Calhoun expected her to follow him but he also was not surprised that she did not. It did not annoy him, funnily. It rather made him feel amused. As he walked towards his chamber, he stopped at the room where he had kept the rogue wolf. He suddenly remembered his reason for seeking her out.
"I guess I'm the one to go out and search for her again." He muttered. He walked away and stopped by his throne room. He sat on his throne and stared at nothing. Felix and Evander were supposed to have shown up in the castle again. But they had not shown up, and it was making him have thoughts.
Not long after he thought about them, they showed up in the throne room. They were apologetic towards their delay.
"My king." Felix bowed. Evander followed suit.
"How long did it take you to give an announcement to the people?" Calhoun demanded.
"My king, something came up and that was why we delayed," Evander answered.
"Hm." Calhoun hummed. Things seemed to get more interesting after the war. Every day was like solving a puzzle in the castle. First, his parents' dead bodies had been attacked. Diana had smelled death and almost died too. Now she was very mad at him and was not talking to him.
He found a rogue wolf that had been hiding in his castle for who knows how long, and he had only figured it out by falling through a big hole in the floor. Somehow, someone also knew about it and had gone to cover the hole. Possibly to get another victim for the rogue wolf.
Did this mean he was losing his prowess again? He was losing his cruelty? Did these people not fear him anymore? Or was it because the troop had been infected by the unfaithful ones? If it was so, he would gladly clear out all the servants again, as he did before. And after that, he would hire new servants.
But before that, he had to hear what else had happened. He stared at them and he refocused his gaze on them.
"Yes? What happened?"
"My king, the court officials stopped us. They said that you have had many scandal cases and they don't think you are fit to rule Wisteria." Felix said.
"Scandal? What scandal?" Calhoun asked.
"Someone reported that you hire girls to slave away in your bedroom and you use them to satisfy your primal sexual urge and when you are done with them, you kill them off to silence them."
Calhoun chuckled. "They said that?"
Evander nodded. "Someone said that Diana is the only one who has escaped and they are looking for her to question her on the truth of what they had heard."
Calhoun did not find that part amusing. If those people ventured to approach Diana in this state they were in, she would open up and say something rash without knowing what was at stake. He had to find her and make things right.
"So my king, where is Diana?" Felix asked.
"Why?" Calhoun asked in return.
Felix glanced at Evander. "so that we can inform her of what is going on. It would help a lot if she said something nice about you instead."
"Something nice about me instead? What makes you think that they would buy the idea of having the person they seek to get evidence against me, suddenly walk up to them and start bragging about me?" Calhoun demanded. "Have you learned nothing from me all the while you have worked for me?"
"N... No, my king." Evander stuttered.
"Not at all, sir," Felix replied.
Calhoun stroked his chin. "First, we will find Diana and I will talk to her privately. I don't know if that will work since we are currently having issues."
"Issues?" Felix exclaimed. "That is terrible!"
Calhoun nodded. "I was thinking of proposing to her during the banquet but her behaviour was late... I don't think she would say yes to me."
"Is that all you're bothered about?" Evander asked. "I was worried about my wife saying no to me so when I introduced her, I introduced her as my fiancee. Later, I proposed."
"There was no way your wife would have said no to you, Evan," Felix commented. "Diana is different."
"So very different." Calhoun agreed. "I doubt that that will work on her. She might eventually just embarrass me all the more if I did that."
"Since when did the Alpha king of Wisteria care about being embarrassed?" Evander asked.
"Since when have I had a reputation to live up to," Calhoun said. "The servants in the castle will be cleared during the night of the banquet. We will allow the peasants to work here with us."
"May we know why?" Evander asked. This would be the second time such a thing was happening and they wanted to know who had been killed this time around.
"Well, the troop has been corrupted and we have to erase it otherwise, our lives in the castle will not be safe."
"Don't you think there are still some clean people among the troops?" Felix asked.
"No matter how clean they are, all it takes is one whisper from someone who had been corrupt and they'd all be corrupt. Besides, what's to say that the spared ones won't turn on me as George had done?" Calhoun demanded.
"Rather than just kill them, we can send the innocent-looking ones away -"
"To where? Fraco? Where will they be trained as soldiers who will in turn come back to fight my son when he becomes king because of a decades-old grudge? I'm not doing that." Calhoun snapped.
Felix sighed. "My king, what can we do about the main issue on the ground? The servants, we have about four days to finalize-"
"We invite the court people to the banquet," Calhoun stated.
"What? Those people could wreak havoc that day!"
"Not if we don't give them the chance to," Calhoun said. "We invite the werewolves among them for the wolf's night out and we can easily initiate them into our secrecy."
"Easily? My king, do you realize that some people are beyond your charms?" Evander muttered.
"Yes, Evander. Diana is obviously beyond my charms. Aside from her, I don't think anyone else could refute me." Calhoun said proudly. "Why do you think they came up to you both rather than me? Did you think I did not see them?"
"You knew they were there?"
"Of course, he knew," Felix answered Evander's question. "He's Calhoun Montego."
"Anyway, we shall invite them over and during the banquet, while they are having the best time of their lives, I will propose to Diana and hopefully she would say yes," Calhoun said.
"We should inform her about this," Felix said.
Calhoun shook his head. "I have not spoken to her since some hours ago, if I suddenly sought her because my kingship was at stake, it would make her feel like her claims are right about me not caring about anything else other than my throne."
Felix shrugged. "Where's the lie?"
"What do you mean?" Calhoun demanded.
"I mean, if this did not come up, you wouldn't have sought her still. So, where is the lie?"
Calhoun did not reply. He ignored Felix's words. "Something else happened today. You might want to see it."
"What happened?"
Calhoun led them to the room where his servants had taken him to. Once they arrived, they were also in awe of the design of the room. The beauty took their breaths away.
"Why does it not have a window?" Evander noticed first and asked.
Calhoun smirked. "That's not even the weirdest part. He crouched down and moved the carpet that covered the big hole which he had fallen from."
"What happened here?" Felix asked. He peeked into the hole. "It doesn't lead to another room?"
"Surprisingly, there are no rooms beneath it," Calhoun replied.
Evander shook his head. "That is partially unbelievable. But what broke the floor this much?"
"A rogue werewolf who had been living in my castle for goodness knows how long," Calhoun answered.
"Huh?"
"Now when I fell here, I felt her anger. Somehow, I felt as if I knew who it was, but I also do know I haven't seen that wolf before."
Felix and Evander glanced at each other. Did Calhoun forget?
"So where is this rogue wolf?"
"Oh, I took it somewhere else." He answered. He covered the floor with the carpet again and led them to the room where he had chained the wolf.
"Did you cover it back?"
"I was not the one who covered it. While I was down there and the wolf tried to kill me, someone came up and covered the hole." Calhoun answered.
"Is that why you want to wipe out your servants?" Evander asked.
Calhoun shrugged. "Is that not enough ground?"
"It is." Felix agreed. "Who knows what they will plan next?"
As they got to the door, he caught a glimpse of Diana turning to the next corridor. He pointed to her and Felix hurried to see who it was.
"Diana, wait!"
Diana was surprised to find Felix chasing after her. "Felix, what's up?"
"Eh, I heard what happened between you and King Calhoun."
"Oh." She muttered and her face fell. Calhoun could not approach her by himself so he sent someone else to do it.
"Yeah, but before we talk about that, there's something you have to see," Felix said. Diana was sceptical but she followed him nevertheless.
"What is it?"
"Someone attempted to kill Calhoun by sending him off to battle with a rogue werewolf," Felix answered.
Diana became worried but she masked it well. "Who did that?"
"He isn't so certain yet but he guesses that the servants are involved."
Diana nodded. She arrived at the room where Calhoun and Evander stood, waiting for Felix's arrival.
"Look, Diana, I know that things are strained right now, but there is something crazy going on." Calhoun began. "I need you to be open-minded about this, after, we can sort out our differences, okay?"
Diana nodded once. Calhoun nodded too. He turned the doorknob and opened the door. The wolf was awake already and seemed to be angrier than she was chained.
"What is that?" Diana asked softly. The wolf smelled familiar to her. "Why does it feel as if I know her?"
"Right? I felt the same thing even before I saw her. I just had this feeling that I knew who was behind this wolf mask." Calhoun confirmed.
Diana inched closer to the snarling animal that seemed ready to tear whatever came close to her to pieces. She stared with narrowed eyes and tried to figure out who it was. After staring for some time, she closed her eye, listening to the feeling in her guts.
"Do you think she knows her?" Felix whispered.
Calhoun shrugged. "Possibly."
"It's highly possible," Evander said.
"I did feel like the person had some connection to her. I just can't quite put my finger on what it is." He elaborated.
Diana began to hum some weird tune and after a while, her eyes flew open.
"Oh my god!" She whispered.
Calhoun was beside her in an instant. He assumed something had happened to her. "What is it?"
"This... This..." She stuttered. "This... Oh no! Cal, this is Julitta!"
"No way can that be," Calhoun whispered.