Chapter 7
~NYSSA
Stubborn idiot.
Henry was such a stupid, stubborn man. I fought the urge to walk to his room and yell some sense into his stupid head.
But I didn’t. A part of me liked to believe that he knew what he was doing, but deep down, I didn’t really believe it.
He had no idea what he was doing, and with each day that passed, my anger grew and morphed into new levels.
We have been at the King’s mansion for days now, and the man still hadn’t seen us. No matter how much Henry sent his butler to tell him that we wanted — desperately needed — an audience, the King refused to grant us an audience.
And even though Henry himself could not see it — he was probably intentionally refusing to — everyone knew that he was starting to get restless.
And I understood him. I really did. I hated that the King deemed us unimportant and was just keeping us here without a logical reason.
I kicked at a stone at my feet and I watched it fly a few feet in the air before it landed away from me. A resigned sigh slipped past my lips.
No matter how frustrated I was though, there was nothing I could do about it. Henry was refusing to leave despite the King’s blatant refusal to meet us. It was as if they were both playing a game of push and pull to see who would break first.
And if this was a game, Henry was losing.
I spotted a bench several feet away and walked towards it. As I sat down, my eyes landed on a very pretty flower. I leaned down to gently touch the buds, and for a moment, my frustration faded into the background.
The only good thing about this visit, at least to me, was the garden. It was so pretty, and since I had nothing better to do, I spent all of my time here.
The flowers always soothed my nerves, and today was no different. I took a deep breath, savouring the soft, tantalising fragrance that wafted into my nose.
I wish I had a garden like this back home. If I did, or eventually managed to, I would live out the rest of my days in peace.
Zoning the world out, I sat between the flowers and allowed my tense body to relax. I had no idea how much time I spent staring and admiring the flowers, and I would probably have stayed for much longer if I didn’t feel a jolt in my body.
My body prickled, and the feeling was so foreign that it shook me out of my swirling thoughts. I looked around to see if someone was close, but no one was in the garden with me.
The prickling feeling on my skin intensified though, and my brows furrowed into a frown as I stood up.
Something was going on.
I remained still for a moment, waiting to see if the feeling would disappear as fast as it came, but it didn’t.
Instead, it increased. Panic started to slither down my veins. I had never felt this way before in my entire life. Was it a good thing or a bad one?
It didn’t help that my wolf was now awake and suddenly trying to take control of my body. She moved as if something was controlling her, and I had to subdue her to avoid her from taking over.
I was about to run back to my room when I smelt it. A delicious, very aromatic scent wafted into my nose, and my lips parted with desire as the smell surrounded me.
The tingling in my body increased now, cresting and spilling over to coat every single part of me, and the smell became stronger.
My hands coiled into fists and opened again. I needed to find the source of the scent. It was heady, and the deeper I breathed it in, the more lighter I felt.
It was almost as if I was drunk, and the idea made a nervous giggle slipped past my lips. It was laughable, to be honest. I mean, I didn’t think anyone had ever gotten drunk on a scent.
Maybe I would be the first. Break the record or something.
My legs started to move without any form of conscious thought. I made my way deeper into the garden, and the farther I walked away from the house, the stronger the smell became.
It was almost as it I was being led toward the origin of the scent.
The garden became more dense and thick the farther I walked, and I was carefully not to fall on my face.
My wolf was uncontrollable. She wanted to take over, wanted me to turn. My wolf desperately wanted to run towards the source of the smell, and it was taking the rest of my willpower to stop her.
The scent led me into a clearing. I looked around, my nose trying to find a central source, but it was all around me now.
I turned around as the tingling in my body intensified, and my eyes widened when I saw him.
My jaw dropped open.
The man standing a few feet away from me, was hands down the most beautiful man I had ever seen in my life.
His face was exquisite, and it was as though he had been carefully carved out of a rare marble.
Strong and lean and heavily corded with muscles. His hair was white and long, falling across his back like a curtain.
A lump grew in my throat. My wolf was scrambling around like crazy now, and before I could stop myself, I took a step closer to him.
And another.
And another.
Why was I walking towards him?
As soon as the thought came into my head, the answer occurred to me immediately.
Mate.
This man was my mate.