Caitlyn's POV
I stood between Zed and Talon for a moment, caught in a dilemma.
By all rights, I should have been on Talon's side; after all, he was my mate.
However, for some reason, after Zed showed up, all he did was be nice to me without asking for anything in return, and my heart hadn't felt that kind of pure concern in a long time.
So, I found myself standing between the two, not interrupting their confrontation. I even felt a twinge of excitement inside me – the chance for two good werewolves to vie for my attention was an opportunity that didn't come along very often.
"I don't know what your intentions are in approaching Caitlyn, but I can assure you that if you harbor any ill intentions towards her, you won't leave the palace alive," Talon declared, lowering his voice.
His massive figure stood in front of Zed, and his wolf let out an intimidating howl, ready to charge and tear the man in front of him to pieces.
"Put away that fake look of yours. As far as I know, you're basically the cause of all the pain Caitlyn is going through," Talon continued. Zed responded with a mocking laugh, not taking Talon's threat seriously.
Talon opened his mouth to say something else, but at that moment, Zed unwillingly transformed into a giant white wolf, similar in size to Talon.
"And I heard that Caitlyn even miscarried a child over it. Because of that alone, you don't deserve to be her mate," Zed said, anger filling his tone as he lowered himself to the ground, his teeth chattering with anger.
In that moment, I felt like something hit me in the heart. A wave of complex emotions surged through me. Looking at the white giant wolf in front of me, who was similar to me, I instantly felt my breathing become a little heavy.
"Shut up. You have no idea what happened back then," Talon retorted, losing his patience, and lunged towards Zed. Zed, however, dodged Talon's attack with a sidestep, a smug smile spreading across his face.
"I don't need to know that. As an Alpha who can't even protect his own mate, he's a joke in himself."
A hint of disdain appeared in Zed's eyes, followed by a violent stomp on the ground, instantly stirring up a huge cloud of dust.
Zed's figure was like a bolt of lightning that pounced through the smoke and dust toward Talon.
Talon's face became extremely gloomy, and his eyes looked at Zed with a hint of caution.
Talon didn't choose to retreat; instead, he slammed toward Zed's body.
Boom!
With a dull thud, the two strong bodies ruthlessly collided.
A violent fluctuation rippled outward from the two people's surroundings, and I, as the closest person, couldn't help but take several steps backward before stabilizing my stance.
Talon looked at Zed in front of him; his lips instantly pursed, and his eyes turned cold.
"Caitlyn!"
Just as Talon was about to launch his next round of attack, a familiar voice suddenly came from a short distance away.
I twisted my head to look at the voice and found my father appearing in sight with an anxious face.
"Father, I'm here!"
I waved my hand toward my father.
Zed's reaction to seeing me was first a blank stare, then his brows furrowed together as he took a few steps back before reappearing in his human form.
"If you ever bully Caitlyn again, I'm going to give you a memory to remember."
Zed glanced away towards my father before twisting his head to address Talon and immediately turned around, disappearing into the dense forest out of sight.
Talon was a little puzzled and ready to say something else, but he kept his mouth shut when he saw my father walk up to him.
"Are you okay, Caitlyn?"
My father looked me over from top to bottom with concern and was relieved to make sure I didn't have any obvious trauma.
"I'm fine, just had a little trouble."
I smiled softly at my father and spun around in his face.
"Who is the one who just left?"
Seeing that there was nothing wrong with me, my father nodded and then looked in the direction that Zed had gone in the distance.
"That man's name is Zed. He seems to be the Alpha of a pack. If it weren't for him, I'm afraid it would have been a bit difficult for me to come back this time," I said, peeking a bit sheepishly at my father's reaction. After all, my father had strictly forbidden me to participate in this hunting competition at the time.
"Zed?" My father didn't care about my expression; instead, he frowned and whispered Zed's name as if he were remembering something.
"Caitlyn, I'm sorry. I was a little out of line earlier, just wondering..." Talon walked slowly over to me, pursing his lips and looking a little embarrassed on his face.
"Well, that's okay. I know that as an Alpha, you definitely have to prioritize how to improve the strength of your pack," I said calmly, looking at Talon.
"Caitlyn, don't talk like that. I know I really didn't act too well just now. It's just that Zed showed up out of nowhere and said something like that..." Talon froze for a moment, and I noticed the dodge in his eyes at the moment.
"You're jealous of him?" I looked up at Talon.
"What are you talking about? How could I be jealous of a guy like that? He must have had some other agenda in approaching you. Right now, it's just that he's hiding it better..." Talon twisted his face to the side and pretended to explain without thinking, but his reddened ears still betrayed his heart.
"Uh-huh, okay. I'll keep an eye out for that in the future." I'd never seen Talon like this before and couldn't help the corners of my mouth from turning up.
"But I swear to you, no matter what happens in the future, I'll never put you in danger alone again," Talon suddenly said with a straight face, looking at me seriously.
"Well, but didn't even the king not know about such an accident this time? You need to stop feeling guilty about that. And aren't I fine now?" I stood on my tiptoes and tapped Talon on the shoulder, signaling him not to take it to heart.
"But I suspect that it might have something to do with the King as well," Talon frowned and whispered.
After hearing Talon's words, my heart couldn't help but sink. If it's true that everything that happened before was with the king's tacit approval, then Kaisa might have become the king's pawn as well. I couldn't help but create a pang of fear in my heart.
"However, there is one more thing I need to trouble you with," Talon's words interrupted my thoughts, and I raised my head to meet his serious eyes.
"What?"
"Be my date at the dance next week." Talon looked down at me with a sly glint in his eyes.