the Throne and rose above to become a menace as a King, abuse the throne and enjoy it's power.

But deep down, all I have ever seen in these few hours with him is the child that has been trapped like a circus animal. Treading to the beats of the people around him, listening to what others have to say about him, I could only say that he needs a person who understands the true him.

Not his King persona or his Werewolf persona. The true him.

Slowly, I lift my arms to encircle them around his body. He breathes against my torso and lets go of the burden upon his shoulders.

So this is what it means to have a person give someone else 'solace'.

Licking my lips promptly, I contemplate on caressing his hair or not. I do not want to outdo myself and jump out of my character zone to treat him the way he deserves from me, but I demand cautiously and raise my left arm to caress his hair.

Upon that, he presses my body intimately into himself. I could only imagine how he felt all this years without a person to listen to his problems and him depending on that person for support.

It was funny for me, since I've grown to become that 'person' for him without my knowledge.

The hug as it becomes tighter around me begs for air to release from my lungs but I felt okay with that discomfort. As long as he doesn't find out about me, I shall act as his lover and maybe fall in love but just for a stipulated amount of time.

"Thank you." He breathes and makes my hair flow with his breath as he mutters against my nape. "It's alright. You need this." I say to him.

Out of the blue, Gorius watches us from the doorframe, looking distressed at our proximity and intimacy.

"Uh- um..." I try to pry his hands away from my body but it feels like he is becoming a stubborn kid. I couldn't say anything, because words weren't forming in my mouth and I was thankful that Gorius clears his throat and gets Lucien's attention. I too clear my throat and stand in front of Gorius who approaches us with vigor. I felt like we were forbidden lovers and Gorius was Lucien's father who never approved of our love. The scene was stuck in my head until Gorius begins speaking.

"Your majesty. We cannot falter with our plan and you cannot fall in love." The man says without a filter to his mouth. Offended by his statement, I turn to look at Lucien who is already staring right through me.

"Don't listen to him." Lucien says, but the hiss that comes from Gorius makes me think of a villain in our love story.

Gorius was being too much.

"Gorius, please. She is not my distraction."

"Then why are you here instead of attending the royal meeting, your majesty?" Gorius asks Lucien as I stare at the two grown men glaring at each other and holding an eye conversation I cannot understand as a third person.

"P-please attend the meeting. I'm very late to take Jasmine's classes too." When I say that, Gorius looks at me as though I've committed arson upon his entire bloodline. It makes me gulp dangerously as I see him growl and take a step towards me.

"Stay away from my King." I fall back on the bed, Lucien holding my arm so I won't slip any further.

"Gorius!" The man growls at his own elderly beta who huffs angrily and begins to briskly walk away from the room. Lucien gazes at the door from which he took an exit and is compelled to check on me. His hand over my cheek, he begins to look at me for any signs of fear or such.

"Are you alright? You could've fallen." He tells me as I nod to answer his question.

"I'm okay. I should get going now. I smell bad."

"You do." His quirkiness was back, but I kinda liked it on him. It makes me think that he chooses to be ignorant of his sadness and wishes to enjoy life as it is. Stealing a kiss from my lips, I stare at the man's back as he walks away without turning once towards me.

The tingling sensation of his warm lips upon mine stimulate the oxytocin in me. I was clearly loving the kind of attention he gives me. But before that, someone else needs my attention too, related to studies and manners that is.

Half an hour later, I find Jasmine in the huge hall, the room adjacent to the throne room yet we couldn't hear one word from the loud conversations that go on in that hall. Turning the pages of the books that she was being taught from, I knew one thing: This is beyond my limits.

"Jeez." I say, grabbing the girl's attention as she chuckles.

"Royalty is different, isn't it?"

"Totally." I answer her whilst staring horridly at the words that don't make sense for my immature mind. I haven't got any special schooling, I was thrown into boarding school as soon I was eight. My mother was an absentee figure in my house, along with my dad who is totally busy working a 9-5 job but still coming home late at night because of the shifts he has to fulfill to bring bread to our table.

His life was tiresome than mine, until I joined the academy and they forgot everything about me, forgot instantly that they had a child.

Back to the scenario, I take borrow some of her precious time of learning to teach myself first and teach her later when I've perfected the concepts myself first. As I read through the diligent texts, the entity comes into the room and I don't realize that I've eaten up one whole hour of Jasmine's schedule.

"Are you sure that you'll be able to teach her?" Lucien mockingly asks me.

"Of course!" With overwhelming confidence, I respond to him as he shakes his head and takes the book from my hand.

"Leave the teaching part to me. I have my schedule planned only for her in this case. Why don't you try teaching her the ethics of a princess? You suggested something similar last night."

Yup. And that is how you've witnessed me land myself into deeeeeep trouble.

Smacking my lips together, I look at both of their expectant faces and chuckle awkwardly before presenting the truth in its whole and naked form.

"Uh... haha! As you can see, I look nothing like a princess myself. All I wear is pant and shirt, like a man. Jasmine, if you follow me through the etiquette of being a princess, you'll end up being one of the most badass princesses ever in history." I say, watching both of their reactions simultaneously.

Lucien was appearing to readily disapprove with my suggestion, whilst Jasmine on the other hand was getting riled up to become the badass princess.

"Yeah! I wanna be a badass princess!" She fists her hand in the air while we look at Lucien who stands there numbed.

"Fine. Whatever suits her I guess." As he says that, Jasmine quickly hugs him as I see him rolling his eyes at her. I couldn't help but giggle, but I was confused when he held his hand out at me.

Without questioning him but still curious, I am hoisted up from the chair to fall on his chest as he whispers against my ears.

"I wanna watch my princess grow up to be badass like my queen. Now, I won't repeat this twice but be careful with her since she is already an alpha. Rest of the etiquette is your wish." He says as I feel his lips upon me all of a sudden.

We hear Jasmine cringing upon our PDA, but I started not to care about the people's opinion because... it simply felt right and I was happy.

We were happy.

So then I realized, that I wasn't entirely afraid to fall in love with Lucien, my mate.