[KIYOTO]
Alpha Park knew that this was not going to be easy. He had expected there to be a wrangle between her mother and Agust, but for it to happen out there and so plainly was just something else.
It had the alpha wondering if there was ever going to come a time when his mother and the man he loved would ever be on the same page. As if that wasn't enough, Lee Tang stepped forward calmly.
Gods, Jiminie could swear his head was already strung to spin already.
"I agree with Luna Park. A border controlled by the monster's blood. How convenient for the mighty king to come to our rescue, or maybe he is here to come and claim us, too. Seeing as he can't exactly attack us to take Kiyoto.
"He is leaning towards playing with all of us, giving us false hope so when he comes back for us, we would not even expect it," Lee Tang said in contempt.
He despised Agust with everything. He despised the way the king could come to Kiyoto and leave like he wished. Hell, the Beta resented the fact that Jinnie never tried to stop the king himself.
Instead, he had let himself be unarmed by a beast who was gaining more control of their borders. Of their home. Of the walls and their sanity. What was to be left for them in the middle of this, then?
Who was to say what was right and when the mad king of Helia was here, acting like he suddenly cared for peace? It was unsettling for him, and he hated the fact that it was not a rejection from Jiminie's end.
Of course, Lee Tang knew Agust loved Jiminie wholly, and that was what he hated the most. The fact that he had been beside Jiminie for so long, and the fates had refused to give him Jiminie as a fated mate.
Beta Lee Tang was sure he would have been a better mate to Jiminie than the mad king. He would have treated Jiminie with so much love and care. He never would have made Jiminie lose their baby.
He wouldn't have forced Jiminie into situations that had Jiminie take infertility tonics each day because he didn't want Agust's seed to catch if ever they got together. That was too horrible a truth for Lee Tang to process.
Lee Tang hated the king more than ever hated the life he was living. And now if Jiminie asked him to take out Agust, Lee Tang would do it for him without question. He would give up his life just so Jiminie would be happy.
Funny how Agust was more than willing to do the same for that same Jiminie.
Gods, this was fucked.
"Everything he touches gets ruined," a warrior shouted angrily to the crowd.
He couldn't step forward for fear that the king would come after him, even despite the arrangement with Jiminie. But then there was no denying that that statement right there hit Agust in the worst of ways.
The king almost faltered before the wolves and honestly, if he didn't have Jiminie's scent holding him together, he would've fallen. The people of Kiyoto wouldn't have seen him again, at least in the next thousands of years.
And they wouldn't have trusted him even more because they would easily assume that he had to get the attention of the alpha. It was all too complicated.
"Why is he here, alpha? Why is he still in Kiyoto? We lost our people because of his Lycans. Our home is filled with blood that we haven't been able to scrub off completely because of his people.
"Why should we even trust him here?" another warrior added in devastation, his voice low and saddened, like he was really not sure where the future led them. And that was the unfortunate truth for most of the warriors.
They were hurting; they all had lost friends and families. They had been ruined and the king lingering in their home wasn't making their healing process any better or even fast.
Enforcer Jae Jun looked at the warrior sadly. There was a truth in the grieving statements. There was no denying that they'd all lost so much because of the Lycans. Maybe they had lost more than they had anticipated.
But was it right to point the blame down?
Even if the king gave them an explanation, would they ever trust the mad king of Helia with anything? Especially a truth that involved burning his people to let justice be done? Was that a risk Agust was willing to take?
But even so, it wasn't like the king had gone soft.
Or had he?
"This is not about trust. The plaques are a necessity for now," Jiminie said, his voice steady. His jaw was already tightened, and he hated that he had to be the one who had to act like he was the controlled one here.
He wanted to let them know that even he was apprehensive of all this, but what else was he to say to them that would make the situation any better?
They were right to be angry. They were right to question everything the king came with. And he couldn't even ask them not to, because they had lost too much at the hands of the Lycans.
"You're right. It's not about trust. This isn't about survival, son. And that doesn't mean we have to be wolves who trust monsters. The same monster who came home and ruined all for us," Luna Park added in rage, her disdain obvious.
Jiminie felt the spite in the way his mother called him 'son.' He had known that it was never going to be easy with her. His mother, the woman who loved him so conditionally, and the woman who hated Agust in so many ways.
Jiminie knew he couldn't do anything about how his mother felt or how she treated him, so she just stared at her in silence, not sure what he was to say. Because if he spoke, he would lash out, and this wasn't the time or place for him to be angry too.
As the pack alpha, he had to be the level-headed one, even if his mother was pushing all his buttons in the worst of ways.
Agust, glanced towards his Jiminie, knowing so well that the words of Luna Park cut deeper than any blade would ever cut his Jiminie's skin. It made him want to kill the woman and be done with her once and for all.
The king despised the fact that this had happened, and he hated that Jiminie couldn't even defend himself against his mother. The mother who had watched him get abused and did nothing because being a Luna was more important than being a mother.
Oh, but Agust saw it all.
He always did anyway.
"I'll leave them all here," King Agust said, as he looked at Jiminie, before turning to the people of Kiyoto. He knew that this was against the arrangement that had been made before.
But he refused to watch his Jiminie be ridiculed in silence, like they deserved to tear through him with their words. The only reason Luna was not dead was that Agust was trying so hard not to make Jiminie a complete orphan.
He knew what parents were like, and he could only hope that his Jiminie didn't suffer as much anymore.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Luna Park asked.