Chapter 17: Jealousy

Carol is crying loudly, and Hagon doesn't know what went wrong. He is afraid that she is going to reject him. Everybody else is shocked as well because nobody knows why she is crying.

Hagon slowly starts getting up, having lost his belief that she will accept his proposal. Suddenly, there is a small sound in between Carol's sobs.

"Yes."

Hagon kneels again with a big smile as Carol slowly raises her face with red eyes and a face full of tears. He lifts his free hand to caress her cheeks, wiping the tears away. Then, he takes her right hand and slips the engagement ring onto her finger.

Women squeal, and men cheer happily. Hagon lifts Carol, hugging tightly and twirling her around. She laughs happily.

Everything has gone smoothly, but one pair of eyes looking at the newly engaged couple is filled with jealousy. It belongs to Camilla. As a businesswoman, she received an invite to the birthday party. That's not the only reason she's attending, however — Lexie also sent her as a spy.

She sees how Carol is happy, and she can't tolerate it. How can Carol be happy? She wants to destroy her stepsister. She wants to kill her and Hagon so that both Lexie and Camilla will profit. Full of hatred, she glares at Carol without even blinking her eyes.

Suddenly feeling some eyes on her, Carol turns around to try and find who is looking at her. She stiffens when her gaze meets Camilla's, and she freaks out, trying to hide behind Hagon. Feeling her uneasiness, he asks her what's wrong. She points at Camilla, telling him that she's her stepsister and the other woman behind the gunshot that sent Carol to the hospital.

Hagon calls his guards to catch Camilla, but she disappears in front of their eyes. Hagon is shaking with anger while Carol is shivering in fear. Feeling her trembling, he carries her to his bedroom bridal style.

This is the first time Carol has entered his room, but she can't enjoy it. She is dizzy with fear, and though she has been curious about what she can discover in his room, she falls asleep before he even reaches the door.

Hagon lays her on his bed and tucks her in, lying down beside her. He watches her beautiful face glow in the moonlight. Suddenly, she frowns in her sleep and starts whispering for help, whimpering.

Hagon doesn't know what is happening to her, but he figures that some unwanted memories her causing her trouble, so he thinks about waking her up. But before he can, she wakes up herself like she was struck by lightning.

Carol immediately hugs him tightly, repeatedly pleading with him to not leave her. She cries hysterically like this is their last night together.

"Angel, what happened? I am not leaving you. Even if you leave me, I'll chase after you. You know that, right? I searched for you for ten years, even though I had only known you for a few hours. It's totally different now. You are my fiancée. How can you think I'd ever leave you?" Hagon can't believe that his mate thinks that he will leave her.

"That was my stepsister. Her mother killed my father and locked me in the attic. She sometimes came in to see me. She hates me for no reason. She even challenged me, saying that whatever was mine would be hers. That she would take everything from me. I am afraid that she will take you from me. I only have you and your family. I am afraid that I am putting everybody in danger," Carol starts rambling in between her sobs.

"Oh…stop, my little angel. We are werewolves, and you know about that already. And you should also know one more thing: we are stronger than you think. Even my mother can fight very well. So don't worry about anybody. We will not leave you, ok?" Hagon comforts her.

"You don't understand. She is not a simple human anymore. She is with Lexie. She has a witch with her, and a black witch at that. You know that that's dangerous for you. I can't lose you at any cost. I can't live like that. It's better that I go to her and admit defeat. At least then, she will spare all of you." Again, Carol is speaking nonsense.

"No, no, no, no. You are not doing that. You are staying with me by my side as Queen. You will be my Queen, and we will rule the Werewolf Kingdom together, and that's final. Ok, I want to ask you something. Why were you crying when I proposed to you?" Hagon changes the subject, indicating to her that there will be no more discussion about her stepmother.

"After I was discharged from the hospital, I only saw you a few times, and you also didn't talk to me much. Slowly, our time together decreased. And over the last two days, I never saw you at all. And I thought you were with me all the time at the hospital because I saved your life, and now, you didn't want me anymore. And also, I thought you were seeing some other girl whom you actually love. So I thought about leaving this place for my room at the company after the party, but then, you suddenly proposed. I didn't know what to do. My buried emotions came out in the form of tears, and that's why I cried," Carol explains.

"So, you thought I loved some other girl, and you wanted to move out. Can't you see that I waited for you for 15 years? Even after I lost hope five years ago, I never thought about moving on from you. I even thought about joining you in afterlife. When I saw you again, I thought you were my second chance mate, but I didn't want one. I only wanted the Carol I met 15 years ago, the one who saved me from a trap. Don't you understand that I only love you and no one else? Only you, angel," Hagon confesses.

"I love you, too, Hagon. I love you very much. I loved my puppy, even though I didn't know it was you. And after 15 years, when I saw you, I fell in love at first sight. I couldn't help it. Even though you avoided me and hated me, I couldn't bring myself to hate you." Carol finally tells Hagon about everything she's been hiding in her heart.

"That's why we are going to get married in two days—so that I can mark and mate you and totally make you mine," he says happily.

"What? In two days. A wedding takes lots of preparation. How can we make it happen in just two days?" She is beyond shocked.

"What did you think I was doing these past ten days? I was preparing for my proposal and our marriage. Even though I knew you would accept it in my heart, I was still nervous. I didn't want to wait anymore. You know that I have waited for you for more than 15 years, and werewolves can't stay away from their mates for too long. I need to stay away from you, or else I'll just mark you. I want our relationship to start properly from marriage, just like human relationships do," Hagon says proudly, and in excitement, Carol kisses him on the cheek as a thank you. Hagon cups her cheeks and starts kissing her on the lips. Suddenly, he stops and moves away from her. "I can't stay here. I will mark you now if I do, so I am going to move to your room for today and tomorrow. After our wedding, we will be together forever, ok?" Hagon then runs out of the room.

Carol can't stop laughing upon seeing his silly behaviour. She laughs for a few minutes. Once she stops, she looks at her engagement ring. She can't believe that she is going to marry Hagon in two days…

She misses her father. She wishes he were here to walk her down the aisle, but that's impossible. She knows that, but still, she hopes deep inside of her heart that it will happen.

After her talk with Hagon, she doesn't get any more scary dreams. She sleeps peacefully with dreams of Hagon and her future.

What will their future look like?