Just when Lorelia grunted out her vent, Aldrick moved closer and tapped her shoulder once, before he initiated to take control of the fervent situation.
“Lorelia, please calm down a bit. Let me talk to them first.”
Mumbling in a hefty voice, Aldrick turned his perplexed gaze towards both Zordan and Gabriel as he let out a sigh, “Are you both even in your sane minds right now? Choosing someone for a lifetime is not a reckless decision to be taken. Being the future Luna as well as the Crown Princess of this kingdom is a huge responsibility on your shoulder. So, did you even give it a proper thought before answering him, Gabriel?”
As soon as he directed his stiff question towards her, Gabriel winced a bit hard as the situation was becoming quite intense. Given no other choice, keeping her anxious gaze down she nodded her head in a trembling voice, “Yes…I-I did.”
“But this is an important decision, Gabriel. You should have at least—”
“Father?” All of a sudden, Zordan clenched his grip tight on her hands and walked a step forward, cutting in between his sentence. His big, wadded eyes looked much more resolute as he gazed into him deep.
“Some decisions are meant to be. Do you remember these words?” His tone sounded a bit hoarse this time.
“What?” Aldrick furrowed his brows, looking a little confused by his gesture.
But with a frigid, ice-cold glare in his dark orbs, Zordan gazed deeper as he spoke, “These are the same words you had told my mother when she was on her death bed, on that day you had brought Your Highness with you in this castle. And, I didn’t expect you to forget about it.”
All of a sudden, his unexpected answer jolted everyone in surprise as they quickly shifted their startled gaze at Zordan, including Gabriel next to him. Moreover, both Aldrick and Lorelia rolled their eyes in disbelief at his answer, exchanging a quick glance with each other.
Zordan had lost his mother, the former Luna as well as the Queen of Shadow Pack, Clara when he was only 10. The painful loss left a deep scar engraved in his heart and thus in the castle, no one ever mentioned their former luna, especially after Lorelia became their luna after her death. But after such a prolonged period of time, everyone was quite shocked to hear Zordan mention his mother first.
Even Gabriel, who was aware of his painful past held a frozen expression on her face as she raised her head to look at him in wonder. She was too surprised to utter a word.
After a brief shocked pause, Aldrick frowned his brows deep, and grumbled at him in a hefty voice, “W-Why are you bringing that up after so many years, Zordan?” His cold voice trembled a bit.
But a small pained smirk sliced on his lips as Zordan laid his gaze stiff on him as he declared, “At that time, I didn’t judge your decision, Father. So, I sincerely hope, you will do the same for me this time since I have already made my choice.”
“Prince Zordan!” All of a sudden, before Aldrick could utter a word, Lorelia intervened in their conversation as she hastily stood in front of Zordan. Meeting his cold fierce eyes, she proclaimed, “These two incidents are entirely different! How can you even compare them together?”
“Your Highness,” this time, his voice sounded quite irked as he shoveled a cold glare into her. “Lady Gabriel isn’t a random woman whom I have chosen for the future of our kingdom. She is a wise and diligent woman and if it hadn’t been the case, perhaps you shouldn’t have chosen her for Marcus in the past.”
“Exactly, that’s my concern!” Without showing any will of backing out, Lorelia grumbled back at him. She frowned her brows while tossing a discontent glare on Gabriel as she further raised her pitch, “She didn’t think of a second before breaking off the engagement in the past which both Luther and I had wanted for our children! Besides, to show her protest against our disapproval, she even ran away from our pack! Then how can you possibly choose someone like her—-”
“She called off the engagement in the past because she was meant to be with me!”
All of a sudden, Zordan heftily cut in between her remark with a loud grumble which flinched every person in the hall room. His bold way of defending Gabriel in front of the royal family was quite a rare sight since it was the first time, all of them witnessed his outspoken firm attitude. His persistence and while he was answering back to Lorelia, he didn’t let go of his grip on Gabriel’s hand for a second.
“You…Zordan…You…” Lorelia scowled and gritted her jowls in anger, charging her fiery gaze towards Gabriel who seemed intimated by the situation, standing next to him with her eyes down.
“Your Highness, we all have our own ways to express our displeasure. Perhaps, running away from our pack was her choice at that moment but it all lies in the past. Right now, I have made my decision and I am pretty adamant on it. It won’t change.”
“Hah! Zordan…you are giving me a headache now!” Aldrick sounded quite impatient as he shoved his hair above his forehead and exhaled a grumpy sigh. “This is not the place where we should discuss all these things! We…need to finish Luther’s funeral in a proper manner and then we can talk about it.”
“There is nothing to talk about anymore, father.” Zordan strengthened his hold on her small trembling hands and all of a sudden turned around towards the crowd gathered around them. “Just as all of you saw that she has accepted my proposal so I will make another important announcement.
On the next full moon after 3 days, I will be holding my engagement ceremony with Lady Gabriel. And, within a month, before the upcoming Red Moon Night, we will be holding our royal wedding.” His face grew a little solemn as he declaimed aloud.
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