Lnd''s eyes were still focused on the tiny twinkling star in the sky while he remembered the figure of Nichs Hanenbergh who met him at Princess Karenina''s birthday party.


    p At the party, Lnd could clearly see the king was interested in Sophie. Heck, even a blind man would be able to see it too. The way his eyes looked droopy and in awe at the sight of Lnd''s mate, and his overly-enthusiastic voice when he introduced himself to Sophie.. they said it all.</anda>


    The king was obviously attracted to or even... in love with Sophie.


    Thinking about it made Lnd clench his fist in annoyance. Ugh... If Nichs was nearby, Lnd would have jumped down and attacked him again. How dare he...!


    However... Lnd then furrowed his brows, if King Nichs Hannenbergh was really the same Nichs that Sophie married six years ago, why was he acting like he didn''t know her?


    Was the man pretending he didn''t know Sophie because he didn''t want his fiancée to know he was married? Was he ashamed to admit Sophie was his wife?


    Lnd''s heart desperately hoped that his conjecture was correct. Because then Sophie had a good reason not to go back to Nichs Hanenbergh, and Lnd didn''t have to worry anymore that Sophie would leave him.


    Sophie wouldn''t possibly want to go back to the man who had dumped her, would she?


    However, even though Lnd''s heart hoped so, his mind refused and denied that the conjecture was true.


    Nichs Hanenbergh didn''t dump Sophie. There must be another reason. If Nichs really dumped Sophie, then he should have avoided Sophie when he saw Sophie at the party.


    However, in fact, what happened was that Nichs, without hesitation, even seemed enthusiastic about approaching Sophie to introduce himself. Did Nichs really not remember Sophie?


    Lnd closed his eyes and struggled to understand what had really happened to Nichs Hannenbergh.


    Just as Nichs had many questions about Duke Romanov, Lnd also had many questions about Nichs Hanenbergh.


    In his mind, Lnd tried to sequence each incident from the beginning to thetest ones. He hoped to find answers to his questions in these events.


    After he recalled the events at the party, Lnd turned to remember the incident when he fought with Nichs. In the middle of the fight, Nichs actually asked Lnd to stop the fight, then said that he wanted to free the two lycan children who were held captive by ''Duke Romanov''.


    It meant that Nichs had absolutely no idea that Jan and Luciel were his children, and it seemed that Nichs didn''t even have an idea that he had children.


    Lnd''s memory shed back to when Nichs and Sophie stood face to face. At that time, Nichs was either so fascinated by Sophie that he didn''t pay attention to Jan and Luciel who were standing beside her, or he did see the two children but he ignored them.


    Maybe Nichs ignored them because he thought that the two children were Sophie''s and Duke Romanov''s children.


    If Nichs only pretended not to remember Sophie, Nichs would have been surprised when he saw Luciel and Jan, as he should be able to immediately conclude that the two children were his children because their faces were very simr to his.


    Lnd remembered very clearly every expression the king had when he stood opposite Sophie. The king never showed the slightest bit of surprise except when Sophie suddenly fell unconscious. His look was innocent and clearly enamored by her.


    Lnd now started to believe that King Nichs Hanenbergh really didn''t remember Sophie, but how could that be? What caused Nichs to lose his memory?


    Lnd''s memory continued to travel through time. Until finally, his memory reached the moment when Lnd found a pot filled with the remains of wolfsbane that he found in the ckwoods Forest several years ago.


    Was it the wolfsbane that caused Nichs Hanenbergh to lose his memory? If so, then Nichs was not to me for having left Sophie. It was a very unfortunate ident on his part.


    If she found out that he lost his memory when trying to cure himself of lycanthropy, Sophie would be understanding. Lnd had witnessed Sophie talk in her dreams, pleading Nichs not to take the wolfsbane and just ept himself for who he was.


    She was very bothered by the fact that Nichs hated himself so much that she begged Lnd to help make her sons love and ept themselves. She didn''t want Luciel and Jan to grow up hating their lycan sides, unlike their father.


    So... Sophie was separated from Nichs by ident. One that was caused by his efforts to bepletely human. Surely, she would understand and forgive him for leaving?


    In fact... she might return to Nichs once she knew he never meant to leave her all alone. If Nichs got his memory back, he would definitely im his wife and children. And they might choose to go back to him. They would be reunited and be family again.


    Lnd''s chest tightened at the thought of this. What should he do? He didn''t want to lose Sophie and his children. If he could keep them by fighting to the death, he would.


    However, at this point, he must think about what would Sophie and the boys think and want. He couldn''t make that decision for them.


    All this time, he and Sophie had never talked about Nichs. He wanted to avoid drama, and he felt Sophie wanted the same way. She didn''t know that Lnd knew her husband because he had seen her with Nichs in the ckwoods Forest.


    It seemed that Sophie also didn''t feelfortable talking about Nichs'' death because she thought Lnd was responsible for the deaths of Baron Ferdinand and Nichs.


    The woman chose to bury her own sorrow rather than me Lnd which could eventually make Luciel and Jan hate Lnd for killing their biological father.


    "Aarrrghh!" Lnd exhaled roughly. His chest was filled with heavy clouds. Now he felt it was time for him and Sophie to have a heart-to-heart conversation about Sophie''s and Nichs'' past and her status as Lnd''s wife and mate.


    He also needed to ask what Sophie wanted in this situation. It was the most important thing after all, even though Lnd was actually afraid that if he asked Sophie what she wanted… she would reply that she wanted to go back to Nichs.


    .


    .


    ___________________________


    From Missrealitybites:


    My heart ached for Lnd. Luckily, I know that this story will have a happy ending for all three of them. So... pfew..!