His Sweet Little Mate

"Even if you can't bring yourself to care enough about me, you should think about Arlo." Abby was patient enough to continue her monologue when Arthur couldn't muster enough courage to admit a woman way younger than him had a valid point in her explanation. However, she could tell the man was genuinely thinking about her proposal about joining hands with her to fight the actual enemy. He just needed a little push, and she had the right kind of weapon in her arsenal.

"Mirella is back with some really potential leads." Abby could immediately see the wheels turning in his head.

"Leads on Calpin?" Arthur asked breathlessly, as if even saying his name left his stomach churning uncomfortably. "What kind of lead? A location?"

"Well, we still have to investigate a little."Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

"What do you mean?" Arthur was confused now, how could she not know?

"We couldn't get to the interrogation part yet, as they were busy dealing with you. If you had just let them breathe for a second, they could have done something about the investigation." Abby sighed when the man couldn't put two and two together. "It is like this, Mirella captured one of his followers...."

She then explained how Alan and Dax were busy with his little shitshow in the great hall, which infinitesimally delayed any interrogation Mirella hoped to get done in the protection of the palace. If the royal beta and royal gamma weren't occupied with dealing with Arthur's scheming on top of their other responsibilities, they would have gotten something out of that captive by now.

"So what you are saying is..." Arthur couldn't bring himself to complete that sentence. Well, his mind failed him after the word 'is.

"We need to work together if we want to capture Calpin, you interfering only hindering any progress I painstakingly made."

There was that word 'interfering' again, he couldn't tell if she was mocking him or not. But the words next left her lips grinded his thoughts to a screeching halt.

"If we can trace Calpin, I'm sure we can save Micah..."

"You lost your mind. Woman, can you stop daydreaming for a second?" Arthur hissed when Abby brought up his son being alive again. "How can you still be so stubborn that you can't distinguish delusions from reality?"

His son had died, countless warriors saw him being burned alive by that bastard dark magic user and then turning to nothing but dust, but here his mate was, still being delusional that by some miracle, Micah would come back alive.

She didn't even let them send Micah off peacefully, because she wouldn't agree to hold a funeral for him no matter water. He wanted to shake her until she realized what she was talking about. "Or did you really lose it?"

Abby could see how exasperated the former king was, but her claims weren't really baseless. Only before she could explain it to the man, he beat her to it.

"Can you understand that you only sound crazy to think that he is still alive? No, that's not right! You are really crazy to even entertain that thought..."

Arthur started pacing, unable to do anything else in his desperation to make this woman understand how absurd her claims were. "Woman, you will turn insane if you don't get your act together soon..."

On the other hand, Abby was dumbfounded by his reaction. Was he the same person who tried to kill her twice? And her bewildered expression seemed to have conveyed her thoughts clearly to the former king, he almost stumbled midstep. Well, this was awkward. If she turned insane, he would be the happiest, right?

Abby almost chuckled watching the man stutter until no sound came out of his mouth. "Well, you don't have to worry about me turning insane."

She said worry in such a way, it sounded completely opposite to the word. And Arthur glared at her.

"I know what I'm talking about. No, it was not out of delusion or daydreaming like you thought. There's no chance I'm wrong about it." Abby was quite confident when she said this.

"How can you be so sure?" Arthur felt talking with Abby only killed a few brain cells of his every few seconds. It was really exhausting. "Mate bond."

"What?"

"The mate bond between us; it still hasn't snapped." Abby looked at him funnily. "I don't think I have to explain how it works, right?"

Abby couldn't help but jab when Arthur looked like he suddenly couldn't comprehend even simple words.

"Of course, so you are saying the mate bond is still intact? Then can you feel him on the other end?" Arthur got a little agitated. But he didn't realize he had set himself up for disappointment. "Unfortunately, no." Abby answered him grimly. "There is this weird barrier that has been preventing me from doing it."

"But the bond is there?" Arthur looked hopeful when Abby nodded in affirmation. "Then... then... what do you want me to do?"

He still felt it was hard to wrap his head around the concept of joining hands with Abby, so it was difficult for him to extend this olive branch readily.

After all, whether Abby could feel Micah on the other end of the bond or not, feeling the bond itself was a huge positive sign. If Micah had really died, the bond would have shattered long back, and Abby wouldn't have been able to stand straight even if she wanted to fake through the pain.

He really didn't pay enough attention to her that he didn't realize Abby didn't feel crushed, both literally and figuratively, with Micah's death.

Dax explained in detail how Calpin burnt Micah alive, and knowing there was no way the royal gamma could come back without his king if he was still alive, Arthur believed his son had died, just like everyone else.

Now listening to Abby's claims, he couldn't help but believe Micah was still alive. No wonder this woman had been insisting on staying stubborn about not accepting her mate's death while refusing to hold the funeral even when the whole royal council tried to persuade her otherwise.

"Well, there was one thing you could do." Abby said slowly. "In fact, only you are suitable for it."

Arthur frowned at her. "Out with it, woman."

"I want you to march to capture Calpin once we find out his possible location."

"What did you say?" Arthur lost her after she said 'capture Calpin. "Capture whom?"

"Calpin, of course. You are well versed in battling and also experienced in leading the warriors. Alan will assist you obviously."

"You do realize he is a dark mage and I'm a former king, right?" Arthur almost scoffed, but couldn't see any humor on Abby's face. "You can't be serious. How will I be able to fight him?"

"I know what I'm talking about." This was the second time she said this sentence in her conversation with Arthur today. "You need to fight Calpin, it will be a war, where you need to lead our soldiers toward the enemy."

Abby repeated, as if she was explaining to a child. However, the more she talked, the more uncomfortable Arthur felt.

"It's impossible." He denied immediately. There was no hesitation in his voice, especially when he thought about the dark fire magic Calpin wielded. "It's nothing but a suicide mission."