Serene’s POV

I waited for Zeph in the Aurorian common room, anticipation of what he would say to me was killing me. My heart was in shambles and I didn’t want to get hurt anymore.

Finally, the door opened with a creak and he stepped inside. The air in the room seemed to have turned cold as he gazed in my direction and our sad orbs met. I could see the bags under his eyes, he hadn’t slept either. This had affected him as much as it had affected me.

Something seemed to have gotten stuck in my chest and I could neither breathe nor speak due to the emotions which were stifling me. I couldn’t even move as he stepped closer to me.

"Serene..." he whispered my name with so much love that my frozen heart began to thaw.

"I am sorry, I doubted your love. Can you forgive me?" He murmured while stopping inches apart from me, his face was completed in pain.

"Zeph you do realize I am a princess and I have duties as a princess as well. I have to represent my realm and it is common for princesses to dance with others. Lancile only gave me advice on how to make my relationship better with you. He wasn’t hitting on me nor did I have any interest in him. I can’t deal with your insecurities every other day. If you want us to work, then you need to trust me." I took a deep breath with these words and felt a heavy burden lifting off my chest.

"I promise, I will do better. The thought of you leaving me hurts my heart, it hurts my soul. That’s where my insecurities arise." He lowered his head at these words, his shoulders slumped as if admitting defeat.

"I will never leave you, I am yours," I whispered to him and he lifted his head to look at me with gloomy pitch-black eyes and he nodded at me, too stunned to speak. And without a warning wrapped his muscular arms around me, so tightly that I couldn’t breathe.

"Z...eph, I...can’..t breat...he," I choked.

"Oh! Sorry." He loosened his grip but didn’t let me go. I hugged him back, I had missed his hugs, his warmth, and his love and I hated every second that we were apart.

"Are we good? You forgive me, right? You are not done with me, are you?" He asked me in one go.

"We are good and I am not done with you." I rested my head on his chest and snuggled close to him. His body had relaxed.

"I love you, Serene. I don’t think I can love anyone else too," he kissed the top of my head and I melted in his arms. We sat there talking for a while and sorted our differences.

By the end of the day, everyone knew we had patched up. All the girls hugged me one after the other showing me their affection and happiness. Ralph was overjoyed and his smile said it all.

"Let’s have a small party to celebrate this successful reunion of our idiot friends." Ralph chuckled and everyone agreed.

So we all gathered in the dining hall for a small party. Zeph brought his guitar and tool requests from everyone. Tanzil dedicated a song to Mikasim who had his chest puffed out as Zeph sang for them. Cainos wanted a song for Ayrden and Zeph happily obliged.

It swelled my heart to see how far Zeph had come from hating our existence to finally acknowledging everyone as his close friends.

"Zeph, do you have any idea how lucky you are? Remember the time of Lourden when sadly enough I considered her a friend and followed her. She was so jealous of Serene and her kind heart that’s why she did what she did. She knew what an amazing couple you people could become." Tanzil told us a little apprehensively.

"I am just glad that bit*h is gone. I hated her and what she did. Remember how Serene slapped her for hurting Zeph, that was the moment I knew she was the perfect match for him." Ralph said with pride in his voice and everyone nodded their heads some cheered, while I began to blush. Stealing a glance toward Zeph, he was sheepishly smiling at me.

"Well, she has always been my savior. Sometimes I become too blind to notice but I promise to do better from now onwards." Zeph added with a smile earning a tight hug from Mikasim and a pat on the back from Ralph.

Everyone was happy, as we remembered our initial meetings with each other. Of course, Ralph boasted about how he was always trying to impress Alvene and all of us chimed in: "We know." This made everyone laugh.

"And Mikasim used to give all of us such bone-crunching hugs that I thought I would break my ribs someday," Zeph confessed while eyeing Mikasim. Who in return hid his face in his hands.

"I had lived among werewolves my entire life so it was difficult to always remember that now I had folkel mates. I do keep that in mind now." Mikasim added with a chortle making everyone laugh.

"And the first time they made us fight those Schlangtos. We thought they were crazy and we were going to die. Not it seems like a child’s play." Cainos added and we all agreed.

"But the best was when Serene hit Zeph with the "Arrow of Sadness" he used to whine so much, he stopped after that," Mikasim told everyone while chuckling making us both blush and I hid my face in my hands while the whole hall echoed with the laughter of my friends.

We also remembered our vampire friends who couldn’t be here with us and said a prayer for them. Hoping we would be able to see them one day. Little did we know that the time was very near when everything was about to change.

Artins Sensei called a meeting the next day and informed us that we will be carrying out an attack on Wampir Realm in a month. A few of us will be accompanying the special force which will be formed to lead the attack and end the bloody reign of Meliana. We had one month to make all the preparations and strategize.

He notified us that we would train day and night for the next month and this information will be kept top secret so the enemy won’t even know of our arrival and what hit them. Rizar would be taking over our training for the next month. He will give us the roles and rigorously train us to face the enemy. This would be or die situation and will decide the future of our world as we knew it.