I woke up to the screaming voice of Cheryl in my head.

"Today is the day Alexander will inaugurate Alexandria! Eeeeek yay!"

"Uh, Cheryl, I know. What do you think I was doing yesterday? They'd put me as a helper in some preparation, and now my feet's killing me." I groaned. It wasn't easy to run through the floors of the palace, helping people with flower decorations and whatnot.

"Cheer up Cors, I heard Alexandria will be the neighbouring city to Romanos. You are residing there, right?" she asked.

"Yep, the kingdom's ruler is a close friend of Alexander, so he's doing major works for the new city's celebration," I yawned, about to fall off the bed but steadied myself.

There was a reason I was sleeping at the edge of the huge bed.

"Which means we can meet? After such a long time, finally," she sighed.

"Be ready with my death grip hug," I giggled and slipped off the bed. We talked some more, after which we decided to wear the same colour clothes, for the ease of spotting each other.

I looked back at the bed and shuddered. It was giving me some serious creeps lately.

The probable image of us tangled in the centre made my knees weak and I collapsed on the floor.

These are some deranged, unholy, and lecherous thoughts. Oh God, have mercy on this poor child of yours! I chanted, shaking my head vigorously.

It was the reason. Every night I lay cuddled at the corner of the bed, instead of sleeping in the centre. I may appear to be a confident woman on the outside, but that was it.

I was a freaking kid inside.

Out in front of the palace, colourful bandanas hung from one corner to another, with flower chains hanging on them. A large crowd of men and women were spread across, everyone talking only about Alexander and his achievements.

It was stunning how the palace complex of Romanos was sprawled acres wide, joining the borders of Alexandria in the process. That's where the celebrations were going.

"I hope it becomes a great city someday, with help from you wonderful people! A toast to everyone who had been looking forward to this city!" Alexander jeered from the palace balcony, as everyone howled in amazement.

"Long live!"

"Alexandria!"

"Long Live!"

"Alexandria!" the crowd repeated after the newest pharaoh of Egypt.

"That's all I have to say. Kindly enjoy the feast and don't stop dreaming of a free world!" he gave one last shout and raised his goblet of wine, to down everything at one go.

I stood at the corner of the palace's entrance, watching the swarm of people buzzing around the grand feast. Julian was nowhere in sight since morning.

It was nerve-wracking to enter the crowd, given most of them looked drunk out of their mind. Some were stuffing food until they could no more.

"Cheryl! Where are you?" I said in my head.

"Near the dessert section, hun," came her voice.

Hiding the AI book under my robe, I walked with quick steps, avoiding possible eye contact.

"Ah, Miss, if I could know where you took this sweet from?" I asked a passing lady, who carried three bowls of Melomakarona. Balancing it somehow in her arms. It was an egg-shaped Greek dessert made from flour, olive oil, and honey.

"It's right in the middle of this circle if you could see this big circle made by the guards in this complex?" I nodded my head.

A figure waved their hands wildly in my direction, and I squinted my eyes to find a woman wearing the same beige colour dress as mine.

"Sweetie, can you please help me carry these? It's a shame my family wants more sweets to hog on." I couldn't help but laugh. She must be very annoyed with her family.

After helping her out, I squeezed my way through the crowd and reached the dessert section. Lines of sweets were spread on the long table. Varieties that I'd never seen, lest tasted before.

"Caught ya!" Someone gripped me from behind in a crushing hug. I closed my eyes and pressed my mouth. It was just so difficult to stop the waterworks now.

"Hey Cors, what happened, baby?" Cheryl turned me around, moving her hand gently on my face.

"I missed you so much!" My hands went around to hold her in a tight hug. I remember going nowhere if it wasn't with her, because she was the one to make sure I was okay.

"Aww, calm down. You'll make me cry too," she rubbed the back of my head,

"You're a grown-up woman now, shh... a brave woman. And oh damn, you'll ruin the kohl around your eyes," she jerked me forward to check if I was crying black tears.

"Don't worry," I sniggered, wiping the tears with the edge of my cloth, "Don't you know Egyptian kohl has nitric oxide in it? For safety, I ordered Maybelline eyeliner from the AI book,"

"Whoa, intelligent girl, huh? Well, as of me, I've decided to use kohl till it kills me and sends me back to our century," she chuckled.

"Now come with me, I'm gonna make you meet some badass women here," I was hesitant a bit until she tugged me at the end of the dessert section.

"I guess I've seen you somewhere," the woman with an elegant black braid pointed out, making me squirm under her gaze, "Did I spot you in the camps?"

"You must have, gracious lady," I told her everything about being a prize then becoming a writer, at which she congratulated me.

"I didn't want to wake them because they were sleeping peacefully," Bellanca informed when Helaine asked about her cubs. She was sad but did well to hide it.

"The cubs were so cute. I literally forgot to ask your name that day," the woman giggled, as we took food from the buffet that was laid out.

Recipes from Egypt and Greece were taken, including the ones from Persia, Babylon and the neighbouring kingdoms.

"Haha, it's fine. My name is Helaine and I'll call you Bell," the lady smiled as she took a milk custard on her plate.

"Sounds good. Then I'll call you Hell," she replied, making Cheryl and me choke our food in a suppressed laugh.

Good thing Macedonian lady Helaine didn't know what hell meant, because it was Hades in their language.

In the distance, some warriors were even dancing weirdly, making the concubines shake with laughter.

"No wonder Olympias was true in asserting her son to be Zeus's son," Bellanca spoke as the three of us finished our food.

"Yes, that assumption became true," Helaine added, "It is said she dreamt her womb to be hit by Zeus' lightning bolt and the next day, she became pregnant with Alexander"

"So it means King Philip wasn't his father?" Cheryl inquired.

"Well.. many consider Olympias to be a sorceress, but it's common sense, Philip fathered Alexander. It was in olden times that gods came down on Earth to impregnate humans," Bellanca added.

"But given the rate at which Alexander is conquering at such a young age, it seems he's actually a God's son," Helaine wondered.

In one of the rooms of the Romanos palace, three warriors sat together, while only one of them drank one drink after another.

"Stop it, Alex, you'll overdo yourself." Julian uncrossed his arms, resting them on his knees.

"Do I have anything left to conquer?" Alexander slurred, waving his goblet for more wine.

"You have the area of land, more than any king has ever conquered," Jakov stated from the large window where he was leaning. His eyes repeatedly glanced at a spot in the crowd below.

"That's the reason!" Alexander hurled his goblet across the room, making it rattle till the doorstep.

One heated look at the guardsman and all the servants were out of the room, leaving the three men alone.

"I have nothing else to conquer. Fuck! Nothing else?! What will I do now? How will I fucking survive?!" he buried his hands in his face and began sobbing pathetically.

Yes, he was crying because he had no lands left to conquer.

"You can spend your time in the concubine Associa-" Jakov started cautiously, but stopped when Alexander's bloody eyes shot at him.

"Tell that woman Olympias that I don't need a fucking concubine association. You have anyone up the alley? Go donate him my entire harem of women," His voice turned hoarse by the second,

"I bet that woman is more bothered about my sex life than I am. Who spends their precious time sleeping around, when they can plan all night about the annexation of other cities? Oh yeah, men do. You mortal men." he took in a ragged breath.

"But I'm no mortal, mates. I am the son of a God, Zeus. And a demigod doesn't have time fucking around when he can make the world a better place," he breathed out raggedly.

"So, you've started believing in your mother's theory, huh?" Julian drawled, flexing his neck in the process.

"Why yes! I am Zeus's son," he asserted.

"He's been thinking so lately. Don't bother him," Jakov walked behind Julian's chair and whispered, giving Alexander an innocent smile.

"Look, we have loads of territories to capture, first being Persia. I have already planned Omid's assassination. Defeating Darius would be easier when he knows, his right-hand man was gone.

"And as you'd planned, we will go till the end of the world, that is India, and capture it all." Julian explained, to calm him a bit.

It was funny how the Macedonians thought India to be the end of the world. Beyond that, none other was there. They had no idea that China existed because they were taught that way during childhood.

Apparently, Aristotle's mistake.

"He is obsessed with capturing more, isn't he? What's the use when, after all that, he'll sit back and cry?" Jakov guffawed, as the two men made their way out of the palace.

"It's his obsession that doesn't make him look any way around except the wars. But man, somewhere, it's Aristotle's fault too.

"He was the one to teach him to refrain from sexual desires in order to have your sole focus on empire building," Julian tched, and continued.

"Olympias isn't wrong in worrying that her son may become incapable of producing an heir for the future. Man doesn't know the benefit of having concubines," he snickered. "He should let off a little steam to calm himself."

They were walking along the periphery of the palace, where many trees covered the area, making a tiny forest. The afternoon was arriving, with rays of sunlight that managed to cross the thick canopy of trees.

"Well, I was thinking that he'll start the training for the war soon, Ow!" Jakov shrieked when something poked his ankle from behind. Both of them turned around to find two cubs staring at them.

"Hey," Jakov kneeled to their level in surprise as they eagerly hopped to him, rubbing their neck in his hand.

"Where have you been hanging out, babies," he cooed them, as cub Lola climbed on his lap.

Jakov ran a hand over Lola's head, and she purred. Julian walked to the other one and took him in his arms.

"Hey Juno, your mama loves Lola more, doesn't she?" he rubbed its back softly, making the cub rest over his chest.

"Next time, just leave a scratch on your mama's leg and take your revenge, hm?" he patted the cub's head, and it became close to sleep, maybe due to fatigue. Cub Lola growled in response.

"It's rare of Helaine leaving them on their own. I wonder what happened now." Jakov checked the cubs for any injury, but found none.

His eyes shifted to Julian, who was petting cub Juno, as it slowly drifted off to sleep.

"So, how many people know your babysitter's side?" he asked in amusement.

Julian straightened up. "What did you say?" he asked back, alarmed, face turning a light shade of red. Jakov burst out laughing.

"I swear buddy, if women see this, they won't stop awwing the hell out of you. Ahem, especially that lady love you've got," he winked.

He was one of those rare people who knew Julian had a way with babies. Be it an animal's or human.

Julian snorted. "Look, you better keep shut about it. Women are crazy to think of men petting babies as cute. And heck no, I'm not cute," he grumbled. "Also, she isn't a lady love of any sort."

"Well, how did you figure out the she I was talking about?" he teased further, entertained by his annoyed expression.

"Whatever," Julian played cool and got up, careful not to wake the cub. Jakov followed with the other one.

They spotted Helaine laughing near the dessert section with a group of women.

"Hey mates, what's up with Alexander? Haven't seen him in the celebrations yet," Hephaestion jogged up to them. Jakov began explaining about his bestie's situation, while Julian excused himself.

Moving his fingers gently through the sleeping cub in his arms, he watched the soft beauty giggling with the fellow women.

It was in the morning itself when he had seen her. Fresh out of the bath, with her wet hair splayed on one side of her shoulder.

It was the first time he had seen her with kohl around her eyes, and that had driven his senses crazy.

Surely he had concubines, much beautiful than her, but they were too much. The kind of beautiful that had started to sting his eyes.

Flashy, glamourous and lusty, were their qualities which he was so proud of, but not anymore.

Althea was soothing to the eyes. Soft, simple and sweet.

She seemed out of place for most of the times. As if she didn't belong in here, but was thrown in for some purpose. That thought had infuriated him a great deal, which had led to the suspicion of her being a spy.

But that had flown out the window when he knew his heart would betray him every time she was close. Her innocent and a bit scared nature would want him to hide her in his arms.

It was pure primal instinct that day when he had unknowingly seduced her by the shoulder.

Biting, kissing, then soothing her wound with his lips until she was trembling in his arms. He just couldn't stop himself, for Hades' sake. The pull was too magnetic to let go.

But that was a mistake he had made.

He had frightened her, which he didn't want to. That was the reason he hadn't come into her view this morning. The more he is away from her, the better for both of them.

His eyes narrowed at a particular woman, who wore a similar beige dress like her. She seemed to be chatting without a care in the world, with one of her arms around his soft beauty.

Althea winced and immediately withdrew her arm. She rubbed the side of her neck as the women looked at the wound, with an overtly dramatic horrified expression. He smirked.

But it didn't last long when he figured out the woman to be Alexander's concubine.

From the way Althea was casual with her, he couldn't shake off the feeling that concubine could lure his soft beauty into becoming a concubine as well. He gritted his teeth at the thought.

"Hey Julian, will Alexander attend the Dionysus festivities at your place? Given his and your mother seem to stick with each other," Hephaestion inquired.

"He has stopped meeting Olympias completely, since his father's death. I don't think he'll come," Julian informed.

"Oh, I see. It's not a good sign whenever he is shattering goblets after drinking. I'll go check if I can calm him. See you around," the warrior left after a quick hug.

"Jakov, just call her out here. I'm not going in the crowd," Julian grunted.

The warrior laughed to himself. No matter how much Julian wanted to deny, he could see right through him he acted weird near this writer.

When Helaine noticed them after someone was sent to call her, she picked up her robes and rushed to them like crazy.

"Aw, I love you Jakov!" She jumped up to him and kissed his cheeks, as the restless cub Lola quickly scrambled in her arms.

"Awww thank you, Julian! For taking care of Juno," she laughed. Jakov took the sleeping cub carefully from his arms. He winked at him.

"We'll see you around, mate," Putting an arm around his fiancée, he took her back to the palace, laughing all the while at her little talks.

Julian took in a deep breath and heaved a sigh, shoulders slumping down in melancholy. Though he would mock Jakov for the turmoil one has to face in a relationship, he often wondered what is it like to be in one.

Ready to walk back in order to check the arrangements made for the Dionysus festivities, he decided to glance one last time, what she was doing. The sweet Althea.

His heart leapt when he saw her looking at him. Even in the distance, he could make out her cheeks flush red as she quickly turned around, as if he hadn't just caught her ogling him the second time.

He shook his head and laughed contentedly because he knew one thing.

He had a long way to go with this woman.