Lorelei pulled the covers up to her chin and swallowed a giggle. Her gaze fell on the man sleeping next to her, and her heartbeat immediately hastened. It still felt like a dream. There was a defiant strand of hair falling across his face, marring the perfection of his sleeping visage. Her hand hovered just over his cheek as the urge to touch him and the unwillingness to disturb his sleep clashed.

Noah was, without a doubt, the most dashing, most handsome, and most lovable man in the whole world. Her man! As the morning sun illuminated his face, she again marveled at his strong features. It was so strange. She thought she knew every curve and wrinkle already, yet she had just noticed how long and lush his eyelashes were. She inched even closer, mesmerized by their obsidian color. Were he a woman, one flutter and kingdoms would topple. She knew enough ladies who would kill to have such looks.

"So, is the sight to your liking?" Noah's voice didn't carry a trace of drowsiness. His eyelids opened halfway, and his silver eyes peered at her - alert and amused.

"More or less." Pursing her lips, Lorelei poked his cheek. "But, I need to check thoroughly whether or not the one beside me is still a man or has he turned into a wild bear again."

"And if I were a bear?" Noah's teeth flashed. "What would you do?"

"I'll have no other choice but to dispel the curse again. As many times as it's needed."

A guttural purr reverberated in Noah's chest. The glint in his eyes was that of a hungry panther, and he didn't hesitate to prance. His arms found their willing prey, and soon Lorelei was giggling and tossing under the onslaught of his tickles. The entangled blankets were quickly kicked to the side, yet neither of them felt cold in the other's embrace

Suddenly, Noah's hands froze. Before Lorelei could ask, his finger trailed a line between her shoulder blades, raising goosebumps all over her skin.

"This scar." She flinched. Noah's timbre was drained of all its warmth and playfulness. "Was it that Orten pig who did it? Or your creep of a brother?"

"It was father." Twisting her neck, she looked at him over her shoulder. "It's an old thing; it should be almost faded by now. I hope you don't find it too ugly."

"That's not the point!" Worry mixed with the ire in his voice. "This looks like a blade. How could he slash his own daughter?"

"It was a riding whip." Lorelei rolled around to face him. "Pricilla claimed I had stolen the late countess' earrings. Father was drunk. He managed one or two hits, but didn't expect me to bleed so easily, and it frightened him. Could have been worse."

"I'll murder him!" The eerie calmness of his words was scarier than any bellow. "Him and that shrieking shrew. All of his misbegotten broods!"

"You'll do no such thing." Lorelei cupped his face. "It's not worth dirtying your hands and getting in trouble by killing one of the emperor's Lords of the Coin. Besides, if not for this, I wouldn't have met Master Levi, so it was my win in the end."

"You are too forgiving."

"No. I just don't want to give him the satisfaction of overshadowing my future even in death. He isn't worth the steel and the repercussions. None of them are."

Noah shook his head with a huff before rolling on his back. He gave Lorelei a side glance.

"Do as you wish. But if they ever dared to harm you again, I'll slaughter them all."

"I won't give them that chance. Ever again." She lay on her side, facing him. Taking a lock of her hair, she used it to tickle Noah's nose. "Come now, my dearest husband, don't frown and glare daggers like that. Enough trying to play the heartless killer. We both know you ain't one."

"I am the Beast of Norden, now and forever."

"Are you?" Lorelei smiled at him sweetly. "I think that if more people knew the true Guardian of the North, their opinions would change. As your wife, I'll do my best in that regard."

"Trying to restore me to good repute, my love?" Noah winked at her. "It's a great sentiment, but, alas, the title of Beast must remain, no matter what you do."

"Because of Yanosh's prophecy?" Lorelei set her jaw and looked Noah straight in the eyes.

"Partially." He took a strand of her hair and started playing with it. "But mainly because certain people won't let it fade away."

"Lionel?" Lorelei spat out the name as if it were poison, bringing an even brighter smile on her husband's face.

"Sure, but not only. Llewellyn also has some vested interest in the matter."

"The Crown Prince?" Lorelei gaped.

"It's an old story, but since my brother and the quaestors are going to be here soon, I think it would be best for you to know too. Especially since I've heard that the Church is sending both members of the Night Brothers and the Brothers of Light."

Saying that, Noah pulled a blanket over them, and the two huddled together. Lorelei could feel him tensing up and knew that the story he was about to tell had left some scars. That's why she was surprised by the soft longing in his voice as he started narrating.

"As a child, I was quite wild and untrusting. Brawls, fistfights, duels, you name it. I saw anyone besides Neli and Duncan, and one or two others, as my enemy, which, in my defense, was probably the case. Though Empress Sophia and her assassins were a major factor, now that I look back, I believe I intentionally sought trouble half the time, with the sole purpose of angering the emperor. That's why by the time I was fourteen, I'd earned myself quite the unflattering reputation. I was the complete opposite of my dignified and gentle older brother."

Noah chuckled and sighed, getting lost in the past.

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"Llewellyn was twenty at the time, and the epitome of a delicate beauty - blond locks, blue eyes, skin with that fair, pretty-boy complexion that made all court ladies faint over him. Combine that with the gentlest of personalities and a soft, educated voice, and he was the perfect crown prince. You can't imagine how much I wanted to hate him. He was the emperor's and the courtiers' favorite, beloved by the common people, praised by foreign dignitaries. He was everything I wasn't."

"But you don't hate him," whispered Lorelei and interlocked her fingers with his. Noah squeezed her palm lightly.

"No. I couldn't hate him. He was my big brother. The only family that never tried to kill or slander me. He never disdained me, the bastard. I knew he wasn't physically strong, and yet I constantly dragged him to spar with me. I always won, and he laughed it off and patted my head with the pride our father never expressed. This made my confidence grow with time, and I even swore naively that I would become Llewellyn's guardian. I was such a fool."

"What do you mean?" Lorelei twisted her neck and was met by Noah's bitter smile.

"Shortly after his twentieth birthday, Llewellyn was given an important task by the emperor and the Grand Pontifex; a chance to prove his capability as the crown prince. There had been reports of people missing in the capital, and my brother was supposed to lead the investigation. Of course, I followed him for days and pestered him relentlessly, even stole some of his case notes until he finally allowed me to tag along."

"I somehow can't imagine you as a spoiled, whiny brat," quipped Lorelei, trying to visualize a pouting, adolescent version of Noah.

"I've come a long way since then." Her husband snorted and suddenly buried his face in Lorelei's hair. When he spoke again, his voice came out muffled and heavy. "Looking back at it, I should have known that there was something fishy going on. None of the courtiers or the clergy seemed against my involvement. We are talking about the people who usually found fault in me even breathing. It was such an obvious trap."

"They wanted to use the investigation to get rid of you?" Anger bubbled in Lorelei's heart. Noah had been little more than a child back then! How heartless could those people be?!

"No," he replied grimmly. "They wanted to use me as bait and get rid of both of us."

Lorelei twisted around, coming face to face with her husband. His whole being exuded a killing aura, the likes of which she hadn't felt since their altercation with the vapir. But behind the anger of his locked brows, there was pain and shame.

"I was an overconfident idiot," he narrated, unnaturally calm. "Just as those fiends thought, I tried to prove to my brother how helpful I could be by sneaking into one of the kidnapper's hideouts. And, of course, they captured me in a matter of minutes. What we had thought to be a human trafficking and slave ring turned out to be something much worse."

"W-worse?" Cold crept down Lorelei's spine.

"They were alchemists. Using slaves and kidnapping beggars from the slums to conduct horrendous experiments."

"What-?"

"Don't ask me for details. It… It was inconceivable that one human could do something like this to another. Only the Red Hands have done deeds more vile than theirs. Their experiments had been running for years, maybe even a decade. Atrocities - undiscovered. Victims unavenged."

"Oh, Noah!" Lorelei hugged him tightly. His heart was galloping in his chest like a charging warhorse. The hand that gently patted her head shook with poorly contained fury.

"Anyway, my foolish younger self was thrown into one of their dungeons. Soon enough, they managed to lure Llewellyn in. The head alchemist was a sadistic monster. He thought it would be funny to let us entertain him before we draw our last breath. I was supposed to duel and kill my brother. And in order to make sure I did my part, he fed me a mind-distorting potion. Nasty beverage. It makes one lose sanity and act like a rabid beast."

"But you overcame it."

"Not at all." His confession made Lorelei gasp. "I attacked Llewellyn with the full intention to kill him. And he wiped the floor with me. My gentle and weak brother, the frail and sickly prince whom I constantly bested at swordfight, disarmed me in three moves. And then he slaughtered all the alchemists and their lackeys who had gathered to celebrate and watch us die."

Noah let out a listless laughter and shook his head.

"For the first time, I witnessed a true ancient god of death. Quick. Merciless. No brute force. Not one wasted move. Llewellyn was so scary and beautiful at the same time. The embodiment of wrath. And yet, after all the deaths, there was one unfinished task. The person who had supported that heinous endeavour from the shadows. It turned out to be a member of the Church."

"Goodness!" For a moment, Lorelei's breath halted. "Kush-turgan Bayan… He told me that he had been a potion slave for the Church in his youth!"

"Then it's likely he had been one of the few victims who had managed to escape from that abysmal place. In the end, Llewellyn and I managed to capture the priest. It was the predecessor of Primate Ambrosinus, the then-leader of the Brothers of Light."

"No way! The Brothers of Light! They are the purest of the Pure Orders. They are supposed to follow Father Lustris to purify and guide the souls to the Heavenly Realm. To heal. To console and teach!"

"The brightest light throws the darkest shadows," rumbled Noah. "But just like you, no one was willing to believe our word. From the emperor to the Grand Pontifex and all the courtiers, they all said it was a misunderstanding. The primate was being slandered. He had no Idea of the atrocities his subordinates had committed. That snake then made a generous donation to the imperial coffers and the Grand Pontifex's almonry, and the case was closed."

"What! He got away with it?!"

"He didn't." A shadow fell on Noah's face, yet his lips stretched in a blood-curdling smile. "I'd seen Llewellyn's face when that fiend was spoken free. It was the same as the one he wore while slaughtering the alchemists. So I observed him and followed him like a shadow. I was there when he executed that misbegotten brute. Unfortunately, an alarm was raised. There was no time to escape. And if they had found out that Llewellyn had disregarded an imperial verdict, he might have not only lost the title of crown prince, but likely his freedom and the support of the court."

"So you stepped in, didn't you?" Tears welled in Lorelei's eyes. "You took the blame."

"I did. We had previously falsified the report about who had dealt with the alchemists. It was Llewellyn's idea to give me more credit for solving the case as we hoped that it would stabilize my position in court and appeal to our father. And so, the brutal little beast who had once disregarded orders and rushed to slaughter the alchemists had done it again, this time breaching an imperial decree and taking justice into his own hands. The poor crown prince had arrived too late to stop him from murdering an esteemed member of the clergy. That beastly second prince was swiftly put on trial and banished to the icy, cold Norden. End of story."

For a couple of minutes, Lorelei looked at her husband, speechless and distraught. Only tears rolled quietly down her cheeks. Noah's thumb carefully rubbed them away. His face slowly mellowed, his smile becoming warm and gentle once more.

"Don't mourn me, my love. I don't regret my decision. I never liked the capital."

"But you lost your title of an imperial prince!"

"And in return, I managed to assist my brother in the fight for a throne that could have never been mine anyway. Besides, if I weren't the Beast of Norden, I wouldn't have met and married you. See? All is as it's supposed to be."

"You idiot!" She sniffled and hit his chest weakly. "I'll make sure you'll never have to sacrifice yourself again!"

"I'm sure you will, my love." Noah's kisses soon dried her cheeks. "We'll prevail, no matter what life throws at us. Together."

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