A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

"Shit!" Katya exclaimed, before turning to Erik with surprise and anger. "You idiot! You were followed!"

Seraphina's eyes opened wide in shock and dismay. "What?!" she exclaimed, as she turned in the direction Katya had just been staring at. "No, no, no! I was finally going to repay her!"

She snapped towards Erik, eyes spitting fire, "How could you let him follow us?! Fuck!"

Surprisingly, however, Erik and his wives remained calm. Looking towards the horizon, Erik smirked mysteriously. "Good… I was starting to think he would arrive too late."

Instantly, silence fell. Slowly, Seraphina's eyes turned to a gaze of betrayal and hatred. At the same time, Katya's gaze turned to hurt, disgust, and disappointment. Surprisingly, however, it was Dimitri who looked at him no differently. His gaze was one of mainly curiosity, but no anger or surprise.

"You betrayed us?!" Seraphina exclaimed with a surprising amount of surprise. "I can't believe I trusted you!"

"And you!" she turned to Emily with a hurt expression. "I refuse to believe you didn't know!"n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

She quickly distanced herself from her previous allies, and pulled the massive sword from her back. Her face filled with anger, hurt, and sadness.

Meanwhile, Katya looked at him with eyes as cold as the river styx. A far cry from her usual confidence mixed with amusement. "I guess you were never the man I thought you were," she scowled.

She remained silent for a second while she stared in Erik's calm eyes, looking for remorse, but finding none. Then, she turned towards the horizon again. "I suggest you leave now, before I change my mind."

But Erik didn't leave. Instead, he smirked mysteriously, "Leave now? Just when the good part is about to start? No, no. I think you'll want me here a little longer."

At that moment, the second-rankers also began to hear the rapid 'chop chop chop' of helicopter blades slicing through the air, growing louder with each passing second.

Yet, it was Erik's refusal to leave that truly set off Katya. Eyes flaring with barely contained rage, she turned back towards him. "I think I'll want to rip your head off if you stay any longer!" she snarled furiously at him. Her beautiful face twisted in anger.

To the side, Emily turned to the far angrier Seraphina and pursed her lips playfully. "Come now, Sera. Have a little faith! You trust me, and I know you trust my husband, too. Don't give in to your worst instincts now."

But Seraphina wasn't so easily calmed. "I trusted you once! But you've changed so much, I barely recognize you!" she barked furiously. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she didn't choose to engage with Emily's claim of her trust in Erik.

Erik still remained calm as he smiled at Katya, "Why are you so sure I've betrayed you, anyway? Our deal was that I'd save your brother, and you'd serve me, starting from when we meet again. Why would I put that in jeopardy?"

Katya's instant reaction was snorting at his insinuation, "Only if you defeat me."

Erik shrugged laconically, and with the corners of his mouth curved into a confident smirk, "Same diff."

Surprisingly, a small smile threatened to appear on Katya's face, just before she caught herself and narrowed her eyes at him again. "Don't play with me, boy! Why the hell are you still acting like we're friendly?!"

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder, causing her to turn around. It was Dimitri. Her brother looked at her with a small, jovial smile. "I think my new friend might have an explanation for this, if you listen to him for a moment, yes?"

Katya blinked. Her brother's instincts for social situations and people's intentions had always been better than hers. So, she frowned, and turned back to Erik. His confident smirk had turned into a playful one, as he shrugged mysteriously without a word.

In the background, the chopper was fast approaching and would be on top of them in a mere few minutes, so she growled at Erik. "Start talking boy, but you better make it fast and good, before Alexandre's omnisense can reach us."

Erik chuckled, and opened his mouth to quickly explain the plan. It wasn't very complicated, so it only took about a minute, giving them some more time before Alexandre arrived.

The reactions were varied. Dimitri grinned and gave Erik a double thumbs up in approval. Katya blinked, and looked at him as if she wasn't sure what to think now. Seraphina, meanwhile, actually still appeared angry and hurt.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me any of this?!" Katya and Seraphina both exclaimed at the same time, although Seraphina actually directed her question to both Erik and Emily.

Erik shrugged casually and pursed his lips, "First of all, because ninety percent of the plan requires Alexandre to know nothing about all this, and telling anyone would increase the chances of him somehow finding out. Second of all, because neither of you needed to know."

Before continuing, he smirked, and pointed at Katya, "Third of all, for you, because that would have ruined the surprise, and I honestly wanted to see how much you'd trust me. Which is clearly not enough, meaning you would have called this thing off if I told you."

Then, he turned and pointed at Seraphina, "As for you, third of all, why would I tell you anything? You're not my wife nor my friend, and you've made it clear you don't want to be either."

While those words may sound harsh, it was the truth. He was interested in her, but he had no reason to include her in his and Elora's planning. She was hurt because she thought Erik and Emily cared enough about her to tell her, despite her behaviour towards Erik… and now she discovered to be wrong.

It was a lesson Erik needed her to learn.

"If you want to be included in the decision making next time, try not treating me as the enemy. I like you, Seraphina, but I'm not some simp who will treat you like a queen while you're acting like a bitch," he finished in a harsh tone, before turning back to Katya.

Seraphina blinked, before her face became distorted with pain. "F— Fuck you," she muttered, but before any more emotion could show on her face, she suddenly turned around and hugged her body with her own arms. She actually shivered a little, and Emily quickly approached to talk with her.

Erik, however, had already moved on by pursing his lips playfully at Katya. "As for you, I'm obviously a little disappointed by your lack of trust, but I suppose I do understand. Despite the two of us clearly hitting it off, you don't really know me that well yet. Not to mention it involves your brother."

After listening to all his explanations, Katya now narrowed her eyes at him for a second, before snorting. "Fine then. Here's the deal. If everything goes according to this plan of yours, then all is forgiven, and I'll apologize on my knees for my lack of trust, but if anything goes wrong, I'll rip your head of your shoulders. Deal?"

Erik's confidence in both himself and Elora caused him to grin widely and nod, "Deal."