Caroline paced back and forth working out the hard wood floor of the palace. How dare he try to give her off to a random man as if she were some common whore from the streets.
"Father, I am only 17!" Caroline yelled piercing her nails in to her soft hand. "Why must I wed a man I do not know let alone anything of?" Caroline cried out let her anger take the best of her. Out of all of the girls in her kingdom why must she be the one to wed the king of Mercia, which is the largest kingdom in the entire world.
She has seen young girls wed mere strangers because their parents demanded it but she never thought it could happen to her.
"Caroline, you will soon reach your 18th birthday, you are old enough to wed." Her father sighed pinching the bridge of his nose, taking a seat on his beautifully designed gold throne that only a king can seat in.
"Why me?" Caroline whined like the princess she was. "Isn't there another maiden that could marry King Niklaus, I don't even know the man!"
"Caroline! You should be grateful, marrying King Niklaus will make you the future queen of Mercia, you will have a lot of power and so will I." He said selfishly, ignoring the tears that were now sliding down Caroline's rosy cheeks.
"I don't care about power, father." She spat out, before turning on her heels and half walking, half running to the door but she stopped abruptly at the sound of her fathers heavy voice laced with bitterness.
"This is not an option, Caroline, this is a command." Bill stood up and walked towards his daughter grabbing her roughly by the arm so she would face him. "And if you try to go against me, you'll be forced to leave this kingdom. No-one will ever associate themselves with you or even glance at you." Caroline slowly stare up at her father, hatred written all over her face. She was never close to her father but she never thought he would sell his own daughter for power. He became such a tyrant since the death of the queen, Caroline's mother, Elizabeth.
"You would banish your own daughter for not making you happy." Caroline whispered in a lone tone barely loud enough for him to hear.
"I would kill you for much less."
Caroline roughly took her arm from his grip and toons few steps back. "Fine, I will marry him." She growled at her, her light blue eyes filled with rage and hatred. "Not for you, but for self. The sooner I'm wed the sooner I'm away from you." She didn't wait for a response before escaping to her bedroom.
;MERCIA;
"Amara, what am I supposed to do?" Caroline paced back and forth around her large royal bedroom, her long blond fishtail braid smacking against her back with each step she took.
"Caroline, calm down, we will figure something out. I don't want you to marry some stranger either and my mother always tells me about how ruthless the King of Mercia can be, I will not let anything happen to you." Caroline's best friend, Amara, said trying to calm her down which didn't quite work.
"He's ruthless?" She immediately stopped pacing and stared at Amara,waiting for an explaination.
"Oh dear, I am sorry it was not my intentions to frighten you."
"My dear sister, you've known me longer than anyone. When has a ruthless man ever frightened me?" While she said this, she slowly walked toward her bed, where Amara was sitting, a huge confident smirk appearing on her pink lips.
"You always did like challenges." Amara smiled proudly, then took Caroline's hand in hers gently, her smile immediatly sliding off her features."But I assure you, this is not a man you should toy with or challenge because in the end you'll be the one that ends up hurt. I don't want you to get hurt, Care."
Caroline watched as tears escaped Amara's eyes, and slid down her cheeks till they dripped off onto her chest. She pulled her hand away from Amara's and quickly wrapped her arms around her closest friend.
Caroline has known Amara for almost 16 years and in all those years, she has only seen her friend cry once and that was when they were 3 years old. They were in the royal daycare playing when Silas came and pushed Amara down then laughed at her. Caroline ran to her friend's aid, and helped her up then shoved Silas. He ran away to tell on her. He kept messing with Amara after that and soon they realized that it was a young boys' way of showing he cares for a girl.
Since then Amara has always been the strong one, the one that's always stable and solves things, never breaking down over anything. Caroline has always admired that and wish she could be the strong and stable one.
"I will be fine, I promise. No need to cry." Caroline whispered to her friend, holding her tightly. "Besides what could go wrong?"
"You could die, that's what." Amara finally reponded after a long period of time.
Caroline furrowed her eyebrows, confusion taking over her features. She herself has heard rumors about King Niklaus but she was never one to believe rumors. What if these rumors were true though?
"I can take care of myself, I'll be fine." She didn't know if she really believed this statement but right now all she cared about was trying to reassure Amara and calm
"I am coming with you, I'll be your lady-in-waiting." Amara declared.
"I won't allow it, you are not a peasant for me to boss around. You are royalty also, remember that."
"Care, you might have forgotten but I am not royalty, I live in a small house by the hills, I may dress like royalty and that's only because you give me clothes to wear, but I am not royalty." Amara pulled away from Caroline's arms and looked into her eyes. "You are my best friend and I'll do anything for you, and that includes being your servant, I know for a fact that you'd do the same for me."
"Alright..." Caroline finally agreed to the idea and that brought a smile to Amara's
"When are we leaving?" Amara asked as she wiped the tears off her cheek with the sleeve of her dress.
"We're leaving tomorrow at the crack of dawn and we'll be in Mercia by sunset the next day. It's a two days trip." Caroline allowed a sad smile to appear on her lips. She was dreading the long trip but she's also realieved that she has two days to prepare herself for this chaos.
"When is the wedding supposed to take place?" Amara's fingers slowly combed through her hair, something she'd always do when she's nervous.
"The day after we get there." Caroline responded in a very low voice, Amara could barely hear her and she was sitting right next to Caroline.
"It's ok, we can do this, you can do this." They smiled at each other then both fell back on the bed screaming, it was something the two friends always did when they were frustrated and nervous.
;MERCIA;
The next day Caroline, Amara and a few servants were packed to begin their journey. Three carriages were prepared for them to mount, the first one was for the guards, the second one was for Caroline and Amara and the last one was for the servants.
Like planned, they left at the crack of dawn after saying farewell to friends and family. Caroline was so glad that she didn't have to see her father's face, that was the only bright side to the situation she was in, she'd be miles away from her terrible father.
To Caroline the trip was quite boring, she only spoke when she had to, other than that she was too busy imagining what was awaiting her in Mercia. She wondered what King Niklaus expects his future bride to look like or act like, would he be pleased with her? Or would he throw her to the side and find whores to take to his private chambers. The more she thought about this the more she became angry. Why does she care if he accepts her?
She was snapped out of her thought by the deep voice of one of the guards. "Princess Carolina, we've reached Mercia."
"Already?" She didn't fail to show the surprise in her voice. She looked through the glass window and realized that they were indeed in Mercia. It's the most beautiful kingdom she has ever seen and it's massive!
She then looked around the carriage for Amara and her eyes fell on Amara's head that was resting on her lap. She was sleeping soundly and it ached Caroline to disturb her sleep knowing that she didn't get enough sleep the night before.
"Amara, we're here." She gently patted her friend on the arm. Amara began to stir and eventually allowed her eyes to flutter open. She then sat up and stretched her arms out, a yawn escaping her lips. "Sorry, I was really tired." She apologized in a low worn out voice.
"It's fine, I am glad you got some rest." Caroline looked away from Amara and at the guard standing by the entrance of the carriage. "Thank you, Allen. Could you please give my lady-in-waiting and I a few minutes alone?" She asked politetly. All the guards and servants loved her because she was always polite to them and treated them as if they were her friends, not her servants.
"Of course, princess." Allen bowed his head then left them alone.
Caroline turned back to Amara and gave her a small smile. "We have to act the part my friend,we can't let them know that we're closer than what it seems, not yet at least, we don't really know these people and I don't want to take any risks yet."
"Well of course, m'lady." Amara bowed her head, playing the part like Caroline asked. Caroline began to giggle and Amara soon joined her.
"Thank you so much for this by the way..." Caroline thanked her then gave her a gentle hug.
"That's what friends are for." Amara winked then knocked on the carriage door, signalling the guard behind it that they were ready.
Amara was first to step out of the carriage with the help of the guards. Then it was Caroline's turn. She was so nervous that she hesitated getting off the carriage.
She looked at her refection in the mirror on the wall and made sure her braided her was nothing less than perfect and that her soft pink lips looked plump and tempting. She was going to walk into this game prepared to win. Amara poked her head in the carriage and scowled at Caroline "Hurry up, it's awkward being here by myself."
Caroline smiled then took Allen's hand to support herself as she planted her nude heels on the steps of the carriage, making her way out of it.
Once she was out she slowly looked up and all she saw was bright lights and many people cheering and clapping.
Caroline gave her best trying not to show how scared she was. In one days time she would be married to the King of Mercia and become Queen. People were kept back by guards who were trying to get at Caroline just to touch her like if she was someone special.
She fixed her friends dress and walked down the path her guards began to walk. Going more ahead she notice people waiting out the door for her arrival. They stood either on the left or right because they wouldn't dare block her path. Although three people stood in the center, a man about 3 years older than her, and a older man and woman who stood next to each other as if they were no longer in
Caroline notice the blackness in the guys soul. He stood there bitterly with her arms clamped together behind his back. His gaze met her and she seen a small smirk rise in the corner of his mouth.
She stop walking the bowed down to the king's parents, the past king and queen. "Hello your honors." The woman spoke nothing and just stared at the frighten blonde princess.
"Hello Lady Caroline," the old man said with a smile a little too flirty for her taste. He grabbed her hand and gave her a wet kiss. Caroline gave a sly smile and wiped her hand on her dress when the man turned away which wasn't missed by the king himself.
After greeting her soon to be in-laws, Caroline made her way over to the handsome dirty blond haired man, his blue-green eyes stared into her soul and that caused her to shiver slightly.
"Hello, Caroline." She smiled at the way her name rolled off his tongue. No Caroline stop it, she yelled at herself mentally. You are just here because of that bastard.
" It's a pleasure meeting you, your highness." She replied, slightly bowing her head. Even though she doesn't like him, she's not dumb enough to disrespect him. She was completely caught off guard when he took her right hand and slowly brought it to his lips, and gave it a light kiss. A much better kiss than the one his father gave her. She held back a smile, not wanting him to know that the small gesture brought joy to her hear.
She turned to Amara who never let her gaze look from the floor. She felt bad for her friend so she decided it was best to get away from all these people
"Your highness, my lady-in-waiting and I would like to be escorted to our chambers. The ride was long and bumpy. I would like to relax a bit before diner." Caroline asked the kind politely while placing a small smile on her lips.
He smiled back at her then nodded. "As you wish." he gestured for one of the guards to come take us to our room. "And Caroline..."
"Yes, my lord?"
"Please call me Nik." He purred out with a sly smirk on his gorgeous pink lips.