Chapter 174
174 Chapter 174 : Let’s go on our honeymoon
Melissa walked slowly into the foyer where her parents, brothers and the others were waiting to welcom the king and the princes back to the palace. Carol had made made wear a long sleeved light blue dress and she covered herself with a white satin cloth since the weather was getting colder. It seemed Carol too had become aware of Elric’s obsession with the color.
She stood next to Vivian and her brothers and took a deep breath, she had made sure to wear a corset today, not that her pregnancy was at all visible, but still, there’s no such thing as taking too much precaution right?
“You’re looking lovely for your king aren’t you little sister?” William taunted Melissa.
“I’m not in the mood today William, I’ve had a rather stressful past couple of days,” Melissa responded curtly.
“I heard he locked you up in your room because you uttered the forbidden name,” William whispered.
Melissa turned to face William and frowned at him, but her adorable face only made him snicker. “Do we have a problem today William, you know I can order the gaurds to escort you out?”
“You love me too much Melissa you wouldn’t dare,” William whispered with a big smile on his face.
“You’re insufferable,” Melissa responded and turned back around.
“Don’t be so moody my dear sweet little sister,” William whispered, “your little eleven boyfriend is on his way to get you.”
.....
Melissa whipped her head quickly towards William and mouthed the words, “Gareth is on his way?”
William placed a finger over her lips and shushed her, “we’ll talk about this later baby sister, right now your king awaits.”
“But William-”
“Meet me tomorrow in the gardens and we’ll talk,” William hushed his sister, “now turn around and pretend like you missed that narcissistic silver haired bastard so we can get this over with.”
Melissa turned around just as Theo announced Elric and his brothers’ arrival. Jeffrey gave a small wave to everyone and went straight up the stairs to his room. Jeffrey was always like that so no one really payed him any mind. Clovis shook everyone’s hand elegantly but stood awkwardly when he reached Julia.
“Hey...” Clovis mumbled sheepishly.
“Hi..” Julia responded with a shy smile.
“I wasn’t gone too long was I?”
“No, just like you promised,” Julia responded.
“Will you too get a room please,” Elric mumbled as he moved towards Melissa after greeting and dismissing the rest of the palace occupants.
Juiia blushed as Clovis offered her his hand, “shall we?”
“Get a room?”
Clovis’ eyes widened and he shook his head, “no that’s not what I meant!” The prince spoke in a panic, he hoped Julia didn’t now see him like some pervert. He looked down at her and was relieved to see her giggling, “were you toying with me?”
“Maybe a little,” the green eyed woman chuckled before taking Clovis’ hand and walking with him down the hall to the gardens.
Melissa smiled to herself as she watched Julia walk away with Clovis, they mad a very good couple, the height difference was a lot but that’s what made them look even more adorable together.
“You seem happy about their relationship,” Elric commented upon seeing Melissa’s smile.
“You may not believe it but Julia and I are friends now,” Melissa responded with a proud smile.
“I’m glad you’re all getting along, especially considering she might be your sister in marriage soon,” the king spoke as he adjusted Melissa’s bun.
“Are you saying that Clovis-”
“Yes, he plans on marrying her,” Elric responded, “my uptight older brother might actually be in love, how crazy is that?”
“Oh my goodness I’m so happy for them!” Melissa squealed in excitement. The sparkle in her eyes made Elric smile, they had been in such a bad place for a while that he had almost forgotten how beautiful Melissa was when she was happy.
“You look beautiful in blue,” Elric spoke happily and placed his hands on her shoulders.
The gesture made Melissa uncomfortable but she did her best to hide it, she smiled at the silver haired king and nodded her head, “thank you.”
Elric pulled Melissa in for a hug, and as soon as her body was against his he felt it again, that overwhelming flood of emotions, the love and the care just came pouring out of him. He let her go and moved back a little, his brows furrowed almost immediately making Melissa worried.
Had he noticed she was pregnant? Did lycans have some sort of sixth sense for things like this?
Elric pulled her in for a hug again which he stopped shortly afterwards and looked at Melissa with a confused gaze.
“Is anything the matter?” The redhead questioned Elric. In reality she didn’t really want to know, she was scared that he had figured it out and was terrified of how he was going to react.
“No,” Elric responded with a smile, “nothing is wrong my beautiful wife, shall we go to our chambers so we can chat about what you’ve been up to these past few days while I was away.”
“Well ive been locked up for the past few days,” Melissa responded as she led the way back to their room, “so I don’t have much to tell.”
“Oh yes about that...” Elric took Melissa’s hand in his and stroked it gently with his thumb as they walked, “I’m so sorry about that Lissa, I was upset and jealous and I overeated. I should have handled that differently.”
“It’s alright,” Melissa responded. It’s alright because I got pregnant for the one man who you absolutely loathe and I’m about to leave you and spend the rest of my life making more babies with him. She would I have said that, but she knew that was like sentencing herself to death.
When they reached their chambers, Elric took Melissa’s hands in his and pulled her close. “Why don’t we go on a well deserved honeymoon?”
Melissa batted her lashes in shock, “you want us to go for a.. a honeymoon? But we’ve been married for a long time already.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Elric responded while pulling the blue eyed woman closer and wrapped a hand around her waist. “After all, we were a bit interrupted before. Now we can go and relax without any distractions or disturbances.”
“Well what about the kingdom? Who will-”
“I’ll leave everything to Theo,” Elric countered her, “he’s done it before and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind doing it again for a few days. We need some time to ourselves Lissa, we need to sire the kingdom some heirs.”
The statement made shivers run down her spine, and not the good kind. She couldn’t let it happen, if they went to their honeymoon, they would have to sleep together and if that happened, Elric might think the baby she was carrying was his.
“Lissa?” Elric cupped her face in his hands and studied her, “you’re suddenly pale, are you okay?”
Melissa nodded and smiled weakly at Elric, “I’m okay I’m just tired,” she lied.
“I’m equally exhausted,” Elric replied as he opened the door and led her into the room. “Let me get a maid to prepare a nice hot bath for us while we wait for dinner.”
“Sure..”
*
Aiden materialize from the shadows and walked towards where Theodora was sitting and beside her, was a man who looked half dead.
“Is this him?” Aiden spoke as he inched closer to the man who was plopped up against a tree.
“I suspect so, I found him lurking around in the woods and he’s been mumbling about the elven prince’s sister for hours now,” she responded.
“Why isn’t he tied up?”
“He can’t run even if he wanted to,” Theodora explained, “I found him in a bush practically on the verge of insanity, or death, or both. Someone got to him before I did.”
“Did you see who? Is it someone we have to worry about?” Aiden asked as he crouched in front of the man.
“No, I just found him laying there,” Theodora explained, “I fingered once he calms down we can extract some information from him,”
Aiden grabbed the man’s jaw and turned his face towards his, the redheads man furrowed his brows when he noticed the faint eye tattoo on Renly’s forehead. “Theodora you’ve done an immaculate job.”
The nosferatu woman turned to Aiden, “is he valuable?”
Aiden turned the whimpering man’s face towards Theodora, “you see that tattoo on his forehead? I’ve seen this very tattoo on one of those mages that took Estel.” He turned back to look at the man with raven back hair and gave him a menacing look. “I will enjoy torturing every single drop of information out of you.”
Renly felt his heart sink, hadn’t he been through enough already. First he had been badly tortured and almost killed, dragged by a woman all the way here in his injured state, and now this? Who were these people they were dealing with? And why wasn’t his master saving him from them?