Page 17 of An Enigma for the Lycan Crown Prince

He looks at me now. “I am sorry,” he repeats. It looks like something got broken deep inside him.

six

Abandoned

*ELDEN*

It’s been three days, but the whispers don’t seem to stop, and for the first time, even my father seems to be too stunned to scold me for something. When I listen to the voices of the pack members, everyone keeps talking about the light that was surrounding Flora when she approached me, the power she radiated, and how my lycan came forward to respond.

I don’t quite understand what they are all so excited about. I don’t get why they constantly whisper and look at Flora or me when they spot us. And I certainly don’t understand why, for the first time ever, Dad doesn’t bother me with my duties.

I just know that whenever Flora is close, I feel less lonely.

When she isn’t here, my head is numb. It almost feels like I’m not in my own body, as though I’m just standing there and watching everyone. As if this is not happening to me, but to someone else. I think of Mom and her smile during her better days, and the way she would hold my hand sometimes and pat my head even on her bad days.

I thought it would get better when a couple of days had passed, but it didn’t. Breathing is still so difficult for me. How can I continue my life when she isn’t here?

Beta Oliver knocks at the door to my room. He and Flora were the ones who managed to make me leave Mom’s little apartment and return to my own room. It still doesn’t feel right, but here I am.

“Prince Elden,” he smiles at me, but his smile is strained. His eyes are tired. “I am here to pick you up.”

I nod, getting up to my feet and taking a deep breath. One of the maids helped me get dressed in my suit. “I’m ready.”

“Come,” he says, leading me out of the Alpha Suite and downstairs. To my surprise, Flora and Grandma Hazel are waiting for me outside.

“We thought we could join you,” Hazel says. “That is, if you want us with you.”

Beta Oliver looks relieved when he sees them and turns to look at me. “How do you feel about that, Young Alpha?”

“I would like to go with them,” I say.

“Where is the alpha?” Hazel asks with a smile, but her eyes aren’t smiling, not at all. She is always so kind and nice to me, but now when she talks to Beta Oliver, she looks entirely different.

For an old woman, she is kinda cool.

She was my mom’s friend, and Flora believes even her best friend. I trust her.

“He is… he had business to attend to and will come to the funeral directly,” Beta Oliver mutters.

“So, he really didn’t care enough to pick up Elden?” Flora asks bluntly, right at the moment when Gamma Tobias joins us.

Beta Oliver looks shocked and a tad bit terrified. My father doesn’t take kindly to people talking ill about him. The beta gazes at Hazel as if he expects her to correct Flora’s words, but Hazel just stares at him. When he looks at Gamma Tobias, the latter just turns his head to the side, pretending not to have heard anything.

“The loss of his mate really hit him hard,” Beta Oliver says. “He needed some time to himself to grieve. Not everyone shows pain the same way.”

Neither Hazel, Flora nor Gamma Tobias say anything. I push past the beta to join them. “If you repeat it often enough, you might actually believe it,” I tell Beta Oliver.

The gamma squeezes my shoulder gently. While we walk to the huge fire where we will send Mom off, he looks at me with grief and guilt in his eyes. “I am sorry I couldn’t protect her.”

I gaze at him. He was always nice to Mom and always had her interest in mind. He and Hazel both. “I don’t blame you,” I mutter. “You tried.”

“Not enough,” he says sadly.

Something seems to be broken in Tobias, but I don’t know what it is. I wish I would understand more than I do, but apparently, I still lack so much knowledge.

We reach the clearing where we will send Mom off. Dad’s already there, turning around when he hears us approaching and nodding shortly at us. I have to stand next to him during the ceremony. I would prefer standing somewhere else, but I have to. To my surprise, Flora and Hazel follow me though. Dad casts them a glance but doesn’t oppose, surprising me once more. Hiseyes linger on Flora for a second; there is a hint of fascination in them and approval.

Some of the warriors have put together a large pyre. Mom’s body is on top of it, covered with a beautiful silky blanket. I recognize it instantly. Mom had it ever since I can remember. She told me she got it from her grandma before she married. I swallow down the lump forming in my throat, trying not to cry when I look at her small frame. She was so thin. I’d heard Gamma Tobias once talk to the kitchen staff about how worried he was because the luna was losing so much weight.