Replacement Bride for the Alpha of the North - Chapter 253

Chapter 253: BURNING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN
It had been a week since Dawn returned to the north, leaving the capital city.

The enemy had gone, their wolf spirit had gone, the ability for the shifter to shift into their beast had gone and… Zenith had gone too, but life went on.

It was suck.

Zaya watched how Zander literally threw himself to the piles of work. He worked in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, even during the night…

He appeared unaffected by Zenith’s demise, but Zaya knew this was how he coped up with Zenith’s death. After all, they had been very close. They only had each other for a very long time.

They schemed against their enemy together, created plots after plots and fought alongside each other. There must be a lot of moments when they only had each other. Looked out for each other’s back.

Zander lost his brother, his twin, his confidante…

Zaya felt selfish if she wanted Zander’s attention. She knew that Zander was struggling with his grief, but Zenith was also her brother too. She felt sad and wanted Zander’s comfort, but she didn’t dare to disturb him.

She felt like the bond that Zander and Zenith’s share was something that she would never get, since she had been away from the kingdom for years and she was not there for them during their difficult time.

Zander also made a point not to talk about Zenith. The conversation about his death had never been brought up and this killed Zaya because she couldn’t talk about this to anyone.

She couldn’t talk about it with Celine too, because even though she showed sympathy for her, the healer would never understand…

Zaya wanted to talk to Zander, but she didn’t dare to bring the topic and disturb his ‘peace’.

“Are you going to burn the mountain down?”

Zaya snapped from her reverie and realized that she had created a bonfire in front of her. Currently, she was in the Goffa mountain, near her family’s burial ground.

No one should be here, but of course, the rule didn’t apply for king Rowan, he seemed to determine to break all the rules that her brother created and annoyed him to his death.

Zaya waved her hand and the fire ceased. “Yeah, I am thinking about doing that, but then my brother will sulk for days because I add more task into his worklist.”

King Rowan approached her and Zaya created a barrier around her, which made him frown. “You don’t need to waste your magic stone to create a barrier against me, princess. I believe you can just turn me into frog if you wished the moment I became a threat.”

Zaya didn’t put down her barrier. She didn’t want him to catch her off guard and kiss her again. He had done it twice and as much as Zaya was upset for his action, surprisingly, she was even more upset with herself because she was not angry enough for his brashness.

“I am sure that will be counted as harming a king and while it’s tempting, I can’t do it.”

King Rowan flashed a bright smile, which drew Zaya’s attention to his lips and she hated to pay attention to his lips.

He stole her first kiss and now he acted like there was nothing happened. He looked so calm. Zaya wondered how many women he had kissed before. She must be only one of his long list women that he had been with.

Zaya knew how liberal men in Marca El.

People like Rowan would have a long list of mistresses, who would be over the moon whenever he graced them with his presence and Zaya didn’t want to be one of them.

“What do you want, king Rowan. You shouldn’t be here.” Zaya then added. “I meant it. This is family ground.”

Rowan looked at her deeply for a while before he answered her question. “I only wanted to check on you, because you looked distraught nowadays.” He took a step closer, he only stopped because the barrier preventing him from walking even closer. “I saved this place from your fire, am I not?”

Zaya narrowed her eyes. “I am fine, thank you.”

“How can you be fine when your brother just died?”

Now Zaya understood why Zander often looked very upset whenever he finished talking with this king. Rowan knew how to struck a nerve. “Thank you for the reminder, but life goes on.”

“Lower that barrier, I will tell you how to vent your grief in a safe way.”

“What? Hunting Leonard and it’s siblings?”

Rowan frowned. “Who is Leonard?”

“The monster in the Goffa mountain.”

Rowan came here to console Zaya because he knew she had been bottling up her emotions, but it was actually him, who got a good laugh.

“Did you name all the monsters here?” Rowan asked between his laughter.

Zaya didn’t find this amusing at all. She was upset because Rowan laughed at her. “Since you can find me here, I am sure that you can find your way back alone.”

Zaya turned around and attempted to leave Rowan, but the king chuckled and unstrapped the sword around his waist and raised it for Zaya to see.

“I got the same swordsmiths to create this sword for you, with the same fire magic stone.”

What Rowan said managed to make Zaya stopped walking away, she turned around and looked at the king and then the sword. It was a beautiful sword.

“I don’t know how to use sword.” She could handle dagger, but sword was different thing.

“I will teach you.” Rowan knocked the barrier with the hilt of the sword. “Put it down.”

Zaya raised her brows. “Are you going to train me of how to fight with sword?”

“Yes.” Rowan watched how Zaya withdrew the barrier and walked toward him to get the sword. Her eyes lit up, though she tried to appear not interested with his offer. “It’s better than burning down the mountain, right?”

***

Ever since that night at the burial ground, Rowan had been accompanying Zaya to learn of sword fight. She improved, she had a knack for it, but of course a few days of training wouldn’t make her able to beat Rowan.

She got frustrated and when it mixed with her grief and her desire to vent all of her frustration and sadness, she became impatient and more aggressive.

“You make it easy for me to know your next move, Zaya if you attacked me like that.” Rowan ward off her attack easily and it upset Zaya even more when she saw how calm he was when she was drenched in her sweat.

“Really? Can you see this?” Zaya then used her magic to create tendrils of fire that caged Rowan. The tendrils trapped Rowan and she used this opportunity to attack him.

Rowan was alerted, but he looked as calm as ever, despite his predicament. If he kept provoking Zaya, he might end up dead one day, but he liked her this way more than how she was a few weeks ago. She looked more alive with the anger in her blue eyes.

He looked around him, the heat of the fire licked his skin, but he knew that Zaya would attack his back, thus he only needed to concentrate and to feel her.

The tendrils of fire shifted and Rowan was right, Zaya came from his back with her sword drew, she tried to stab him, but he took a step to the side and caught her hand. The tendrils of fire dissipated and he disarmed her easily.

“You hurt me!” Zaya complained, she pushed him away, holding her wrist. It was not hurt that much, she only exaggerated it, but her ego was hurt.

“Princess…” Rowan chuckled. He knew that Zaya was only sulking, but he didn’t get to finish his word when he felt another person’s presence and this time, he raised his sword in defense. The calmness in his face disappeared when he faced this sneak attack. “King Zander,” he greeted the other king with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

Rowan found this amusing when the two siblings loved to attack their enemy from behind.

“Zan, what are you doing?” Zaya immediately approached the two kings, she was afraid one of them would get hurt. “I am fine, it’s okay.”

Both of them stared at each other, there was no word, but the moment Zaya came closer to them, they immediately withdrew at the same time. Zander took Zaya to his side and check on her hand.

“I am, okay,” Zaya repeated what she said to calm her brother down. “It’s not hurt.” She wriggled her wrist to emphasize her statement. “See?”

“I have been receiving the report about your training,” Zander stated, he threw an accusing look toward Rowan, as if this was a big mistake and it was his fault.

“We have been training. The princess seemed interest to sword fight, so I helped her.” Rowan didn’t miss a beat when he replied to Zander’s question.

“Your help with the princess is not needed.”

Zander then took Zaya away, but she traced back to get her sword which made Rowan chuckled, but he stopped when Zaya glared at him and followed her brother, who looked like he was going to snap the sword into two.

It was surprising to know that this kingdom and Rowan’s kingdom had a good relationship when the two kings looked like they wanted to bite the other’s heads off every time they met.