She was overwhelmed by the proximity. "The g-guards?" She stuttered. "You were talking about the guards?" She said clearly after clearing her throat.

He nodded. "I was." He said before standing up straight and holding his hand out to her. She took it, letting her lead them.

"Your guards never leave your side, adaline. It does not matter if you are at home or if you are at work or with me to the very other side of the country." He explained. "They willingly follow you everywhere."

How nice of them, she thought somewhat better. Are they going to follow me to the washroom too?

"Only the female will. The rest will stand outside the door and the premises." Her head snapped to Xavier who smiled, "Did not realise you said that out loud, huh?"

She shook her head. She had not. " So they are here?"

He nodded.

"Am I never going to meet them?" She asked out of curiosity. Those people were practically her security and she did not want to treat them with unkindness when they were only trying to protect her.

"I would rather have you meet them at the Palace if that is okay with you." He added at the end.

Adeline felt the day was something more to it. Xavier usually gave an answer with yes or no and it was always with a reason. "Is there a specific reason?"

He glanced at her before bringing her in front of him as the path narrowed down. "The guards are usually introduced when the Luna takes her position. Whether you want to take your position or not I want the guards to be introduced to you in the courtroom. They deserve to be part of the tradition."

It was the highest honour for a warrior to be selected as the guard of the Luna; the most important women in the back. The ceremony was usually carried out either at the temples in the north or in the courtroom of the palace. Xavier felt like he owed the men a small part of tradition because of their exceptional devotion to Adaline.

She nodded with pursed lips. For as far as Adaline hundred in both fictional and for this word she knew that traditions held a lot of meaning. Not only did it link them to their ancestors, it also brought back memories and different meanings.

Her eyes moved to different stalls. A lot of things were being sold and Adeline in wonder if you should take something back for her aunt or not.

She was slightly pissed at how her aunt had let Xavier take her so she felt like not taking a gift for her aunt but at the end of the day she must have thought of something and that Adeline knew for sure.

"Let's go there," she pointed to the shop set for for crockery. "My aunt loves vintage crockery."

On nearing the shop she realised that it was not just simple or vintage crockery. There were many aesthetic crockeries that she refused to believe were straight out of pinterest because this world does not familiarise itself with the concept of technology especially cell phones.

It had a lot of art involved and Adeline could not decide on what she was supposed to take for her aunt. Amazing marble designs were on the bowls and it looked like they had been printed on them. There were gold stripes on the edges and gold plating on a few plates which only made the greedy to buy them all.

"Wow," she whispered.

"You can take them all if you want," the shopkeeper offered. He was not going to take a penny from the king and the queen. His beast would not allow him to and the business mind of him knew that if the king or queen bought anything from my shop the very next day his shop would be flooded with tourists.

"No, no, not everything." She whispered to herself as her eyes moved to every item. Could she take one of each?

But then she remembered that her uncle had not given her any money. Even for the pendant it was Xavier who had paid.

She stood up straight and removed the pout from her face before turning to Xavier, "let's go." She whispered.

He frowned and pointed to the items. "Not every single thing?"

She shook her head. "I have no money on me." She admitted, slightly embarrassed to say that to him. Even while they were dating Adeline always had money on her, ready to pay for her share and even his.

He huffed, "We shall take six of everything." Xavier did not bother answering Adaline and just addressed the shopkeeper. "Packet safely so that the crockery does not break. A Royal guard will come and take this from you. I shall make the payment right away."

"Hey!" She whispered with a red face. What was he doing? Had he not heard her? Were his wolf years finally so hairy that he could not even hear properly?

"Come on," he tugged on her hand and pulled her forward. Just as she came to walk beside him, side by side, he leaned down and whispered in her ear, "you have enough money to buy everything in your world and mine. You have the royal treasury at your back and girl."

She reddened even more and refused to look his way. That was a big declaration. A declaration that she was not ready for. Her heart was totally not ready for it.

The entire day they walked in the markets which were very long and they could not even cover half of it.

Xavier made sure to have her hydrated and well fed the entire day. At the end they had decided just to go home and yes the glamour of the night in the streets some other time.

"So what is it going to be tomorrow?" She whispered, even though she knew deep inside her heart that it was the day everything might begin to change.

"The temples." He answered looking straight ahead as his grip tightened on her hand.