章 17: We Can All Lose, Choose well

"That's a little selfish, you know. Just swamping us with a mission, not telling us details and now you fucking don't care about what happens as long as we bring your son home? Did you ever stop to consider that we may have wanted to stay back home?

"Or maybe that we have people we care about?" Rania asked, her tone coming out harsher with every word that came out of her mouth. She hated that this man was here trying to sprout her from her very boring life and forcing her on a mission.

He could have at least asked if they wanted to do this.

"I know you didn't become the top alphas in the kingdom just by sucking it up to every Tom, Dick and Harry. And yes, your parents were informed of the mission months before this," Seojoon said to Rania who looked disbelievingly at the king.

Now that she thought about it, the excitement on her father's face last evening was something else. The bastard knew where she was headed and what she was going to be doing, and never told her? Oh, the audacity her father had, right?

"Did you know?" Rania asked Jihoon, hoping to hear that the son of Park was in the same state as her, but one look at him and she knew she was the only one who had truly come to this mission blind.

Of course, she knew about the king's son, but coming to a mission like this was a betrayal. And Rania would always remember this.

"Yes, my parents briefed me. If you weren't so adamant about killing your parents or proving to your dad how useless you are, they would have told you the truth about it," Jihoon said, knowing so well that Rania's parental issues were a sore spot for her.

If the king wasn't careful, he would lose not only his son, but also his best alpha in this mission of the damned.

"Oh, you little—" Rania said quietly, this time, her voice plain, a little too plain, but that was what it was. She couldn't blame the king, or even the stupid ass alpha in this throne room. It was all on her and her family.

"You know I'm right. Anyway, you in or what?" Jihoon said, like he was already tired of the bantering with Rania. He could see the pain in her eyes, the pain she was trying so hard to cover with her expressionless mask.

But as someone who had experienced the worst cases of pain, Jihoon could tell that this had hurt her feelings. At least he was finally sure that Kim Rania wasn't a complete robot.

"Doesn't seem to me like we have an option anyway," Rania said, coming back to who she was when she walked in. In a place where there were limited options, she knew she had to make a choice, and right now, there wasn't exactly a choice.

Queen Eunbi had been watching Rania quietly, as if trying to understand the woman. She was trying to create a connection between Rania and something else, and each time she had failed. She had her reasons for staying mad at Rania, but was her anger justified?

"Once again, you're smart," the queen said to Rania.

'This woman really is testing my patience, aye,' Rania thought to herself as she tried to keep herself in check. She knew the longer they stayed here, the longer their mission would be and the longer she would be linked to Incayon and Obren.

When she thought of leaving Incayon, she never knew her destination. She was however sure that she wouldn't be a rogue in Obren, and there was just no way that she would live with any supernatural again. She was yet to decide though.

Rania took another look at the queen and decided she had had enough of her. This was more than personal, and if Eunbi entered it that way, then Rania would give her a taste of it all.

"For a woman who can't lift a sword, you sure talk a lot," Rania finally snapped at the queen and the guards were once again pointing their swords towards her, not that she cared this time either.

All she cared about was getting this over and done with, and the queen seemed to want to remind her that this wasn't going to be easy. If the mission was simple, the king could have taken his men instead of a stubborn and unhinged pair of alphas.

"Do we take an army or it's just the two of us?" Rania added, her tone telling everyone here that she was done with the theatrics. They needed to get down to business and they had to do it soon.

"I wanted to give you two an army, but I figured you both can do this on your own. I trust you, Kim Rania. I know you're worried about Dalrae, nothing will happen to her, as long as you do your duty," the king said with a knowing smirk.

And for the first time, Rania had nothing to say. Because this time, she truly had something to lose. Someone she could burn the whole kingdom down for. Her best friend, and the girl who had loved her when everyone was busy scowling at her.

However, she wanted to remind the king that there was more at stake.

"And you have a weak son for an heir, who is trapped with Nathaniel in Drarun. You may hurt Dalrae or whatever, but trust me, it will hurt you more than it will hurt me. That, I can promise you, King Seojoon," Rania said and everyone stared openly at her, their jaws on the floor.

"You just—"

"It's only fair. If we are to work together, then we get to business because I can recover from my losses, but I doubt if the royals will recover if I spread word about the weak son who's been with the vampires since my sweet sixteen. That would truly be a shame," Rania added and Eunbi looked at her.

"What? I'm simply letting you know your options, just like you did let me know mine. That's what we were doing, right? After all, I didn't become whatever I am today by kissing ass, or getting scared of threats."

Jihoon looked at Rania, and he didn't recognize her.

The king, on the other hand, gave them a brief of the mission and the details along with everything they would need.

One thing they had learned though, was that Rania was dangerous, but was she?

"What you did back there was insane," Jihoon said to Rania when they walked out of the Obren palace. He had known that she was unhinged, but he wasn't aware of just how much, and what she had done earlier, was plain crazy, to put it lightly.

No one in their right mind would ever think of threatening the king, and yet Kim Rania had done it without so much difficulty. It was like some of her brain cells were left back in her bed at Incayon, or maybe she knew what she was doing.

There were very few things that Kim Rania openly hated, and one of them was any threat on Dalrae.

For Dalrae, she would get to war over and again. She didn't care that they were just a beta and an alpha, because Dalrae had been her pillar when everyone was looking at her like there were a million things wrong with her.

Rania didn't care about herself, if anything, she only paid close attention to herself, because she didn't want to worry Dalrae. She didn't want her best friend to feel like she had failed Rania, because she hadn't.

Dalrae had always been good to her, so Rania would return the favor.

She would love her with all she had and didn't have.

She would fight against a whole army just for Dalrae. It was something she had promised herself over the years because even she knew that Dalrae would defend her without so much as a second thought.

"Why? Were your feelings hurt? Fuck off and focus" Rania said to Jihoon, her voice full of scorn like she wanted Jihoon to fuck off. Of course, the feeling was mutual, but at least one of them was sane enough to admit it, right?