Chapter 55: beg him more

Hazel was still sitting on her bed, staring at the floor with her thoughts running in different directions, when the door suddenly opened and Janet, Akeelah, and Rita walked inside. Akeelah did not even give her time to ask what they wanted before rushing toward her and pulling her into a tight hug.

"My gosh, I’ve missed you so much!" she exclaimed, squeezing Hazel as if she had been gone for years instead of only a few days. Hazel forced a small smile and gently patted her back. "Thank you." She was happy to see them too, but she was still confused about everything that had happened, especially after learning that Susan and Scarlett had taken her and almost used her for a forbidden spell.

Janet smiled as she sat beside Hazel and looked at her face carefully. "Why the sad face? You should be happy that His Majesty cares about you." Hazel immediately rolled her eyes and looked away. There was no way she believed Caius had saved her because he cared about her. He had probably done it because of the moon goddess, their mate bond, or because he needed her to break his curse.

Before Hazel could answer, Rita suddenly began pacing back and forth across the room with an annoyed expression. "Actually, what am I supposed to do with those bitches? I begged His Majesty to let me handle them, and I promised I would deal with them properly. I don’t even want to kill them, they don’t want me to rule them so badly that they keep causing trouble."

Akeelah sneered while looking at Rita. "You better do whatever will satisfy His Majesty because he clearly wants to deal with them himself." She then turned toward Hazel and smiled. "And you need to thank His Majesty. He went through a lot just to save you."

Hazel rolled her eyes again. There was no way Caius would have gone through all that trouble for her unless he had been forced to do it somehow. "Why would I?" she asked stubbornly. Rita stopped pacing and looked at her as if she had just heard the most ridiculous thing in the world. "You are too arrogant. Are you seriously telling me you can’t apologize for walking out in front of him in the throne hall and even hurting his guards right in front of him?"

Hazel’s eyes immediately narrowed. "Why would I apologize?" she asked dramatically "Nobody wants to talk about everything he has done to me, but everyone wants me to thank him and apologize to him. Never!" She folded her arms, remembering how Caius had sent her to the battlefield simply because she had annoyed him. She had nearly been killed there, and nobody seemed to care about that part.

Akeelah suddenly grinned while Janet tried to hide her laugh. "I don’t know about the apology," Akeelah said, "but you will definitely beg him several times." She gave Hazel a teasing smirk, and Janet finally chuckled beside her.

Hazel sighed and shook her head. "You don’t have to worry. I won’t provoke him again. I thought provoking him would make him show some feelings, but I’ve already made up my mind completely."

Janet raised a brow. "We mean you will still have to beg your king sometimes, and you may even have to cry for him."

Hazel stared at her in confusion, wondering why on earth she would ever need to beg and cry for Caius. "Is he dying?" she asked seriously, and the three women stared at her for a second before Rita groaned in frustration. "Ahhh! You are so annoying. They mean you will still beg him when both of you are alone." She shrugged casually. "Maybe when he’s on top of you, that kind of pleading."

Hazel froze as the meaning finally entered her head. "What the heck?!"

Her face became completely red, and she quickly grabbed the nearest pillow and buried her face inside it. "Stop it!" she cried while Janet and Akeelah burst into laughter.

Rita also smiled because she had finally managed to embarrass the stubborn girl. Hazel refused to remove the pillow from her face for several seconds, wishing she could disappear through the bed. She had already been embarrassed enough by the moon goddess’s twenty-eight-day order, and now these women were making it even worse.

Akeelah eventually sat beside her and patted her shoulder. "Cheer up. You have someone to deal with, remember?" Hazel slowly lifted her head, and the embarrassment on her face disappeared as soon as she remembered exactly who Akeelah meant. Scarlett.

A cold expression replaced the smile on Hazel’s face as she remembered everything Scarlett had done to her. She remembered how Scarlett had humiliated her in front of everyone and turned people from her own pack against her. She remembered being treated badly by her father’s guards and, most of all, she remembered the slap from the guard named John. The memory alone made Hazel’s eyes turn colder. She had spent too much time thinking about Caius and his problems, but now she had another problem waiting for her.

Scarlett. Hazel suddenly turned toward Janet. "Can I go back to our pack and spend the weekend there?" Janet and Akeelah exchanged a quick look, while Rita raised a brow. "You will have to ask your mate for permission," Rita replied casually.

Hazel’s expression changed the moment she heard the words your mate. She still couldn’t believe the legendary Werewolf King was actually her mate, and the thought of asking him for permission made her uncomfortable.

Nobody in the world would believe that Caius was her mate if they did not already know the truth. Still, Hazel needed to return to her pack because something about her mother had been bothering her for a while, and she had completely forgotten to ask the moon goddess what was really happening with her family.

...

That night, Caius stood alone on one of the balconies of his palace, staring down at the large pool below. The night was quiet, but his mind was anything but peaceful.

Everything the witches had said earlier kept returning to him, especially the fact that Hazel had absorbed the energy from the forbidden spell instead of being weakened by it. She had regained her full strength, and now she was capable of seeing things he wanted her to see, but there was something about her soul that bothered him.

Hazel was apparently a reincarnated person.

Caius’s eyes narrowed as he stared into the distance. He knew there were witches who had discovered ways to return to life after death, especially when they still had unfinished business in the living world.

Some of them came back because of revenge, while others returned because they wanted to complete forbidden magic they had failed to finish in their previous lives. However, Caius was almost certain that Hazel was a pure werewolf, and there was no dark witch energy inside her. The problem was that he had no idea who she had been in her previous life or why the moon goddess had chosen her to become his mate.

He remained deep in thought until he noticed movement near the pool. Caius’s eyes immediately focused on the figure walking toward the water.

Hazel.

She was looking around as if she wanted to make sure nobody was watching her. She walked closer to the pool, but the moment she looked up and saw Caius standing on the balcony, she froze.

Their eyes met.

Hazel’s face changed immediately. She looked as if she had just seen a terrifying monster.

Without saying anything, she quickly turned around and walked away.

Caius watched her leave with a strange expression on his face.

Why did she run?

He remained there for a moment before looking back toward the pool, but something inside him felt unsettled. He should have ignored her as usual, yet his eyes kept moving toward the direction she disappeared.

Not long after, he heard footsteps approaching. Hazel was walking back toward him. She stopped a few steps from him, looked at him nervously, and took a deep breath.

Caius raised a brow.

Hazel opened her mouth, but no words came out immediately. She came to ask him for permission to return to her pack. But standing in front of him now, she suddenly wondered whether asking him would be as easy as she had imagined.