(From Blue''s Perspective)


    "Blue!" Evelyn eximed in surprise when she saw me. After the butler of the side pce informed her, she came to escort me herself. "How have you been? I heard you were not feeling okay. Demetrius told me this yesterday..."


    She hugged me for a long time and then pulled back. It seemed she was truly worried about me. Neither Dem nor I ever thought of Evelyn as someone who would betray us. Dem said he did not hate her or distrust her, but he also said that he did not think of her as his family either. But I did. She was like an elder sister to me.


    She even asked me if Dem had forcibly brought me here when we first met. I still remembered every word she said that time. She was also the first person to tell me how Dem truly felt about me when I was so confused.


    ''Oh, Blue, you have already got a family. I know my brother. You might not believe this, but you are the person he cares about the most, more than anyone else. He will stand up to anyone for you. You might think that as we are his family, he is very close to us. But that''s not the case.


    If there is a fire and he can only save one person, he will choose you without any kind of hesitation. Do you know why? Because he wants you. He feels some kind of pull towards you. Wolves are hungry, Blue. And the Alphas are even hungrier.


    They get what they want and when they get it, they make sure to take care of it and let no one elsee in between the Alpha and his precious thing. My brother might look very frightening and I won''t lie, he actually is like that. But to you, he is softer than cotton.


    All you have to do is be his only and gain his trust, be with him, and then, he will give the world to you and protect you from whateveres in the way.''


    It helped me a lot that time. Though I could not trust everything she said, it stillforted me a bit. Later, I found out that she was right all along.


    He was crazily in love with me. And if there was a fire, he would truly save me if he could save one person. But if he could not save anyone, I had a feeling that he would just kill others who were alive. It was a dangerous thought. But it undoubtedly was something someone like him could do.


    Even the thought made me shiver from head to toe.


    When I was not answering Evelyn''s question, she said, "I know about the aphrodisiac. You can talk to me."


    "Let''s go somewhere else first. We can have some tea now since we could not do so yesterday," she added, pulling me with her by my hand.


    While Demetrius looked like their mother, Evelyn looked more like their father. I saw a few portraits of the previous king, King Ajax, the father of Demetrius and Evelyn. Demetrius had their father''s hair but looked exactly like their mother. He even got his mother''s eyes. On the other hand, Evelyn had their mother''s hair but looked like their father.


    But both Demetrius and Evelyn had a simr expressions on their faces and their personalities were the same as well.


    "Take a seat, Blue," she said.


    Perita helped me sit. I almost got used to taking help to even just sit. Everyone helped me do everything. It was nothing new anymore.


    "Dem told you yesterday why I could note, right?"


    "Yes," she nodded while motioning her maids to get us tea and refreshments. "He told me himself. The way he talked was kinda gross, you know. He said, ''My wife is sick. So, she can''te today. She said she is sorry.'' Then he added, ''Don''t disturb her.


    She will let you know when she can.'' The second part was more like him. But the first part was too gentle. It was weird and gross. I was thinking where did my brother go and what happened to him."


    I could not help but chuckle. I told Dem to tell Evelyn this himself because I did not want to send her a letter when she was in the main pce. It felt kind of rude.


    "The maid, Sally- she is dead," she said.


    "Yes, I know," I said. "Dem was questioning her when she suddenly died just like that."


    "Who knows what happened? Luc checked her, I heard," she said.


    "Yes, I heard he reported everything to Demetrius," I said.


    "A secret matter?"


    "Yes..."


    "I see. It doesn''t matter. I hate political matters anyway. That''s why I rejected the crown when Demetrius offered it to me. None of us wants to be a ruler, but I was the first one to reject. So, he had to be the king," she said, smiling gently.


    "Ruling is hard. I despise it. Traveling is more fun. You don''t have to worry about anything and can have fun to your heart''s content."


    "It''s great to do what you like," I chuckled tiredly.


    I felt bad for Dem. He did not even want to be the king, yet he had to. Every night when he came back, he would have a tired and sad expression on his face as if he was forced to do all these. He even told me before that he wanted a normal family without all this chaos.


    "That aphrodisiac... Thank god, Demetrius was near. Or, who knows what might have happened? It''s dangerous," she said.


    "Yeah... It was just too intense and well, I don''t want to take that kind of thing again," I said. I had taken aphrodisiac before too. But this one was too intense and made me feel like I was going to die if Dem did not do it with me right then.


    "It''s forbidden and the making of this aphrodisiac has been banned a long time ago. Some bastards, perhaps still are making it and selling it. But what I don''t understand is why someone would give you an aphrodisiac out of all things. If it was a poison, then it would be believable. But aphrodisiac? Really?"


    Evelyn wondered why someone gave me an aphrodisiac. I wondered about that too. Now, I had a rough idea of why they gave it to me.


    "Yes, we are trying to find out more about it," I said. I had no idea if it was intentional or not, but my tone would be less informal whenever I talked to someone else other than Dem, Luc, Ruby, Perita, and Doctor Dimitri. "I will let you know when we find out."


    "Yes, that''s a good idea... Blue, you know, you don''t have to be formal with me," she said, smiling a bit.


    I did not want to be formal with her as well. But it was not intentional. Being too friendly felt a bit ufortable for some reason. Was it because I did not see her in a long time?


    "I am sorry. I just can''t help it," I said.


    "I can understand you actually. When I used to take etiquette lessons, it was very hard to talk to people, switching between informal and formal tones. Don''t worry, you will get used to it eventually," she said. "After that, I wish you will be less formal with me."


    "Ah, yes, I will try..."


    "I want to talk to you about a lot of things. I wish you will have lunch with me today," she said.


    Seeing me surprised, she quickly added, "Don''t worry, I will have the food checked right in front of your guard. There won''t be any problem."


    "Please don''t get so worked up. I will be d to have lunch with you as well," I chuckled. "Thank you for your invitation."


    "You are too kind. But I''m d you epted."


    Tea was served with macarons and other cookies. I liked macarons the most among cookies. So, I was quite happy that she served it.


    "The macarons are amazing," I said. "I think they taste slightly different than the ones the Imperial cook makes. But it''s good too."


    "The new cook that I hired made it," she said. "Her cooking is great, but she tends to use lemon juice in almost everything. But the food still tastes good, so it''s alright."


    "I see...."


    "By the way, how is your married life going?"


    "Everything is going well," I said.


    "Well, then let''s have a girl''s talk. How many times do you have sex in a week?"


    ''Zero to one... This week, we have done it once. But we did not do it at all for the past few weeks.... Not that I can tell her that.''


    "Every day if I don''t have my period," I replied. It was not entirely a lie. If everything was going normally, we would have done the same. We used to do it every day before as well.


    "Wow, that''s cool! We do it every day too!" she grinned proudly. "Our room is a bit away from Ava''s, so we don''t have any problem having sex. I can tell you this freely now because Merrick isn''t here. He is very shy, you know."