Dinner (2)

"D-did I r-re-really say that?" he asked with disbelief and utter shock in his voice.

Adira narrowed her eyes at him.

Was he shocked?

She doesn't know. But her gut feeling said that he was acting.

"Yes. You did, My Lord. And please don't forget the deal between us," she said reminding the thing between them.

Zaros wanted to break that damned thing but his wife wouldn't be even with him without that. He sighed sadly.

"I wish to eat with people. Why not join me at least for once?" he almost begged her.

"I see. From next meal… I will make arrangements according to that. For now, have food, My Lord," Adira said hell-bent on denying having food with him.

Zaros sighed and started having his food with her on watch. For some reason, the food felt tasteless and more like poison as he gulped down.

Adira heaved a relieved sigh seeing him have his food. It was better this way than having food with her. He might not say the taunts out but may taunt in his mind. She felt like this was another one of his games to trap her in his schemes.

His sister was suffering. If her suffering needs to be ended then he has to treat her right. The best way to do that was to act like he has memory loss. Only memory loss would be the perfect reason for him to show his change. After all, no one would believe him if he says that he was a changed man overnight, right?

The more she thought about this, the more logical it sounded. And the angrier she became. She wished there was no pact between them. After the ring was removed from him, she strongly felt he was her mate again.

Did she wonder why?

When he has the ring, she felt like she wasn't his mate.

Was the ring not as simple as it seemed?

But again… no one would do this to their mate. She still remembers the day of her marriage vividly. The remainder was still a daymare to her. Just the thought of it brought chills to her spine.

Her brain made a quick tour towards that incident making her scared.

From then, whenever she had food, she was mindful of it. She never wanted to eat in his presence. Whenever he caught her eating food, all she faced was…. Abuse.

One or other he would know if she ate food sneakily. That's what led her to faint that day. Even if he was loving now, she was scared of him. Those horrible nights she experienced were enough for her to get traumatized.

Coming out of her thoughts, she looked at her husband who was looking at her worriedly. Zaros noticed her expression which turned from coldness to fear. He could guess she went down memory lane. How could he not? Even he remembered that day very vividly.

That was the day that changed everything.

From that day, her cracked heart started breaking down into pieces one by one in a way that it was very difficult to fix it.

Adira came out of her memory as she looked at her husband sitting there without having a single bite.

She let a sigh of impatience. She doesn't want to stay here and leave. The sunrise was in hardly three hours. Her body was asking for some rest but this hateful man made her stay up more time, making her pissed off.

Zaros eyes flickered with an unknown emotion at her husband. He could see the complicated emotions in her eyes. The sadness and fear turned into hate. And then… it turned into impatience.

He could see that she wants to leave this place as soon as possible. She was trying to be a good wife in front of the others. Sooner or later… she would drop the pretense after all she couldn't hold much longer. Or maybe she can. He couldn't say anything. People can surprise him.

"Please sit and feed me," he said.

"My Lord, I will call Lady Eudora. She will feed you," Adira said not wanting to feed him or get entangled with him.

" Either feed me or I will let this palace believe that you are not taking care of me. If that happens, all the pretense you did, will go to waste. Now…Feed me or let the palace know how we are faking being a good couple in front of everyone," he said with a wicked smile.

Adira looked at him annoyedly.

"How could you do that?!" she asked sharply.

" I can do it the way I want, wifey," he said with a smile.

"Then I will do it in my way too," she said and was about to walk out too haughtily.

"I won't force you to feed me. I will just keep my word," he said raising his brow.

Adira turned to him and glared at him hard. Zaros looked at her with a smile that rang alarm bells in her mind.

"What happens when the word gets out? Hmm? My sister and your brother may break up. And if that happens… you will be the one who is breaking the pact. If this happens… your race will become slaves or will call for war. Casualties, abandoned families, bloodshed, medicines, orphans, lack of food, cries, agony, anguish…. What else do you see in a war?" Zaros said as he raised the corner of his lips.

With his every word, the anger in Adira only raised. She wanted to strangle him to death hearing his words.

How could he say things these easily?

Here we were talking about lives. Be it vampires or werewolves, those were lives too. It's a gift to live even a day extra. And here he was talking about deaths like squatting houseflies. Her eyes flickered from golden yellow to frosty blue color as she looked at him with deadly eyes.

Her beautiful golden irises which were decorated with golden freckles and the mid part reflected with the color of soil after the rain was now replaced with the aquamarine color which was exuding the air of resentment.

If it was any other one they would have been scared but it's Zaros. He fears nothing.