Claimed By My Husband's Enemy novel Chapter 153

Chapter 153

Chapter 153

(Ari)

“Don’t. I’m too busy to attend everybody’s funeral. But can I suggest who you should eliminate first? How about Laurent? I can at least make time to buy him flowers.”

Aidan stared at me for a few seconds and then finally, the darkness in his face disappeared. Even his wolf softened up when he smirked. “Your mates are an exception, Ari.”

I pouted. “Too bad then.”

“Don’t make Bradley hear you say that. His dragon will roast you.”

I shrugged. “You’re going to save me anyway.”

He nodded. “I will. Always.”

I meant that as a joke. Because come on. Alphas saving others, especially me? That was total bullshit. But then Aidan looked into my eyes and uttered those three words like they came from his heart. From his very soul.

“You don’t believe me,” he observed.

I shook my head and reminded myself of all the alphas who went to the auction to buy omegas only to treat them like trash. Aidan could say those words because he didn’t know me, because he was trying to win me over as his mate. Once he got what he wanted or once he realized that I wasn’t who he thought I was, he would treat me differently.

This was why the prince freaked me out. He was too kind, too considerate, too soft for me. And alphas tend to do that in the beginning so that betrayal would hit thrice as hard when they took their masks off and showed me who they really were. The kinder the person was, the greater the betrayal, and the bigger the damage they inflicted.

And I was so sick of this dance.

I stepped out of Aidan’s umbrella. I would rather get rained on than stand too close to him and listen to things I didn’t believe in.

“Stay.”

I didn’t listen. I didn’t look back and just walked away.

“Please.”

Six letters. One word. And I found my feet stopping on their own accord. Alphas never did that. No matter how much they tried to play nice, they never pleaded. What was this man’s deal? Why was he like that? Why would he lower himself like this?

“Why are you doing this, Your Highness?”

“Today is the day that the dragons weep,” he answered instead. “A few minutes from now, the wolves will share their grief. The mages will turn off the lights. The whole place will become dark.”

Right. It was the twenty-first today. It was also the eighth month of the year. Usually, on a day like this, it rained heavily. The bells from all the realms would ring, the wolves, especially the council, the royal family, and the warriors would howl, and the darkness would swallow the light for an hour. I’d always wondered why.

“Why would that happen?”

“Because today is the day that we lost someone very special to us.”

The exhaustion in Aidan’s voice made me spin around. There it was again, the haunted look on his face as he gazed back at me.

“Who?”

“Princess Maria Regina Black, the Dragon Queen Elianna and Lord Creed Black’s only daughter. She is also my

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Chapter 153 mate.”

It must be the pain visible in his eyes that made something in my chest throb. I heard their daughter died, but I didn’t know that she was Aidan’s first mate. He was clearly still very much affected even if he lost her at such a young age. He probably wasn’t aware that he used the present tense to refer to her.

Before I could answer, the dragons made themselves visible as they descended from the mountains and flew around, howling. The guards, including the students, all shifted in their wolf forms and howled along with them. It looked like even the students didn’t know the reason; it was their inner beasts taking over their bodies as they let out a heart-wrenching wail that made the hairs on my nape rise.

This was the day that I often got sick. That’s why unlike others, I hadn’t seen a dragon until today. For some reason, my chest always ached so much on a day like this.

Today, my body didn’t feel as weak as before. Maybe because my mate was with me and his presence was recharging my batteries. But something about the howls were getting to me, it was as if I was being called to a place that I didn’t know where, as if my body was telling me something I didn’t know.

I clutched my chest. The mages started to appear, they were chanting. It was still daytime and yet, just like Aidan had said, the whole world turned dark.

The princess was loved so much that all the realms mourned for her for an hour like this every year. She was gone but never forgotten. She was still lucky. If Grigor found me and I were to die by his hands, I would bet Aidan’s black card that ‘Thirteen’ was the only thing they would write on my grave.

And who would remember Thirteen?

“Ari?”

Aidan’s gentle voice cut through the increasing haze in my head. It was so dark and because something inside me felt like breaking, I couldn’t use my mana properly. I couldn’t see the prince although I could feel his eyes

on me.

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