324 The Luna Deserved The World
The night descended around them quickly.
Ronan sat obediently opposite Lucien, admiring his mate’s beautiful features.
Between them, the candle mes cast a soft light over their faces, bathing everything in a soothing golden color.
The Alpha lifted his empty ss, a gesture that did not escape the butler’s keen observation.
He quickly approached the table with a bottle of chilled red wine.
“Should we toast?” A corner of Lucien’s lips was tugged up in a smile.
“Sure.”
Ronan nodded at the butler, who then poured wine into their sses.
“To my beautiful Lulu,” Ronan said while raising his ss.
.....
“To our marriage,” Lucien said with a chuckle.
The sses made a beautiful clinking sound when they met.
Ronan held his ss to his nose and took a deep breath.
It had a pleasant and fruity aroma. Sweet but strong.
Ronan slid a hand across the table and put it on top of Lucien’s.
Lucien squeezed Ronan’s hand gently.
“One more month until we are officially married,” he said. “Time sure flies fast.”
“Not fast enough,” Ronan disagreed.
Fast would be eight years ago, about a week after they left the Alpha Camp.
Ronan tilted his head while looking at his mate with a dreamy smilecing his lips.
“Where did you spend your birthdayst year?”
“Hmmm...”
Lucien leaned back in his seat and stared off into the distance in an effort to remember.
“Ah, yes. Anna and I went to climb a mountain and then spent a week at a rented cottage in the middle of a forest.”
“... Okay?”
“Our birthday falls when summer arrives, so we do summer activities every year.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Swimming, fishing, cooking in the wild.”
The word “cooking” reminded Ronan of the Sundays he spent with Lucien at the Alpha Camp.
“So why did you suck so much in gutting fishes and roasting them on fire?”
Chuckling, Lucien took another sip from his ss.
“Hey, speak for yourself. I didn’t remember that you were such an expert yourself.”
“I, of course, was not an expert. I never handled a raw fish in my life.”
Or raw chicken.
Or raw beef.
Or raw anything, really.
“By the time something arrives in front of me, it is already cooked to perfection and garnished properly.”
Lucien shook his head and then scowled while taking another sip from his wine ss.
“You pampered brat.”
That was not all.
As a child, Ronan might not even be required to cut his own fish. Maybe a servant always stood aside to help him cut and debone his fish, lest the tender, young alpha choke on fish bones.
Ronan sneered at his mate.
“And yet, you are in love with me.”
“I do.”
Ronan leaned closer and rubbed at Lucien’s jaw.
“Come and kiss me, you flirt.”
Lucien giggled. He acquiesced and leaned forward to share a kiss with his pampered Alpha.
Once they finished kissing, the butler reappeared from inside the suite and announced, “The appetizer is ready.”
He then ced a tray full of baked mini pastries on the table between Ronan and Lucien.
“Brie pastries with creme mushroom and asparagus filling, a special appetizer tomemorate a special asion, courtesy of ‘Seven Layers Of Heaven’.”
Lucien scooped one pastry and held it against Ronan’s lips.
Thetter opened up right away to take the pastry, scraping Lucien’s fingers with his tongue in the process.
“Delicious,” hemented before grabbing Lucien’s wrist and biting his fingers for fun.
“What is delicious, the pastry or my hand?” Lucien teased.
“Nothing is more delicious than my Lulu.”
Ronan picked up a pastry and held it in front of Lucien. “But do taste it, it tastes quite heavenly.”
Lucien chuckled.
“I must thank Alpha Ronan for his kind rmendation.”
They continued feeding each other the appetizers while chatting.
After the appetizer, came the seafood soup with coriander bits sprinkled on top of each bowl. The wisps of fragrant smoke that rose from the soup were enticing to the nose, but the rich vor of the clear broth made them both sigh in satisfaction.
As soon as the bowls were empty, they were reced with two tes of sirloin steak, with tiny baked potatoes and fresh sd at the side.
Next to each te stood a silver gravy boat containing mild spicy barbeque sauce.
“It is really good,” the Alpha praised after he took a bite.
“I am d to hear that.”
Ronan could not help but let a smirk hush across his handsome features when he nced at his mate.
“My Luna has learned to serve me something better than macaroni and cheese. I am eternally grateful,” he teased.
Lucien raised an eyebrow.
He knew that Ronan still held a grudge over the many times he was forced to eat food below his standard, thanks to Lucien’s allegedly poor taste.
“You don’t like sweet meals but you also don’t like macaroni and cheese. Alpha Ronan, you are so difficult to please.”
Ronanughed.
“Alright, alright. I promise to eat everything from your hand if you feed me personally.”
“Heh.”
While they were dining in peace, Lucien suddenly realized something else.
He lowered his steak knife and mused, “I just realized that the five months were over a while ago.”
Slightly stunned, Ronan too lowered his steak knife and fork.
“To be precise, it was over three weeks ago.”
“Mhm... it felt like forever, and then it passed just like that.”
Together, they had gone through so many harrowing episodes. Ronan could still feel the physical pain stabbing his chest whenever the painful images shes through his brain.
“I still get nightmares from that night in the Holy Temple,” the Alpha confessed.
“Even now?”
“Even now,” Ronan confirmed. “I still cannot believe that we made it. A part of me refuses to believe that we are that blessed. This is more than what I deserve.”
Lucien leaned forward and cupped Ronan’s face with both hands.
.....
“And what about me? Don’t I deserve it?”
Ronan chuckled.
“My dear Lulu, you deserve the whole world,” he whispered before giving his mate another kiss on the lips.