Had I ever wondered how a wedding night would be? If I had, today I did not remember.

The night is dying as I write this sentence, and I'm watching it take its last breath so that its lover may be able to live another day.

Last night had been my wedding night. What was worse than being left on the road of love? Marrying a man that still loved to cling to the essence of his past.

The night has just taken its last breath, the sun is being born again, a million dews have draped the shoulders of the nature around me and all I can do is sigh in relief. The lonely night has finally passed.

Is it okay to be weak for a moment? If so then I'd wonder where my husband is, in this moment.

Perhaps with his two fruits.

How pitiful.

What is the use of deciding to water a flower garden when what he truly loves are his fruits.

Did he marry me only because of pity? In his heart—did I hold no meaning?

Was I wrong to hope... that I could I earn even a small part of his affections?

Truly. How pitiful indeed.
-EL

"Ahh... Olivia."

My attention returned to the land of gravity, and I turned my gaze towards the whispering Fin, who was now looking towards the door.

Frowning, I followed his gaze.

"That blood is mine,"

"Sophia? How is that blood yours? How did it get here?" I frowned at the timid looking girl standing in the centre of the doorway, her hands holding each other, turning, and twisting in nervousness.

Sophia was quite obviously nervous. Her long black hair was braided today, her pale skin glowed almost unnaturally in contrast to her white dress of a uniform.

"I was told to clean the room with some of the boys."

My gaze moved to Adyl, only to find him frowning at Sophia intently, his gaze not once wavering.

"I can't see her."

I didn't understand what he meant, but I decided to let it go for now and ask him in the vicinity of privacy. Instead, I only concentrated on the shy voiceless girl before me.

"Where are the boys?" I asked looking around the destroyed room.

Sophia walked further into the room, and this time my attention moved to the white bandage that remained wrapped around her arm—shining brightly to my eyes.

"Oh! They went downstairs to organise a large garbage van to stand under your balcony. Are you okay, Olivia? I've been worried about you!"

Automatically my eyes dashed between the two men, and Fin shrugged with uncertainty.

Had we lost our mind for a second? Was my need to dispel Edika as non-existent and someone solid that could actually be found out and dealt with? Instead of my inevitable death?

I felt my shoulders slump with the sad realisation. Yes. I could not lie. Seeing the blood— I suppose I had jumped to conclusions in hope of having an enemy that I could defeat.

The thought that it could actually be one of the maids or workers never even occurred to me—simply because I didn't want it to. I was too busy planning of a way of dealing with a lesser dangerous enemy.

Instead it was just Sophia.

My eyes found Sophia's again, I smiled at her warmly.

"I'm fine, Soph, all better now! Thank you for clearing this up."

"It's okay. My brother sends you his regards though."

I was just about to reply when Fin suddenly spoke up, his stance completely straight and on alert.

"Do you have to go to work today, Your majesty?"

I nodded, studying Fin's stoic facial expression. Beside him, Adyl's facial expression blanked too.

It was strange. Just standing there in awkward silence, watching the two men communicate with whoever they were communicating with.

I felt as Sophia slowly moved into the room and behind me, her hand slowly reached for mine and I turned towards the girl.

Her eyes went to my arm, and she let out a low breath. Her eyes found mine again.

"Are you okay?"

I smiled. Nodding, "Don't worry. I'm okay."

"Ah, King Romanov says to wear something warm — it's cold outside."

"All my clothes burned. Remember? I just have this."

Adyl smiled.

"Well then, we should get going to your job, yeah? I hear it's a boutique."

***

"Say, I'll look cool, yeah? The two of us wearing black, following Olivia around the boutique while she serves customers." Fin chuckled from his front passenger's seat.

Beside him, the most recently appointed driver, Richard, chuckled under his breath and took a left turn.

"I bet we'll boost the sales by a hundred and fifty percent." Adyl chuckled from my right, and I shot him a look of sarcastic disbelief.

"Do you know what's the most intimidating thing to a girl?"

Fin turned to look back, his eyebrows raised up in question.

"When guys are insanely attractive. And they know it."

"Well, we aren't blind, are we?" Adyl coughed feigning hurt, before he stopped—turning sombre in a minute, "Thanks for admitting we're insanely attractive though. Really boosts our confidence, coming from a queen."

I couldn't help it. I scoffed. "Pretty sure you guys don't require any. Oh, and by the way, you guys don't expect me to let you two tag along as normal bodyguards, do you? "

I watched with shamelessly apparent amusement as the two boys' expressions turned from amused to suspicious in a matter of seconds.

"Then how are we going to tag along?" Fin asked, his confused gaze moving from Adyl to me.

I grinned. Catching Richard's amused eyes in the rear-view mirror I grinned harder. Oh, this was amusing!

"Congratulations, boys! Today you will earn yourselves a new job!"

~^~
" 'ow am I supposed to 'ire zhese men? Zhere isn't even a vacancy." Madame Crawfort whispered as she eyed the two boys standing near the doorway, looking really out of place.

"They're bringing in so many customers already. Just think, Madame Crawfort, business is already blooming!" I whispered back in response. I wasn't exactly lying, there were more girls in the boutique, many of whom kept sneaking glances at the two very aware boys.

Fin's eyes caught mine and he grinned, those sharp white canines of his shining under the bright boutique lighting.

I almost thought I even heard Madame Crawfort let out a dreamy sigh.

"Okay, you vin." She whispered dreamily, before sweeping towards the boys, her arms held wide open.

I couldn't help but shake my head at her antics. Even she hadn't been able to save herself from the two wolves.

"Got to admit, they are good looking,"

I grinned as I turned towards Abigail, "Don't you have a mate, missy?"

My grin widened as Abigail's cheeks turned a shade red, "Ah!"

"Speechless, I see." I winked as I began helping her organise the clothes in the rack.

An hour later found Fin and Abigail surrounded by girls excited to shop in the boutique and get a glimpse or even a smile from the two boys. While Adyl stood beside me at the counter, clearly enjoying the commotion he and Fin were causing.

"You're really good looking. You really belong in a magazine or something," A red haired girl, about eighteen, blushed as she handed Adyl the money.

Adyl smiled as he punctured in the digits before removing her change and handing it to her. He winked, "I'd rather belong in a painting."

~^~

The end of the shift approached faster than it ever had during my entire time working in the boutique, and I silently thanked myself for deciding on getting the boys a job here instead of letting them publicly be my bodyguard.

"See you on Wednesday," Madame Crawfort waved as Abigail, the boys and I walked out of the boutique, leaving her and Mary in the almost empty boutique.

"See you on Wednesday," the group waved back automatically before we made our way towards the escalator.

"Going to Prue's tonight?" Abigail asked as we made our way out of the mall.

"Err, I don't know." It was the truth, I didn't know. With everything that had happened, I hadn't had the time to think.

"Oh, I thought since Grandma Liz is over at Prue's," Abigail shrugged, leaving the sentence as it was. I was sure she knew what had happened last night. Jay must have told her.

"I do think I should g—" my voice drifted away when I noticed the tell-tale signs of Fin still beside us, just stopping in his tracks.

A minute later he blinked.

"We should leave. The Royal Beta is calling us."

~^~
"Come in,"

I looked around the study, light and airy, whites with the undertone of the palest of gray. Dominic's study suited his personality quite fittingly. And almost made me feel like I was walking around in a black and white film.

"What's going on?" I eyed the man settled on the large white chair behind the main table, and then at Matthew who remained seated on a chair opposite his, as I moved further into the room and held onto a vacant seat.

Dominic smiled, "Sit."

Turning towards Adyl and Fin, I motioned them into the room with my head, before taking a seat beside Matthew.

"What's going on?" I frowned at the two man, the knowledge of having Adyl and Fin standing close behind me strangely didn't make me any less anxious. What exactly was about to transpire here?

"We found blood in your room, Olivia."

I looked at Matthew with a blank face. It shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did, having him tell me that when I had discovered the blood myself only minutes ago—but it still did surprise me.

"Yes, we know. We discovered the blood too. It's just Sophia's." Fin, spoke up in response. I noticed him take a step forward until he stood towering beside me, from the periphery of my view.

Dominic, whose eyes were settled on mine till the very moment, snapped his gaze to Fin's. His eyes narrowing. "Sophia's?"

"Yeah," I nodded, "She told us it's hers. Said she got hurt while trying to clean the room."

"Hmm," Matthew turned away, rubbing his chin.

"I suppose it wasn't what we thought then." He mumbled, turning back towards me. His eyes lit up and he smiled. The same warmth. The same warmth that was designed to provide assurance. Smiling back, I looked away. It wasn't working on me today.

"Well, I guess it isn't what we all thoug—"

"That isn't all, Olivia."

My eyes snapped to Dom's and I frowned, confused.

"What do you mean?"

"We caught an illegal rogue in our territory this morning, drunk—yelling that he knew who is trying to kill you."

Kill me.... Edika?

"Who tried to kill your whole family, but you survived. "

"W-what?" I cringed inwardly, the nervous stuttering was back. What was worse was that it reminded me of the period in my life where I was the worst version of myself. The dead version of myself. Right after my mum and dad's death.

"Those accidents, Olivia, they weren't accidents."

I blinked. Turning to look around the room almost hysterically. My heart suddenly felt like it was about to fall out of my chest, my hand immediately moved to my throat.

No no no no. "Where's Rome?"

Dominic's eyes widened, and he straightened in his seat. "Are you okay?"

Matthew on the hand stilled for a second before he spoke again, "He's coming, he's coming,"

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. The same old symptoms of a panic attack embraced like an old friend and I hid my face in my hand as I scrunched in the seat.

The sound of the door slam open seemed like a distant dream. My mind felt like a maze. I couldn't see straight. Weren't they accidents? Murder? They were murders?!

In my mind was a raging storm, a whirlpool suddenly pulling in my sanity, and I couldn't bring myself to escape the circling water. But then a familiar pair of arm wrapped around me and scooped me up, and the storm began to calm immediately.

"Breathe," His voice whispered into my ear as a familiar pair of warm lips found my temple and pressed a kiss there. My hands clutched at Romanov's shirt and I held him close, panting, trying to regain my breath.

"It's okay. I'm here."

My grip on his shirt loosened, finally able to breathe as my heartbeat slowly began to settle, and I slipped my arms around his lower torso instead.

The panic attack stopped just as the tears began. And I tried to hold them off as much as I could in the occupied room, between everyone.

"What happened?" Romanov snapped, his voice chilly, cold.

The room stood in silence, and I raised my head just in time to see a flash of fear run through Dominic's expression.

I understood. They had meant to tell me secretly. I wasn't supposed to know yet. It wasn't good. We all knew how Romanov would react. And it wasn't good.

"Nothing," I rasped out in a hurry, tugging on the back of Romanov's shirt.

Perform.

He looked down at me and I smiled brightly back at him.

Romanov's frown hardened, his eyes remained on mine as he spoke again, "Domin—"

"It was random. That's why the guys freaked out." I cut him off, trying my best not to break the eye contact out of intimidation as I tugged on his shirt again for impact.

Anything I would say that involved the boys would only get them into trouble because Rome was irrational. A random attack seemed perfect.

"Are you okay?" Romanov mumbled while his brow's furrowed together. I felt as the rest of the people in the room sped out, one second there and the other, out.

No. My parents. My sister. Murdered. And I was supposed to be one of them.

I blinked. Then smiled as my fingers buried themselves in his dark hair.

His eyes flickered with surprise and my smile widened before I pulled his face closer and caught his lips with mine midway.

"Now I'm okay," I mumbled against his mouth before I pressed a peck on his lips.

The corners of my lips twitched as I noticed Romanov's cheeks turn red, before he quickly looked away.

Immediately framing his face with my hands, I turned his head until he looked at me again.

Then I kissed him again.

I caressed Romanov's cheek as his arm wrapped around my waist and he pulled me deeper into the kiss, slowly nibbling on my lower lip before moving on the upper. I lightly bit onto his lower lip and ravelled in the bolt electricity which I knew had passed through both of us.

The only thing that was comforting, the only thing that helped me not cry or lose my mind about the 'accidents', was Romanov.

In this world, everyone has problems. Difficult problems and easy ones. In this world, everyone has a safe haven. And Romanov would always be mine.

"Not now," Romanov whispered as he finally broke the kiss and placed a final peck on my now slightly swollen feeling lips before getting up with me in his arms.

I hooked my legs around him as he began to stride towards the door.

The door opened to an empty hall, and I inwardly sighed with relief at not being the victim of werewolf hearing.

"Where are we going?" I asked as he took the turn that went in the opposite direction to our bedroom.

His mouth twitched, "Want to go to bed so early?"

Eeehhh!

"Shut it," I blushed as I smacked him on his chest in response.

Nearing the banister of the stairs leading down into the living room, Romanov stopped and let me down on my feet before grasping my hand in his instead.

We began moving down the stairs.

Stepping down the last stair I heard the happy gurgles of the tiny creature that I loved through and through, and I found myself rushing forward.

My eyes found a beaming Jaydin bouncing a happy Letty in his arms and I rushed forward, my hand extended towards my little niece.

"Letty!"

"Just Letty?"

I froze at the sound of that sarcastic voice.

My head turned to my right and I felt the hair on my back stand.

"Grandma Liz..."