73

73
Damien's POV

The ladies were long gone, but he seemed to be still interested in his training. Honestly, I didn't know what was so special about it, especially since his mind wasn't with me anymore, leading to me having more opportunities than usual. At first, I enjoyed it, the opportunity to kick his ass because it hardly came around for me, but after a couple of minutes, I became rather bored of it.

Yes, I was beating him up most of the time in the next couple of rounds that we went against each other, but it somehow didn't count in my mind because he wasn't using his full strength. I was improving with this, though, but it wasn't enough. I wanted the satisfaction of beating him when he was going all out against me, like just now when he had been watched by his parents and wanted to make them proud.

I glanced up and noticed that they were no longer there watching him. Maybe that was the reason why he was not so committed to winning anymore and let me win, even though it had a lot to do with the envelope he got.

"You can just open it," I told him, stopping and panting heavily as I watched him. His dreamy eyes told me everything I needed to know. I didn't even need to read his mind or to even try to make it clear to anyone who saw everything that happened that he was a bit too curious right now to focus on anything else.

"What?" he asked me suddenly, coming back to the present with a yelp. I glared at him angrily and covered the distance between us, smacking him in the head with a nice slap from my hand, considering that we were still fighting. It was a little loud. After all, he was supposed to be on his guard and ready to take me on right now, and we hadn't stopped yet.

He flared up at that, but I parried all his revenge attacks easily before pushing him forward. There was no way he could stand against me when he wasn't putting in his all. We were just that equally matched. I couldn't do anything against him if he was focused and I was not. It was the law of things with us unless, of course, he was far stronger than me. It's only in that situation that he could take me on when he was so distracted.

"What do you want?" he asked me suddenly. His frown was apparent as he stopped fighting, seeing that I wasn't putting much effort either right now.

"I want you to fight me well if you're fighting me," I said, glaring at him and speaking in a deep voice. "Or better still, let's rest. We've been walking all afternoon. It'll soon be mealtime, and so we should have a break right now. I'm suggesting also that you check that envelope and find out whatever it is that's there. That way you won't be so distracted anymore."

He shook his head in response to me, wriggling an eyebrow as he spoke. "The envelope? Who cares about the envelope?" he asked, putting his hand into his pocket to bring it out just to wave it at my face. "The envelope is nothing at all. I was thinking about Lena," he said, without even blushing.

I found it strange that he could talk about his love interest so unabashed. It wasn't like him to be so bold. But maybe it was a good sign. Maybe he was growing and getting less and less ashamed, and soon he would actually get to date someone. I was getting excited for that because it was going to be definitely fun.

"Alright," I said, deciding not to pressure him if he thought he was fine. "I'm resting, though," I said, sitting down. He would agree with me later on. "How many times have you lost in the last couple of rounds?" I asked him, raising an eyebrow, just to see if he would deny it. If he didn't, then I wasn't resting at all. I had to stand up and beat him back and forth until he finally admitted it.

He sat down on the grass beside me, not saying anything in response. I was still contemplating whether that was a good enough answer to my question or whether I should challenge him to another fight just to prove my point when he brought the envelope out and put it right in front of his eyes, observing it like he could somehow read the content just by looking at it.

"The letter is actually in the envelope," I said after watching him for an entire minute and getting myself sure that he probably didn't know what he was doing at all. He frowned at me after I said that, looking at the envelope a little more and turning it around and around in his fingers right in front of his eyes.

I was honestly very bored and started to actually wonder if he was doing this just to send me away from here. It might be his way of telling me that he didn't want me to be here while he opened the envelope. I contemplated leaving for a while and was just about to do it, not able to bear with his strange, annoying attitude anymore, when suddenly he opened the envelope gently and brought out a piece of paper.

It wasn't much of a letter, not the kind of letter that I would appreciate personally. It was more like a note. Something from someone. And it was in such scribbly handwriting also to indicate that the person hadn't even put much time into it. I leaned in closer with the frown on my face getting bigger at the sight before me.

This was a bit too strange for my liking. And it was even a little disrespectful to me how someone sent the soon-to-be-alpha of the pack such a letter without any form of respect. There wasn't even a name, the name of the person who sent it at the end, indicating something that I couldn't quite place a finger on. This person must be the most disrespectful person to actually send an anonymous letter. What's more, it was by the princess's hand, so I wasn't really sure what to think anymore.

I saw the frown on Jack's face and knew that he had a similar thought in mind. He read through the contents of the letter speedily, and I went behind him quickly so that I could also catch a glimpse. I wasn't exactly sure whether he wanted me to read it with him or whether he would like that idea. But I tried anyway, and after reading it, he actually gave it to me to take a closer look myself. He looked shocked, especially on his face. I knew that this wasn't something nice at all.

The message was crappy and short, but I got the main point out of it. As it happened, it just served to inform us that a couple of the packs that we had alliances with had been suddenly attacked by an unknown force.

"It might just be a rumor," he said with the frown still on his face, indicating that he wasn't exactly sure that that was what it was. He was disturbed by it, but he just wanted to brush it off.

"Maybe it actually happened," I said. "Well, it's nothing. Surely there could be a couple of nervous acts once in a while. It's probably not important at all."

"Right," Jack said, standing up. His expression was too weak. It was as though somebody had punched him in the gut and he was still dealing with the aftermath. I wasn't sure why he acted like it was such a big deal when he had just agreed with me that it couldn't be anything much. Could he have noticed something like this happen before now and this was just a confirmation? I glanced at him trying to make sense of what he was thinking and deduce something reasonable from his expression and at the same time not wanting him to know what I was attempting. I couldn't get anything because he was on the move again before I could get more time to figure out anything. 

I couldn't help but wonder if he had anywhere else to be right now, because he looked like he was about to go back into the palace or something, like he was in a hurry to do something. I looked at him for a couple of more seconds, uncertainly, not knowing what to say exactly, but wanted to say something at least, so that I could break the silence between us.

"Would you like to get back to training?" I asked him, but he looked like he had better ideas right now, and he was very uninterested in training after what he had heard.

"Don't worry," he said, "we can continue with this later, maybe tomorrow. I got other things to do."

I watched him go off with just one thought: Did this really mean more than he had said that it meant?