"Salas, I wanted to speak to you about..." Celia started to say, just as she opened the palace's office door.

In the past, the private office of the werewolf king located in the living quarters of the palace was usually pretty much unused, as the busy man was mostly always on the move between the Council office, the Academy, and his public business life.

Nowadays, with the discovery of his mate, the current werewolf queen and leader of the lycans, in this particular office the royal couple spent most of their days, ensuring that even though they dealt with different matters, they could still spent time together. Everything that did not need their physical presence in particular was resolved from this office. Only if they could not help it, would they visit other places that needed them to attend in person.

They were so much in this office that it was as though they were recuperating the lost time that this office had been left unused in the past, and more importantly... using the werewolf king's own words "making up for the time he had been deprived of his rightful mate". A hundred years to be more exact, likewise were also the king's words.

But right at this very moment, the man, who seemed as though he would die if his queen was not by his side at all times, was nowhere to be seen. Even the smell of lavender and wood that Celia adored, could be felt only faintly in the air.

By the look of it, the werewolf king, or better said her husband, had not been in this office for this entire day already.

This was really odd, Celia thought as she looked from left to right. Salas would never change his location without informing her. Even when she was away with her own pack, he would always call her in the morning telling her of his schedule for the day. Or if he did not say where he would be, then it meant he would follow his usual program, and his usual schedule would involve this office as his place of where he would be working at.

This never changed, it absolutely never happened in the 12 years they had been together... not even once.

So for Celia, who usually knew where Salas was even though she had never paid attention to his schedule, or asked to know it for that matter, this particular situation unknowingly irked a tiny little bit a small corner of her heart.

She felt even more upset, approaching Salas's desk and finding a small note on top of it. The man had not left her information about his whereabouts... no, the note was only a tantrum, for lack of better words.

I have business to do outside of the palace today, I will return when I finish it. As for when that will be... there is no need to inform you of it. You are not interested in knowing it after all.

Peeling off the note from the mahogany surface, she approached it more to her face to read it again. Even though her werewolf vision could distinctly see the smallest particles left on the note by the pen Salas had used, even without needing to bring the piece of paper closer to her eyes, for some reason she really could not believe the words inscribed on it.

He did not mention where he went, he did not inform her he would still let her know of when he would return after finding out how long he needed to be gone for... and most importantly, he had even said there was no need for her to know, because after all she did not care.

If this was not a tantrum, then she really did not know what a better example for a tantrum would be. Even their girls, who were already seven years old, did not act like how Salas was acting at this very moment.

Well, frankly if she were to think about it, this tantrum had somewhat begun about a week ago...

Although he would still work with her in the office, although he would never fall asleep without her being on the same bed, Salas was no longer hugging her as he slept, and even the words they exchanged in the office had begun to dwindle more and more.

What started this cold mood of Salas, she really did not know. But it was clear that the situation was beginning to aggravate. Perhaps, now it was only a tantrum, but she could not foresee if Salas's mood would continue to worsen.

What if it got to a point when he would not love her anymore? Celia's heart thumbed loudly at the thought, and even Waning was feeling restless inside her mind.

As mates, the attraction they felt to one another would never wane, but this would only be an almost animalistic instinct. it would only be a physiological need of their bodies, not their own will. She had fallen in love with Salas even before they had known they were mates. For her what mattered most were their feelings to one another.

If Salas was beginning to fall out of love with her... what should she do then...

"My queen, what may I help you with?" Gabriel inquired curious of the visit.

His mate, Maria, and Celia had become the best of friends, but Maria would usually be the one who would visit Celia at the palace. It was rare for the queen to visit their home, and almost impossible for him to be the one sought out, instead of his wife.

Sighing deeply, with her head slightly tilted downwards, Celia's general atmosphere felt as though the problem she was facing at this very moment was capable of affecting the entire werewolf world. Even her posture, as she was sitting on the couch with one of her feet crossed over the other, felt formal and strained.

Hmm... Gabriel pondered, even before Celia opened her mouth. Why was he feeling a sense of deja vu just now?

"Gabriel, listen well to what I am about to tell you, and think carefully before you answer. The fate of the royal family depends on your answers." Celia finally opened her mouth and said, her sharp eyes making Gabriel convinced of the seriousness of the matter.

Despite this, and despite the concentration he should show towards the words she spoke, Gabriel's mind still wandered a bit about. He really did feel a serious sense of deja vu... it was like this situation had already happened at one point in the past. But this should be impossible, Celia had never visited their house before after all.

"My queen, please say it. Whatever it is, I will do my best to follow your orders." He solemnly replied, trying to put at the back of his mind his earlier thoughts. He could not afford to think about unimportant things, when Celia had personally visited him. It was clear, it was a matter of utmost importance.

"I need to know..." She started to say, encouraged by Gabriel's words, but still felt reluctant to speak about it.

"Yes, please feel free to say." Gabriel again affirmed, feeling more unsettled as time passed.

Unlike his friend, who had visited his house in the past for a dumb reason, Celia's matter would certainly be urgent and dangerous... hmm... he thought again confused.

The deja vu feeling he had felt, was it because of Salas's previous visit? Like when he had come to teach him how to court Celia, and he had told Salas he would teach him how to be...

"... shameless." Yes, right. Gabriel thought again. This situation was similar to that time, he realized. But why was the voice inside of his mind a woman's voice?

"W-what?" Maria expressed shocked, just as she entered with a tray on which 3 cups of coffee were placed. Well better said, had been placed, as the cups were already on the floor at this moment.

"Are you alright?" Gabriel quickly turned his eyes towards his mate, concerned for the reason which had made her drop the tray suddenly from her hands.

"Yes, I am. Your highness, what did you say?" Maria asked again, not paying much attention to Gabriel, who was already by her side, checking on her feet.

"I said... teach me how to be shameless." She repeated the words Gabriel had not properly registered in his mind a second ago, and then put both her hands on her face, as she was unable to watch their reaction to her request.

Growing up with a family that rarely if ever showed loved towards her, Celia had always been quite cold in expressing her love as well. She was never cuddled, never protected, never did her mother, father or siblings expressed such warmth towards her.

Her brother, who she was still keeping in contact even now, had lived in the same environment as her. So even though they were quite close as siblings, he also did not know how to show his feelings to another person, just like her.

They called each other, inquired about each other's well-being, he also visited the palace and the twins from time to time. But this was about it.

As for her two little angels, for some reason the two felt more mature than their actual age. They acted like they were already adults, so they also did not cuddle too much with her. The only one who would... it was Salas, but he would be the one to do it, she mostly never initiated an act of embracing him, almost never took the initiative to kiss him herself on her own.

But the man was already doing this every chance he had, when would she ever need to do it herself? And also... she had already taken it for granted that the situation was like this. She had already taken for granted his feelings for her...

Sure, she loved him more than life itself, but when it came to whisper words of love, to be more forward in showing her love towards him... she was very much lacking in this aspect.

So her only option right now was to rely on the ones who had "helped" Salas before.

By chance she had found out who the "adviser" of Salas's many shameless acts was, a fact which had left her speechless. A professor she had respected, a teacher she looked up to, for him to be capable of such shrewdness... it was beyond her.

She couldn't believe it at first, but considering that the person she had admired even more than Gabriel, the werewolf king, actually acted like how he did, perhaps she shouldn't be surprised about his closest friend either. Birds of a feather flock together after all.

So after she had gotten over her initial shock at the time, she had wanted to come and directly get explanations from Gabriel, and perhaps to also "deal" with him in some way, but...

She was too embarrassed to get the situation out in the open after all.

How could she come to his house and ask the man, if he was the one who had made Salas take advantage of the fact that she had stolen his first kiss? This was too flustering to talk about. In the end there was nothing she could do, but turn a blind eye to the matter, she could only pretend she did not know anything about it all her life.

Needless to say, the last thing she ever expected to do was to come on her own accord to seek out Gabriel and Maria, especially since she had thought that Gabriel's advices were nothing but nonsense.

But though she had thought like this, the things he had taught Salas did bring them closer. If it worked once, it was bound to work again... she hoped.

"Y-your highness, that..." Maria stuttered confused. She was so flustered that she had even used Celia's official title, though she would use the queen's name in private normally. Celia had asked her to do so.

"Your highness, to live to witness the day when you would come to me for advices..." Gabriel spoke emotional, his voice sounding a bit broken as he was barely holding in his enthusiasm.

An enthusiasm both Celia and Maria did not share at all. Celia was actually already regretting her choice as he was speaking.

"... I could not be more proud of my accomplishments being recognized. But..." He continued speaking, not paying attention to Maria, who was already shaking her head from side to side in hopelessness, or Celia who was baffled by his audacity. Gabriel was not even fearful she would do something to him now that she was aware of Salas's secret lessons.

"... if I was to teach you anything, my life would be finished in the next second. Salas would kill me, if I put any ideas inside your head. I am after all a man, he would not take it lightly for me to speak to you about these things."

Though he was proud that his advices were recognized, even by the imperial couple, he still valued his life. Salas would most likely be happy with what she would do, as a result of the lessons. But afterwards he would come and have his throat, because Gabriel, a man, had talked with his wife about such private matters.

"And anyway, for these kind of advices, my mate is a better option. She is my apprentice and the first to bear witness to the effectiveness of my methods, she would surely guide you on the right path. May you both have a fruitful discussion!"

Finishing speaking as quickly as he could, especially the last part, so neither could refute his words nor decline his solution, Gabriel made use of his werewolf abilities in the best way he could. And this was, fleeing as swiftly as possible. Though he really was curious why Celia felt the need to get advices from him. That man was already crazy about her to the point he was practically glued to her, what could have triggered the werewolf queen to seek him?

Well he would find out from Maria later. His mate would most likely tell him what had made Celia come to their house.

With the speed of a second ranked werewolf, Gabriel was out of the door, before Maria could contradict him, or even open her mouth for that matter.

Sighing a bit, as she thought to postpone the killing of Gabriel until the latter would return home, Maria approached the couch, and took a seat near Celia. She had even forgotten about the broken cups that she had dropped, in the awkwardness of the matter.

But who could blame her, an irresponsible mate who declined any responsibility for his actions, and even pushed her in front of Celia to talk to her about his so called shameless lessons, effectively forcing her to talk again about how she was courted by her mate... these were enough reasons to explain her erratic frame of mind. It also wasn't helping that Celia was about to cry.

At least this was how Maria sensed Celia's mood. The usually expressionless pale face, was now even paler, with only moist red eyes and a crimson nose being the evidence of her human lively state.

"Celia, what exactly happened?" Maria asked thoughtful.

"Salas... he doesn't love me anymore." She replied slowly. Saying the bitter truth with her own mouth, brought her even more pain than she had thought, her heart kept tightening in sorrow.

"That can't be true. His highness dearly loves you." Maria reasoned quickly. The swiftness of her answer partially because Celia's tears began to slowly fall from her eyes, but also because she was absolutely sure of her reply.

The werewolf king was so infatuated with Celia to the point of obsession. Such a man changing his feelings in a short time was truly unthinkable. Just a month ago, he had decorated the whole palace with a multitude of roses in celebration of his mate's birthday.

"It is true. For this whole week he has ignored me. When we sleep he no longer hugs me, when in the past he would almost smother me to death and still would not move away for a second. He wouldn't even eat, if I was not beside him, but he ate separately without a bother this week whether I was home or not.

And today he even left a note, saying he didn't need to tell me where he would be going or when he would be returning, because there was no need for me to know."

Maria's first reaction would have normally been to dismiss Celia's worries and attribute Salas's recent actions to only a tantrum, but Celia's hoarse voice prevented her from doing so. Moreover, oddly enough Celia's reasons made sense.

In any other situation and if it was any other man, these matters would have been explainable. But Salas would never leave Celia room to breathe for even a day, a week had already passed and he was still cold to her... She wouldn't think something as drastic as Celia was thinking, because Salas would never not love his mate. He had waited faithfully for her for a hundred years already.

"You have to help me, Maria. What can I do to make him love me again." Celia pleaded as she took hold of Maria's hands.

"Celia, it's impossible for his highness to fall out of love with you. In my opinion, his highness might be..."

Sighing a bit with an obvious frown decorating his handsome visage, Salas slowly walked inside the hallway.

He was so concentrated on his inner turmoil, that he did not even notice the strange quietness of the palace until he had almost reached his and Celia's room. Only at this moment, he realized that he could not sense even one single maid in the private quarters.

After 8pm, indeed all the maids would retire for the night, but it was only 5pm right now. For not one single maid to be present, it was weird.

As for the twins, they had started spending more and more time with Clarissa, their cousin Hope or Emery these days, so he did not feel worried about them. Not to mention, that the two seven years old brats would be the ones who others feared because of their first rank, rather than the ones that needed protection.

Reaching the door of his room, with his mind slightly distracted by these thoughts, he sighed again sensing the strawberry smelled he loved so much seeping out from the minor gaps that existed between the door and it's frame.

It seemed that his heartless mate was already inside their room.

The beautiful, but mean woman had probably not even cared about his absence from the Royal Palace today.

He loved her so much that he could hardly breathe if he was away from her for too long, but she was probably still fine without him.

Had she even noticed his slight alienation from her this week? He pondered hopeless.

Probably not, he admitted to himself defeated.

At the beginning of the week, he had been too busy and too caught in difficult matters at the Council's office, causing him to come later than usual for the dinner with his mate.

He was worried when he arrived home that Celia had probably starved waiting for him to come. But not only was she alright with his absence from the table, she had even eaten unbothered without him.

On one side, he felt thankful that his petite wife was fed and well taken care of, but on the other side, he felt bitter that she was alright enough to eat without him... it was quite a complicated feeling.

It was a feeling he pondered about a lot, and it made him feel more and more conflicted and unsure of the extent of her feelings for him. Was it only the mate bond for her? Did she really love him?

That night he decided to test how much she really loved him. Even though he felt his heart ached so much not holding her close to his chest, he abstained and did not hug her to sleep. But she did not react at all.

Then one thing led to another, and it had already been a week that he had tried to get a reaction out of her... he wanted the slightest indication that she was bothered by the alienation between them. But there was not even a small tiny proof of her displeasure.

Clenching his jaws at these thoughts, he put his hand on the handle and slowly opened the door.