Louisa's POV
"Tail! Tail!" Will hung on Leo's neck like a little sloth.
"OK. But you can't pull it or step on it. It will be painful." Leo said.
Will nodded seriously.
Leo looked back and a giant white tail appeared behind his back.
I was amazed because most werewolves were only able to shift into wolves when there was a full moon. Only Lycans were able to shift at any time they wanted.
However, even for Lycans, it was very challenging to control only part of their body for transformation. I had only seen Lucas doing it once while he was torturing me. Leo was just a teenager. He must be extremely powerful to be able to pull tricks like this effortlessly.
"Tail! Giant tail!" Will exclaimed with happiness and excitement, trying to hold it in his arms.
But it slipped away from his hands and moved to the other side. Will giggled and tried to jump at it, but Leo's tail moved away again.
Will bounced like a ball in the cart, trying to catch Leo's tail, but he ended up holding nothing but air.
"Ahhhh!" Will eventually gave up and jumped onto Leo's lap, raising his hand to declare surrounded. Leo smiled and held him tightly in his arms, wrapping him around with his tail.
Finn used to hold me like that with his tail. Big, majestic animals seemed to be born with a gift to provide comfort for the smaller ones.
Will looked at me and said, "Leo is the best!"
"I know, Will. But you have to stop being naughty and stay put," I said.
This carriage was moving forward very fast. Darren seemed to have a very different driving style from Alex.
"But I want to hang out with Leo," Will said. I could tell he was tired because he yawned and stretched his arms.
I stroked the back of his head and said, "Take a nap. I'll wake you up when we get there."
Will nodded and laid his head on Leo's lap, holding Leo's giant tail in his arms like a pillow.
Snow curled up around Leo's leg. It seemed that she was also determined to take a nap and use Leo as a cushion.
I stroked Will's hair and he munched. Then, he stroked his face against Leo's tail and smiled with eyes closed.
He looked so peaceful, sweet, and cute. At that moment, I felt that I would give up everything to be able to stay with him like this for the rest of my life.
Leo was looking out of the window. The smile on his face was gone and replaced by contemplation.
I decided to continue the conversation from where we left off.
"Leo," I said. "What did Lucas and Lucian argue about this morning?"
Leo looked at me with worries in his sky-blue eyes and said in a soft voice, "I only managed to pick up a few words. It seemed that they were arguing about you. Lucas was shouting and threatening to kill you, but Lucian said he wouldn't let this happen."
Then, he held my hands and said, "Louisa, I don't know what's happening with you and Lucas, but could you please find a way to make up with him? I lost my parents when I was really young and I was practically brought up by my brother. He had always been the only family and friend that I had got until we met Lucas. I know Lucas has a bad temper. He always shouts at others and sometimes breaks people's necks, but he isn't entirely a bad guy. He stood up for us in the past, when everyone wanted to bully us..."
Leo couldn't continue, because there were sparkling tears in his eyes.
"Sorry," he lowered his head and said. "I got really emotional when I talked about our experience in the past."
"It's OK, Leo. We're friends. You can tell me everything," I held his hands in mine. "Why were you bullied in the past?"
Leo rubbed his nose and said, "My parents took the wrong side during the coup. That's why all of their friends left and betrayed them."
"The coup?"
"Yeah. The Crescent Coup, in which the Late King Duko was bloodily murdered by his own mother, the Late Red Queen Daliah," Leo said.
"By his own mother?!" I felt I was struck and electrified by lightning when I heard these words coming out of Leo's mouth.
I knew fighting for the throne in our Kingdom had always been accompanied by bloodshed, conspiracy, and brutality, but I had never thought that power could make a mother murder her own son.
Leo nodded and continued, "I really didn't know what happened, since people who knew what really happened have already been eliminated. But my brother told me, our parents chose to protect the Late King instead of his mother. At that time, Queen Daliah imprisoned her son and claimed that he was too weak to be in power. Our parents, along with other Alphas from other tribes, demanded to see the King but got refused. So, they planned to start a coup, the Crescent Coup, to overthrow Queen Daliah's dictatorship, but they were betrayed by their allies on the eve of the coup. That's why they ended up being thrown into jails and witnessing Queen Daliah executing everyone one after another. The execution lasted seven days. On the last day, the Late King Duko was declared to be a traitor and beheaded. But the thing is, how could a King betray his own country?"
Leo took a break and sighed.
Even by Leo's description, I could tell the level of violence was unprecedented.
"The whole country was under tremendous terror caused by the Red Queen. In order to show the rest of the Kingdom how benevolent she was, she didn't kill my parents and us. Instead, she severely tortured my parents and exiled us to the north. We were supposed to be delivered to Alpha Basil of the White Walkers. But the soldiers got an order and dropped us in the middle of the tundra. Then, they left. It was late winter. My parents were impaired at that time. I was still a toddler at that time, but my brother clearly remembered everything. He told me that my parents took off their clothes and gave them to my brother and me. Then, they asked my brother to carry me over his back and walk to the White Walkers. He walked in the snow for three days until he met a White Walker soldier. He took us to the Fire and Wind Camp, where we were enslaved."
Leo took a deep breath. This was such a dreadful story that I felt depressed even listening it.
I could see swirling snow in Leo's eyes. I could see a young boy carrying a small toddler on his back, stumbling and tottering, moving forward against the piercing north wind in the waist deep snow.
I suddenly realized why a gentle and kind person like Lucian could be so cold and reserved at the same time.
No one was supposed to survive the frozen tundra in late winter. Lucian did.
But part of him was permanently left in the permafrost on that tundra, along with the frozen corpses of his parents.
He could walk out of the heavy blizzard and strong wind alive. Yes, he could.
But he could never walk out of the trauma caused by a higher force -
The storm of his life. His destiny.