Third Person’s Point of View

> The Alpha King's Palace <<

The atmosphere in the palace was eerily quiet. Annalise walked down the hallway leading to her mate's study with a deep frown, as she couldn't help but wonder what was going on.

Soon, she made it to her mate's study, but just when she was about to push the door open, her mate's personal guard rushed over with a worried expression.

"Your Majesty, you're back," he greeted her with a nod.

"Is Antonio inside?" she asked.

"No. His Majesty has gone back home, and he instructed me to bring you home too," the guard said.

Annalise checked her phone. Her frown deepened when she realized it was not yet his closing time.

"Is something wrong at home?" she asked suspiciously.

The guard avoided her gaze before shaking his head. "No. His Majesty only ordered that there’ll be a lockdown and no one is allowed in or out of the region anymore."

"Something is definitely not right," she murmured, before turning away from the guard and rushing off.

> > > > > > > 

On getting home, Annalise saw the maids and servants running around in panic. But she didn’t bother asking what was going on. She simply ran towards their room—and she froze at the sight that welcomed her.

Her mate lay on their bed, coughing hard and vomiting very thick blood clots.

"Antonio!" she screamed as she rushed to meet him.

He quickly held out his hand before she could get near him. "Don't touch me," he managed to say in a hoarse voice.

"What's going on? Why are you coughing out so much blood?" she asked, tears slowly flowing down her face.

"His Majesty went to see the kids who were brought back today from the woods. We don't know exactly what happened, but he came back looking sick, and before an hour had passed, he'd become like this," the doctor treating him reported the situation to Annalise.

"What? That’s not possible," she said. "I've visited the kids a few times and nothing happened to me. Why's his case different?"

"The situation is unclear, but we've appointed some guards to do a thorough investigation," the doctor said.

Annalise wanted to take a step closer to her mate, but he stopped her again.

"I don't want you or our baby getting infected. You're not coming into this room or stepping out of the house until we find a solution to this," he said.

She didn’t argue. She simply nodded and exited the room.

> > > > > > > 

Miranda's Point of View

Vincenzo wasn’t home when I returned from the mall, and Claire was already preparing dinner, so I decided to help her.

"You forgot your phone, Luna. You have a lot of missed calls," Claire said.

"Hm," I hummed simply. I already knew who was calling—it must be Lorenzo.

While we were cooking, the main door pushed open, and I turned around to see Vincenzo walking in.

"Claire, is Miranda back?" he asked, before he saw me.

"Hey," I smiled at him, and he smiled back. "I’ll be right back," I told Claire.

I quickly rinsed my hands and rushed to him. "Come with me." I grabbed his hand before he could respond and headed towards our room, pulling him along.

"What's going on?" he asked.

I didn’t respond to his question. When we made it to our room, I quickly pushed the door closed and led him to our bed. He raised his brows as he stared at me in surprise.

"Are you so horny to the extent that you want to rape me?" he asked, leaving his mouth dramatically open to illustrate how surprised he was.

I scrunched up my face in disgust. "Get your mind out of the gutter, Mr. Vincenzo." I slapped his shoulder as hard as I could, but it didn’t hurt him one bit, and he chuckled simply.

"I have something very important to discuss with you," I said.

"Go on, go on."

I sighed before beginning.

"So, I told Anna about our main reason for coming, and she promised to talk to her mate. But unfortunately, he cannot leave the palace at the moment. She said there have been strange things happening in their region, and her mate can’t leave without taking care of the situation."

Vincenzo’s expression became serious.

"No wonder."

"No wonder what?" I asked.

"I just heard that the King has declared a lockdown on my way back. No one is allowed to come in or go out of the King’s region." He sighed. "I didn’t think we would encounter a situation like this. We need to get the King back with us as soon as possible, but how do we do that with the current situation?"

Knowing I’d already promised to help Anna, I cleared my throat.

"I have a suggestion," I said, raising my hand like a student about to answer a teacher's question.

"What’s it?"

I scratched my ear gently as I looked away from him, while thinking of a convincing way to present my idea to him that would make him agree to help.

"How about we try to help?"

His brows knitted slightly. "Try help... That’s not a bad idea, but how do we help when we don’t even know what exactly is going on?"

"Em... we can visit the infirmary where the sick kids are kept and find out what’s going on first. Then we can think of a solution."

He stared at me for a brief moment, then pinched my nose gently.

"Are you thinking, Miranda? Have you forgotten that we’re not in our pack and we don’t have limitless access here? There are some places we won’t be allowed to enter," he said.

"Don’t worry, Anna will help," I replied quickly.

He wanted to speak, but I continued before he could.

"Just think about it—we’re looking for ways to make the King agree to come back with us to our pack. Why don’t we just help him first, and he’ll help us in return?" I said.

My tone was very calm and convincing. Vincenzo was already nodding in agreement.

"Besides, the earlier we help the King resolve this, the faster we’ll return to our pack and solve our own problem."

"You’re right. We can—" he suddenly paused as he stared suspiciously at me. "You’ve already discussed this with your friend, right?"

I quickly looked away from him, pretended to be massaging my back, and tried to get up and escape from the room, but he caught my hand.

"You weren’t asking for my opinion. You’re just telling me what you’ve discussed and concluded with your friend," his voice was quiet.

Hold on, don’t tell me he’s hurt because I discussed with Anna first.

Before I could defend myself, my phone, which was lying on the bedside table, began to ring.

"Excuse me." He let go of my hand as he got up and approached the door.

"It’s not—" The slamming of the door interrupted me, and I flinched back slightly.

Like seriously? He’s mad because Anna and I discussed this first?

My phone wouldn’t stop ringing. I reached for it, turned it off, and angrily tossed it on the bed.