LYCAN'S HIDDEN LOVE

Scent Of Sceptical

Chapter 7 -

Jarnsaxa Residence,

Karen and D'Rona arrived at their private cabin in the restaurant of Jarnsaxa Residence; the table was purposefully positioned around the corner of the restaurant, with no links to the outside world. His nose detected the scent of ginseng diffusers and fragrant red candles shortly after Karen walked into the room.

His amber eyes swept across the low light of the room, seeing it to be ideally furnished for romance. He took a long breath and turned to face D'Rona, "Rona, don't you think you owe an explanation?" he said, his head c****d, eyebrows lifted, and voice icy.

D'Rona instantly felt less oxygen in the room after seeing his lovely gesture of questioning her, and she mentally shouted in delight. "Huh, yeah, yes, it is...”

“He was a jerk,” D’Rona said. “He was hoping to entice me with the presence of his girlfriend. So I gave him a lesson. It is not my fault.”

Karen appeared to be satisfied by her explanation, and with a shrunken face, D’Rona occupied the corner chair and took the knife to cut the cake, which was a lovely red velvet cake in heart-shaped placed on the white tablecloth of the centre table.

Karen immediately snatched an empty seat a few feet away, rubbed his nose with his fingers to detect the scent, “Ginseng!” and raised his eyebrows at the decorations to detect the intentions behind the decorations. “The effort is high. But... doesn’t it serve any purpose?”

D’Rona approached him and sat next to him while he scooped the cake, oblivious to its form, size, and embellishments. She grabbed the surprise item she had been handling in her chamber which was wrapped earlier in colourful wrapping.

Karen made a questioning motion with his eyes, and “It’s my present to you,” D’Rona said, “Go ahead and open it.”

Karen set the spoon on the table and cleaned his hand with tissue paper to reveal the present. Soon after removing the first wrapping from the present, he turned to her and said, "My portrait?"

“My prince, don't spoil the surprise,” D'Rona said, his face contorted with pity. Simply go with the flow.”

Karen was correct in her prediction that it was his portrait created by D'Rona herself, as evidenced by her signature on the image. He said, “Thank you...” and before D'Rona could utilise her tactics to unveil her deepest desires to approach him, he interrupted her thoughts with, “How is your father?”

D'Rona rolled her eyes to disapprove of his question and tried to answer him politely, “Father is fine. He is doing great in the capital under the orders of the Alpha King.”

Karen nodded at her. D’Rona continued her talking while filling the glass with the wine which was previously contaminated with secret ingredients by the manager which could induce the inner mind of the one who drank.

Karen grabbed the wine glass to fill his mouth while examining the portrait. As the drops of wine entered his throat, his mind flashed with an image of a girl from his memories. The effect of the wine opened up the secret chambers of his locked iron heart.

D'Rona observed his frowning face and impatiently asked him, “And do you have anything to say about my appearance?”

Karen looked at her for a while and answered quickly, “About you? You look good just like always. I don’t find any changes.”

D'Rona rolled her eyes and thought inwardly, “He is cold as always, not noticing any intentions of girls. How will I make him fall for me? Just a few glasses of wine would help me to get what I want.”

To ease the difficult situation for D'Rona, the manager knocked on their cabin’s door seeking permission to enter.

She voiced, “Come in, please.”

The manager filled the empty glass with champagne which he brought, saying, “My apologies for disturbing your privacy. Enjoy the night.”

D'Rona was ridiculed by the words of the manager and gave him the sharp look to soon disappear from her sight as nothing was happening as she planned out the night.

Karen gave her sharp look, “Rona, I have given you enough explanations. If you are trying to coax me, let me warn you, don’t waste your valuable time on me.”

The sharp piercing words of Karen crushed the heart and plan of D'Rona and it made her temper reach her, perks. Karen continued his cold talk, “Ask the manager to remove this mess. Let us enjoy by dining in some other place?”

D'Rona bitted her lips hard to vent her frustration of ruining her proposal planned for Karen. He looked at her shrunk face and calmed his mind for a while, “Alright Rona, let’s not waste the food, this time. But don’t repeat this in the future. Remember; don’t waste your time and money on me.”

*****

In the Liz Fangs Mansion,

The strong adrenaline was secreted along with exposure of sweat beads resulting in the trembling which occupied from head to toe a humble and feeble man. A wide grin is masked on the pale face of a man in his late 50s in a suit seated on the darker side of the room with legs crossed in the Liz Fangs Mansion.

The room which was specially built for social gatherings was shaded in dark colours and illuminated with dim lights. The large gothic-styled red cushioned chair was placed in the far most corner of the room facing the large wall-sized window, a man of late 50s smirked at the handcuffed feeble man who was knelt before him pleading for mercy.

“I smell of adrenaline,” a voice from a gothic chair reached all the corners of the room with a deep snort.

“Sir, I... pardon me, sir. My mind slipped, I will be loyal to you,” the feeble man. In a choked voice and torn eyes pleaded for forgiveness to continue his survival in the world.

The man in the suit turned his face to his right to signal his loyal servants. Soon two suited young men rushed to hold the feeble man to stand on his feet. The feeble man was scared to death and begged for mercy.

The man of late 50s gestured his fingers and his loyal guard entered with the small pistol mounted on the cushion pillow. The feeble man shouted and screamed to his full throat, “Mr Fangs, please forgive me. I won't repeat my mistakes. Please, let me survive this time. I swear to my death that I won't betray you…”

“No Sirius, you shouldn’t have messed up with Fangs. Now you have to face the consequences,” Mr Fangs took the small pistol from the cushioned pillow and pointed at the feeble man, Sirius.

Sirius continuously pleaded to scream; Mr Fangs commanded to his guards, “Rogez, this man is too noisy. Shut his mouth, I can’t focus.”

Rogez inserted a big piece of cloth into the mouth of Sirius and Mr Fangs pulled his trigger and pointed to the forehead of Sirius. Sirius was scared, the secretion of sweat was unstoppable on his body, his nostrils seemed n't be enough for him to breathe, his enlarged eyes would jump out from his sockets.

“Bang”

The deadly silence prevailed in the air while Mr Fangs left out his evil laughter, Sirius looked down to check where the bullet pierced into his body. To his wonder, he didn’t find any bloodstains on his body.

“Rogez, release him. Look how his face gone pale in shock,” Mr Fangs said to Rogez trying hard to control his laughter. Rogez released the handcuff of Sirius.

Still, Sirius couldn’t believe Mr Fangs pranked in killing him; instead, he mouthed the sound of the pistol loudly to scare him. Mr Fangs talked to Sirius, “Sirius, oh man. On your feet, relax. Why wouldn’t I kill you after knowing the truth that you raised the knife to stab behind my back? You wanna know why?”

Sirius nodded with an emotionless face wiping his sweat through his difficult breathing, “Mr Fangs... my mind was slipped by the words of Fred. Trust me; I will be loyal to you.”

“You do the mind of your mind slipped, Sirius, but I would be pleased to watch your head slip from your body rolling on the floor under my feet.”

Sirius fell to hold the legs of Mr Fangs, “I swear to god, I swear on my beloved child, I will be loyal to you. Please forgive my mistakes.”

Mr Fangs asked him while sipping from the glass filled with thick liquid, “I am not aware, what is the mistake you committed?”

“I... I helped Fred to leak the secret formula we used to brew our signature drinks to our rival. Sir, I was tempted by his words. Initially, I didn’t agree, but later...”

Mr Fangs listened to the words of Sirius carefully, “Do you regret it? Sirius, my loyal doggie”

“Ye-Yes. I regret w-what I did.” Sirius marked with stammering words.

“Oh, you have been my loyal doggie for a decade. Just a few tempting words changed your loyalty to me. (Exhaled, turned his face away to look the window) Alright, close your eyes to count from ten to reflect your regrets,” Mr Fangs sipped the drink to close his eyes.

Sirius was puzzled but followed his command of counting in reverse order, “Ten, nine, eight,...”

“Do you regret betraying me?” Mr Fangs snorted his words without turning his head still facing the window of dark clouds.

“Of course sir. I do regret,” replied Sirius quickly.

Mr Fangs strongly voiced, “Continue your accounts, don’t stop.”

“Seven, six, five, four,...” his voice trembled.

“Doggie, I don’t want you to die in regret. (Sirius widened his eyes and felt something on his throat to swallow) Oh I mean to say, you will die in regret if I do not forgive you. (chuckled) Only three counts left to choose your life. What would you choose?” Mr Fangs asked over his shoulders.

“Sir, I choose to be loyal to you till my death,” Sirius replied hard-heartedly.

“Rogez, give this man his shot,” Mr Fangs' voice was loud enough to reach Rogez stood on the corners of the room.

Sirius shivered to his core to hear the word SHOT again and thought inwardly, “Are he pulling pranks again or he is telling for real.”

Rogez quickly appeared with a bowl and Mr Fangs articulated, “My loyal doggie, do you like chocolates?”

“Sir...” Sirius was puzzled and thought inwardly, “Chocolates, oh my gosh, is he went crazy who wants to eat chocolates when I was struggling to think whether I will survive this day.”

Rogez gave the bowl to Sirius to drink, staring at the bowl for a few seconds Sirius asked, “Sir, is this a poison?”

Mr Fangs beamed with a sudden burst of laughter, “Why would I poison you, doggie Sirius? This is the one which I am going to launch next month. (He supported his arms over his knees to bend to face Sirius close) Before the grand opening of the introduction of this drink, I give you to taste it to review this drink since you worked as a quality controller of the beverages I made and to show gratitude towards your loyalty."

Sirius was worried about what would have mixed in this bowl, but came to the conclusion that if he survived this night, it must be god’s grace and closed his eyes tightly to drink from the bowl, thinking, “Even blazing anger is accepted, but can’t trust the sheepish smile from eviler."

Mr Fangs raised his hand to toast Sirius and watched the movement in the adam’s apple of Sirius and smiled evilly with curious eyes, “Doggie, I am waiting for your feedback regarding this new launch.”

“Hmm, sir, this tastes like dark chocolates, the consistency is thick compared to the other signature drinks we ever brewed. Its, Its...” Sirius stammered his words, coughing blood and lying down on the floor and having difficulty breathing.

He dropped the bowl on the floor, missing consciousness, and the bowl shattered into pieces just his soul. Mr Fangs stood to his feet, “Rogez, you i***t, what did you give him?”