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For one, he couldn’t believe that he hurt his wife just because she got a letter from her male friend. And second, though he didn’t want to think much about that friend of his wife, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was amiss.

‘Everard Crestfire... Son of the current King Alfred Crestfire.’

He tried to recall if there was anything peculiar about the Crestfires. But he couldn’t quite pinpoint his finger. ‘Why do I feel so uneasy about that surname? I feel like I am forgetting something important.’

Caspian tried to put those thoughts aside and work on the files that were pending. He tried his best to focus on the files. However, his mind was stuck on that one name – Everard Crestfire.

After wasting almost half an hour, he decided to do a little background check on that man.

He called Zenon in and asked his trusted source of information, “Zenon, do you have any information on the Crown Prince of Xanmar?”

Zenon answered without having to think even for a second, “Everard Crestfire. Age 20. He is the only son of King Alfred Crestfire and late Queen Amira Crestfire. He currently resides in Lavinya for his study purposes.”

Caspian nodded and asked again, “Anastasia’s brother also studies in Lavinya?”

.....

“Yes, they both will complete their studies soon,” Zenon answered with confidence because as a Royal Advisor, it was his job to keep track of all the Royals of the neighboring Kingdoms.

Caspian felt a little relieved as the story matched with what Anastasia had told him.

But he had this gut feeling that there was something more. “Can you tell me more about the Crestfires?”

“The Crestfires?” Zenon didn’t know what his King wanted.

So he gave a general answer, “The Crestfires came into power about a hundred and fifty years ago. And they have been ruling over Xanmar ever since. The Crestfires even expanded their territory over time. But they don’t interfere with the border on our side because of the pact.”

“But we don’t have a pact with the Crestfires.” Caspian was certain of it since he would have remembered it if he had made some kind of deal with them.

Zenon shook his head and answered, “No, we didn’t make a pact with the Crestfires separately but your ancestors had made a pact with all the werewolf clans in the past.”

“Werewolves?” Caspian abruptly slammed his fists on the desk and got up from his chair. The chair toppled down behind him and the desk broke into half.

He towered in front of Zenon and raised his voice, “You are telling me that the Crestfires are werewolves?”

Zenon politely took a step back and answered, “Yes, they are one of the werewolf clans.”

Caspian now knew why he got that unsettling feeling earlier.

“Is that Crown Prince also a werewolf?” Caspian shouted again.

He was getting even more restless than before because he was aware of one of the main characteristics of the werewolves. He knew that if they liked someone then they wouldn’t easily stop pursuing them. Their whole life would revolve around that one person.

Zenon noticed the restlessness in Caspian’s eyes. And his aggression was pretty obvious given that the study was now a total mess.

He didn’t know what triggered his King so much. But he calmly answered, “As far as I know, the Crown Prince is not a werewolf yet. The King, however, is the alpha of the Crestfire pack.”

Caspian instantly ordered Zenon, “Confirm it right away. I want to know everything about Everard Crestfire. And I am serious when I’m saying everything.”

Immediately after ordering Zenon, Caspian rushed out of the room as if he was in a great hurry to reach somewhere.

Caspian went straight to the library, only to find that it was already locked.

‘She should be in the bedchamber then,’ he thought to himself and rushed back to the main wing of the castle.

Just as he had thought, he heard his wife’s voice from the bedchamber. She was being attended by her personal maids.

Caspian flung open the door of the bedchamber and ordered the maids, “Leave us alone.”

The maids didn’t need to hear it twice. They both ran out of the room as fast as their feet could take them.

Anastasia got up from the chair that was in front of the dressing table and turned to face her husband.

Caspian instantly held out his hand and asked Anastasia while trying hard not to sound rude, “Anna, may I take a look at the letter? I am not doubting you but I need to confirm something.”

“But I... just told everything to you...”

“I know. But I need to see the letter. Please.” Caspian kept on extending his hand towards her.

Anastasia sighed and went to take the letter out of a drawer.

Anastasia didn’t like how Caspian was trying to invade her privacy even when she had already explained to him just a while ago that Everard was her friend. However, she didn’t want to give him a reason to suspect her.

Besides, she had nothing to hide. So she handed the letter over to Caspian.

Caspian pinched the letter with the tips of his finger as though he was holding something repulsive. He lifted it close to his nose and took a sniff. He instantly regretted it.

“Ugh! It stinks!” He turned away from the letter and gagged as if he was going to throw up.

Anastasia thought that he was teasing her. She fisted on her hips and raised her brows at him. She scoffed and asked, “Really, Caspian? Are you here to tease me?”

Caspian didn’t answer her because he was too busy trying to figure something out. He was thinking whether that god-awful smell belonged to Everard in particular or everything in his castle smelled like wet dogs.

Without wasting any more time, Caspian pinched both sides of the letter. He went through the contents of the letter in an instant. He didn’t find anything suspicious at the first glance.

So, he went through it again. He wanted to know if there were any kind of warnings or hidden messages in that letter.

And his eyes got stuck on a paragraph.

‘I hope that the King is treating you well. And I hope that he has been giving you the respect that you deserve...’ Caspian narrowed his eyes as he read those sentences.

He couldn’t help but feel that Everard was subtly giving a warning to him in case he read the letter.

‘I also wanted to ask you, are you not scared?’ Caspian glared at the letter as if he was going to put holes in it just by staring.

Anastasia had been standing by his side and watching him go through the letter again and again. He looked like he was trying hard to find fault in that letter.

“Is something wrong?” she asked when he didn’t take his eyes off of the letter.

However, Caspian was lost too deep in the letter. He didn’t hear his wife asking him a question.

After a while, he finally looked away from the letter and scoffed.

He had reached the conclusion, ‘He knows, doesn’t he? He knows that I am a vampire. Doesn’t that mean he already had his transformation? I think the pact clearly stated that werewolves aren’t allowed to reveal the secret of the existence of vampires to humans. If he was still a human, he wouldn’t know about us.’