CHAPTER 367: A LITTLE BIT SCANDALOUS [1]

[KAWAI]

"Protect me? You’re hurting me, Nana. I love him. You know it. Everyone in the realm knows it, too. Why is it so hard for you to just let me be happy? You know he’s the one for me. He is the reason I want to go on living, Nana.

"He makes... he makes the nightmares go away. I can’t lose him," Igor said, defeated.

Yilena just sighed.

She knew this wasn’t the easiest thing she had to do, but she also knew that this was for the best. Maybe Igor was not on the same page as her right now, but he would eventually. He would understand that she had done what was best for him.

"He is dangerous, Igor. He will hurt you. You know that, too, don’t you?" Yilena said as she stared at the kid before her.

To her, Igor was still the boy she had been assigned to protect, the kid whose life meant so much to her that she wouldn’t let her nephew fuck it up. They had fought the night that Igor had come back to them from captivity because of Tamiko.

Yilena had scolded him so much that that night, Kosta hadn’t slept a wink. She had been right and harsh, but love was love. There was nothing that the woman was saying that Igor didn’t know about yet.

But he wanted Tamiko.

He wouldn’t let them take his Erasthai from him.

"He is my Erasthai! How the hell am I supposed to live without him?" Igor cried out as the king, Lord Sadako, and Danny walked in. He could see the defeat on their faces and the certainty that was written all over the king’s face.

No father wanted to hear that the child was a danger to others or even wanted to deprive them of happiness, but this was just something that even Zaffuto couldn’t interfere with.

He needed to know what logic had been used here because otherwise this was pointless. He would lose a lot and had to think. He had to do what’s best for his son, too.

"You’ll live. But you must not go to Tamiko, that is not negotiable. The kid is a danger to you. Everything about him is power and ruin. He may not be the one holding the sword pointed at you, but he sure is the motivation for it.

"You might hate me for it today, but you will understand it someday. You will know why I did all of this, and you will realize that I did it for your good," Yilena insisted, and Igor felt like he had just been gutted.

His guardian was talking about his life like it was so okay and that things would eventually blow over, but he knew nothing would ever be the same. He knew it, and he understood it a little too well.

He knew what life without Tamiko looked like.

He knew what life with Tamiko looked like.

And honestly, all he wanted was Tamiko.

All he needed was Tamiko.

This little fucked-up fantasy that Yilena was setting him up for wouldn’t last a while and he knew it. They all had to have known it, right?

"You’re letting her break Tamiko’s heart like that?" Kosta asked as he looked at the king, Lord Sadako, and Danny – the trio that would never hesitate to lay down their lives for the said boy.

It wasn’t even a question of whether they would give up everything for Tamiko. It was evident in every way. The king was the father who had sworn to protect his son and his happiness.

The Lycan Lord was on who had sworn to be there for Liana’s kid and make sure the kid was the happiest, along with her brother. Danny was the werewolf turned Lycan who had left his entire life back in Grealor just because Tamiko had come calling for him.

It wasn’t hard to tell what they would and wouldn’t do, which was why Igor didn’t understand why the fuck they seemed okay with all of this.

He didn’t understand what it was about the chaos that didn’t trigger them enough, or maybe they just wanted to see the two mates miserable as fuck, right?

Would that be a better explanation for the madness that lingered in the hallways of Kawai? Would it ever be enough to make it all make sense, or was this just another attempt at a life that would never have meaning, unless they found a way to fix it?

"Tamiko made his choice, Igor. He chose you," King Zaffuto said, and Igor stared at him in disbelief. He had expected the king to at least be on their side, but then it was like the man had long changed course.

It was crazy how life changed so fast, and the tides didn’t even seem to be making a lot of sense. This was a statement that hurt Igor to the core. The king had spoken, and it wasn’t in their favor.

What the fuck had he been expecting then? That he would wake up and look at his son for once? Maybe that was a pipe dream, and Igor hated himself for even leaning into it. This wasn’t how shit was supposed to be and it hurt.

Oh, gods, it hurt like hell.

"Chose me? Me? If he chose me, then why the fuck did he leave? If he chose me, why am I the one standing in the same place we had stood in the morning? If he chose me, then why the fuck am I so miserable without him?

"Where is he? You say he chose me, but I am the one standing here looking like an idiot in love, waiting to be chosen once again, and yet to insist and try to make me believe that he chose me. I love him.

"I will find him. And if you try to stop me, you will not just lose your Lycan Chief, your majesty. You will lose me, too," Igor said angrily as he entered the house.

He was raging, but it was nothing compared to the rage on his face when the portal that was supposed to take him to the palace led him back to where he had just been standing.

Defiantly, he created more portals, but the result was the same. And Igor hated it. He hated them for doing this to him; to them. He hated them for making the choice that would ruin their hearts.

He hated them for taking that which wasn’t there to take in the first place.

He despised whatever the fuck this was an di twas evident on his face.

"You grounded me? At a thousand years old? Are you fucking serious right now?" Igor asked as he threw his hands beside him, wondering what the hell he had just been roped into.

"No. Like you said, you were here with Tamiko. He protected this place. And before he left, he blocked all portals to the place. The only way you go to the palace is as the Lycan Chief, not as the Lycan prince’s Erasthai, Konstantin," Lord Sadako said.

Igor let out a humorless laugh.

"So... he abandons me, too, huh?"