CHAPTER 400: YOUR ARMS AROUND ME COME UNDONE

*cheers to 400 chaps and happy new September!!

[KAWAI]

"Hello, Chief, Prince Kaito prepared this for you himself," Kiyoi, the palace chef, suddenly said, snapping Kosta back into the real world.

The poor man had been thinking way too much of everything, and so far, there wasn’t a solution that made him sit with ease. It was as if the world itself was determined to make a fool of him.

If Kosta was being honest, he didn’t have the strength to keep up with this; he didn’t have the energy to get to the bottom of whatever the fuck Tamiko had planned for him at the moment.

The prince was good at playing mind games, and it was no surprise that he had inherited that from his father. Everything about the Hinatas was a hell for everyone else who was not one of them. It was as if the world seemed to fade in the silence.

Gods, that was what Kosta wanted tonight.

He didn’t want to think of anyone at this moment.

He just wanted to be left alone.

But the smile on Kiyoi’s face, like the palace was suddenly in the best of points, was scaring the hell out of him, a seasoned Lycan chief who had won endless wars for Kawai alongside the masking himself.

It just made no sense, but so were a lot of things tonight. Kosta just had to brace himself for whatever the hell was still coming his way this time, right?

"What?" Kosta asked as he stared at the Lycan chef.

He knew that the palace chefs never did anything outside the orders of the Hinata family.

Yet here Kiyoi was, outside the place with a plate of something that smelled so familiar it was as if the world hadn’t just stumped beneath Kosta’s feet, and he wasn’t sure what he needed to do yet.

Everything about this place was unsettling, and strangely, there was still someone who was smiley in the midst of it all. This was madness. This was insanity, and there was nothing that could be done to convince Kosta otherwise.

What the actual fuck was going on at this point?

"He said the food served at the dinner was too greasy and would upset your stomach, so he made this for you personally. Something about him knowing what you needed best tonight," Kiyoi added.

Instinctively, Kosta looked up towards the west window of the palace. The one place where a certain someone always stood as he watched the moon in the night. Kosta had always looked in that direction for the past weeks and never saw anyone.

Yet tonight, a part of him was hopeful that he would see someone, hopeful that even in his misery, he wasn’t alone. Hopeful that the night sky wasn’t messing with his mind and that perhaps there would be a hint of hope for him there.

Maybe he was overthinking it, and yet tonight seemed to be different.

The good kind.

Because right as Kosta stared at that particular window of the palace, he saw the familiar silhouette on the balcony, smiling down at him like everything was his to conquer save for Kosta.

Smiling down like the world was shit and Kosta was the only good thing about the realm in itself.

"Take it back... I already ate," Kosta said defiantly.

The smile fell off Kiyoi’s face.

For a moment, the man wasn’t sure if the food was terrible or if this was just the Lycan Chief reminding the mischievous prince that not everything could be fixed with food. Well, for this night, maybe.

But Kosta was determined to prove that he was not easy, that he was not going to be swayed with a plate of food from the one person who had hurt him the most. He was determined to prove he was not cheap.

But then he could stop thinking of Tamiko in the palace kitchens, cooking for him, like that, was the most domestic they had ever been together. It was creepy to say the least, yet Kosta could feel his heart warming at the height.

"Your Highness?" Kiyoi asked, looking at Kosta.

"My apologies, Kiyoi. But the dinner you and the staff made was good enough tonight. I have no space left for an extra dish," Kosta said with a tender smile as if he had even put any food into his mouth tonight.

He hated that Tamiko knew him so well.

He hated that Tamiko could tell that shit wasn’t okay with him and that he had been too much in shock to even think straight.

Kosta despised himself for how weak he was for Tamiko. For how he had gone from being the most powerful Chief in the realm to a soft omega just because Tamiko had called him a beautiful princess.

He hated how that was all that he was thinking about, yet he had made a name for himself in the books of the worst and most brutal men in all of history. He was in the history books for fucks sake.

So, what was this about him being upset about dinner?

What the hell was he even before Tamiko?

"I understand. Please excuse me," Kiyoi said as he bowed and left.

Kosta watched as the palace chef’s back retreated, and he hated that this was what he had become; he hated every bit of himself because of Tamiko. He hated what he had been reduced to.

And gods, he wished he were just another warrior. Just another man the king didn’t care to know about. Just another soldier who fought and won wars in the name of the king. He wished he were just a Lycan chief, to Chief Kostantin.

Not the kind of man invited to his palace if it were worth something.

He had only ever wanted Tamiko, and that, too, was a burden for him, and he hated every single bit of it. Kosta despised himself for being so gullible, and he hated the he shit had gotten for him.

Of course, he could have been skeptical about being poisoned by the prince, but Kosta knew Tamiko enough to know that the prince would die before he let himself be the reason Kosta was hurt.

But why did this moment hurt so badly?

Why did it feel like the sky was mocking him for not being strong enough?

For not having the strength to hold his win against a love that had him by the damn guts?

"Fuuckkk!!!" Kosta shouted angrily once he was sure the chef was out of sight, and then he began trashing the place out of frustration.

The tables that had been set.

The chairs that had been conjured and left there.

The plates that had been left on the tables.

Kosta trashed it all.

He broke everything he could see.

It was a huge setting, and yet he found it in himself to ruin it all. And when he was done, when he was bleeding and tired, he curled up on the ground, in the midst of the mess he had created, desperate to shut everyone out.

He was sure so many people had heard him, but none had even come to check on him. Or maybe they had, and someone had stopped then? But what the fuck was his life supposed to be then?

Why was no one showing up then?

What of Akila?

Surely the man had heard his boss trash things, right?

And in a moment of weakness, Kosta picked up a steak knife and plunged it into his heart.