章節 13: Look forward to

Time seems to momentarily freeze as their eyes locked. Although they knew they should evade eye contact, none of them could. For Auriana, it was only her body holding her back because her wolf just wanted to run to her mate. It was taking quite a lot from her not to give in to her Wolf's wishes.

While Lyrus stared at her, spellbound by the mere sight of her. His mind replayed what transpired between them a few nights ago, and he still couldn't believe he had a mate, but he couldn't touch her, not even when she was right in front of him. There was nothing more tortuous than that.

'Just two of them?' Auriana let her mind wander in an attempt to distract herself and look away, and it worked as her gaze shifted from Lyrus to his companions.

"King Edgar Woods and Queen Hazel," Lyrus took the initiative to speak first and move. "It has been so long. I see you have an addition to the family," he said, making a hand gesture to Auriana, causing him to once again look at her and also draw her attention back to him.

Auriana wishes she could use a mind link to talk to him right now because just standing there wasn't helping her at all.

"Welcome to Diric, King Lyrus. It has indeed been long," he looked in Auriana's way and introduced. "This is Auriana, our daughter and crown princess of Diric," Edgar said. Lyrus offered a sincere smile, small but it was genuine.

"Welcome, Your Majesty," said Hazel and Auriana followed his head.

Greetings were exchanged and Adrian, the companion 9f Lyrus was also introduced before they proceeded inside the castle.

"I couldn't help but notice that you are the only two, Your Majesty. Did something happen?" Auriana asked. Those vampires she fought before didn't seem like they were the minds to let their king embark on a journey alone. They had loyalty to what they were doing.

"This is the first time in a long time that I am visiting the kingdom of Diric. I didn't want to bring an envoy and risk getting suspected that I was planning an attack. I mean. I am aware of "our reputation" and it is not the kind that I want to have said to my face, Princess," Lyrus replied.

"Right…" Auriana absentmindedly said with a small nod of her head. "Sorry that I asked that," she mumbled without looking at him. "I do look forward to getting to know you better. Perhaps we might have a better understanding of each other and our two kingdoms can thrive together… as one, someday."

Lyrus was quick to understand that she was not only talking about the kingdom this time. This was her wish, to get to know each other better and see if they could live together. "I too look forward to days such as that, Princess."

Edgar and Hazel were silent, surprised at the fact that Auriana was the one taking the lead and bringing up conversations. She didn't seem to mind that she was talking to the king of vampires while they did. As monarchs, they should be able to keep an open mind but that position also leaves them with very few choices.

Silence followed after their little exchange of words and the air became awkward, but that was only for the others as Auriana and Lyrus seemed perfectly fine with just walking knowing they were breathing the same air. Edgar and Hazel shared a look but didn't know what to say to the guests because they had no idea of their reason for visiting.

"This is not going well, Edgar," Hazel mind linked her mate and all he did was hum, almost making her grunt audibly. "Auriana doesn't seem to have an issue with walking or talking to him," she pointed out.

"Let her be, she will be the next ruler of this kingdom, building relations now should be good for her. Although I think her words have other meanings behind them," Edhar replied and Hazel agreed.

"This way please," Auriana led them through a door leading to the dining room. "It is our tradition, we'll, one shared with the humans to always receive guests with dinner. I hope what the cooks have prepared is to your liking," They stopped at the table and took their designated seats.

"As you know we only…" Adrian wanted to reply to her but Lyrus cut in between his words.

"Anything with meat in it is quite alright," Lyrus said and Auriana nodded. Lyrus looked at Adrian whom he was sure was having a hard time being around the shifters but was trying not to act disrespectful. Dining with them would be even harder for him. Their eyes met and Adrian bowed, understanding the silent words of his king.

"Your Majesty, may I ask what brings you Diric? Our kingdoms rarely have any interaction over the years," Edgar asked as they waited for the servants to serve their dinner.

"It is exactly as you have said, we barely had any interactions in the past and that was very wrong of me. It was stated in the treaty that we should learn to coexist, and live with one another but neither of us has put effort into making that happen. I have been away for many years, I mean you already have a grown-up daughter, I didn't even know about it until now. When I learned of her and the many changes in Yinia, I realized how much we, as the monarchs of our kingdoms, have neglected to build relationships with each other so I decided to make the first move. Take the first step into unifying our kingdoms. I would have gone to the Deranna, but I don't think they would be as open-minded as you would be towards us."

"That is indeed true, but we can not blame them for their distrust in you and your kingdom, can we?" Edgar said, stopping when the maids walked in, in files with the food in their hands.

They set the table and went to stand at the corner for when they would be called. Among them was Irene who was meant to serve Auriana and none other than Auriana alone. She was the last to serve the food in the places that Auriana would eat from.

"Your hands are shaking, Irene," Auriana mindinked her and she paused, bowed her head but she didn't say anything. After she finished, she bowed to everyone and left to join the others.

"Is everything okay with her?" Hazel asked Auriana. Everyone had seen what happened and it was obvious that Auriana had established a mind link with her before she left.

"She is fine. She is just nervous and this is her first time attending to me when we have royal guests. Nothing more, Mother," Auriana replied and Hazel nodded her head. She too had noticed the shaking hands of many of the maids who came to serve them. They were afraid of the vampires here. While some had nothing but contempt in their eyes and they didn't hide it.

"Leave us, we will attend to ourselves," Edgar dismissed the maids. "I am sorry you had to experience that, Your Majesty, we will make sure that they are disciplined properly next time."

"That is alright, their actions and reactions were expected," Lyrus replied. He looked beside him at the young woman seated to his left and didn't care about whatever happened. He was seated on the table with Auriana beside him. 'This is the first of many, I promise,' he said in his mind.

Auriana felt his gaze on her but refused to look at him. If only he wouldn't be so bold as to look at her so much when they were both trying to hide the truth from her parents.

"Alright then, shall we begin?" Edgar said as he didn't want to comment on the words of Lyrus. That wouldn't help matters.