219: Incomplete Without Her

Incomplete Without Her

"Your dragon needs you," Drayce explained. "To get his mate, he needs you. Without you, he cannot do anything and he cannot take the risk of being rejected by his mate."0

"I do not understand what you are talking about."

His pair of red eyes landed on the prince, looking at him as if he was dumb. "Have you ever considered that your aide possibly has feelings for you too?"

Arlan flinched. "Are you serious? That girl treats me just as she does everyone else." Then, his self-deprecating laughter faded as an unsavory memory resurfaced in his mind—the scene of Oriana massaging Cian's hand. "Have you seen how she treats your wife's brother? If she has feelings for anyone, it will probably be him…"

His admittance of jealousy caused Drayce to helplessly shake his head.

"If you feel that way…nevermind. Say in the future, between you and that beast, who do you think she will grow positive feelings for? Before all this mess started, wasn't your relationship with her good? She knows you and not that beast inside you. If she has to feel anything, then it will be towards you and not him.

Arlan started to understand where his friend was going. 

Drayce continued, "If you are gone, or, if she grows to hate you, she will reject you which also means she will reject the beast inside you as well. For any beast, nothing is more painful than being rejected by his chosen mate. They can choose only once and they can not risk losing that chosen one. He will not risk that. He will want you to have a good relationship with her. Take advantage of this situation to control the soul of that beast, Arlan. Though she is the one who calls out the beast inside you, she also is the one who can help you control him."

"Is this from experience?" Arlan asked. 

"This is from experience," Drayce didn't deny it either, "I have told you to learn from my experience and do not repeat the mistake that I had made. No one was there to tell me but I am here for you. You should try what I am saying. Even though our situations are different, we two still are beasts despite we trying to separate them from us."

Arlan hesitated, but the memory of what happened by the lake haunted him. The overwhelming urge of claiming her back then, Arlan could feel his beast ready to show up and it seemed difficult to control him. If not for him leaving right away, he would have...done the unsaid.

He shivered at the thought. "What if he hurts her?"

"His mate is the last person a beast would ever hurt," Drayce replied. "However, you have to accept and understand the beast inside you if you wish to control his desires over your own. It will be difficult, but not impossible."

Arlan still looked troubled.

"You don't want to?" Drayce asked. 

"I need time. I need to think it over. I need to plan it."

"At least, you didn't say no."

To this, Arlan kept quiet. He could not deny having Oriana by his side is what he wanted the most. 

"Shall we head back?" Drayce asked after a while.

"I ask for another favor from you," Arlan spoke. 

Drayce raised a brow. 

"Do not let her know I am the one who found her in her room."

The young king frowned. "You still don't want her to know that you are aware of her identity as a woman?"

Arlan nodded. "It will ruin things between us. I won't be able to keep her by my side as a woman. Having her as a man restricts me from crossing my lines and I prefer to keep it that way. Having her around is enough. I wish for nothing more."

Drayce chuckled. "Do you know the meaning of words you are saying now? And here you claim that she is nothing more than a servant—"

"Say no more," Arlan interrupted him. "I need time."

"As you wish."

The two men disappeared from the steeple and reappeared back in their respective guest mansions. 

-----

With Oriana not in their mansion, Arlan had Imbert inform his attendants that she would be looking after Queen's Seren's health for the coming days. No one raised a question nor did they try to pry into this matter. Imbert had also taken care of cleaning her room so no one would know what happened the previous night.

Back in his bedchamber, Arlan was getting ready for the fourth day of the summit conference, but he looked visibly distracted, his mind wondering about Oriana's situation. 

She ought to have regained her consciousness by now. Did she wake up with a cold or a fever? She spent hours on the cold stone floor, wearing the same drenched clothes from when she fell in the lake, not to mention she ought to be weak due to losing blood this time of the month. 

He noticed the streaks of dried tears on her cheeks last night. He would be an idiot to not know she cried because he had hurt her, and it was not an excuse that he had to do it to protect her from the beast inside him. He could not help but curse himself for being helpless like this.

As his other attendants dressed him, Arlan could not help but stare at that empty spot where Oriana always used to stand to wait for her turn to attach accessories on his clothes. 

'Do I…miss her?'

Arlan closed his eyes, his friend's earlier words ringing in his mind as if to taunt him.

'...your destined one… someone who is meant to complete you…'

At this moment, without her by his side, he felt the gaping emptiness left by her absence. 

And though he didn't want to admit it, the truth could no longer be ignored. 

Arlan Cromwell has feelings for Oriana, and without her, he felt incomplete.

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