A high scream of a woman was soon to be echoed through the walls of the castle. It will reach everyone's ears, including The King's.

He was in the middle of an important meeting where the landlords around the kingdom came to the castle to inform about the situation in their lands. Usually, many of them complained about the lack of food and trespassing species. It was his least favorite time of the year, spring. On every spring you could see how nature woke up from its lethargy and how more and more people came to him complain about little things like how the snow had broken many roofs. Not that Dominic didn't care about his people, he just had many other things he should have been doing.

Another reason why he shouldn't be sitting there right now is his absent on his thoughts. While they told different things that he didn't give a shit his mind was wondering to the human girl called Maeve.

Something inside of him changed when he was away.

His wolf was day after day even more stressed out for a reason he wanted to deny. When he saw her crying outside with her feet frozen something inside of him snapped. She was crying there for him.

She was crying because she thought he was dead.

Never in his life did he have someone who cared about him enough to cry for him. His father was someone who never showed his emotions not even towards his own son. When Dominic was only a child he couldn't understand it but while growing up he figured out why he was so cold all the times. Caring about someone gives them a weakness and no good ruler want to have a weakness. If you have a weakness meant that you are weak too.

A high pitched scream reached his ears making him stand up and go to the direction where the scream was coming.

Dominic knew on the second he heard the scream who it belonged to. An unfamiliar feeling spread around his body.

Whew of the landlords accompanied him while he sped up his speed. He didn't care about them, he didn't care about the guards who ran to the direction of the blue room.

No one has lived on it as long as he can remember. His father always told him not to go there. The room itself was gorgeous with blue curtains, walls, bedspreads etc. It looked like a room where only the queen itself could live.

When the door opened light burst into the dark room showing.A terrified human crying on the ground next to a dead woman.

He blinked.

The dead woman had her neck slit open from ear to ear. The blue carpet under her was covered with blood. But those weren't' the worst thing about it because Dominic recognized the dead woman immediately. It was one of his mistresses.

Maeve crying next to her was not helping anyone. Her eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks covered with still pouring tears. A foreign feeling flashed through his eyes.

The human turned to look at the persons who entered the cold room. Her heart ached. She had been through so much. So much pain that no one else should ever experience.

She had seen her own sister's body when she was shot by an arrow. She had seen her own mother burn alive. She had seen his brother disappear into the thin air in front of her. She has stumbled onto her best friend's bloody corpse. She had seen things that no one should never have to.

A quiet whimper left her mouth.

Her face had paled and her hair was wet from her still pouring tears. She didn't want to see any of them. She wanted to seclude into a dark corner where no one could hear her cries. Not even the mouse she loved.

She hated him.

She hated the beta.

She hated every male that had made her feel things a person never should think.

She hated everyone who had made her feel like a piece of trash. Maeve didn't deserve that. She was someone who should be cherished on every single day since the time will take her away with it.

The human turned to look at her plump stomach. Memories of her being a child flushed through her mind. Memories of the time when she wanted to be a mother so bad just like her sisters when they were under ten winters old. How she wanted to be the mother to her child that Alison was to her. She was the best mom a person could ever ask for.

One of the guards came to her trying to walk her out of the room. When he offered his hand to walk her out Maeve lifted her head from her abdomen and started to scream.

No

No

This can't be happening!!

The human remembered him. She remembered how low he talked about her after she watched how the rest of her own family was being slaughtered by him, by the guard that carried the name, Richard.

"NO!!!" She screeched and backed her back against the wall. There is no way that she will ever allow that man to be close to her again.

The words the guard once said started to make it's way back to her head no matter how hard she fought back.

'Why should we bow in front of a human or treat you nicely? Especially you. You are just a bitch who is going to die soon. Enjoy your last days human.'

'She looks like a fucking angel'

'...she'll need more than just some 'luck''

"N-no."

Her head couldn't take it anymore.

All the pain she felt when she first arrived here came back to her. Maeve couldn't breathe anymore. Her head didn't allow her lungs to work anymore. Panic took control of her body.

"LEAVE" The alpha male in the room yelled making every living soul in the room leave expect the two unlucky souls that were tied together by fate.

The panic rose all the way up to her ears. Her pulse was reaching the highest point it ever had been. Unlike the calming effect, the alpha male had been expecting the human started to panic even more.

Her eyes wandered around the room as she tried to stand up. She didn't want to be in the same room as the darkness was. Maeve wanted to be far far away from him and every other male that had once even dared to make her feel like the corpse she found only minutes ago.

Her eyes reached his.

There was something new on his eyes today.

Dominic took a step forward to the shaking lady. A few calm steps at a time. As he took the steps forward Maeve took the same amount of steps backward. When the wall touched her back she fleed to the direction of the door with tears on her eyes.

She was scared, scared of the darkness in front of her.

Scared of everything that will happen if she stays. She couldn't feel her fingers and toes anymore, not knowing if it is caused by the coldness in the room or the shock that her body is experiencing

He saw what she was going to do by the look on her eyes. She looked like a scared mouse looking at the cat who will eat her with one bite.

She climbed on the bed and went over it. It was the closest she could reach the door before hands wrapped themselves around her waist stopping her flee with a thump to the chest of her beloved.

"N-no!" She cried and started to scratch his arms trying to get them away from her waist.

"Stop struggling!"

Maeve just continued to shook her head and dig her nails deeper into his arms. She could feel her fingers making scratches to his skin that had started to bleed a little. But he didn't give up on her. He kept holding her still when she kept scraping, kicking the air and shouting at him to let her go.

"L-let me g-" Maeve kicked the air trying to hit somewhere that would cause him enough pain or chaos to let her go.

He had never seen her in a situation like this. And after today he never will want to see it. She was acting like a maniac. Women usually acted civilized especially those who stayed under his eyes but the thing in his hands was acting like a rabid kitten.

He took a deep breath before turning her around and crushing her into his chest. He couldn't hear her voice anymore. The struggling human kept kicking the air and trying to let herself free from him until the only thing she could focus on was his beating heart under her head.

The panic that she once felt was drifting away piece by piece. His hands did a circulating move on her back making her breathing soothe.

But that was before she realized what the situation was at the moment. She was hugging him- no he was hugging her. The color red started to make it's way back to her face. Maeve had no idea what she should do. Fight him or give up on the warm feeling inside of her. But she did know that it felt so good to have someone to hug her and that is the only thing that matters now.

***

A dead body of a man was laying on the grass next to a wide river. Few animals had made their way to her to get their stomachs full. Bugs flew around him and his ripped stomach and bloody clothes. No one could deny that the corpse was a disgusting sight.

A few kilometers away two men who have been called morons were trying to find the missing person of their pack. One was taller and the second one shorter.

"What do you think shortie? Did they just ran away?" The taller one teased.

The shorter one gave him a deadly glare, "That is the only thing that comes to my mind but I can't shake the feeling that running away doesn't sound like them." After he finished his sentence his friend put his shoulder on the shorter one's head as if the man with lack of length would be a walking stick.

"CAN YOU STOP THAT?! And don't call me a shortie, my name is Colin and you know that." Colin said and stepped onto his friends, Sam's, foot.

"ARRGHH, why did you break my poor toes?"

"Why did you use me as a walking stick?" Sam rolled his eyes.

"Can we just focus on trying to find signs of them?"

"Fine."

"FINE."

They kept on nagging about each other. Either one of them had yet managed to find their mates and by the sight of them, it seems like there is no hurry for them to find their other halves.

"You see that river?" Colin pointed out after they had walked a while. There is no doubt that they shouldn't just head back and tell the news: they couldn't find them. If they truly ran away, why left all their stuff behind?

"I'm not blind."

"I want to swim."

"Well, I don't." And here we go again. It seemed like the two of them never got along each other. After a time of them nagging to each other Colin stripped down that he was only in her underwear before he jumped onto the freezing river.

While his friend was swimming and having the time of his life, Sam, on the other hand, stood on the shore and rolled his eyes. The winter just ended and the moron who he calls his friend wanted to go a swim. Never in his life will he be so stupid.

"Let's go!!! I want to be back home before the darkness comes back."

"You should come to swim with me. This water is amazing." And that is how Sam ended in the water too. They swam for a while but then the darkness of the night started to show early signs to them.

They rose from the water and started to put their clothes on when they heard a stick snapping in half.

"Hello?" The shorter one asked but no one answered. They are probably just hearing things. That's when Sam started to walk a little further from his frenemy.

"Where are you going?"

Like usual the walking man rolled his eyes, "To pee." Furthermore, that was his intention before his leg hit something soft. Thinking it's only a moss or something like that he continued his journey. On his way back his leg hit again on the moss and he lost his balance.

"What the hell," he murmured as his hand touched something wet. Then the realization spread through his body. After that, the forest was filled with the echoing screams of the two morons.

***

Maeve was finally released by the one holding her. The panic was gone just like the raging thoughts of hate.

She really needed that hug more than she even wants to admit to herself. The human turned to look straight into the eyes of her mate but the man wasn't looking at her. He was looking at the door. His thoughts were something that Maeve would want to know. What is going on his head on situations like this?

Her stomach decided to interrupt the silent moment by a loud grumble.

Oh.

The human's face started to heat again.

"When was the last time you ate?" That indeed was a good question. Her appetite has been gone for a long time now and it was not a surprise that she wasn't the most welcomed quest to the kitchen. The kitchen lady still sees her as a thief who will take a good food and ruin it with her pet mouse AKA her crime partner.

Then she remembered the small piece of bread she ate in the morning when one of the maids brought it for her. "At the m-morning." She shrugged. If truth to be told she was as starved as a wolf.

"Come," Dominic said and walked through the door to the hallway. His mate instead stood there in the room looking like she had seen a ghost. She had no idea should she trust him enough to follow him but her stomach made the decision for her.

On their journey on the hallways, either one of them didn't say anything. The two of them had never been in a situation like this. At the door of the kitchen, Maeve realized where they were heading to.

"N-no." She stopped walking. The last thing she needed now was the kitchen staff who didn't allow her to touch the food. Some maids brought her food but Maeve was sure that they didn't tell the kitchen lady who's stomach it was going to warm.

Dominic turned around and raised his eyebrow. Is she afraid of food?

She started to take steps back but he was faster than that to stop her from running away. She has to eat something.

"You need to eat." He said and lead her to the kitchen making her go from the door first.

On the other side of the door, the lady was making his special bread that everyone in the castle loved. Everything has been great on that day for her, but that changed when she saw the thief walking on the kitchen.

"I thought that I made it clear that you have no business in here, thief." She snapped and took a meat knife from the table.

Maeve froze. This was exactly the reason why she didn't want to come to the kitchen, she was happy to the portions the maids sometimes brought her. Her stomach always wanted more but it was enough for her to stay happy without starving herself to death.

The lady took threatening steps towards her, "You should live on the streets like that filthy rat." The human let a whimper escape from her mouth.

She wanted to go. Maeve wanted to leave and never take another step to the place called the kitchen. The human took a few steps back but a strong arm pressed itself to her back and made his presence known.

At the same second the meat knife fell on the floor. "Y-your Highness," she said and curtseyed. The color on her cheeks was long gone. Dominic didn't answer anything he just led the human deeper into the kitchen and told her to take anything that she wants.

Maeve didn't know what to do. She could feel the kitchen lady's stare drill onto her back as she took a jar of cookies. But at the same time she felt safe with the man next to her, now the lady didn't dare to do anything.

The human looked at the cookies and was ready to leave the kitchen once and for all but the grey eyes that were now a few shades darker looked at her with a commanding look for her to take more food.

"I'm fi-fine," She assured him.

"Paula, make a steak from the best meat we have and bring it to the library." A mix of fear and rage flashed through the kitchen lady's eyes.

"Yes, sir." She mumbled.

After that Dominic lead the fragile human away from the kitchen with the cookie jar on her arms. They walked until Maeve was met by the sight of a familiar room.

"The library," she muttered to herself. She loved that place but the door has been locked for a while now for her to go in and read books.

The alpha male took a key from his pocket and opened the door. He watched as the human walked to the settee and started to stuff the cookies on her mouth.

Somehow it didn't surprise him that she liked cookies, they were as sweet as her.

"You should eat more."

Maeve knew that. Her body needed more food to function. "I know," She whispered knowing that he will hear her.

She took another cookie and ate it. Usually when she ate a feeling of nausea filled her body but now it didn't happen. It was weird but maybe the sickness that had taken over her body had finally left.

"You have lost weight."

That surprised her. Yes, she had noticed how her legs and arms had become thinner than before but her plump stomach looked like she would have taken a weight and not lose it.

"Since when do you care?" The words slipped from her mouth before she had the chance of stopping them.

"I don't know."

Maeve turned to look at him and smiled, " Thank you." She didn't like to admit it even to herself but he helped her today more than anyone else could have.

He didn't answer her.

"You know..." She started not even knowing why she is telling him this, "In my childhood, my mother always used to tell me and my siblings different kind of s-stories."

"What about them?"

"When I was about five or six s-summers old my siblings and my favorite story was about your family."

Dominic raised his eyebrow.

"The most popular story was about-" Maeve had no idea what his reaction will be even if he will react to it, "your grandfather and the war." After finishing her sentence she turned to look into his eyes but there was no reaction.

"Mind sharing one?"

Maeve didn't have a chance to answer his question when the door was being knocked and a servant boy brought her dinner with him.

It looked mouth-watering, but her stomach was full of the cookies.

"Eat it." Maeve shook her head, "I'm full."

"Of cookies? You should eat more it is not healthy for you or for it."

Maeve puckered her brows, "I-it?" She had no idea who or what he was talking about until she noticed him staring at her stomach.

A wave of shock run through her body.

How hadn't she realized it earlier? All the signs had been there; the morning sickness, no appetite, fatigue etc.

How stupid can she be?

"I'm p-pregnant, aren't I?"

"With my heir." The man next to her answered shaking her world once again.

***