~Emeric~

　　I didn't know what was stinging more. The pain surfacing in my cheek? Or the agony in my heart that has been shattered? I couldn't even watch Aurora fleeing from the restroom after what I've done. I felt ashamed. Incredibly self conscious.

　　Thoughts began polluting my head as I rolled over and thumped my back against the wall of the restroom. This shouldn't have gone like this.

　　'Emeric...'

　　'Please...Marrok. Don't ever try to console me. I think I've realized something far more valuable than just...' a stinging pain emerged from my right side of my head, reaching my temples.

　　"Argh!" I grunted, slowly dipping down to my knees to compensate for the pain. My knees have given out, it was that kind of discomfort.

　　'Emeric. You're stressing too much. Let's go out. Let's go back to the room.'

　　'I can't...I can't get up, Marrok. Fuck!' I grunted, and heard Marrok click his tongue as an expression of disapproval. What could I possibly do then!? I was totally wasted and prayed that the night wouldn't go any worse. With me having to throw up or something. I wouldn't want my night to go all the way down the hill.

　　'You're fine now. I took care of your body. But the headache might need some more time to come down. Talk to me, Emeric. I can feel your heart breaking, too.'

　　'Marrok...what have I done, Marrok? I let her know my heart without considering what she must be thinking of me! I'm such a bad lover. I knew I didn't deserve love, yet I went around searching for it, pleading for it from the wrong person!' I expressed my disdain in my head. In any given moment, I could act aggravated and probably cause a scene. That was why I refused to go out of the restroom. No one is allowed inside anyway, right?

　　'The frustration of being in love is appalling, right? I knew you'd feel that way one day, Emeric.'

　　'Then...why didn't you tell me?'

　　'Because we have to be selfish. If not today, tomorrow or the day after even! She will come to us. We both believe in fate, right? So if she is really our fate, she will come back to us.'

　　Wow...

　　I never suspected this kind of maturity from my wold who's always been so energetic, witty and childish. I blinked a couple of times and looked at the wash basin in front of me. I need to get up and wash my face.

　　The process of even standing up with sore legs from training, body on fire because of the alcohol, and the irritation from the headache...it seemed like the biggest, most herculean task for me. Panting like a dog after reaching the sink, I looked at myself in the mirror. My gray eyes have come back, unlike the red ones I've had before, while talking to her.

　　I leaned in closer...and I was starting to hallucinate.

　　I see her face, her beautiful, dainty face...filled with tears. Was this her expression while I was trying to kiss her?

　　I've seriously got to ruminate about what I've just done to the innocent woman. Introspection often convinces the heart when every path is lost. As if someone wiped the trail of footsteps with sand. I need to get back on track, right?

　　My eyes glanced downwards and I looked at the sink with water which has been flowing in silence all this while. I cleared my throat, shaking my head sideways to get rid of the headache. Then, my hands filled water and splashed it onto my face.

　　The cool, refreshing feeling calmed me down to decency. I gulped, and felt all soreness leave my body slowly. The way I could feel the soreness leave my body was uncanny.

　　A few more splashes later, I had begun introspecting as a final, concluding event for tonight. After this, I'm making a bee line to my bed!

　　The first time that I've seen her...back in a small pub two years ago, I could have told my feelings then and there. That she was the most beautiful girl I've ever laid eyes on. But before I could say it, she spat words at me and assumed I'm a lowly omega. What's wrong with being an omega? They're respected werewolf kinds, weren't they?

　　Lycans like myself don't discriminate, but the way she degraded me still sits in my head like a broken tape recorder.

　　Then.

　　Few weeks earlier, I met her again. At her birthday party where I was slightly intoxicated and just wanted to give a beautiful lady some company. That beautiful lady could have been ANYONE. But fate had something in plate for me that night. And I asked her out, only to be rejected and degraded once more, by the same woman.

　　And right now, moments before, it happened again like, 'Third time's the lucky charm'.

　　Lucky charm...my ass.

　　If the first two times was simple attraction, I realized...that the third lucky charm time was real love. True love, adoration and everything between those.

　　When have I started falling for her?

　　All those times we spent in the gym, working out in our own space. Was it then when my heart had started falling for her? Or was it even before?

　　When I met her briefly at her parents' funeral? Her vulnerability scarred me. I wanted to protect her with all my being and power! And so, I started the sketch, the perfect plan to make her get revenge on those who deserve, with her own efforts. As her mate, I was addicted to see her reach success.

　　Wow...

　　It didn't start anywhere, my love for her.

　　It had begun since the beginning of time, isn't it?

　　Raising my face which was dripping with warm water now, I scoffed at myself in the mirror.

　　How foolish a man can be...?

　　And at that moment, it all made sense.

　　I wasn't just trying to support her.

　　I was loving her for who she was.

　　Love...is such a scary word for me.

　　Everyone I've loved - my parents, my elder brother, my warriors - they've all died. All because of me. I'm the harbinger of fatal fate upon those who love. But that was all I was forced to believe after I've ascended the throne as Prince of Whispering Pines Lycan Kingdom.

　　A Prince has no distractions, I believed.

　　A Prince would never fall for a woman. And if he did, he would reject her to stay loyal to his people...I believed.

　　And suddenly, this little woman comes into my life and changes everything!

　　'Emeric...you are smiling.'

　　'Should I not, Marrok? Isn't a man who just realized he's fallen in love...allowed to smile?'

　　Oh Goddess...

　　Is this my conclusion?

　　It is as clear as day now.

　　All my actions were a result of unconditional love and adoration I have for Aurora. And the frustration is a part and parcel of it! Because I refused to acknowledge my feelings for her!

　　And when I did, I couldn't keep it for myself.

　　Her rejection for the third time in two years...it broke every trust I had in finding love.

　　Why am I so biased about love?

　　Do I want it, or do I not?

　　This is the worst kind of frustration for a man, isn't it?

　　This disheartened state of mine is what is feared by all men in love. In fact, all people in love who've been rejected by the person they realized they're in love with...it's a different kind of pain.

　　I sincerely hope she's happy, with or without me.