Introspect [The Mating Games #3]

ORION KALLIS

He already knew that they would get into trouble before they arrived back at the palace. With the way they had broken the rules and spent the whole night, and then part of the morning, too, away from their apartments, he had no doubt in his mind that Denver or one of the other stewards would be waiting on the steps to chastise them.

So, when he found Denver standing on the palace steps with his arms crossed over his chest and a rather unpleasant expression on his face, Orion wasn’t the least bit surprised.

“Do you think they’re going to punish us now or later?” Phoenix gulped in question from beside him, her fingers curled around his. The cautious expression on her face told her that she was more nervous than she was hoping to let on.

That didn’t settle well with him.

“Hopefully we won’t be getting punished at all,” he sent her a reassuring smile as they continued walking toward the palace steps. “If we tell them the truth, that we fell asleep in the cave, then they might let us off with it.”

“I hope so,” she attempted a smile for him but he wasn’t convinced.

And neither was Denver, it appeared.

“Are the both of you in the need of a hearing aid or did you just purposely choose to ignore what I said yesterday?” Denver huffed in frustration as they came to a stop in front of him.

“We didn’t ignore you,” Orion said as he took a step forward, all while refusing to let go of Phoenix’s hand. More so for her sake than his own. “We just lost track of time.”

“I’m sure you did,” Denver huffed and rolled his eyes, clearly not believing them even though he wasn’t speaking anything short of the truth. It didn’t help that the story did sound pretty fabricated.

“No, I’m not making this up. We really did lose track of time,” he continued to insist, not wanting to get into trouble for something as small as this. Except, it appeared that Denver didn’t view this small slip up as small and insignificant as Orion and Phoenix was hoping to pass it off as. “We were sitting in this cave looking over the ocean. When it got cold yesterday, we moved inside and then fell asleep. When we woke up this morning and realised that we never went back to the apartments last night, we rushed back here,” Orion said, only lying about the last part.

While he was still riding the high of having his mate ride him not even fifteen minutes ago now, Denver didn’t need to know that personal little piece of information.

“We had every intention of heading back to the apartments before it got dark but we really did fall asleep and lose track of time,” Phoenix said as she squeezed Orion’s hand gently. “We’re sorry for the careless mistake. We’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“I doubt you’ll have the chance to do something like this again,” Denver sighed, looking more disappointed in them more than anything else. “I don’t think you realise that you’ve broken not just my trust, but the trust of the Alpha king. The king had personally ordered that the both of you follow the rules just like everyone else despite the difference in your special circumstances. So, not only have you failed the Alpha king’s direct word, but you’ve also broken one of the rules of the Mating Games. Unfortunately, that isn’t something that can be overlooked.”

“What do you mean by that?” Orion questioned, holding his breath at the prospect of being punished by the Alpha king. As much as he could insist that they hadn’t done anything too out of the wrong, he knew that his argument had no basis to stand in front of the Alpha king.

Especially since they had broken his direct order.

“Luckily for the both of you, we haven’t got time for this right now,” Denver told them, his eyes distant as he glanced over their shoulders.

Both Orion and Phoenix glanced over her shoulder to spy an elderly woman taking her leisurely time to reach them.

“What’s going on?” Orion questioned as he watched the elderly woman move to stand next to Denver in front of them, the both of them sharing a nod of acknowledgement before turning their attention to them.

“But unluckily, that also means that the Alpha king will deal with you personally at the end of the Mating Games. You should have just–”

“Elder Glenda?” Phoenix called out in question, cutting Denver off in his mini-speech. “What are you doing here?”

“Don’t worry your pretty little head about that, child,” the woman in question, Glenda, chuckled as she moved to stand directly in front of the both of them. “Just focus on trying your best.”

“Trust my best?” Phoenix asked but her question wasn’t met with an answer. At least not a vocal one.

While the witch opted to take Phoenix’s hand in her own, she didn’t do the same to Orion. Instead, she raised her other hand higher up in the air, her palm turned up as she aimed for him.

One moment, one of the elder witches gave him a gentle slap on the forehead and the next moment, Orion inhaled deeply as he woke up. Pushing him into a sitting position, he glanced all around him only to be met with nothing but green, green and then even more green.

“Phoenix?” Orion called out for his mate as he rose to his feet, raising a hand to rub his forehead where the witch had slapped him. More so because that was the last thing that he remembered instead of actually hurting.

The scent masking spray wasn’t even sprayed on us. How did you manage to lose her? his wolf huffed at her, not the least bit impressed by the lack of his mate in the near vicinity.

I didn’t lose her, Orion denied but he didn’t sound all that sure. How could he when he couldn’t see Phoenix anywhere?

If you didn’t lose her then where is she now? his wolf snorted and rolled his eyes. Before you snap back at me, let’s find her. We can argue about you losing her later.

I still refuse to admit that I lost her, Orion groaned as he began walking down the corridor that he had just woken up in.

Like I said, we can argue about this later but right now, what did you do to end up here?

I didn’t lose Phoenix and I didn’t do anything to end up here either, Orion couldn’t help but grumble back at his wolf, getting fed up of having all the blame pinned on him. I think this is today’s task.

You’d think that they would give us some sort of warning beforehand.

But then that would be too easy, he continued to grumble as he reached the end of the corridor. Where do you think we are?

Some sort of maze?

To be honest, I wouldn’t put it past them. Not after all these crazy tasks that we saw on the itinerary.

There’s clearly some people on this island that have far too much time on their hands, his wolf snorted.

Once again, something which we can discuss later but right now, we need to find Phoenix, Orion sighed as he decided to head left at the end of the corridor. I’m a little bit concerned that she won’t be able to find us.

Have some more faith in her, his wolf encouraged him. Phoenix may not have a wolf but she was still able to feel the connection between us.

You have a point there, Orion sighed, running a tired hand down his face. But the sooner we find her and get out of her, the better I’ll feel.

I agree with that, his wolf confirmed. But have more faith in our mate. I think she has it in her.

Orion hummed in agreeance as he continued down the maze, turning in all sorts of directions to find her. However, very quickly, he felt like he was just going around in circle. Even more so when all of the hedges and bushes started looking the same.

What are you doing? his growled at him in frustration. We’ve already been down here.

I don’t think we have, Orion denied, growling back at his wolf.

I’m pretty sure we have.

I’m telling you that we haven’t, he growled once again, reaching his hand up to tug on his hair in frustration. Can you please just shut up and let me do this?

I would happily let you handle this if I could trust you to actually find our mate, his wolf snapped at him, setting Orion off.

However, before he could chastise his wolf for being such a prick when he was already stressed, Orion suddenly found himself on his back as something collided with his chest.

What the actual fuck was happening?

-

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Layla Knight

15.06.2021