Eight
1682 Words
ZACK'S POV
Outside the Beta Estate, the night watchman struck two bamboo sticks together. The sound echoed faintly through the sleeping Pack.
My eyes opened instantly.
The ancient wolf-clock hanging outside the estate had just signaled the third hour past midnight.
Three in the morning.
Beside me, Morgana slept peacefully beneath the moonlight.
For a moment, I simply watched her. Her breathing was soft and slow. The stubborn wrinkles between her brows had finally disappeared in sleep, making her look younger than usual–less like the guarded young woman constantly protecting herself from the world. And more like the little kitten I remembered from Namalia.
A faint breeze entered through the half-open window, carrying the scent of night flowers and distant pine forests..But beneath those scents–There was something else that felt so familiar. Something that made my expression slowly darken.
Quietly, I pushed aside the beaded curtains surrounding the bed and stepped onto the cold floor.
The chamber remained dim except for the faint orange glow flickering from the table nearby.
Several incense sticks burned slowly inside a bronze holder..Thin streams of smoke curled lazily into the air.
That scent again.
I stared at the incense silently.
The last time I met Morgana in the palace, I had smelt the same faint scent on her body. At that time I thought the scent was familiar and didn't think too much about it. But Earlier tonight, while lying beside Morgana, the smell finally returned clearly enough for me to recognize it.
The same scent. Exactly the same.
I hadn't wanted to make Morgana anxious about the scent, so I kept it to myself.
A cold feeling settled in my chest.
Years ago…
I had smelled it constantly inside Consort Hilda's palace chambers. My adoptive mother.
My birth mother had been nothing more than a palace maid who died shortly after giving birth to me. After her death, Consort Hilda who at the time had no child of her own asked Father to allow her adopt me. And surprisingly…Father agreed.
Consort Hilda was gentle. Truly gentle. Not fake gentleness like mine. She was really kind. The kind that made palace servants cry after her death.
For years, she treated me as her true son despite knowing I wasn't born from her bloodline.
Then finally, near the age of thirty, she became pregnant.
At first, the palace celebrated wildly. Father even smiled more during that period. But soon after…Consort Hilda began growing weaker. Paler and Sicker.
The pack’s physicians examined her repeatedly, yet none could explain what illness plagued her. They only called it mysterious.
As months passed, rumors quietly spread through the palace. They said I was a cursed prince, the child whose mothers never lived through pregnancy.
Fear spread quickly and everyone avoided me.
By the fourth month of Consort Hilda's pregnancy, she had been isolated entirely within a cold palace chamber.
Then she died.
I still remembered that night clearly. Her trembling fingers clutched incense sticks tightly while tears streamed down her face. She looked terrified. Not weak. Terrified.
“Someone poisoned me,” she whispered before dying.
At the time, no one believed her. Not even Father.
After her death, I became gravely ill as well. Fever. Vomiting blood. Nightmares.
The palace physicians claimed grief caused my sickness. Then one day, a traveling physician entered the palace unexpectedly. Unlike the others, he ignored the medicines completely and instead examined the incense within Consort Hilda's chamber.
Afterward, he told me privately that the incense had been poisoned.
That physician treated me secretly until I recovered. Then immediately he resigned and vanished from the palace forever.
From that day onward, I secretly studied medicine under several Pack physicians. Not because I enjoyed medicine. But because I wanted answers. I wanted to know what poison killed Consort Hilda.
But strangely…The poisoned incense I hid disappeared before I could fully investigate it. Gone without a trace. No matter how hard I searched afterward, I never discovered who took it.
And now, years later. The same scent had appeared again. Inside Morgana's chamber.
My jaw tightened slowly.
Who wanted to harm Morgana?
The answer surfaced almost immediately.
Princess Diana.
The relationship between Princess Diana and Luna Freya was famously close. Meanwhile… Everyone within the estate knew Princess Diana despised Morgana's existence.
My wolf stirred restlessly beneath my skin. Protective instincts surged unexpectedly through my chest.
Luckily…I discovered the incense before long-term damage occurred.
Quietly, I walked toward the table and extinguished the incense sticks. I needed someone inside the palace to examine them immediately.
I searched around the chamber for a cloth to wrap the incense safely. Then my eyes landed on a delicate silk garment draped carelessly beside the bed.
Morgana's undergarment.
A slow smile spread across my face.
“Well,” I murmured softly, “this works perfectly.”
I picked up the silk shamelessly and wrapped the incense inside carefully. At that moment, movement behind me shifted softly. I glanced back instinctively. Morgana remained asleep beneath the blankets. She looked peaceful.
My expression unconsciously softened.
Right. I originally came here for another reason.
Reaching inside my robe, I pulled out a small jade pendant.
The pendant was pale green, carved poorly by my own hands over several months. At the top, tiny crooked characters were engraved.
Little Kitten.
Honestly…The craftsmanship was terrible. But I still walked quietly toward the bed and gently placed the jade pendant into Morgana's sleeping hand.
“This is something I won from an elder in Namalia,” I whispered softly.
At first, I thought the jade was fake. Turns out it's incredibly valuable. I almost sold it.
A quiet chuckle escaped me.
“But then I remembered you.”
Apart from the ridiculous teddy bear I once gave her years ago…I had never properly given her anything.
“This can count as my first love token.”
I glanced at the crooked carving and sighed.
“The carving took longer than expected. Forgive my craftsmanship.”
Carefully, I brushed several strands of hair away from her face. Then, before I could do something troublesome like staying until sunrise, I leapt silently through the window into the night.
A grin slowly appeared on my face.
Tomorrow she would officially become mine.
**MORGANA'S POV**
I woke abruptly from a nightmare. For several disoriented seconds, I stared blankly at the ceiling while my heartbeat pounded loudly in my ears.
That dream again. No a memory.
I closed my eyes tightly.
In the memory, I was six years old once more.
That year, the palace had announced the death of Consort Hilda, the Ninth Prince's adoptive mother.
Everyone pitied Zack deeply. His teacher eventually requested permission from the Alpha King to take Zack away temporarily while he grieved.
Zack's Father agreed.
Unfortunately…That teacher's countryside residence happened to be located directly beside our home in Namalia.
I still remembered the first day I met Zack. The setting sun had painted the village gold while I walked home bruised and furious after fighting several children nearby.
Then I saw him standing beneath a tree. A beautiful boy dressed in expensive robes.
At six years old, I genuinely thought he looked like someone from a storybook. Still…What confused me most was the fact that he kept staring seriously at the sky.
Curious, I approached him.
“Hello friend. What are you looking at?”
Without turning toward me, he answered calmly.
“Chocolate falling from the sky.”
I immediately frowned.
“Liar. Only bird droppings fall from the sky.”
He finally looked at me seriously.
“Little friend, I'm telling the truth. I caught this chocolate from the sky”
Then he held out a piece of chocolate before calmly eating it.
I froze instantly. Chocolate. My six-year-old brain exploded. Maybe… chocolate really did fall from the sky.
Slowly, I tilted my head upward and stared eagerly at the heavens.
“I want chocolate too,” I muttered.
“Then you're standing in the wrong place,” Zack informed me kindly. “Move over there instead.”
Foolishly, I listened.
The moment I stepped forward, the ground vanished beneath me. I fell directly into a concealed pit.
My scream echoed through the entire yard. I cried instantly.
Meanwhile, Zack's teacher rushed outside in alarm.
“Zack!” the old man shouted. “What happened?”
“I saw a little girl fall inside,” he explained seriously.
My entire body trembled with rage inside the pit.
“I wanted to comfort her with chocolate,” he continued sadly, “but I don't know how to pull her out.”
I screamed louder. I had been fooled by a pathetic liar.
At six years old, I already understood one terrifying truth. This beautiful prince was a liar.
My nightmare ended there..I opened my eyes fully and sighed heavily in relief.
Morning sunlight streamed softly through the chamber windows. More importantly, the space beside me on the bed was empty.
“Heavens…” I groaned.
The six-year-old Morgana fell into a shallow hole and escaped quickly. But eighteen-year-old Morgana? I was about to fall into a lifetime trap. And there would be no escape afterward.
I cursed Zack silently.
What grieving child? What lonely prince?
Even while supposedly mourning, that devil still found time to bully innocent children. I truly didn't understand how the entire kingdom remained deceived by him. Those people must all be blind wolves.
Still grumbling internally, I clenched my fists, then suddenly felt something hard inside my palm.
Confused, I opened my hand slowly.
A jade pendant rested there..Beautiful pale jade. And engraved across the top was the word ‘Little Kitten.’
My eye twitched violently.
I didn't need to guess who left it behind.
“Zack…” I hissed through clenched teeth.
I was about to put a cloth over my body, when suddenly, realization struck me.
I froze.
Quickly, I searched around the bed. Then around the chair.
My expression slowly darkened.
My undergarment wad missing.
“WHY WOULD THAT SHAMELESS WOLF TAKE MY UNDERGARMENT?!”
- Writer
