Forged in the Flames by Karima Sa'ad Usman

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Aliana was asleep when I returned to my room.
It was a very eventful day and was still ongoing.
What her father had told me about Newton bothered me, but I needed to be careful. I was also contemplating telling her that I
had seen her mother in Snow.
It would be a hard pill to swallow, and I did not know the effect it would have on her health.
How could I tell her that her mother is alive and she is in Snow as Fredrick’s forced mistress? How could I tell her that I won’t be
able to rescue her mother without starting a war? I felt weak and incompetent in those moments.
I watched her sleeping peacefully. Judging by her outfit, she was dressed to follow me to her father’s house, but I had changed
my mind last minute.
She was sleeping peacefully, and she looked innocent and free in those moments. She also looked fragile, and I did not want to
be the one to break her. I decided I would hold on to the information a little while longer until I figured out what to do because I
could not live with myself If I allowed Gwendolyn to remain in Snow at the mercy of Fredrick.
I removed my clothes to unburden myself and decided to sleep a bit. I wanted to be well rested when Piotr arrived. I did not know
if his intentions were friendship or to serve as his father’s spy, but I plan to find out.
Now that I know that my father’s right-hand man at the point of his death was from Hill, and he was recommended by
Aleksander, I was wary of anything from that territory.
I lay in bed, and Aliana stirred and turned towards me. She moved close, still asleep, and placed an arm and l*eg on me, holding
on to me tightly. She wriggled her nose a bit because of a strand of hair close to it and flashed a gentle smile that faded
immediately as sleep claimed her facial muscles again.
I held her, brushed the strand aside without t*ouching her skin and stared at the ceiling, thinking of all that needed to be done.
Sleep finally came, and I let it engulf me.
I hadn’t had a nightmare in a while, but I finally did.
I was surrounded in the woods by brown Lycans, and I could not shift.

I woke up panting, and to my surprise, Aliana was beside me, wide awake, sitting on the bed.
She looked at me with concern, and I tried to calm down.
The dream signified a deep feeling of helplessness. I felt surrounded by enemies and did not know who to trust.
It must be my subconscious interpreting my predicament and limits.
I adjusted myself by sitting, and Aliana smiled at me.
It was clear she had been up for a while because she looked well-rested, and all traces of sleep were gone from her face.
‘“Bad dream?” She asked gently, and without warning, I pulled her into my arms and crashed my l*ips on hers. I needed to quiet
the noise and calm down. The sudden stress had gotten to me, creating unrest in my subconscious. I needed her to help me
calm down.
She returned the K*iss, and I felt my heartbeat steady. Soon we broke the K*iss, and she stared into my eyes, searching for an
explanation.
“I guess I need a break,” I teased her, and she smiled at me.
“I wish you could just take one, too,” She said, and I smiled at her. I understood her words.
It had been crazy for a bit now. I haven’t even been able to attend the evening garden parties. I haven’t been able to do much.
My team and I were working round the clock. I was mad at my uncle for putting me in a condition where I had to work hard. It
was just unfair.

“Were you able to speak to my father?” She finally asked, and I nodded.
I thought she would ask more questions, but she didn’t.
I did not need anyone to tell me that Aliana was guarded around me, especially concerning her father and her people.
I could see she was walking on eggshells, and I wished I could help her relax a bit more.
“I believed him,” I confessed, and her eyes softened.
The worry in her eyes changed to hope. I k*issed her hand, and she wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug..

“You do not know how I have hoped you will listen to his version, Nikolas. I am thrilled right now. At least you have more
information to work with,” she said, and from her reaction. I could tell it was something she had bottled up for a while.
She broke the hug and looked at me, and I decided to ask her something important.
“Based on your father’s account of events, what do you think was the cause of confusion at the time of my father’s death?” I
asked her, and she looked worried. I held her chin and looked into her eyes.
“You should never be afraid of telling me what you think and how you feel, Aliana. If you do not tell me the truth, who will?
You should never be afraid of me, Little wolf. I will never hurt you.
I want to hear your opinions. You will see things from a different angle. You will see what I might overlook. I want you to always
share your thoughts and opinions with me, no matter the situation.
Know that I will listen. I will never judge or hate you for it,” I said and sighed.
“I love you too much to be mad at you, Aliana,” I said, tears streaming down her cheeks as she sighed with relief.
She hugged me and rested her head on my chest. “I love you too, Nikolas, but sometimes you are scary. You get angry, and the
pressure becomes so much. It takes a lot for me not to cower sometimes. I do not know what would set you off.
I have to be afraid and worried.
I have nowhere to go from here and do not want to lose you.
I did not want us to return to the past when you avoided me completely. I like being around you, seeing you smile and crack
jokes. I love seeing you at peace and being a certain way you aren’t with others.
I do not want to lose that, so I will watch my words and behaviour around you, Nikolas,” She said and exhaled. She wiped away
her tears to compose herself better and continued to speak. “I also hear what people say and do not want it to seem like I am
controlling you. You fought hard to gain your respect. It has nothing to do with your bloodline. You have come this far alone; I do
not want you to lose your respect. I do not want you to lose face in the eyes of your kind. That is why I do not speak of my father,
my people or my thoughts because I know you might react, and what you feel for me would be obvious to your kind. So yes,
Nikolas, I am afraid. I am afraid I might cost you your crown, and I am afraid of losing you,” She confessed, and I held on to her
tightly.

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Her words had pierced my heart. Hearing the amount of fear in her heart broke me. I was mad at myself every time I growled
and frowned when she tried to speak up. I promised to watch my temper and do more to ensure she was comfortable around
me.
“I am sorry you feel that way, Little wolf. I will make more effort, I promise,” I said.
“So, do you mind telling me what you think might have caused the miscommunication between our fathers based on your father’s
account of events?” I asked her, and she broke the hug and dried her tears. Her pregnancy had made her emotional, and it was
pretty cute too. Her tears did not fool me. She was still tough underneath it all.
“To be honest with you, I think they were both played.
I believe there were people in your father’s government that wanted to create a problem between him and the werewolves to
force him to agree to the slave trade proposal, and those that would benefit from it were very much involved.
The Kings and Lycan officials on his cabinets were the most likely culprits.
They stood to gain more.

The kings stood to gain more slaves in their territory to help with the work and also crash the prices of slaves, making it more
affordable, leading to cheap labour for their projects.
While the Lycans on your father’s cabinet stood to earn money from it as the sale of slaves is more valuable than gold.
I also think some of them envied the closeness between our fathers and sought to completely destroy their relationship because
whether we liked it or not, your father was lenient by not enslaving them after all that had happened. Somehow I believed your
father valued his friendship with mine, and his Lycan officers knew and sought to ruin that too.
If we also have to narrow it down by saying it wasn’t everyone on his cabinet that was bad; it had to be someone that sought to
control your father and be his sole adviser.
With my father still in the picture, your father might still have forgiven the werewolves and continue to seek counsel from my
father. The reasons for manipulating and deceiving the King leading to an unwanted and unplanned battle, are endless, Nikolas.
The best way they could do it was to create hatred between the werewolves and the King, ending their loyalty to your father,”
She said, and it made a lot of sense; it was also my thought but a bit different.

“I believe this because my father said he sent the King multiple letters demanding that he let them leave, and none were
answered. When the answer finally came, it was provocative,” She added, and as she spoke, I knew it would be important to
look into the right-hand man.
“I plan to investigate his right-hand man. He died with him in battle, but he wasn’t from Forest; he was from Hill.
I do not know why my father would decide to reach out to King Aleksander to get him a right-hand man. I felt it was stupid and
very unlike my father, at least in the stories I have heard of him.
Why would he make himself vulnerable by asking another King to get him a right-hand man? It doesn’t add up, but I plan to get
to the bottom of it,” I said, and she sat beside me on the bed.
“By the way, I forgot. You were right about Doctor Newton,” I said, and she widened her eyes with surprise. Seeing her
expression, I could tell she hoped to be wrong about the doctor. Honestly, I hoped she was wrong, too, because it meant we had
gambled with our lives.
Newton was my personal Physician. He would have harmed me if whoever he worked for wanted him to harm me. I also thank
the
Goddess that I never fell sick, so there was no avenue for him to harm me.
I do not know what to do when I catch the bastard, but I know it will not be good. I plan to do a number on him when he is caught
red- handed.
“Remember the murder Igham tried to blame on the werewolves?” I asked, and it was a rhetorical question because I knew she
would never forget about that incident. It had broken the barriers between us but also brought immense pain for her.
“Well, your father launched an investigation, and a woman saw when a Lycan killed the man found in the woods.
Unfortunately for the Lycan, he did not remove his clothes to shift, so they were shredded into bits during his transformation. The
lady had the wisdom to pick and store pieces of the fabric. She gave the fabric to your father, and your father said Doctor
Newton’s scent was the same as that on the fabric,” I said, and she gasped, surprised by what I had just said.
“I know how you are feeling; I wonder why he had to kill the Lycan. I wondered what the poor man saw and who Newton was
working for, but I plan to investigate him,” I said, pulling her close.

“Enough about the serious stuff, little wolf; Prince Piotr from Hill is coming tonight. He plans to spend two weeks with us. He said
he is coming with his werewolf maid because she knows how to serve him. He does not want to trouble my workers,” I said.
Aliana laughed because she was thinking along the same line as me.
“As my Mistress, I would like you to join me to welcome him. It isn’t a secret that I have a werewolf mistress, and I am not King
yet, so I might as well flaunt you,” I said, and she giggled.
“I think she is his mistress, too,” Aliana said, and I nodded.
“You needed to see him in Hill; he loved everything that had to do with werewolves, and he kept creating reasons for it as if he
was guilty about something,” I said, and we laughed.
Aliana and I remained in bed while I linked Ania and Lisa to bring our food. I was famished, and I knew Aliana would be too. It
was time to start getting food in.