บท 15: A Mate Pull

"Xen! Come over here!" Xenia recognized Leon's voice as he chided her to sit next to him. He was seated on the left side of the long table with the king at the center.

Following the servant, Xenia was led to her seat, which was somehow placed next to the king. She stood there, wondering if it was appropriate for her to even sit there. Surely this table with the king was reserved for his high-ranking officers.

Being hesitant to sit, she found herself leaning towards the king as she whispered, "Your Majesty, I can sit in some of the vacant chairs along with the others on another table. I don't have to sit with such a prestigious group of people."

Looking around, there were other tables meant for the other packs and their members. In truth, she would prefer to eat with them and stay as low-profile as possible.

"Ah, Your Majesty. Is he Xen, the warrior Gideon claimed to have killed all the barbarians and rogue werewolves?" the man, with short brown hair, sitting on the opposite side of the King questioned. Xenia could feel his scrutinizing gaze on herself with those amber eyes of his. 'This was so not a low profile!' She thought.

The man was also handsome but for her, he was not as equally appealing as the King. She quickly cleared her thoughts at that sudden and unnecessary comparison she just made between two men.

"Sit here, Xen," The King commanded, so Xenia had no choice but to sit next to him.

Gideon, who was sitting on her left side, gave her a reassuring smile before answering the man, "Do you have no trust in my words that you have to ask Our Majesty about it? Ah, how about we finish our breakfast first? When we return from the travels, you can take Xen to the training ground, he will surely allow you to test his skills and prove that I only spoke nothing but the truth about how good he is in combat despite his weak appearance."

'That is if I'm even able to return from there.' Xenia thought as her mouth twitched. Her guilt would never let her leave her little sister to her doom because of her own impulsive decisions and actions.

"I would be glad to test his skills once we return. Would you give me that opportunity, little Xen?" the man asked her with a polite smile.

Xenia turned to look at him and simply replied, "Sure. Umm…" She trailed off, unable to continue as she was unsure of how to properly address the man.

"Gilas. Just call me Gilas," he said.

Xenia smiled at him, seeing as he seemed very approachable. She had heard a lot about him before. She knew that Gilas was the Alpha of the Silver Crescent Pack in Cordon.

"Stop talking and eat. We need to leave soon!" The King suddenly interrupted with a frown.

Xenia pouted her lips as she started eating along with the rest of them. After a while, she noticed that The King was frowning as he ate.

She frowned too. Did she do something to displease him again? He seemed to be annoyed ever since she came in to dine with them. Supposing that he was annoyed, then why even bother to ask her to join in the first place?

She focused on her food, trying her best not to ponder on how gloomy Darius's expression currently was and just concentrated on her mannerisms. If there was one thing in Xenia's disguise that she couldn't master, it was her way of eating.

Against her own wishes, her movements were still finessed and flawless like a woman since she hated eating in a rush.

"Wow, you're as graceful as a woman even while eating," Leon complimented with a grin.

"Ah, please don't get offended… I'm honestly fascinated with how graceful you are. You are almost too cute looking like that."

The unsolicited comments almost made Xenia choke on her own food. She inwardly cursed herself for being so careless.

Composing herself, she gave Leon a bashful smile as she said, "You, my Lord, are graceful as well."

Leon burst out in a fit of laughter and said, "Oh please. Stop with the formalities. Here in our kingdom, you can address everyone using their names, except for our King, of course, the Council of Elders, and High Ranking Officers like our Lord Gilas. So feel free to address me only as Leon."

"I've heard that the Cordon has many packs or groups of powerful werewolves. There are supposedly a considerable number of Alphas in this kingdom and the king personally chose a few to comprise his Moonlight Knights," Xenia spoke up, trying to make a productive conversation.

"Yes, and our king chose a few, like how Gideon is the Alpha of the Black Claw, Bartos the Alpha of the Lock Heart, and Clara the Alpha of the Midnight. Those three are the Commanders of Moonlight Knights with our King as the Grand Commander. We are a total of twelve and you will meet the rest eventually. They are not present right now like Commander Clara who's escorting the Queen Mother so she's not here."

"The Elders are pressing about the matters for you having a Queen," Gilas brought the topic out of the blue. The king almost choked on his own drink that he had just sipped.

Leon laughed and remarked, "You should take pity on our Great Constable Gilas, Your Highness. He's the one receiving all the bombardment from our Elders while you're away."

Xenia creased her forehead and unknowingly voiced out, "Werewolves have mates right? I mean, A Mate… like the partner the Almighty chose for every werewolf? Your inner wolf has the gift of smell to identify its mate. A scent that would pull you to your mate no matter what? A Mate Pull?"

Xenia became aware of it because of her close friend Jayra, one of the mages in their kingdom, who loved to talk about supernatural beings with her like werewolves, vampires and more.

The King coughed more and Xenia's eyes darted to him as she asked, "I'm right? Right?"

"Wow, looks like Xen is very well versed about our kind!" Leon praised. Xenia only smiled bashfully.

"But apparently, our King hasn't found his mate for a decade now since his ruling as a King so it's only natural for our Elders to pressure him." Gideon nonchalantly commented and Xenia frowned seeing how Gideon eyed her suspiciously before he shifted his gaze to the king.

'What's with his look?' Xenia mused. She looked in Gideon's direction but the latter seemingly avoided meeting her gaze this time.

She was about to say something when The King spoke, "You're right about the Mate and Mate Pull but I'm not the type who would simply settle with the tradition. I don't simply believe in it."

******

A/N: I will post the AI-Generated visual of Gilas in the comment section for your reference…