The Crown's Entrapment

With their travel taking hours to complete, Darius decided that now would be the time to give Xen a short tour of the packs that they usually went through whenever they would travel towards the Black Claw Territory. Unlike most days where they would take a carriage and just cuddle up against one another, his mate decided for them to take the more inconspicuous route, thus allowing him to make his tour even more up close and personal as opposed to him just pointing at castles from the safety of their carriage.

[Plus, this way, we'd get to be even closer to Xen than any luxurious carriage could ever allow us to be.]

He smiled at Zeus's remark. [You do know that we could've made love inside our carriage, right?]

[As if you'll do that right before something as important as Freya's Ritual of Marking,] Zeus scoffed. [And I don't think Xen would like that one bit as well.]

That was the case, unfortunately. But while that wasn't in the cards for their current journey, he could at least steal a casual kiss or hug from her while he was lecturing her about a few of the many pack territories that they were about to pass.

"You'd still be a powerful one, my love," Darius replied to Xen's rhetorical question. "Some queens use their power and beauty to make up for their lack of knowledge in politics."

"But I don't want to be known for just that," she pouted beneath him. "Sure, I can just go into the battlefield and make a name for myself as a warrior-queen, but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want that."

"I… can't deny that, unfortunately," Darius nodded, albeit a bit hesitant to do so. "I don't want to see you hurt when I could've easily protected you myself."

"Right? So knowing that I should at least try and help through some other means," she shrugged. She then flashed him a cheeky smile as she sweetly intoned, "Now then, would you kindly help me with my lessons?"

Darius almost felt his rod hardening at the way his mate smiled at him just now. With their close proximity to one another, he was sure that his hardness might just poke out from underneath her. Fortunately, that didn't seem to be happening at the moment.

[You might want to start your lesson before you jump on her,] Zeus reminded.

Clearing his throat, Darius looked around their current surroundings, confirming their present location before he began. "Right then… As you might already know, Cordon is composed of roughly ninety-six packs, each having their own territory and role within the kingdom ranging from being soldiers to some of the more administrative roles."

"I've figured that much," Xenia chuckled.

"Right… And with us currently being south of the capital city, this means that we're currently with the borders of the South Paw Pack," Darius recalled, imparting his knowledge to his wife as she sagely nodded in front of him. "These forests are their main product of export to the kingdom, as well as having a sizeable territory for any would-be enemy to invade should they want to come for the capital."

"I see," Xen nodded in understanding. "And their location means they're the ones to take the brunt of whatever forces would dare to go up here. Which would also mean that Gideon's Black Claw would be the ones to face Ebodia if we ever somehow decided to invade."

"That is the case," Darius chuckled. "We have five packs bordering Ebodia, but the largest one of them by far is the Black Claw."

He blinked at the sudden swerve in the conversation. He didn't want to think about the hypothetical of an Ebodian invasion, but somehow, they ended up going there anyway.

"But from what I can recall, there are other packs still in our path on our journey south, right?" Xen thankfully asked, allowing him to swerve the conversation back on track.

"That is true," Darius nodded. "And we still have three packs to go before we reach our destination."

From there, he began to lecture Xen about the rest of the three packs they had to go through. From the luscious vegetation that was found within the Stone Fang pack's territory, all the way to the quarries present within the mining territories of the White Tooth pack, Darius made sure that he went over every single detail he could. From economies to major exports, he was sure that Xen was going to learn every single thing that he could impart to her.

Come nighttime, they finally had to make a stopover at one of the many inns found within the Blue Moon pack's territories. Funny enough, the pack's very specialty in terms of economic value was all about being a hub for merchants traveling between Ebodia and Cordon, making them the prime spot to establish inns and taverns for any and all travelers.

"Are you hungry, Xen?" Darius asked as he disembarked from their horse before then assisting his wife down with one hand. "I can order us some food while we get a room for ourselves."

"That would be nice," she nodded.

From there, Darius went ahead and booked a room for the two of them to spend the night in. Looking around, a vague sense of familiarity washed over him, and by the time they received their keys, he finally pieced together just why exactly this place looked so familiar to him.

"Xen, does this place look familiar to you?" he asked, hoping that she would also remember the significance of this inn.

"It… Does?" she hesitantly asked just as they entered their room. "Isn't this the place where we first spent the night together in one room?"

"That, it is," he smiled. "Back then, you were still pretending to be a man, remember?"

"Of course," she chuckled. "And I also remember trying to make sure that you wouldn't see me while I changed."

Darius couldn't help but smile as both he and his wife got settled within their once room. He could see it now… images of the past playing before them as they waited for their food to arrive.

"What a coincidence, don't you think?" she giggled. "To think that we'd end up here again."

"I'd say that it's fate reminding us where we came from," Darius replied. "It's where our story began, in a sense. The story of how you ended up becoming my Queen."