Triplet Lycan Kings' Mate

002-Rune

She has hair darker than the night sky, licking at her cheeks as the wind causes her scent of strawberries and wine to barrel towards my senses. Porcelain skin, freckles on her nose, she has the kind of face that even the gods would crave to have one look of. Her lips...oh, she has the most perfect set of heart shaped lips that look like they crave to be kissed but why do I get the feeling that I would be too lucky to even be able to touch them?

What's wrong with me? Why am I feeling so intensely about a girl?

No reply comes from the wolf inside me. Same as the last 2000 years. Ragnar has stopped speaking to me completely and it has been centuries living with an empty head.

Believe it or not, it is the most pathetic feeling for a Lycan.

Pulling my mind away from the sorrow of not being able to talk to my wolf, I focus my gaze again on the enchanting woman standing in front of me, looking at me like she intends to uncover all my secrets.

She told me her name is Freya...but from what my ears picked up, I heard her accomplice calling her by a different name a few moments ago.

I couldn't hear her real name properly, but decidedly so, I intend on uncovering it.

She's wearing an emerald coloured gown that hugs her chest in a tight corset before flowing down her voluptuous curves in a train of the softest of chiffons. Emeralds glind along her neck that match the emerald pin in her hair which she had just stolen from Mrs. Henley a while ago. A bejewelled cape sits on her shoulders and the same elegant fabric flows down the length of her slender arms and I cannot help but think that her appearance is only lacking one thing— a gold and emerald crown sitting on top of her head.

Wait...what?

Why did I just think of making some random woman the queen of the seven kingdoms?

Why did I just imagine her wearing the crown that my ma—

No...

Why am I not drunk enough right now? I knew I should not have chosen to come here sober. The thoughts are simply unbearable!

I immediately distract myself by dropping my hand from hers, "so, lady Freya, how are you liking Valencia so far? I'm sure you miss the crashing waves and beach sand of Muneria. Especially since Valencia is the complete opposite of it. We hardly get any sun here, you know? Today is one of the rare days." Gesturing to my surroundings, I try to seem friendly when in reality I wish to find out everything about this woman.

She has me unsettled in just one meeting and I need to know what it is about her that is making me feel this way.

Bloody hell, I need a drink before anything else.

"I do miss the sun." She states and her melodious voice sound like the peaceful chimes of the temple bell. She's moonlight personified in a short and elegant woman. She barely reaches my chest and looking down at her, I feel like cupping her beautiful face and just staring into her deep blue eyes.

I have only ever seen this shade of striking blue eyes once before...

My heart starts racing as the subject of all my dreams and nightmares floats into my consciousness and I am tortured by the memories of a similar pair of blue eyes.

No moment passes by when I don't miss her.

"But then..." Morana's voice brings me out of my thoughts, "Valencian cold also has it's own charm. It's beautiful in the snow." She states with a smile that reminds me of a field of goldenray flowers.

This woman has me in her grip and she doesn't even know it.

"You're a long way from home, aren't you? Evara is all the way on the other side of the Empire. Any particular reason?" She asks, continuing the conversation while I am only trying to look into her eyes and not think of whom they remind me of.

Bloody hell, she has the exact same pair of eyes as Es—

NO!

I have to scold my own conscience because I haven't thought of that name out loud in the last 3000 years. I haven't dared to.

And I'm not going to break that record now just because I made the mistake of coming to a party sober.

"I like spending my summers in a colder place." I tell her with a coy grin uplifting my lips before stepping closer to her with the same expression. "Besides, it gives me a chance to meet fair maidens such as yourself. What more could a man want?" My eyes are boring into hers and if she is anything like all the women I have encountered in my last three thousand years, I would have her eating out of my palm in no time whatsoever.

However, much to my amazement, the woman in front of me barely gives me a blushing glance as her lips turn up in a knowing smirk before she lowers her voice, "careful, Lord Rune, sometimes meeting fair maidens can prove to be quite a task for one's heart, isn't that so?"

I blink at her. Surprised by her response I open my mouth to find a retort to her words but before I can say anything, she curtseys in front of me.

"I will see you around the ton, Lord Rune."

And giving me a soft grin, she walks away from me, taking a small gold pin that was attached to the edge of my tunic with her, thinking that I didn't notice her swift theft.

I wouldn't have, had I been a mere mortal. However, my royal Lycan blood has gifted my senses. But even after knowing that the woman has just stolen from me, I stand there, watching her walk away, thinking about her blue eyes that haunt the edges of my conscience and her wit that reminds me of something too close to my heart.

My feet carry me out of the exit of this place as my carriage awaits me right in front of my eyes.

"Come on, Brooke." I say to my carriage driver, "take me to the nearest tavern, mate." I mutter, realising how big of a fool I was for starting off this morning without my fix.

I have spent the last three thousand years under the effect of intoxication, some form or other, and today, surprisingly, I had decided to march into that blasted soiree without the thrum of liquor dancing in my veins — what a fool I was!