[KIYOTO]
The people of Kiyoto loved and trusted Jiminie. They believed the alpha would do whatever it took to make their lives better. They understood it damn well.
But with Agust standing beside Jiminie, there were more questions than answers for them. It was as if they were being introduced to a side of the world that they would ever be able to have a say in.
Maybe they had to have more faith, but what use was faith, when Luna Park was also there, but her face was rigid and cold, like she really didn't like it. Of course, her sentiments were shared by almost half of the remaining pack, but they trusted Jiminie.
That was the only reason why the mad king was not being stoned at the moment. And maybe it was all for the best because provoking an already angry Agust was pure madness.
It was the kind of shit that the devil himself wouldn't want to try out. And that was the kind of thing that insanity let be because what the fuck could be explained here?
"There they are," warrior Jun whispered excitedly to Beta Lee Tang as he looked at the plaques that were hanging in the air, right in front of the king and Jiminie.
They seemed to be held by a magic course which wasn't even something they could question, because this was the kind of thing that happened when Agust was around them.
Maybe this was really for the betterment of Kiyoto, but maybe if August had started attacking for no reason there wouldn't have been a need for them to protect each other from the Lycans of Helia, right?
As they stood there at the border, they felt the difference in the air.
Helia reeked of danger, while Kiyoto reeked of grief.
It was an unfortunate difference, but that's probably why the boundary was er up. They all knew that this was either a necessity or the worst thing that could have happened to them here in their homeland.
"I can't believe you let the bastard convince you into creating plaques. Things that keep his people away, the same people he couldn't govern and who came to slaughter out people," Luna Park said, her disappointment obvious.
Jiminie knew his mother was never going to let this go, and for the first time, he didn't blame her. Over two thousand people being lost in the pack was bad. It was the shit that left families empty and without their sources of strength and more.
This was not what they had to deal with, and while Jiminie wanted to retort, he couldn't.
Not here.
Not with the way his people were still grieving and had still managed to pull themselves out of their grief to come and see what this was. It was a show of trust, and Jiminie was not about to play with that.
"Toys for protection, what a joke," Luna Park added, and some of the warriors snorted at the remark. The Luna was not being kind to the arrangement and honestly, it was not something that the people of Kiyoto had put past her.
At least she was proving to them that even with the changes, she could still manage to be an obvious little shit with a rage that they all shared in.
"From a monster," one of the pack members shouted in the silence.
King Agust just chuckled darkly. He was not going to try and kill anyone today. That was not even him or the people of Kiyoto. He was doing this for Jiminie. For the love of his life.
At least that was what he had to remind himself, because otherwise he would have snapped necks already.
But Kiyoto had suffered enough, and Jiminie loved Kiyoto, which meant that Jiminie had suffered after being Agust's anchor to sanity at the moment.
"You damn well know that they are not useless toys," King Agust pointed out as he looked at the crowd instead of the woman with a sharp tongue that had him trying to be reasonable instead of just punching her throat into silence.
It was something that Agust had considered in the past few hours, and honestly, it didn't sound so bad right now.
Someone needed to put this darn woman in her place, and if Agust was the one to do it, the man wouldn't be opposed to it. Not when the woman had him wanting to strangle her.
Luna Park snorted this time.
She couldn't believe that a mere Lycan king was telling her what to see and what not to see. Anyone with eyes could see that the plaques were like toys hanging there if they were supposed to rely on toys for their protection.
It was a long shot from the life they had been used to living. But changes had to be made regardless of how hard it was or even how untrustworthy some of the people there were.
After all, they had all endured the past few days in the harshest of ways.
The stench of grief was still in the air, and there was no telling how long it would linger there. Maybe the plaques at the border that was erected were the first step to allow the wolves to get their peace in these times of mourning.
It was the only reasonable thing that anyone would consider, but it was still hard to think with a Lycan in their midst, calling the shots, while their alpha just trusted the man like that was how things were to be.
Maybe they had so many worries that made no sense. But then they had to understand that life was always changing. That they had to embrace whatever came because, at the end of the day, justice was something their Alpha always pursued.
And he always delivered, no matter how long it took him.
That was what they needed to trust.
"No? Then pray tell, your royal highness from Helia. What are they? Leashes, chains to do your bidding? Bounds that you can manipulate as you so wish? Things to make your betrayal easier?
"You have always betrayed my Jiminie, and you always liked those little toys," Luna Park said angrily, like she was truly affected by the fact that the king was here and would probably hurt her son again.
It was almost believable, and to an extent, it hurt.
Jiminie stared at his mother who was putting on some act of motherhood as if this was the first time Jiminie had been hurt, and then at his mate, who was trying his best to make amends.
Agust was trying, and Jiminie knew it too. No predator would come to his prey like this and Jiminie bearing Agust's mark was all that the alpha had needed to know that he was never going to be just a prey for Agust.
Hell, he was never going to be prey for the man.
Jiminie was the man's world. He didn't even need to be convinced anymore. He had seen it in those dark eyes. The sincerity, the pain in them, each time that Jiminie whimpered or looked sad.
Hell, the last visit Jiminie made to Helia still haunted Jiminie, the way the king had tried his very best to seem unaffected, only to come to Kiyoto weeks later with whip marks under his shirt, something that he had covered so well.
But that Jiminie had seen and hated in so many ways.
"I agree with Luna Park. A border controlled by the monster's blood…"