Author's POV

The two pairs of eyes met, and though the soulmates were standing far from each other, an invisible connection was formed. They both were too distracted to notice it, though. It was difficult to look away from eachother, both of them staring as if the rest of the world had melted away and only the two of them remained. They didn't realise that they had just Half-Bonded, and only when their mind suddenly begged them move forward and complete the bond, did they gain back the control of their mind and slowly realise what was happening.

Their eyes widened as realisation sinked in. For Aayan, they had finally found their missing piece. The person that they had longed and yearned for was finally infront of his eyes. And though he couldn't see her face due to the niqab, he knew that for him, only she will be the most beautiful woman in the world. He felt as if he was the happiest man in the world at that moment. He was absolutely delighted; so much that he would have burst into tears, had he not controlled himself.

But for the Shehzadi, it was a different situation. She too longed to meet her soulmate, and he was finally infront of her. The concept of soulmates had always fascinated her, and she secretly wished to know what it felt like to loved by someone who was made just for her. And now, she had met him at last, and even Half-Bonded, which meant that she wouldn't have to marry anyone else anymore. That was one rule she was thankful about while being in the royal family, which was that if your soulmate is found, then you must marry only them. This was due to the fact that everyone knew what it meant to be away from your soulmate - weakness, grave sickness and eventually, death. But her soulmate was here, which saved her from an arranged marriage. She felt relief washing over her, and then just adoration for her newly found soulmate.

She stared at her soulmate, who was taking slow steps in her direction, his face illuminated with the orange and golden rays of the now setting sun. His build was large and muscular, leaving a long shadow on the ground. And his eyes... oh, they were the most beautiful shape with obsidian black irises. He was truly looking breathtaking, and she couldn't help but let her heartbeat quicken as she observed how he was looking at her. Like she was the most precious thing in the world, which he was going to cherish forever.

An elated feeling rose in her chest, as the fact slowly sunk into her mind. She had found her soulmate. Joyousness spread throughout her whole body, and she wanted to jump out of happiness. Oh, how she dreamed about this moment! To be able to be with the person you were destined to be. Someone who was made just for you. Her mouth had started beginning to hurt and that's when she realised that she had been smiling so wide beneath her niqab.

Yet the smile never fell from her face and even Aayan was able to see her eyes brimming with tears yet still in a crescent shape, like she was smiling.

This wonderful moment didn't last for long, though. A sudden large drumming sound was heard nearby, and that forced her mind to focus on it instead. She unwillingly glanced away from him and looked towards the source of the sound, as did he and the countless other people in the market. Her eyebrows jumped with recognition as she spotted a well dressed man on a horse, surrounded by soldiers. One of the soldiers was carrying a drum, to gain attention of the people, so that they could announce something publically.

But Yasmin wasn't about to stay there and listen to whatever they wanted to say. The man on the horse was none other than the Wazir-E-Azam, Zahid. Her eyes widened yet again, but this time out of fear. Her body went rigid with shock and fear, while her mind immediately went into a panic and started to think of an escape plan as her eyes darted around to look for a suitable place to hide.

The crowd around the area was growing steadily as people came out from their houses to see what was going on. 'It's easier to hide in a crowd,' She thought, yet all she wanted to was to disappear from here right that instant. If Zahid managed to glance at her even once, she knew it would be over. He'd recognise her.

He wasn't promoted to the post of Wazir-E-Azam for no reason. He's the most cunning and intelligent man she's ever met. And he has been around for a long time so it will take him no effort to recognise her, even if she is wearing her niqab. Her father specifically said that no one must come to know who she is, and besides, Zahid is an orthodox person. He hates the idea of women doing anything other than housework, and so he would do everything in his power to make sure that she's not given a chance to become the Sultana.

As her eyes quickly began to scan the area for a hiding place, her gaze fell on her Soulmate once again. But this time she didn't have time to stare and admire. The situation was urgent, and so with a heavy heart and a last longing glance at her soulmate, her feet slowly moved backwards and soon she turned around to walk away. She wanted to run, get as far away as possible, but that would attract attention. The last thing she wanted was to gain the attention of the same man she was escaping from.

Once she had enough distance between herself and the crowd, she began to run, but destiny must've not been on her side as she bumped into a soldier. The soldier was away from the rest of the force, and must've slipped away to get something to eat. But in her hurry she miscalculated the distance between them and ended up bumping into him and pushing him over, subsequently dropping his food in the process.

"Hey!-" The man shouted and was about to say more but the culprit of this accident immediately said a small sorry and wasted no time in starting to run.

"You! Wait!" The man yelled angrily, and then proceeded to run after her with no second thought. "Pay me the money, you wench! I hadn't eaten anything for the whole day! Now all my money is just wasted! PAY ME BACK!!" The man screamed while chasing her.

The princess in disguise felt extremely guilty, but she had no choice but to run for now. For the sake of her throne, her kingdom and the people. She needed to get away from that place.

Aayan's POV

I stared at the woman in front of me, and I couldn't help but let the happiness bubble up, and alongside it came the feelings of longing and yearning. Every single one of us had awaited this very moment, when the gaping hole in our conjoined seven hearts would fill and allow us to love - and to be loved by - one more Soulmate.

My Soulmate. Our Soulmate.

Our only female mate... Standing in front of me with the orange rays of the sun falling upon her, she looked like the most beautiful person in the world. Her brown eyes shined with tears and the sunlight just made it even more prettier. It accentuated her skin too and gave it a golden glow, and I couldn't help but compare my beautiful soulmate to a celestial being, someone who was capable of enchanting and mesmerizing the onlookers.

She too, I observed, was staring at me, and I could just hope she found me just as attractive as I found her. Even though I knew the bond would take care of that, this thought just came into my mind.

I looked at her in a daze. I had envisioned this moment many times - mostly while sleeping, while some other times in broad daylight.

And now that she's finally infront of us... I feel unexplainably happy. No visualisation could have ever prepared me to actually feel this complete and filled with love. I just want to go and pick her up in my arms, and tell her all about what she means of me. What she means to all seven of us. Hold her hand and never let go, and keep her forever in my care. My mind softly urges me to go towards her, close this distance between us, and that's when I get a startling realisation that I had already Half-Bonded with her.

I could see it in her eyes as my newly found Soulmate realised this as well, and soon they formed a crescent shape, slowly filling up with tears. I found my eyes doing the very same thing, elation getting the best of me.

"Aayan... what's wrong?" I heard Samir's voice calling out to me, and I felt confused as to how they hadn't felt the presence of our soulmate. I wanted to turn around and tell them, but suddenly a large drumming sound filled my ears. All seven of us, and I noticed my new soulmate too, turned to look at the source of this sound.

The people with drums and weapons were dressed in a uniform of sorts and I easily recognised them as the soldiers. They were announcing something about tomorrow - the princess' birthday. I wanted to listen, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone moving away. I glanced there only to find out that it was my Soulmate. She was gradually moving backwards, and then, with one last glance at me, she finally turned back to walk away. My newly formed Half Bond immediately made me whimper internally and urged me to go to her, find out the reason why she's going away without even properly meeting me.

Ignoring the questions and confused looks thrown my way, I untangled myself from my other soulmates' arms, running behind to catch yet another one. I couldn't call for her as I was unaware of her name, and had the only option to catch up to her and stop her before she disappeared from right in front of my eyes. She speed-walked for sometime, before bumping into someone and then running away.

As I saw her getting farther and farther away from me, a bitter thought started to make its way into my mind. Did she not want me? Us? This thought alone stirred up enough worry for me to furrow my eyebrows.
Many other similar thoughts silently followed, each seeming to be more fearsome than the previous one.

My heart beat rose up once again, this being the third time this day. Not able to bear this growing distance between me and my Soulmate, I ran after her without a second thought. I didn't have time to respond to the shouts from my other Soulmates, as my newer one was far ahead of me and I could lose her any minute if I didn't catch up. There was a small cart in front of me, and due to the urgent situation, I just resorted to jumping over it with my hand on its edge for balance. Going about it would've taken too much time given the large crowd around me.

After sometime she started running too, and I have to admit she was way too fast. I also witnessed how she bumped into a man accidentally. However if she apologized or not, I don't know, but she continued to run.
The soldiers, who sensed some disturbance, immediately sent a couple of them to investigate, and they began running after us too. This just made her run faster.

She ran and ran, apparently not knowing that I was chasing her along with the soldiers. She took a number of turns that appeared to be random, as if she was running just for the sake of getting away from that place. The soldiers were gradually falling behind, while I was still managing to run secretly. There was a good distance between us still, and my heart was not happy with that.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, she turned another way which turned out to be a dead end. And maybe because she was so focused on running, she wasn't able to notice this fact on time and stopped only when she was face to face with the wall. This gave me time to catch up to her.

"Wait!" I yelled, in hopes to make her stay there for a minute more until I can reach her. Hearing my voice, she turned back with her eyes wide and filled with shock. This shock, however, subsided soon and she tried to run once again, but that one moment was enough for me to finally reach her, and then, after hesitating for only a second, I pulled her by her arms into a corner. There was some junk piled up in front of us that denied us from being seen by anyone who might take a look at the dead end. From the distance I could hear the soldiers running by, which made it clear that we were safe for now. Hidden from everyone.

I looked back at the shocked woman in front of me, and I wanted nothing more than to get lost in those hazel coloured eyes once more. Seeing them up close just made me want to admire them forever. But I made a decision to do something else instead. Both of us were panting from all that running, yet, positioning my hands on each side of her face - trapping her - a triumphant smile made its way onto my face.

"Caught you."

Samir's POV

"Aayan! Wait!" I shouted once again, but he was already far off. I turned around to see the confusion and worry on the faces of my other mates, that I felt in the bond too, and walked over to them.

"I... don't understand... Why did he run...?" Hasan asked. None of us understood what happened. Aayan was trembling with some unknown pain moments ago, and then he stared at something, suddenly regained all his energy, beginning to walk somewhere. Then he stopped to listen to the announcement, but before it could finish, he took off running without telling us anything. The soldiers are long since gone, and a small part of them headed in his direction. The bitterness spread throughout the bond.

"Javed... why don't you try talking to Aayan?" Junaid suggested, looking at him with hopeful eyes and urging him to use his Talent of talking to his soulmates through mind.

"I've already tried that. But it's not working, as if my voice is not reaching him... or maybe he is blocking me from talking to him." He replied with his brows furrowed. This response just caused more panic and hurt seep into the bond, each of us thinking about Aayan and wondering why would he do that. None of us had ever done that, and we weren't even aware that doing this was possible. How he managed to do that is a mystery.

I glanced around once at all my Soulmates, an action I found myself doing quite often, and found almost similar expressions on all of them. Except one.

"Tahir... Are you okay?" I asked, confused. He had not uttered a word all this while, and now suddenly noticing his shocked and speechless demeanor made me concerned.

Listening to my words, all our Soulmates turned to look at Tahir, while he in turn looked at me.
"I... I know..." He began, still in a state of disbelief.

"What...?" Irfan prodded, the look in his eyes trying to convey to Tahir that it is okay. He can tell us what he wants to, and that we are there for him to listen to everything he wants to say. And judging by Tahir's face that calmed down slowly, he understood Irfan perfectly.

"I know why Aayan ran away..." He whispered, with his eyes widened, as if he was also just figuring it out. All of our eyes snapped in his direction, and we waited for him to continue. However, he stayed quiet. He suddenly ducked down his head, and we weren't able to see his face due to his hair falling in front. We could see his shoulders shake, and we all gathered around him.

What's happening?

"...I found my Talented!" He finally looked up and cried out with joy, tears streaming down his face continuously. He hugged the first person that he could grab, which happened to be me, and buried his face into my shoulder. I could feel my clothes soaking up his salty tears, as my hands gently rubbed along his back. There was surprise and delight evident on all our faces, and we immediately looked around, trying to find that one person who might be his Talented.

"And...along with that..." Tahir untangled himself from the jumble of arms and looked up, glancing at each one of us before continuing.

"...We also found our last Soulmate..." he said, the happiness on his face seeming to get multiplied with every word said. A ringing silence echoed in my ear and I zoned out of the scene. I couldn't believe what I just heard, and it seemed as if I forgot breathing. A series of 'is it true's was something I managed to catch very distinctly, said by the other guys, and also hear Tahir faintly explain how our last Soulmate is a woman and that Aayan found her first but she went away, so he followed her. However I could focus on none of that but the fact that our last piece is finally found.

The last piece of our hearts will finally be with us.

We'll be complete.

All eight of us.

___

Y'all, I dunno, while writing this chapter... I felt so happy and idek why T^T maybe it's due to the fact that I connect so much with these characters that I felt happy when they're happy, or maybe it's just the fact that I'm happy for no reason (lmao)

In this chap you witnessed our warrior shehzadi run away, our dear jk (Aayan) feel happy then worried and then become an action man and run after her. And THEN you witnessed our other boys feeling hurt, confused and worried (for no reason at all, actually) and then Tahir found his Taelented
(That was such a bad pun😭), which just it so happened to be their LaSt sOuLmAtE.

Anygays, I hope you enjoyed this dramatic af chapter written by me and that you'll continue to be alert for the random updates that I give.

Toodles!~

💜💜

Words :- 2936
Date :- 8th October, 2023