CHAPTER 355: PERHAPS THIS WAS THE NEEDED LIGHT?

[KAWAI]

"... He deserves everything there is to life, and sadness, if not something I intend to give him, never. If the fates decide to give us a mortal life, I have always prayed to watch him glow and be happier.

"For him to live his best, and if it is inevitable, then I hope he goes first, because I wouldn’t be able to stand leaving him first. He is my everything, Nana. Everything. The breaths I take, I do it all for him.

"Only death can stand between me and him, but even death is too careful to take me first and leave him because I will fight death itself for my Kosta," Tamiko said, and Nana gasped. She had been expecting something else, but then Tamiko was Tamiko.

He was always going to be Kosta’s Erasthai first before anything else ever happened.

Maybe that made him more dangerous than being the prince, and maybe that made Kosta his ultimate weakness, but Tamiko didn’t care. He didn’t care about what the world had to say about his relationship with Kosta.

All he cared about was whether his Kosta was happy or not. It was a truth he had conditioned himself into for years on end, and he wasn’t about to start thinking otherwise, not even with the potential threat standing right in front of him.

"What if I make him leave you then? What will you do?" Nana asked, and Tamiko just smiled again.

"As long as he lives, I will live. If you make him leave me, it will be because he wants to leave me, not because you want him to leave me. And if he chooses to leave, I will respect his choice and keep my vow to him.

"I will spend my life in service to him, protecting him, while making sure he doesn’t feel suffocated by my unwanted presence. I will make his life easier, because my Erasthai deserves everything good in life.

"I will do everything in my power to make him the happiest man on the realm, even if it is not with me," Tamiko said, even though that little truth was the one thing he hated about his love for Kosta.

He hated that he would walk away and never look back if Kosta wanted him to. He hated that he wouldn’t try to cause any chaos in his fight for Kosta because the last time he hadn’t respected his Erasthai’s choice, Kosta had been kidnapped.

He was still haunted by his defiance, something that he shouldn’t have done.

That was the worst mistake for him.

No matter how hard he tried to think about it, no matter how crazy he wanted to think of himself at the end of the day, Tamiko knew that if he could turn back time and erase the shit that had forced Kosta into the open like that, he would do it without question.

"And if he mates another?" Nana asked.

Tamiko looked at Kosta for the second time since he had walked through the door. The lycan chief could tell that this was something that Tamiko had to find his way out of on his own.

It was comforting and scary at the same time, and no one would have prepared them both for that. But this was a stage that had to be passed, regardless of the ranks and what they both had to offer each other.

"My vow is unconditional, Nana. It will still be the same," Tamiko said confidently.

There wasn’t a thing that he would change about his vow, and even though it had stemmed from the raw pain of losing Kosta a few months ago, Tamiko knew that he wouldn’t have it any other way.

If this was what he needed to do for Kosta to be happy, then he would do it. He would let the Lycan chief go. He would do it for Kosta and only Kosta. And if the person he mated dared to hurt Kosta, Tamiko would burn them alive along with everyone they ever knew.

It was a truth that they both knew because at the end of the day, the world was just a canvas that Tamiko and Kosta would burn down for each other.

It didn’t matter what the stakes would be at the time, because the two of them were all that mattered in the realm. And in their little lives.

"My goodness, you are crazy," Nana sighed.

"For him? Always. It is something that I take pride in. But if you want me to prove my loyalty to him, my unconditional love for him? Do what you must, and I shall welcome it all with grace," Tamiko said honestly as he walked over to his Erasthai.

He knew that there would be harder days in the future, but for Konstantin, he would do whatever it took. He would walk on fire if that was what Nana wanted him to do. He didn’t have a choice, but at the same time, he had a choice.

That was what the old woman was saying to him.

"Alright then. I’ll give you a name. If she isn’t dead by sundown, then you must stay away from my precious boy, until your business with Grealor is done a—" Nana began, and Konstantin growled slowly in disapproval.

"No, Nana. No. I... I love him. I want him. I can’t live without him. Don’t give him that name, Nana, please," Konstantin begged, and that got Tamiko’s attention. There had never been a day that he heard Kosta beg.

The Lycan Chief had never begged, and even when he talked about going to the royals to beg, he had never gone down like this. And Tamiko knew because he had felt it.

He had felt the sincerity in those tales, yet right now, it was more of desperation for losing something that was not supposed to be lost.

The Lycan Chief was scared, truly scared of what the future looked like, which was an all-new for the one man who had always been a step ahead.

"It is the only way, sweetheart. I made a vow to Sahina, one that I intend to keep. If this is the man you are to swear your life to, then he must prove it by eliminating the one thing that broke your little heart years ago.

"If I am to sleep, my sweet boy, I have to do that knowing that the one I leave you with won’t abandon you or let them hurt you. I cannot keep fighting them forever, Konstantin. An old lady can only be old for so long," Nana said.

Kosta stared at her, tears in his eyes as he looked at the last person who had truly known him for who he was.

The last person who had understood him for over eight hundred years and the one person who had given him a chance at life without having to think about shit that would screw them over.

She had loved him unconditionally, and now this was her way of saying goodbye. Family wasn’t supposed to be this hard and complicated. It was like the cheering truth was standing right there before them.

"I’ll take the name, Nana. But only on the condition that you don’t leave. You are the only family Kosta has, the only person he can run to other than my uncle and his brother-in-law," Tamiko said with a tone of finality.

For Kosta’s happiness, he wasn’t about to take any chances. He would see that whatever this name held was affecting both of them, and if Tamiko eliminated whatever name that was, then Kosta would be free to be with his family, even if she was the last one of them.

"You can’t. You can’t take her out. She is too powerful, krushka. That is the problem," Kosta said, and Tamiko stared at his Erasthai, the raw fear on the man’s face, a punch in the gut for him.

He had never seen Kosta this scared and yet standing there he wondered who it was who could have sent shivers down his Erasthai’s spine. It was the one thing that Tamiko despised more than anything, because this simply meant that someone had hurt his Kosta before.

Someone had tried to fuck them up and if the woman who was left to be his guardian was fighting, then it meant that even Lord Sadako didn’t know about it.

Then again, what the fuck was this person made of that they couldn’t make their walk to the king and the Lycan Lord — the two people who could easily protect the both of them then?

Tamiko was sure that as far as loyalties lay, Lord Sadako would never let his mate’s brother lose like that.

It was something that he had long understood, and yet as he stared at Kosta and his sister’s friend, he couldn’t help but wonder what was so crazy that had them almost on their knees like that.

"Is she the moon goddess? Because I assure you, I have been waiting to have a chat with that woman for a while now. Perhaps this will be our chance at a reunion and for me to ask her what the fuck she was doing when everyone was hurting you in the past;

"... Don’t you think so, my precious?" Tamiko asked in earnest, and Kosta sighed.

Tamiko had already set his sights on whatever the name was, and no amount of convincing would make him change his mind, not even if Kosta suddenly decided to say that the name he was to be given wasn’t so important.

Peace was the one thing Tamiko had promised his Erasthai within the walls of Kawai, and he would get it for him, regardless of what the stakes were.

"Yilena Sidorova."

"Consider it done."