Bab 19: Sorrows, Sorrows, Prayers

* I always wanted to make that a title lmao

[NOUR]

The day of the mating festival came sooner than anyone could have ever thought. The days had flown by and soon enough, the unmated of the Midlands found themselves in the central forest, ready to challenge fate and get the best of them all.

Today was a day that they had all prepared for, for so many months. And now that it was here with them, everything looked so beautiful.

The setup was lovely and the music was so nice to the ears. Everyone was dressed at their best and they all seemed to be happy for the right reasons.

The excitement was so obvious, but somewhere in this crowd of factions, somewhere in the damn mating festival, were two people who had come here, not hoping to find mates.

They were two people who didn't want to ever think of having one because then it would be a nuisance and a reminder that shit would never be the same again.

Of course, shit would never be the same.

They were in Udrad's mating ball, in the central forest, where the horrors of the realm had lived and reigned for years and years on end.

Grant had made a show as the werewolf enforcer of Acord.

He was dressed so well that anyone would easily believe that he had come to find a mate for himself. But that wasn't his intention. Since his rejection by Alanor, which he hadn't even healed from, Grant didn't want anything to do with mates.

The only thing he was doing here right now was to represent Acrod since their king wasn't a fan of the mating balls.

Delbert had also come along but he was already mingling with the others, or rather, he was busy making Nour try not to punch his beautiful face in and pop his baby blue eyes out.

"I am here now. So let me be," Nour said to the junior warrior of Acrod who had decided to spend the past three days pestering Nour, and convincing Anhora of the benefits of Nour appearing at the ball.

They had been excessively bothersome to the point that Nour had to promise to come to the mating ball for them to let him have some peace.

"We want to be there when you find a mate—"

"I'll stone you if you don't listen to me, I swear it," Nour warned Anhora just before everything suddenly changed. The once warm atmosphere was riddled with a hell loop of occurrences, most of which they could only attribute to one person and one person only.

Alanor Gideon Wynter.

There was a gust of wind, one so strong as the ground shook so heavily. The drums had stopped playing, the birds were flying away, and then came the roar that scared everyone.

It was one so familiar, one that people had hoped they wouldn't ever have to come face to face with the owner, but yet as they stood there as everything was thrust into chaos, they knew that the master of chaos had finally come to punish the realm.

"The beast of the midlands is here," Anhora said worriedly, while Nour and Delbert looked in the direction of the sound. They didn't look the least bit scared.

If anything, they looked worried, but it wasn't because of the people who were running around, or the hell that was already thrust in Udrad and the midlands, no.

They were concerned about something else, something so sacred to the both of them that they didn't even need to say a word, before they rushed in the direction of the voice, ignoring Anhora who stood there like he was lost.

"Great, just ignore the one who brought you here, now will you?" Anhora said as he stood confused. He wasn't sure whether he was supposed to follow his friend and the junior warrior, so he just ran in the opposite direction with the rest.

The roar had also gotten the attention of everyone in the ceremony, but none more than Grant.

And so the three unknown yet very related factors in a long game of love, lust, and pain were about to meet for the first time ever. They didn't know what was bringing them together, but they would eventually.

Grant was running to see whether Alanor was okay. The fact that he had shown up at the mating ball was something else, especially for a man who had rejected him because he didn't want a mate.

It was all so causing and he wished that he could understand what the hell the young Wynter was doing on this side of the realm, but maybe he would get his answers this time. And with that in mind, he tried to trace the roar

However, in the process, he found himself next to the lycan king of Udrad, King Edison, the man who was feared the most in the realm.

For a moment there, Grant considered coming clean to Edison; he considered telling Edison about what he had in mind and he wanted to tell Edison that he knew who the beast of the midlands was.

Alanor had broken his heart and he wanted to break the young Wynter's heart too.

The only thing that Grant wasn't understanding at the moment, was the simple fact that the young Wynter didn't have a heart to be broken. His heart had been shattered one too many times that he had remained a shell.

"Enforcer Grant Hindley," King Edison greeted Grant, making it impossible for Grant to go after the roar. Suddenly, he was stuck talking politics with the hated king of Udrad who had probably been the reason he was rejected by Alanor in the first place.

While Grant was distracted, Nour and Delbert seemed to be going in the same direction, which was suspicious to Nour.

He wanted to think that the man was following him, but there was something in his eyes, something in the junior warrior's eyes that screamed protection, and it wasn't meant for Nour.

"You do realize the werewolves are in the opposite direction, right? Anyone would think you're my mate with the way you are running towards danger with me," Nour teased and Delbert didn't say anything.

Instead, he just kept going. The more steps he took alongside Nour, the more he realized that Nour didn't act like the weakling that the omegas were supposed to be.

Delbert was running at his full speed, the speed of a man who had been to war one too many times. He was strong and powerful, which easily explained the fact that he was the junior warrior of the werewolf crown, but Nour wasn't anything like that.

If anything Nour Abdallah was supposed to be a normal omega.

But was he?

"And you don't look nothing like the omega with anger issues right now. Maybe you are hiding something?" Delbert said even though he knew he wouldn't get an answer from Nour. but then Nour being Nour and always ready with answers, decided to test more waters.

After all, it wasn't like they were being followed by anyone.

They hadn't realized it yet, but they had been detached from the main crowd miles away. It was almost like they were headed farther and farther away from the ball and in the direction of nothing, considering the beast of the midlands had stopped growling.

"You mean like how you are a high-born lycan hiding among normal werewolves?" Nour teased.

Instead of Delbert being shocked or even responding with threats like he would anyone who had been smart enough to figure him out, he just laughed heartily and still didn't stop running.

He was more focused on what he was looking for, and he didn't care one bit about what Nour had to say about him being a hidden lycan in Acrod.

However, he was somewhat confident that Nour wouldn't tell a soul about him and his identity, something that he was thinking too much about. But was he really?

"Yeah, right, says the Rub—" Delbert began but Nour outran him, clearly not in the mood to hear anything else from Delbert. He however couldn't deny the fact that they both knew things about each other that could land them in trouble, but only if they cared though.

"Al?" Nour said worriedly when he came to a stop, right next to the young Wynter who was whimpering and struggling to breathe.

"Fuck," was all Delbert said.