CHAPTER 21: WINNING HEARTS
Maya’s POV
The King’s retirement to his private quarters and Athena’s public demotion only pushed the public to vote blindly for her. She was their favorite. Their golden girl. Their fragile phoenix.
And me?
Only knife-like glares were directed my way. None of them even dared to step into my stall as if I was straight up cursed.
Quinn sauntered past, venom dripping from her lips. She smugly remarked, “No one wants you, Maya. Look at you. Idling away like a dumb housewife. The goddess knows which mutt fathered those ugly pups,” she tipped her head to the side towards Carl’s arms.
“You – … ” Valerie started, rage flooding her features. I cut off Valerie with a soft squeeze on her shoulder.
“No.” I shook my head at her. Quinn did not deserve even our attention, let alone waste words one her.
“You are too soft. These piranhas won’t just bite. They will strip you to the bone,” she sighed. “You should do something about this, Maya-aaa-aaaahhhh – mhmmm,” she moaned in delight as I put in a mini-version of Raj Kachori in her mouth in one go before she spiralled.
“What – is – this? It is amazing!” Valerie spoke between mouthfuls.
“Dahi Puris,” I wrote on a paper and showed it to her.
“They are divine volcanoes of flavor because holy sh – Maya, marry me,” she groaned, her eyes rolling back as I fed her another one.
“What is this?” Beta Zane practically skidded to my stall like an eager puppy getting a soft whiff of his favorite treat.
I showed the name plaque.
“Wow! May I taste those as well? Did you make them for the competition?” He asked, drooling.
I shook my head. “No.”
His eyes sparkled.
“Ah! So these are for free? I can eat one? Two? As many as I want?” He eagerly asked, like a kid in Candyland.
I laughed and nodded my head. “Sure,” I mouthed.
Beta Zane inhaled the first one and then coughed up a huge storm. His eyes watered while he vehemently sputtered.
I facepalmed. I forgot that the Beta was sensitive to spice.
While everyone crowded around us and mocked me, I helped the Beta with water and gave him a sweeter Dahi Puri with lots of curd.
Beta Zane shook his head. “No. Add the spice. I loved it!”
Taking a page from Titan’s prank book, I mouthed, “Oooo! Say ‘AAHHH!’”
Beta Zane reflexively copied my motion and I inserted the sweeter version of the Dahi Puri into his mouth.
He looked at me in surprise, surely his tongue working out the flavors just as before but milder and sweeter to taste.
Beta Zane groaned and shook me with both arms.
“You are a miraculous chef!” He groaned as if I had given him the best of blessings ever. Bringing his fingers to his mouth, he exclaimed, “Mwuah! My tongue can die peacefully in food heaven now.”
I burst out laughing, forgetting the ugly, dying sounds I made when I did so.
I instantly slapped a hand over my mouth but the crowd was already sneering and ridiculing my voice.
“Did you hear that? How nasty?”
“Sounds like a dying pig.”
“God, why didn’t I die before hearing that disgusting sound.”
“Laughing should be made a crime for her!”
“I don’t know if her character is worse or her laugh.”
“Haha, true. Do you know that no one knows who is the father of her b*stard pups.”
“Yeah, and I noticed that they already imprinted their father. They carry a strange circular mark. Their father must be a hideous beast.”
I hung my head in shame. Tears threatened to well up but I suppressed them, not wanting them to know how much their words affected me. My poor kids. Would they be trolled their whole life like this?
The people of the supernatural kingdom were merciless.
Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I watched in horror as a ten-year-old child furiously sputtered and coughed, his eyes bulging out with red cracks overtaking the whites. He was choking!
I immediately cut through the fierce mob and gave five quick back blows before hugging him from behind and giving him abdominal thrusts.
“Nooo! Stay away from my boy, you creep,” the mother screamed from far away.
Oblivious to my surroundings and danger, I continued giving abdominal thrusts before I was slapped away, hard on the ground and pelted with stones.
Curling instinctively, a voiceless scream tore out of my mouth just when the boy spout out a small fish bone. The mob immediately stopped when the boy ran towards me and hugged me.
The mob froze.
Arms tight around my neck, he sobbed in my lap while I softly massaged his scalp to soothe him. Surely, it was a horrifying experience for a young kid to nearly choke to death.
“Thank you, Luna. Thank you,” he sobbed in my arms.
I dropped kisses over his head and comforted him with massage techniques I had professionally learnt over the years. The results were instant. He calmed down while hugging me, his state bordering blissful sleep.
His mother stumbled forward, mascara streaking down her face like war paint.
“Thank you, doctor,” she softly said, kneeling beside me and taking her child from me, seeking comfort in his arms. “I let hate blind me. I almost lost my only son due to my blind anger towards you and blind love for Princess Athena. I would have never forgiven myself if something happened to my precious boy because of this stupid little thing,” she showed the fish bone.
“Isn’t that Princess Athena’s boneless fish dish?” Someone whispered behind us.
“Yes, yes. She missed a bone! She could have killed the innocent child.”
“She did not even bother to help.”
“True. We should ditch her stall and try the doctor’s. She helped our own. We should give her a chance.”
“Yes. The child called her ‘Luna.’ May be it is a sign from the Moon Goddess.”
“Yes, yes. Let’s go and give the child some space.”
I clasped the weeping mother’s hands in mine and gave a gentle pat on the back of her hand.
“He will be alright,” I tried to say but she couldn’t understand. I felt miserable at the moment. Not even my open wounds hurt me as much as my inability to speak.
“He will be alright,” Nurse Valerie helpfully supplied, dabbing her suspiciously misty eyes. “That is what the doctor said,” she revealed.
“Ah! Yes, thank you,” the young mother nodded at me and took away her sleeping child in her arms.
“Here, let me help you up,” Nurse Valerie said and gave me a hand. “Let’s go and win this … ” She suddenly stopped in her tracks and so did I.
BZZZ. BZZZ. BZZZ.
The voting buzzer at my stall rang non-stop. The entire table? Cleared out.
The crowd had helped itself to all my food and desserts. In the middle, Dahi Puris in both hands and some stuffed in his mouth, Beta Zane was left fending off for himself against the demanding mob for the complimentary Dahi Puri treats.
I witnessed the fight, mouth agape. How did the lycans eat everything so fast? And how did the Beta end up hoarding so many Dahi Puris in his mouth and arms!
“Oomph! Oomph! OOMPH!” Beta Zane’s battle cries were muffled by the oozing Dahi Puris in his mouth. I facepalmed. This was not how I thought the gentleman-slash-fierce lycan warrior I met the first time would behave when it came to food!
“Stay away! That is mine! I am the Beta for fvck’s sakes!!” He roared but the crowd engulfed him in their mad dash for the new supply of snacks and desserts they found in the cooler.
“Luna! Help! They are taking away my food,” Zane shouted. “Ask them to go away.”
The ‘Luna’ title caught on.
“No, Luna! Beta Zane is hoarding them. Ask him to share,” a teenager – almost young adult, shouted, tackling over the Beta Lycan.
“I will give you a million dollars to let me eat!” Zane shouted.
“Not even a billion would make me agree!” Came back the reply. “Hiyaah!”
A toddler stepped over the young man who was tackling Beta Zane on the ground and snatched a Dahi Puri from the Beta’s mouth before putting it in his mouth. Everyone stopped in shock. Even the Beta and his food rival.
The crowd gasped.
And then came the claps and hoots for the toddler. Even I laughed. And this time, no one made fun of my laugh.
I chuckled and grabbed the adorable toddler – one of my triplets – and peppered him with kisses. My little warrior.
“Titan’s children are like him. Ugh! Food snatchers,” Beta Zane wailed through the mind link and I heartily laughed, going behind the stall to make more snacks.
Sebastian’s POV
I witnessed the angry mob morph into a cheering crowd as shouts of “Luna! Luna! Luna!” rang throughout Maya’s stall. The same crowd that had hurled stones now hurled praise. I stood over the roof of the tallest tower, taking in the scene.
My fists were clenched so tight I could feel the skin split across my knuckles. The memory of stones striking my fearless woman still throbbed in my chest like a second heartbeat. It hurt to see her surrounded by angry men and women while they pelted stones at her. I almost tore through them until surprisingly, Titan, held me back.
“Calm down. This is for the best. Let them see who she really is. She doesn’t need saving. Not from us.” He had said and then gone conveniently dormant, leaving me to gnash my teeth in silence as I watched her stitch her own wounds with shaking hands and that ridiculous, stubborn grace.
Footsteps landed behind me with a familiar crunch.
“Sebastian,” Zane spoke from behind, joining me over the dangerous roof.
I didn’t answer. He didn’t expect me to.
We were at ‘our spot,’ not as King and Beta, but as two orphan friends.
“She handled it well,” he continued, voice low. “But, I am pissed. Pissed that you made me stand back while she bled. The guardian in me is enraged as hell for what you ordered me to do,” he fumed.
I watched Maya smiling down there, dusty, bloodied, radiant, as she handed out food to the same people who had cursed her. She labored through the evening to distribute more food for free. She seemed happier with the blessings bestowed on her by the public than the votes they gave. She had quietly hidden the voting machine, too humble to care for numbers. Blessings from children mattered more to her than trophies. She seemed satisfied just with the turnout. However, she still led the scoreboard.
Athena came a close second in this round. Fifth overall. And that was with a cult fanbase.
“Seb? She might have survived the public’s wrath and won their love this time without our help but the conspirators might get to her before us. You can not depend on her skills and strength alone,” Zane reminded me.
I turned towards my best friend and brother-in-arms.
“She is never alone.” I replied before a third figure landed on the roof, quiet as a shadow. “I will always be there for her.”
Clad in black, the young warrior knelt, fist to chest. “Your Majesty. The work is done.”
Zane’s eyebrows jumped off his face. Then they crashed back down into a scowl.
“YOUUUU!” Zane wagged his finger, his temper reaching the sky above us. “You are that cheeky brat who jumped me like a snack-crazed ninja!”
The warrior blinked. “Apologies, Beta Zane. I was under orders.”
“Yeah? Was kicking me in the ribs also an order? Or was that just your personal flair?” Zane roared at the poor boy.
“You may leave,” I said, amused.
“Yes, Your Highness,” he saluted and flashed away from our eyes.
Zane turned to me, baffled. “Secret Corps? You actually did it?”
I nodded. “Years ago.”
“I thought that was just a bedtime story you made up to mess with Theodore.”
“You meet them every day. You just don’t recognize them.” I shrugged.
Zane squinted, piecing things together. “Wait. Did you pay him to beat me up?!”
Titan’s voice crackled with laughter. “He didn’take the extra pay. He enjoyed the food as well as smacking you. I was also cheering. For him of course,” Titan revealed.
“You fvcker!” Zane angrily exclaimed.
Titan rolled his eyes. “Respect royalty. It is ‘Your Highness.’ You should be sent back to school to learn some manners.”
“Manners my ass. You paid a secret corp bodyguard to turn me into a punching bag! That too in public.”
“Well, you helped marketing my mate’s food.”
“You could have warned me!”
“And spoil the show? Ruin my pleasure? Give up the fun?” Titan grated on Zane’s nerves. “I would in no universe, miss to watch you screame ‘MINE’ over a puffed snack and then get beaten to pulp. By a teenager no less.” Titan taunted.
“You. Are. So. Dead. Titan!” Zane roared. “He stole from me!”
“Yes, I watched you go all Monster on him. For food no less. I was embarrassed for you,” Titan mock-shuddered.
“He almost killed me!”
“And he will be punished for not carrying out the task till the end,” Titan solemnly promised.
Zane’s jaw dropped open.
“I am going to kill you!”
“To be fair, you almost killed me. I never laughed so hard. I couldn’t breathe when my pup plopped on your head as a stepping stool and snatched the prize from the monster’s mouth. The moment? Epic. Your expression? Priceless.”
Zane’s jaw ticked but then an evil grin spread on his stupid face.
“Oh, I see now.”
Titan snorted.
“What?” Titan asked, bored.
“You are jealous,” he smirked.
“Huh?”
“I got to eat Luna’s food,” he whispered near my ear, eyes twinkling with evil. “While you? You had to stand and watch me have something you never got.”
If Titan could jab the Beta’s raw nerve multiple times then Zane could achieve the same results in one heavy stroke. And he had certainly delivered it on us right now.
“Oh, look! Pigeon!” Titan pointed at the sky behind Zane and the eternal sucker fell for the trick for the umpteenth time. He instinctively turned before his butt was booted off the roof by a smug lycan.
“TITTANNNNN!!!!!”