Let’s Join Hands In This

[GRANT]

"You lay a hand on my mate, and Acrod burns. The choice is yours," a smiley yet pissed Ulrike walked through the doors, and king Cassius let out a sigh of relief.

These two may have been the craziest bond the goddess had initiated but it was good that the only person that Zelina would ever listen to, was her mate.

"Everyone, leave us except for Grant and Delbert," King Cassius said and they all cleared the room faster than lightning. They didn't want to be collateral, given Zelina Navali was never the kindest of souls when pissed, and her mate was the bastard of bastards.

"Ulrike, I see you came," Cassius greeted, and Ulrike ignored him, focusing on his mate. He had known that Zelina was fighting the rogue wolves and while he had wanted to help, Zelina had told him that she would try to talk to Cassius.

It seemed like the talks didn't yield anything if his mate was surrounded by warriors and Grant was holding Zelina's blade in his hands. He could tell how angry she was and he understood her.

"Are you okay? Should I kill one of them? Which one of them hurt you? Even if you want the king dead, I'll do it," Ulrike said sincerely, and Cassius just smiled.

He knew they had worked together for so many years and Ulrike wouldn't just kill him like that, unless Cassius was the one who tried to harm his mate, but the wolf king hadn't done anything of the sort.

"I'm okay. Cassius wants me to pull back my army from murdering his stupid wolves when they have hurt my children. It would have been forgivable if they went after the adults, but the children?

"That's unacceptable," Zelina gritted and Ulrike looked at Cassius like he was ready to hear both sides of the story. He was the only rational person they would listen to, considering Criselda wasn't here.

But then Criselda didn't end up being there because Zelina hadn't reached out to her for help.

Frankly, that would just be the perfect war in the midlands, but as they had all agreed months earlier, they wanted the midlands to be peaceful and they just had to find a way to make that work for all of them.

"And I told her that I'll take care of the wolves. I will see to it that they are all punished according to the law," Cassius said, like he hadn't been thinking so hard and getting no solution himself.

He had thought of the situation and he had reached the conclusion that the rogues were attacking the vampires for fun, or that the rogues wanted the vampires to go to war with the wolves.

It would be a bloody war that if it wasn't stopped, so many innocents would die. Then again, that would benefit the rogues as they would finally be able to return to Acrod.

"And I reminded Cassius that his stupid wolves will still continue killing my people, now that the beast of the midlands isn't even around," Zelina said as Ulrike gently sat her down. He didn't want her so worked up over things they could fix.

Granted, the deaths of the children were not dismissible, but if they weren't going to be civil with each other, then their factions would officially go to war and that would be deadly.

"And I tried to explain to her that we can work together to eliminate the rogues. The fact that they are ferals out there only means that they didn't want to be governed and as a result are not protected by any of the treaties we signed.

"The rogue wolves are the enemies of the midlands. Besides, today they attacked Zelina's children, who's to say they won't attack Greroth or the southern forest or worse, the humans?" Cassius argued and there was some sense in what he said.

His rogues were ungoverned, and while he was the king of wolves and could stop them, he needed to be certain of what Zelina was planning to do, otherwise, they would all be fighting like cats and dogs and coming to no conclusion.

"Come now, my love. Let's get seated and think rationally. I believe Cassius is proposing a better option. We can assemble our armies and fight them together. What do you think?" Ulrike asked Zelina once they sat on the available seats close to the king's throne.

"Fine. But if you delay, I will burn them all, treaties be damned," Zelina said and they all let out sighs of relief.

The woman was dangerous and now that she was motivated by the death of her vampire children, she wouldn't spare anyone. She would kill and make sure that none of them lived to see the day.

The ferals had better have a nice apology wrapped up, because if the vampire warrior and leader of Asteta stepped into battle out in the field and dragged them away from her home, it would be game over for the wolves.

"Great, now that that is settled, any news about the beast of the midlands? It's unusual for him to be silent when children are involved.

"For someone who's been advocating for the safety of the kids, he sure is lagging behind," Cassius said and Alanor's ex-mate and friends let out worried sighs. It had been a while since the young Wynter had walked into Udrad and they hadn't even heard anything about him.

What were the odds that he was imprisoned in Udrad?

Cassius and Delbert didn't know that Alanor was the beast of the midlands, but the three that knew were really worried about him.

They wanted to walk into Udrad and demand explanations, but then there was also a chance that the kid they were looking for was having the time of his life there.

Alanor was unpredictable and that's what had made him a lethal creature. He could laugh in a second and sever heads in the next.

"If he's gone missing, we don't need him. Besides, there was a time when we didn't have the beats and we had a peaceful home," Zelina said even though she didn't even believe her own words.

The midlands had been a weird place to be in when the beast of the midlands hadn't existed yet. Everyone was scared of even crossing the forest to go to Udrad. There was freedom but it was limited.

The people who crossed the gates had to have good reasons even though most had lived where Edison would burn them down.

The Udrad Saturdays are a spectacle for many to come watch, but over the years, people had gotten tired of the same king ruining people's lives. It was almost like the dungeons in Udrad were there just for a show.

Murdering people was against the accords but none of them was brave enough to tell Eidson to his face. So they just stopped attending the Udrad Saturdays altogether because it raised concerns and worries among the citizens of the islands.

They were worried that their kings would do what Edison was doing and as a show of good faith, the kings never attended the Udrad Saturdays. Thankfully, the best of the midlands had put an end to it altogether.

"Yeah, you're right. Anyway, I'll send more wolves to the Asteta border to help with the war against the ferals," Cassius said earnestly. He didn't want the war and he didn't want more people losing their lives.

So if sending his warriors to go help with the war was one way of ensuring peace with the vamps, then he would do it. After all, they were friends even before they had grown up to take over from their families and rule the kingdoms.

"And I got some hounds helping with the war too, don't worry love, everything will be okay," Ulrike said to Zelina whose mind was elsewhere.

The hounds coming to help the vamps would be really helpful because they needed some creatures that couldn't die to protect the vampires and their children. The vampire warriors were not helpless, no.

They could win the war but the price of the win was too expensive, if they were on their own, and that's why they decided to seek help. Besides, it didn't hurt to be weak at some point.

"Alright then. I have some errands to run. If you see me in your throne room again Cassius, know that I won't be coming in peace," Zelina said as she got up to leave the throne room.

She was not going to spend the rest of her day cozying up to the king who had failed her in the first place. Cassius was really lucky that Ulrike had walked in because otherwise there could have been a war in Acrod today.

"I hope the next time we see each other, we won't be enemies, Navali," Cassius said to Zelina who just looked at him, glaring at him like she wanted to deal with him. She had anger issues but today, her anger wasn't misdirected.

Cassius was a king, one who cared about his people, and he hated what was happening; he couldn't just send his people to Navali like that, without assessing the threats that were posed to Acrod.

These wolves were his life and he didn't want to fuck them over just because of some treaty they signed.

"You can walk them out, Grant," Cassius added, as a courtesy even though the woman had tried to kill him in his own lands. She was gutsy, probably why they understood each other so well.