CHAPTER 368: A LITTLE BIT SCANDALOUS [2]

[KAWAI]

"So... he abandons me, too, huh?" Igor asked disbelievingly. They had already gone through so much with Tamiko that he wasn’t going to let the prince go. He would do whatever it took to get to Tamiko.

If the prince didn’t want his Erasthai, the Igor would be that Lycan Chief. The one that wanted so badly? He would be it. He would be the man who had sworn to protect Tamiko, even if he had to protect him from himself.

This wasn’t what he had imagined after all the sweet moments they had had yesterday, but it seemed like the universe was once again working against their bond, and unlike the other times when Kosta had let the universe fuck them up, this time, he would fight back.

He would fight for the man he loved. He would fight for the love that had always been his. He would fight for what they both needed, and not even the setting sun was going to take that away from him.

He wouldn’t let anyone screw them over and she would make sure the elm was aware of it.

"Igor—" Danny spoke softly and genuinely to Kosta for the first time, but Kosta just laughed sadly.

"You speak my name for the first time without rage, and it’s because I was abandoned by your best friend? How the world has changed," Igor laughed.

He was not even sure what he would do and how he would figure all of this out, but one thing he was sure of was that he wasn’t about to go down alone. He would make sure the realm knew what they needed.

Of what he had worked so hard for, he would make sure everyone knew what life would be like for him.

"That isn’t—" Danny tried, but Igor stopped him.

"Don’t worry, Daniel. This isn’t the end. He will only let me be beside him if I am the Lycan Chief, right? Then I will do that for him. I will be the Chief he screwed us up for, that dmaning position.

"I will be the Lycan prince’s Lycan Chief," Igor said, his words sounding like a thousand and one stabs at the pope around him. But that didn’t matter. They had made him like this.

They had tried to screw him up in the name of protection. They knew the realm was already fucked up and still let Tamiko out there, alone. This wasn’t the time for him to wallow, because Igor needed to see Tamiko.

He needed to see his best friend, and if being a Lycan Chief was the only way out, then he would do it.

Even if it hurts.

Even if it made his heart shatter into tinier pieces.

Even if it made him hate himself and the mate bond for the tribulations they had had to go through.

"Kid, you will be working with the ministers in the newly acquired free lands," Yilena said.

Kosta froze.

He wasn’t sure the evening could get any worse, but now he was sure that these people wanted to see him dead, dead and gone.

It was one thing to be abandoned by Tamiko, to be forced away, but to be reassigned from the place that’s so he wouldn’t be able to see Tamiko was wild shit. This was not fair, and he wasn’t going to let it happen.

"Kill me then," Igor said dramatically and insistently.

Danny facepalmed.

Yilena stared at Kosta defiantly.

She wasn’t giving up.

She had made up her mind, and no one was going to change her mind.

At least that was obvious in the way he was addressing Kosta.

Her tone was one that dared the king and Lord Sadako to deny what she had said, but she knew they wouldn’t. None of them would ever go against Yilena., after all, this was honestly the best thing for the two Erasthais.

Their lives were already fucked up enough as it was, but this was not even getting any better.

"I think we don’t rate each other just yet, kid. You either go to the free lands and be the Lycan Chief from here, so I will put you to sleep for three thousand years, and we both know what that will do to Tamiko.

"A life without you will mean that he will turn into a worse version of his father. You have already seen the darkness inside of him, and you know that he is already worse than Zaffuto.

"Imagine a world without you to keep him sane, a world in which he won’t even be told that you live and are asleep. A world that will ruin whatever love is left in his heart. The mate bonds can only be dormant for three hundred years before they snap, and the mates are reassigned.

"You want to risk three thousand? Oh, and you know he is a prince, a Hinata kid. He bears the curse of Hinatas. The curse of the mate bonds, one that will never let him be free. Hinatas only fall in love once in their lives.

"You want that for your precious little Tamiko? Want him lonely for a thousand years, kid? You know I can give it to you. All you have to do is just nod, and I will," Yilena said, her voice soft and comforting.

Meanwhile, her words were pure venom and sounded like the worst possible thing that could ever happen in the realm.

Kosta could already picture a world in which Tako was alone and clinging onto him. He had seen and heard what had happened in the realm for the five days he had gone missing.

Five days had been enough for the realm to be turned upside down, and it wasn’t even because he had been harmed. Someone had kidnapped him and Tamiko had completely lost his shit.

If Yilena went through with her threat, there wouldn’t be a life left to live, there wouldn’t be a Kawai to wake up to. There wouldn’t be a mate to come home to and damn was it a cruel punishment.

Kosta wanted to call the bluff, but judging by the horror on the faces of King Zaffuto and Lord Sadako, Kosta knew she was being honest with him. She would do that if that’s what she had to, to protect Kosta.

It was a cruel and probably insane way to see the kid alive, but it wasn’t that Yilena Sidorova wasn’t opposed to. She had lived through the toughest of times, and she knew what this would mean.

That was hell, honestly, and even that was something that she understood a little too well. There was no point in trying to strike a bargain here, because she had spoken with a tone of finality, however soft and venomous everyone had gotten.

"You wouldn’t..." Kosta said, and Yilena stared into his eyes, silently asking him if that was a dare or not. It was always a terrible idea to dare a Hinata, and Kosta knew that for the years he had lived under Yilena’s care. He had to think, and fast.

"But I love him, Nana," Kosta sighed in defeat.

"The orders for eternal sleep," Yilena challenged boredly as she got up. It was almost like she didn’t even have the time to be standing here beside Igor, listening to him throw tantrums. But was it just the tantrums?

"I can still see him, right?" Kosta asked softly.

The options he had been given didn’t sound like choices for his duty. If he wasn’t allowed to see his Erasthai, then he would as well choose to be put to sleep. Because at least in his sleep, there would be nothing.

Just darkness that didn’t taunt, and one that he wouldn’t even be aware of. He would sleep and sleep and fade slowly. Because he was also smart enough to know that he wouldn’t make up the same way.

He would be a crueler version of himself today.

"As the Lycan Chief," Yilena said, heading for the door ever so casually.

"Okay."

"If you break that promise, kid—"

"I know, I know," Kosta said angrily.

He hated this.

He despised what had happened, and he hated that Tamiko had given in to this chaos.

"Now leave me be... All of you," Kosta said, kicking them out when he realized that his mind link with Tamiko had been restructured to a professional one. Oh, how life was shitty to him.

"Pack up, kid, this house will be locked," Yilena said.

Instead of Kosta fighting her, he just gave up.

There was no point in fighting it anyway.