Conquering His Cold Heart

Then he posed some of his own questions to the King in response, “I guess the late alpha was mad at me because you took my side and not his? Even though I am just a man with no power, you favored me instead of him. Maybe that’s the reason why?”

Lorenzo looked down at the stacks of files on the desk in front of him and slightly clenched his jaw before further trying to prove his point, making it sound as though he was only making speculation, “I think he was taking out his anger and maybe he was trying to make me pay for the humiliation I caused him.”

“Why, no!” Everard exclaimed in disagreement with Lorenzo. “If anything, he was the one who brought that humiliation upon himself. And dare I say, bless his soul, that he deserved it.”

Lorenzo flicked his brows and sighed. He pursed his lips and subconsciously nodded in agreement to the King’s words, for he knew that the King wasn’t wrong.

Romulus indeed deserved the humiliation. To say the least, it was way less than how he actually deserved to be treated, considering all the schemes he wove to drag all those who were caught in his carefully spread webs.

Although he greatly agreed with Everard, Lorenzo carefully chose his words. “I cannot be the judge of what he deserved and what he didn’t. But no matter how worse he treated me right before his umm… I am still saddened by his sudden death.”

“Well obviously,” Everard retorted while frowning. “For good or worse, he was your alpha.” He pinched the bridge of his nose again and mumbled while massaging it, “However, that didn’t give him the right to punish you for something that he brought upon himself!”

Lorenzo could clearly see the anger that Everard was feeling on his behalf when he listened to him speaking further.

.....

“He simply had a massive ego that didn’t let him see beyond himself. As you said, he just couldn’t stand our friendship and wanted to drag you down.”

Lorenzo seconded Everard’s opinion on the matter. “Surely, he was trying to let me know that he was the one wielding the ropes of my fate. I guess that was what the punishment was for. For his power display?”

He paused for a moment and mumbled, “I don’t know. He was a hard man to understand.”

Both Everard and Lorenzo heaved a deep sigh and the room was filled with silence.

And although they didn’t want to, a part of their minds was thinking if the other had played some role in the sudden death of the late alpha.

The seed of doubt, however small, was planted in the mind of Lorenzo by Regulus; while it got planted in Everard’s mind after listening to Lorenzo’s story. They were, however, unable to think of a way to indirectly bring it up.

How were they going to bring it up indirectly anyway? By asking where they were on that day without being too obvious about it? Right now, it seemed impossible to ask that without raising some level of suspicion.

For the time being, in their hearts, both of them decided to give the matter regarding Romulus a rest.

“Anyway, Your Majesty,” Lorenzo cleared his throat and said with a fake smile on his face, “I shall stop my sob story here. I did not wish to complain so much right after meeting you after so long.”

“Oh, you don’t have to be cautious around me, Lorenzo. You can share things that have been happening in your life.” Everard smiled back and added, “That’s what friends are for. Sharing your woes as well as your happiness.”

“I agree.” Lorenzo’s forced smile turned into a real one when he heard the King addressing him as his friend, although it was already a well-established fact among them. “And that reminds me of something.”

“Reminds you of what?” Everard asked enthusiastically.

Lorenzo was, however, serious when he asked something he already knew. “Is there any news about Miss Ruby? Did you find her yet?”

Several lines of dissatisfaction instantly appeared on Everard’s forehead. He shook his head and answered in a monotone, “No. I have not found her yet. It’s as if…”

His voice somewhat began cracking and his heart began aching when he recalled how he had pushed Ruby out of his life. He leaned back on his chair and mumbled in a dry and rough voice, “It’s as if she turned into a puff of smoke and vanished from the face of the Earth. I can’t seem to find her anywhere.”

“Apologies, Your Majesty. I did not wish to pry into your personal affairs,” Lorenzo quickly apologized from his heart for knowingly reminding the King of the sadness.

“It’s alright.” Everard pressed his lips together. His eyes dilated as he further went down memory lane.

Lorenzo, on the other hand, was trying to get the information that he had promised Ruby. “Sorry to ask you about another private matter again but… Did you find Miss Ruby’s parents? You had mentioned how she might come to you if you were to bring her parents here.”

Everard rubbed his forehead and heaved a deep breath. “Nothing I wish to do ever goes right, Lorenzo. The spies I sent never came back. Now I am starting to wonder if… they already found themselves entangled with the vampires.”

Lorenzo had speculated way before that it might have been the case. “If they haven’t returned until now then you should perhaps give up on them. They probably have already been martyred, if not then they are probably imprisoned and are being tortured.”

Everard let out a grunt as though he was in physical pain.

The guards who were outside instantly asked, “Your Majesty, is there a problem?”

“No. Everything is quite fine.” Everard replied while rolling his eyes. He then covered his face with both of his palms and rubbed.

And he started to blabber to Lorenzo, “If they are imprisoned and not killed then I might have to send another letter of apology to that damned King! I hope they didn’t get themselves caught by those bloodsuckers.”

“Another apology letter?” Lorenzo asked with visible confusion lingering on his face.

Everard suddenly got up from his chair and began pacing back and forth while holding his arms behind his back. “You missed out on a lot, Lorenzo. Someone led an independent attack on the vampires and Alexander after my coronation ball. And it almost escalated to a damned war! The situation was very close to going out of control.”

“An attack? A war?” Lorenzo’s jaw almost touched the floor. “When did all that happen? What’s happening now? Is it solved?”

“I think you can say that the war has been stopped for now. At least until my face-to-face meeting with Alex.” Everard turned to face Lorenzo and said as a grumpy expression resided on his face, “I wouldn’t have hesitated to go into a war if it was just the vampires. But I couldn’t drag Alexander into a war because of my pride.”

Lorenzo took a shaky breath in upon realizing how close Romulus was to doing exactly what he said he would do. It didn’t take a second guess for Lorenzo to conclude that it was Romulus who had led that independent attack with the intention of framing Everard.

‘Could it be possible that the King got rid of the late alpha after all?’ Lorenzo thought to himself as he stared into the fiery eyes of Everard.