The Crown's Entrapment

Calypso slowly opened his eyes, his eyelashes fluttering ever so tenderly at the familiar figure who had just entered the tavern. Hell, he could recognize her no matter how she might look like with just her one-of-a-kind scent alone… The very aloof mate of his… Aurelia Hindman. A woman who was like a mystery to him; one who was so complicated and hard to decipher that she almost looked like a puzzle to him.

[We need a different approach. This time, you should listen to me more carefully!] Axel reminded him. [Or else, we might lose her to your idiocy…]

Calypso chuckled at how worried his wolf was of being rejected by their mate right now. [It is I, Calypso, so sit back and relax, Axel,] he confidently stated. "I know what to do in this situation, and I promise you that our mate won't slip by our hands this time…]

Axel simply growled in annoyance before simply staying quiet in his head. Taking that as his cue to do his thing, Calypso observed Aurelia from a distance. He watched her sit alone at an empty table before asking the servers for drinks. Like him, she was wearing her cloak covering her head to hide herself with a hood.

"I guess she couldn't sleep as well, huh," Calypso murmured. "Should we approach her? Or should we merely observe?"

[Tsk. I thought you knew what to do?] Axel scoffed. [Just don't scare her. As I said, you can't apply your usual approach to women to her. She's very aloof, so for now, you should stay out and just watch her from a distance. We don't need to rush things, alright?]

Calypso inwardly smirked. It was one of the few qualities he loved about his wolf. Axel was patient, calm, and very rational at all times, and he could give out sound advice on demand.

Grabbing another drink, he patiently waited for Aurelia's next move, curious to see if she was only out to simply get a drink for the night.

[Don't you find it funny that her warrior servants aren't with her right now?] Calypso pointed out. [Those two usually never left her side whenever I'm around, but now she's alone? That kind of hurts.]

Axel laughed as his wolf snorted, [That only means that you're far more dangerous in their eyes.]

Continuing his observations, he frowned when a man suddenly sat opposite Aurelia. He too was wearing a furry cloak with a hood, but then again, most of the people in this place did the same thing. Humans especially wore them since it was winter and they needed that many layers of clothes to keep themselves warm.

Observing further, his frown deepened as he whispered, "She knows that man..."

Calypso watched as the man finally removed his cloak, giving him a proper view of his face as he leaned closer. He seemed to be just the same age as him. He seemed to be human as well, so he was probably an Ebodian Aurelia knew?

His eyebrows raised, and his curiosity to know who that man was only growing stronger the longer their conversation went on. Aurelia was having a casual talk and drink with him, and it was starting to get on his nerves.

[That's weird. I feel annoyed, Axel,] Calypso growled out. "Is it because of the Mate Pull?]

[Yes… It's our instinct,] Axel replied. [It will mostly take over in the process.]

[That sounds scary, Axel…] Calypso noted. [What if we just rejected the Mate Pull? You know I'm not for it, Axel, and honestly, Aurelia scares me…]

[I will kill you if you reject the Mate Pull…] Axel chided. [Don't ever think about doing it!]

Calypso chuckled. In truth, he was just messing with his wolf who seemed to never get used to his teasing. [Calm down, I'm just teasing you since you seem so eager to make this work even though it looks like Aurelia doesn't feel the Mate Pull. She still has no wolf, so she's more human than the rest of us.]

[It's still early, so who knows? There's still a possibility that she has one,] Axel pointed out. [There's still three more years for her to find out.]

Calypso no longer debated with his wolf on the matter. It didn't matter if Aurelia was a hybrid with or without a wolf anymore. What mattered the most was that she accepted him as his mate. It was strange to him at first, but he found Lady Aurelia very pleasing in all the aspects that mattered to him. Even her aloofness somehow turned him on.

Looking back to his target for observations, he had a wide smile on his face as she finally removed her hood. She then suddenly looked toward his direction, her eyes sharp and narrowed with cold suspicion. Calypso gulped hard. Even those deadly glares of hers looked so sexy to him that he couldn't help but curl his lips up into a roguish smile.

He gave her a curtly nod, ignoring her glare. She looked so adorable with her long purple hair which was currently braided on both sides. The Almighty seemed to be favoring him for giving him a mate that fitted most of the physical attributes that attracted him to a woman… that purple hair, and those lovely purple eyes… They were very mysterious and unique.

In the end, Calypso could no longer help his curiosity that he suddenly stood up and walked towards Aurelia's direction.

"Milady…" he greeted with his sweetest smile.

"Lord Calypso…" Aurelia greeted back with her usually stoic aura.

​ Briefly, tearing his eyes away from her, Calypso intentionally looked at the man before him, subtly sizing him up. The man gave him a curtly bow as Aurelia introduced him.

"He's one of my good friends from Ebodia. Lord Hebron, the Marquess of Guntly."

The man smiled and politely offered, "Would you like to join us, Lord Calypso?"

Nodding, Calypso took the liberty of joining in since he could sense that the two were having quite a serious conversation.

Lord Hebron smiled at him and said, "I was honestly tasked to safely escort you and your convoy to the southeast border of Ebodia. I had just arrived this evening, and I was supposed to introduce myself to you tomorrow early morning."

Then gave Aurelia a gentle smile as he added, "I heard that Lady Aurelia will be on this journey, and it has been a while since we last saw each other. I was settling some of my affairs when accidentally saw her entering the tavern, so I followed behind her to say my greetings."

Calypso raised an eyebrow at the Marquees's words. He could sense the admiration in the man's eyes, and it was rubbing at him the wrong way.

Axel clicked his tongue as he scoffed, [You haven't made any good progress yet, and here you already are having some competition? Oh, heavens have mercy on us. It would take a lot of optimism on our part to win over our mate. I mean, look at how she looks at us… I can't even see a single dot of interest from her!]

Calypso inwardly chuckled at his problematic wolf's issues over their mate. Aurelia's disinterest was honestly only fueling his interest in her even more. He didn't care. He was his puzzle to crack, and he was just getting started.