Chapter 49

T

This was so messed up. I wanted to keep my hate, yet I wanted to love. I was so confused. My brain, body and heart were having an all-out screaming match and it was two against one and the one was running out of arguments. I needed time. Time to think, calm my body and maybe…I don’t know. But I knew I shouldn’t stay here to do it.

I came of the bed the same time he reappeared, already halfway dressed and heading out the door. “Vladimir?” I called but he acted as if he didn’t hear me even when I knew he could. He didn’t even pause in his steps, just flung on his shirt, opened the door and left closing it quietly behind him.

He was hurt. But did he expect. If he hadn’t been a beast to me for over a decade maybe I’d already be in love with him. Maybe? Oh, shut up! It’s all his fault. This is on him. I shouldn’t feel guilty for feeling this way! He deserves this! He did way worse to me. The man raped you! A voice pointed out and I nodded in agreement. Never forget the things he did and never forget you cannot leave him. I nodded again. I was forgetting. I picked my chin up and went into the bathroom. Forget him!

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“Arrangements have been made for our journey to the palace. Are you sure about this?”

Vlad nodded absently.

“One would think after you spent the rest of the day in…marital bliss, you’d be in a much better mood this morning.” Charles remarked as he noted Vlad’s strange silence. “Having second thoughts?”

“No.”

“Did you get a chance to speak to her?”

“A bit.”

Charles sighed. “You should rethink this. The girl doesn’t even love you.”

“She has a right to.”

“It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. You’re a bloody handsome prince and you rescued her! If that’s not the stuff of every girl’s romantic dreams I don’t know what is!”

Vlad smiled at the analogy then said in all seriousness. “I wasn’t exactly the prince of her dreams.”

“Knows you that, well does she?” Charles said with a smirk.

“Yes, she does. She has seen…the side of me…that was best left unseen.”

“Well,” Charles decided. “she bloody well isn’t worth it then!”

“Why do you say that?” Vlad asked puzzled.

“If she can’t love you at your worst, she doesn’t deserve your best. It’s that simple.”

“My worst is the reason she hates me!” Vlad defended. “I did… things to her that even I knew was wrong at the time but didn’t stop! I was prideful and vain…”

“You still are those things.”

Vlad ignored him and continued. “And I was turning into my father.”

“Oh fuck!” Charles cursed as he remembered what Mikhail was like. Vlad at least was reasonable. Mikhail was all Russian imperial. Take what he wanted, kill anyone who objects. If it wasn’t for his mother, Mikhail would have been ostracised from society when the rumours of how he treated Vlad’s mother surfaced. But nobility sticks together, and her family should have known what they had sold their daughter into.

“I always got along with your father. We had an…understanding.” Charles added into the silence. The understanding was he was the untouchable heir to the English throne, and Mikhail knew better than to fuck with his mother.

“I better go and let Azura know of our trip.” Vlad said, standing.

“Right. I should see to things myself.” Charles agreed as he stood.

They walked out together both heading in different directions. Vlad headed upstairs and ran into Azura coming down.

“Vladimir…” She began but he cut her off, not wanting to listen to her throw him a bone.

“We leave for the Palace within the hour.”

“We just got here, and I was heading down for breakfast…”

“I can have something packed for the journey. See to Irena.” Vlad interrupted and ended the conversation by walking away.

He could feel her glaring at his back, but he didn’t turn. He knew they’d have to talk about what happened this morning eventually, but he wasn’t ready for her soft words of rejection. He already knew the why she felt the way she did, and he could cast the blame of him making the overture in the heat of the moment. But he loved her, and he wanted to hear her tell him the same. Maybe it was too soon and maybe he was rushing because of what was coming. Either way he had gotten his answer. Now he just had to be able to live with it.

Vlad was already at the helipad when she arrived. She gave him another of those pitying looks then thrust her nose in air and ignored him. So, now she was mad at him? Good! He rather her mad, than her looking at him like a whipped dog. Vlad jumped into the pilot seat with Charles beside him. Their arrival at the palace will not be announced, at least until they had her approval.

With all the changes going on recently, she didn’t have a leg to stand on in terms of arguing about his marriage to Azura. She already tried but her issue wasn’t her race. It was her backstory. It had the potential to taint her as well. She wanted no part of it and had already told him as much in his last visit when he informed her of the impending nuptials.

He was being reckless, she told him, and he should’ve just sent the girl back from where she came from that very night. But no, he had to be a man and think with his cock, so now he expected her protection of the mess he made. He had denied needing her protection, but the old bird knew better. She lifted a dainty brow and sneered “Yes, fool. You shall need it and as the last of your line. You shall have it.”

His bloodline was the only reason he had gotten this far and ironically it was another reason for Azura to fear him. His nobility and looks had women lined up to be his bride. Then she came. He didn’t want marriage until she came. He had already resigned himself to a boring affair that would produce his heirs while he sought his pleasure elsewhere. But when she came and saw not his crown but him as her hero, he wanted her. He wanted to be her knight but instead he had made himself the villain and no amount of polishing was bringing back the shine to the armour she had put on him.

He ruined his chance for happiness. Both their chances. He kept her out of possessiveness and selfishness. It was time he ended the farce. He knew his happiness was long gone but maybe…though it left a bitterness on his tongue just to think it…she would be happier…with another. Immediately a firestorm of rage filled his veins at the thought of another man’s hands on her. He saw the strange interloper touching her and making her writhe in pleasure. He wanted him dead!

A few deep breaths calmed him, and he forced the image out of his mind. Azura’s happiness is what he should be thinking of. Azura’s peace of mind, that should be his focus not the men that would surely be in her bed. He wasn’t ready for that part yet. Maybe he could ask her not to take a lover soon after, at least give him some time to not want to kill at the idea.

Their audience with the Queen was not to be put off and as she was in residence the order came for them to make their presence known immediately. To get on her good side, Vlad didn’t hesitate and hustled Azura to meet with her. Charles on the other hand grumbled and mumbled under his breath about “Her Royal Bitchness.” As he called her but didn’t bring along Clarissa. It was understood that those two would only be seen together in public and if entirely necessary.

Out of the corner of his eye, Vlad saw Azura straighten her clothes and Irena’s as they waited to be announced. It seemed that there was one monarch that had her respect. They were announced and Azura curtsied deeply, even with Irena in hand. Earning a surprised look from the Queen. “You’ve trained her.”

“She is a Princess. She knows what is expected of her.” Vlad answered proudly.

The Queen huffed then ordered “Let me see the child.” With proper poise, Azura presented his daughter. Keeping her eyes lower than the queens as she did. After a brief monocular inspection, she declared. “She has your eyes…at least she will be fair enough to pass.”

Azura flinched as if slapped and her lips thinned but she shockingly kept silent. Then the Queen turned her royal gaze on her. “I can see why you’re smitten. It has an exotic air to it, I suppose. You could’ve done better.” That made Azura glance up and straighten to her full height.

All respect and demure gone, she was back to his hissing kitten. “Yes, I could have.” She replied.

And the Queen leaned back, shocked that she would dare speak out of turn far less in such an insolent manner. “Do you know why you are here child?”

“Because I’m being held against my will and force to do things I don’t care to do.”

The Queen hissed at Vlad “This ungrateful wretch you want me to give my protection to!”

But Azura spoke instead. “I wouldn’t need your protection if your family hadn’t had me snatched off the streets.”

“They should have left you there! It’s where you belong!” The Queen retorted directly.

“Fine, then if you’re so powerful, send me back!”

“I should…without your tongue!”

“Your little cousin may miss it.” Azura teased in a seductive tone.

Both Vlad and the Queen flushed red. But Charles was busy in the corner fighting his laughter. The Queen sat straighter then said ominously. “That tongue you are so proud of has seal you fate, little girl!”

“Your Majesty…” Vlad pleaded but both of them put up a hand to silence him. Strangely, he didn’t know who he was obeying.

“You need to remember your history better, child. You are lucky to be afforded the little so-called freedom you have now. Now here you are daring to speak to me in this manner!”

“I came here prepared to show you the respect as a Princess to a Queen, as mother to a mother and as a woman …to a woman I used to look up to. Then you brought yourself low in my eyes by acting like an ignorant commoner!”

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