Eero's Perspective
Even when there were no marks and bruises around my neck, I could internally feel the pain of the assault that Beta Octavio had done earlier.
"Claudius, where the hell are you? Baby, I need you here with me. I'm scared," I whispered to the air, hoping that it would bring these words to him.
Staring at the count of numbers I attempted to call him made me feel hopeless.
"Is he on the howling island?" I whispered to myself after a few seconds of contemplating. I decided to sneak out and stop waiting for Claudius to show up and look for him.
"You're off to Howling Island, Eero?" I quickly turned to face Aelice.
"Thanks to you, the Alpha King has stopped me from coming to his room to serve him tea before he sleeps."
"At least getting slammed on the wall and choked by Octavio ends up being worth it," I said that although she heard, she didn't catch it clearly.
"You were saying?"
"Nothing, Aelice." She looked suspicious of me, but a smile made her drop it.
"The Alpha King asked me if I had a business idea in my mind. I said I do; for the longest time, I wanted to open a pastry shop where I would be the baker."
"And did you tell him that you wanted this business?" I asked while I was secretly peeking at my phone.
"I did, but I want to finalize every single detail first, then I'll present it to him."
"Hmm."
"Are you even listening to me? You look like you're out of it," she commented. I finally tore my eyes off my phone.
"You're waiting for someone to call you. Who is it? Oh, it slipped into my mind, but you're coming to the howling island; that island belongs to Claudius and his pack. Why are you going there?"
Come on, wolf, help me think of my way out of here.
"I need his opinion for the architectural design of the Amman Hotel in Phuket, but he isn't coming to RGC nor coming home here."
"He came back to Thorne last week."
"Huh? He did? Why? And why did he tell you and not me?"
"Claudius didn't directly tell me. I heard it from the serving omegas, and why would he tell you that he'll come back to Thorne? Since when did you two become close for him to tell you his errands?"
"Not that, but we are working on this Amman Hotel project together, so I would have appreciated it if he gave me a heads-up that he's out of the country."
"But it's more than a week, and I'm sure he'll be back soon." I nodded my head at her.
Tossing a look of confusion, I grinned, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Aelice gave me a back hug and rested her chin on my shoulder.
"My father was furious when the Alpha King confronted him about his plan to marry me off to the Alpha King."
"I wish I was there to witness it happen."
"You have to be careful, Eero. I know my father; he'll surely get back to you for what you did."
He already did, Aelice, I wanted to say, but I didn't want her to worry about me.
"Don't do something that will put you in danger, Eero. You are my only friend here, and I don't want to lose you."
I patted the back of her arm.
"You won't. You are my only friend in the realm, too, Aelice."
"Even when my father sees you as his enemy, nothing will change between us, right? Will remain friends?"
"Nothing will ever break us. I promised to protect you, didn't I?" I asked her.
Aelice decided to sleep over in my room, and I let her as her presence put me at ease. What Octavio did to me at RGC earlier made me feel scared for my safety; I was anxious.
I was feeling someone else's presence in my room. I opened my eyes to see a figure of a man standing near me. He instantly covered my face and held me still to prevent me from waking Aelice up.
"Eero, it's me," he spoke, his scent then filled my nose.
"Claudius? What are you doing here?" I asked in a small voice. I looked over my shoulder to see Aelice still sleeping peacefully next to me.
"Come with me."
"To where?"
"Just come with me, and I'll explain everything to you later," he said, lugging me towards the walk-in closet.
"What are we doing here? And when did you get back from Thorne? Why didn't you tell me that you're coming back to Thorne? What did you do there?" I showered him with questions while he was obviously occupied with something.
"This is it," he said, and then he pushed a small cabinet to the side, revealing a tunnel.
"What the... h-how did you know about this?"
"Cielo told me about it. Each room has a tunnel that leads to the main road. It's an escape route to help anyone escape in case an attack happens." Claudius pushed the cabinet back to its old spot after we got inside the tunnel. Holding my hand, it took as long before we reached the highway that he was referring to.
"Get inside, Eero. We have to be quick because I need to send you back to the realm before sunrise so they won't notice that you left," he said.
Upon setting my feet in Claudius' villa, I felt something inside of me, a connection more powerful than all the bonds that I had from before.
"Are you feeling him already?" Claudius asked, which made me stop from walking.
"Him?"
"Yes, Eero. Him. He's here. Our pup is home," he said.
"Are you for real, Claudius?" He nodded his head.
"He was the reason I came back to Thorne, to find him after Caspian found lead about our son."
Claudius opened his room, and on top of the playing mat was no other than my pup, waiting for me to hold him.