Conquering His Cold Heart

One of the guards had seen the short man in the castle a few times before as well. So, he believed that Lorenzo was indeed an old friend of Everard.

He gestured towards the waiting area of the castle and said, “His Highness is taking a bath at the moment. Please wait there. We will inform him about your arrival and let you know.”

“I was invited by him. So, will you inform him right away that I am here?” Lorenzo asked in the same stern voice.

The guards didn’t like taking orders from anyone unless it was someone of higher authority from the castle. They simply looked away and were about to leave.

Seeing that, Lorenzo tried to assert dominance by puffing his chest a little and lifting his head. And he said again, “I was asked to come here at this exact time. So, if he gets angry at me for being late, then know that I am blaming the two of you for not informing him right away.”

The guards gritted their teeth at that rude ‘child’. They wanted to throw him out of the castle for trying to talk down on them. However, they swallowed their anger and gave a mirthless smile.

“I will inform him right away,” one of the guards said while trying not to sound rude. Then he walked towards Everard’s chambers.

‘I hope Everard will believe that I had an appointment with him. Or else, I will be a laughing stock in front of these pathetic guards.’ Lorenzo folded his arms and started tapping his foot on the floor.

.....

‘Come on... How long do I need to wait? I have been trying to meet him for the whole day.’ He was getting impatient by the second. Since it was already night, he was worried that Everard would deny meeting him. ‘I don’t want to return without meeting him. I don’t want to disappoint the alpha by saying that I didn’t meet him today as well. He keeps high expectations from me. I should meet his expectations.’

Thankfully for him, the guard returned with a favorable piece of news. “His Highness will meet you in his chambers. Please follow me.”

“See, I told you!” Lorenzo boasted to the guard, but in his head, he was greatly relieved that his lie wasn’t caught.

The guard led Lorenzo to the personal chambers of Everard and let him in.

However, without giving him any further instruction, that guard left from there.

“Umm... okay... I will find Everard myself,” Lorenzo mumbled to himself when the guard disappeared from his side in a flash.

“Your Highness?” Lorenzo whispered as he tiptoed around the antechamber.

There was no answer. So, he wondered if he should sit down and wait for the soon-to-be King to come outside of his bedchamber.

Just as he sat down on the chair that was in front of a tea table, he heard Everard’s voice, “Lorenzo, is that you? You can come inside.”

“Ah! Yes, Your Highness,” Lorenzo happily jumped up on his feet and walked towards the door from where he had heard Everard’s voice echoing.

However, unlike what he had thought, that room was the bathroom and not the bedroom.

Everard was lying down in the bathtub. He was resting his head on the rim of the tub, and his arms were hanging out from either side of the tub. He was closing his eyes and didn’t give any response to Lorenzo even after sensing his presence inside the bathroom.

Lorenzo wondered if he should have waited outside after all. For one, Everard wasn’t dressed. And second, the whole bathroom was reeking of booze. And to add to that, Everard looked as though he had been staying inside the bathtub for quite a while. The tips of his fingers had wrinkles on them.

‘It doesn’t look like a good time to talk with him,’ Lorenzo thought to himself.

“Umm...” he opened his mouth to ask Everard for the leave.

However, Everard looked at him and then asked in a lethargic voice, “Speak, Lorenzo. You look like you want to say something to me.”

Lorenzo wondered if Everard was sober enough to remember that they didn’t have any meeting planned beforehand.

However, since Everard had summoned him, he thought that he didn’t remember.

So, he took his chances and said, “You had asked me to be here today. You said that you wanted to talk to me. That’s why I am here.”

“Ah!” Everard adjusted his position and sat while bending his knee forward. “Is that so?” He smiled and said, “It completely escaped my mind. I’m sorry.”

Everard looked around and then pointed at a stool that the maids used while giving a bath to him. “Why don’t you sit down? Let’s talk then.”

Lorenzo gave a nervous laugh and then asked, “Um.... Aren’t you going to come out of the bath? I think the water is already cold.”

“Oh, really?” Everard dipped his hand inside the water as if his whole body wasn’t already submerged in it. “Ha!” he looked at Lorenzo and nodded his head. “You’re right! The water is already cold. How did you know that? You didn’t even dip your finger here.”

Lorenzo wondered just how many bottles Everard had chugged down for him to be that drunk. Werewolves had high resistance to liquors. And for them to get this drunk, they would need to chug a couple of gallons.

“It was just a lucky guess,” Lorenzo politely replied and then gave a hand to Everard. “Why don’t you get up? I will help you get dressed. And we can talk later.”

Everard looked around the bathroom while narrowing his eyes. “Where are all the maids? Did they all die or what?” he shouted angrily.

Even when he was drunk, his voice didn’t sound slurry at all. If it wasn’t for the senseless things he said, Lorenzo wouldn’t have guessed that Everard was not in the right state of his mind.

“You asked them not to disturb you, didn’t you?” Lorenzo threw a guess.

Everard chuckled and nodded his head. “I think so. Why am I getting so forgetful these days?” he mumbled to himself and grabbed Lorenzo’s wrist to get up.

However, the moment Lorenzo pulled Everard up, the latter collapsed right down into the tub.