THE DUEL FOR MY HONOR

Hayao instinctively realized he was in danger and put me back down on my feet.

With the way Bell was fuming curse, even if Hayao hadn't sensed the killing intent directed at him, it was quite visibly obvious. Legends had it that white wolves were particularly sensitive to killing intent. I suppose since healers were usually not exactly fighting wolves, it was important for their survival to be able to avoid direct physical confrontation. Also, in a pack, sensitivity to other wolves' killing intent helped them predict when and who they should start casting on. For example, right now, Hayao should be casting on himself, I'm not sure what, but if I were him, I'll just cast every type of heal I had.

Or run away. If Hayao ran away now, I wouldn't have thought any less of him.

I would run.

Instead, Hayao stepped forward to keep me behind him. I don't know what kind of strange conclusion his logic had led him to at this moment, but he nodded to me, "Don't be afraid. I will protect you with my life, princess."

Okay. He's dead.

Bell's growling lowered in pitch and volume. Haku and Heller stepped back behind Gareth.

"Shield please, Garry." Heller requested with a smile.

"Oh dear." Haku shook his head, "Young wolves are so volatile."

I'm not sure he should be taking this so casually. Hayao was his son and heir... right?

Hayao proved that he wasn't entirely without experience though. Even though his reasoning was constantly escaping my understanding tonight, his fight approach I could totally get. He was calm, he was casting, I'm not sure what, but he would cast, two times on himself, once towards Bell, and twice on himself, once on me.

Which p***ed Bell off even more. Bell was casting too. I think he was seriously trying to kill Hayao, but so far Hayao was holding out well against the... what should you call it when the healer cast an opposite of heal on you?

Bell used to be the most powerful healer I knew, but with him casting in tandem with Hayao, I understood what Haku meant about Bell using sheer power. They were just standing there facing off each other for a few minutes. Bell's been sending casts like tsunamis over, but Hayao has been countering without so much as a sweat. The difference was in their foundation. Every cast was going to cost Bell a lot more than it cost Haku simply because he didn't have the right foundation to use his power. Plus, he didn't have Ki to help regulate his bodily functions while each heal dehydrates him further.

I wondered what Hayao's cost of heal was. He said something about using a few years off his life to duel all my suitors.

"Stop it!" When I realized there was a cost (and it wasn't as simple as drinking a few bottles of water), I realized this entire fight was stoopid. I mean, can't we just talk it out? Or at least just throw a few punches, roll over a few times, and declare a winner? WTH.

But me stepping up in front of Hayao only angered Bell more, "Three nights."

What?

Bell stepped forwards, his eyes burning, the gold molten like the yellow water of the pee fountain. Suddenly I appreciated the fountain a lot more. At least in Bell's eyes, the golden liquid was captivatingly beautiful. He was furious. I should run, wake up, or something, but all I could do was stare at the way his eyes burned like golden lava.

{Mine ~❤️ }

"Three nights in a row, princess!" Bell's words came out growly. So sexy. (This was Boo, not me)

"Every night, you come back to me with another man's coat."

"Oh my." Heller's smile spread out wider, "Oh, to be young again."

I had always thought Fluffy's twisted joy at others' suffering was due to growing up as a vampire's pet, or some kind of terrible repeated trauma in his past, but I'm starting to think he was just his father's son.

"Technically, this is a robe." I don't know where I got the courage to talk back.

Hayao inserted himself between Bell and myself. I don't know where he got his courage from either, "Your majesty, as you can see, this princess is now under my protection."

Wait, don't say stupid stuff like that! You're just going to die sooner or worse or both.

Bell narrowed his eyes at Hayao.

I desperately struggled to get out of the heavy long robe. It was a lot trickier than it looked, "Wait, Bell. This is just a misunderstanding."

I did my best to reason with my mate, but you know how my ability to reason was not the greatest, "Hayao isn't a fire wolf."

This only left everyone nonplussed. So I tried to explain some more, "You know... just because he lent me his robe doesn't mean anything..."

Hayao's robe was now in my hands. I managed to work out how to get it off.

"That is his healer robe." Haku pointed out, "Each healer only receives one at their first shift. They grow into it and take great pains to cultivate it. It is not something one lightly lends to another. It's a symbol of a healer's life, and wearing it is his protection over you."

I glared at Haku, was he so keen to send his son to the grave tonight?

"Okay... but he could've lent his robe to his sister! I mean, it isn't necessarily protection in a mating sense." I argued, "Hayao could be just treating me as his sister."

"But I do not." Hayao said.

Why did he have to be so serious and straightforward?

Bell stopped growling entirely. He slammed his palm directly onto Hayao's chest. Hayao flew backward and fell like a rag doll against the nearest Olive tree. To my horror, he went completely still except for a dark trickle of blood that ran down from the corner of his mouth.

Was he dead?

Bell was flaring his cursed flames at full now. He was really super p***.

"Princess, what kind of games are you playing?" Bell closed the distance between us.

Do not step back. Do not back down.

"I'm not playing any games." I told him straight in the face.

"So these men are falling in love with you left right and center purely by coincidence?" Bell asked accusingly.

What men? Nobody was falling in love... more like turning stoopid.

But Bell's accusation stung. I swallowed what felt must be bile. Okay, that was just my attempt at lycan literature. I had never understood what it meant when "bile rose"... until now. What the hell. What the hell was Bell accusing me of?

"Are you saying that I'm seducing them on purpose?" I flared. I also bombed dominance. If Bell was going to show off his powers so uninhibitedly, I would too.

"Are YOU saying that you seduced them BY ACCIDENT?" Bell shot back his ire.

Now I was full-blown furious. How dare he! How dare he even think I would do something like that! How dare he, even though he was my mate! No one who knew me would ever believe I would do this, so how could he?

He was my mate! He should know better!

But evidently, he didn't.

"You don't know anything about me!" I yelled back at him.

How could he since he was always busy running to and fro the continent exacting revenge and whatever stoopid things that a Lorent Prince/Death God/ Tyger King had to do? Grrrr... stoopid dumbbell!

"Stop." Hayao appeared by my side. Taking his robe from my hand, he draped it over himself in a single motion, "Cease your accusations. How dare you speak this way of my princess!"

Wait, who was your princess? (And when did you get up again?)

"Fear not, Princess." Hayao declared, "I will never doubt your purity and virtue."

Urm... thank you for your vote of confidence, but can you take this down a notch? You're seriously riling Bell up.

Maybe Hayao had hit his head against the tree or something because he must have lost his mind.

"I challenge you to a healer's duel, your majesty, for the right to claim the Blue Rose." Hayao announced, "If I win, you will apologize for your slander, give up your mating rights to her, and never harass her again."

Bell's growling resumed, "I accept."

"No!" Don't just accept that! I tried to stop the madness, but it only made Bell madder, "Do you care so much for him, princess?"

And then Bell smirked, "I will make sure he suffers for it till his death."

Hayao only looked more determined, "And I will make an example of you so no one would dare slander my princess' honor again."

"Mine!" Bell pretty much roared.

Hayao was far calmer in comparison, "Not when I win."

And then suddenly Bell stopped growling, the curse fumes completely stilled. He smiled, it was a beautiful but chilling smile, "Very well. But if you lose you will join her harem, and believe me when I say, it will reduce you to nothing but a dog."

Bell had a way of making everything sound so evil.