The chains that were kept tight reminded heavy at both of her wrists and ankles. Her position within the dark and damp room was supported with only a single dim candle that hung above in the lantern, which from her prediction, was on the verge of burning out of the wax within the next twenty minutes or so.

Slowly, she brought one of her weighted hands upward to run through her dirty hair.

Courtney never imagined herself being tied up nor being kidnapped a couple of hours ago. When she had been pouting and sulking over the fact that she'll be crossing the English Channel towards France to begin her culture studies away from home.

Now, that was a thought of the past because of the pirates.

Pirates...

They'd come so swiftly within the night, like a lighting strike precise and quicker than you can register.

The ship was invaded by a swarm of sea criminals and she'd tried to take cover. But she herself knew that once the ship was taken over, no one could stop them. She had told them that they could take anything they wanted; just spare the ship and the crew along with it.

Not that her words as a royal had any effect on the pirates.

She'd nearly been killed with a bullet to her throat when Bridgette yelled out her name, thrashing about from the arms of another pirate.

"Let go of me!" Bridgette yelled and thrashed against the pirate. The pirate shoved a cloth on her as, she blacked out.

Her identity as princess had been disclosed instantly, and instead of being shot, one of the pirate's crew member commanded that she be spared. Their accents had been English, but it did nothing to narrow down the possibilities of whose ship it was, she'd be shackled, gagged, and blindfolded on.

Just like that Courtney had been whisked away from her royal ship and onto the more unpredictable, unknown ship of a group of pirates.

After the guy who had brought her up into this room chained her up to the walls, and locked her then left. Courtney found herself thinking about a lot of things, especially when she felt the ship move a few minutes after.

She was probably the only one from the ship that was still alive.

Everyone else was probably dead.

She tired hard to not think about it, but just imaging Bridgette's lifeless body was somewhere under the English Channel was enough to bring tears to her blindfolded eyes. Not only that but knowing how dirty and ruthless pirates could be, her life would more or less likely be ending somewhere along the line.

It was all hopeless.

Who would have even thought that the princess of the United Kingdom would be left like this?

Time seemed to move unbelievably slow within the humid room. Every move the ship took, Courtney could feel and though the waves outside had been rather docile the last time she checked, she still felt massive nausea from the rocking she was unwillingly focused on.

She scowled heavily as she heard the chattering of men bypassing the door in the hallway outward. The pirates she was dealing with were apparently of mixed nationalities. The voices she heard seemed to be two men.

When the voices finally died down, Courtney felt herself relax.

Though if they weren't there for her, then someone would be eventually.

In the mean time, her thoughts traveled back to everyone else.

How would her parents react when they find out that her ship hadn't arrived in France in the morning as planned? How would the country react? That the princess was gone. They might as well account her as deceased.

Her mother would cry, no doubt. Grief would rip at her farther's soul as well.

Both undeniably take pain in the fact that it was their decision to send her to France to study abroad.

Courtney wished that she could just tell them that it wasn't their fault, it was these damned, selfish, better off fucking dead, pirates fault.

If Courtney had it her way , she'd send them all the way to the gallows a million times over.

They were all so selfish.

Nothing but a bunch of petty pirates looting ships and killing innocents.

Footsteps were heard from down the hall, rapidly approaching her door and Courtney allowed her thoughts to wonder off, so that she could focus on the impending couple that talked from the outside of the thin walls of the room.

"Tell Geoff that I said thanks for getting all of that straightened out by the way. Christ, if I'd been there I'm pretty sure most of them would've been tossed overboard by now."

A laugh was heard, further then the voice that was quite obviously by the door.

"Gotcha, capt! Also, all the silk that we got, DJ and I were wondering if we should put them in the treasury room or in your private quarters."

With a bitter scowled, she knew the silk was from her ship.

The silk was worth so much and it was stolen by these unworthy pieces of shit like it was nothing.

"The treasury is fine, Owen Now if you'll excuse me, I have an important date with a special someone."

The tone of voice the speaker did nothing short but infuriate to Courtney's blood despite herself. She did not like how the man was talking, it was too cocky.

"Oh? You mean the princess? This is her room, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I've been too busy dealing with other things on the ship and I wanted to ship the rest of my night with her."

"Oh ho! Well then don't mind me, Captain Duncan! 'll just be on my way to the treasury room, then!" With that and a ring of laughter, the toned voice seemingly disappeared down the hall.

A creak of the door sounded throughout Courtney's ears, and the brunette stiffened immediately as she was tossed out of her thoughts. The door was opened; and the presence of another person within the room made the royal hold her breath.

Captain Duncan.

The man outside called him Captain Duncan.

Panic filled Courtney's body as she thought about the situation even more.

The same Captain Duncan that invaded, looted, and sunken over eight hundred ships in one single year. The Captain known throughout the British Isles as the Prince of the crimson seas, due to the amount of blood spilled in the water whenever he robbed a ship. The Captain was rumored to be the most brutal and deadliest pirate to dominate the waters of the world.

The infamous Captain Duncan, the prince of the seven seas.

Courtney was on his ship.

Death was imminent no matter what she did.

She was more over prepared for a slap in the face or something along the lines of that. Courtney bit her bottom lip silently as she waited for something to come, but it never did.

Instead, she found herself stiffen as she felt a pair of hands at the side of her head.

In front of her, she could practically see the shadow of the pirate as she felt the blindfold over her eyes loosen before being pulled away.

Courtney's eyes were instantly with the light for the first time in hours, and the new face of a smirking, raven haired.

"Hmm, you have such pretty eyes."

She had to blink a few times to make sure that she was registering everything clearly.

This young man was Captain Duncan?

This had to be a joke!

He couldn't be older than twenty!

Courtney herself wasn't that old, only nineteen in fact, but this was Captain Duncan? The pirate that struck fear into sailors everywhere? The coldblooded murder of the seven seas?

"Don't you dare touch me!" Courtney hissed while pulling her head upward, a glare forced on Duncan's face,"Don't you dare lay your hands on me you filthy pirate!"

Seemingly unprepared for this reaction, Ducan's mouth formed an 'o' shape as he watched Courtney his eyes first brimming with confusing to amusement.

Courtney whimpered as she tried pushing herself against the wall behind her, her hands sliding on the wooden floor smoothly,"I demand that you release me, now! I will not remain a captive to some child playing pirate!"

She had to keep firm in what she wanted.

Duncan, on the other hand looked intimidated, in fact his smirk seemed to grow as he looked at Courtney plainly ,"You know, even among pirates, when meeting someone you tend to introduce yourself. Here I was thinking that since you're a royal you'd have more manners than the men I deal with. Haha, some princess you are."

He was mocking her, how dare he!

"Like I give a fuck about manners! I don't want to be here! Unchain me and send me back to England now!" Courtney exclaimed.

"All I want is for you to introduce yourself to me. It isn't that hard, you know. Now stop shouting, I'm right next to you..." Duncan remarked with a shake of his head as he moved from squatting to sitting.

"If I introduce myself will you let me go?" Courtney knew the answer but it was worth trying.

Duncan hummed slightly, his eyes watching her slyly. "Maybe, maybe not."

It was a hollow response because they both knew that he wouldn't do any of the sort.

"I'm Courtney, princess of United Kingdom and Ireland, thought I am pretty sure you already knew that." Courtney said keeping her eyes on Duncan's face.

"It's a pleasure to met you, your highness." Duncan said and bowed mockingly.

Courtney wished that her hands were free so she could slap that little shit in the face. He still had that cocky smirk on his face.

"I'm Duncan, prince of the seven seas and captain of this ship, Ravenwood; thought I'm sure you already knew that." Duncan jeered before his hand caught under Courtney's chin. The royal hardly had time to resist before her head was forcibly turned to face the young captain who had a smirk rested on his face. "Welcome onboard my ship, because you won't be getting off anytime soon."

Shaking her head for release, Courtney brought her eyes to leer at him,"Don't. Touch. Me."

"I still need to go over a few ground rules that the Ravewood has as you seem to be a wild passenger." Duncan shook his head almost pitifully as he rose to his feet.

Courtney glared at the wooden floor before she heard the raven haired captain speak once more,"But I'll tell you the first and most important rule now, princess."

Without warning, Courtney found herself release a strangled gasp as her neck was pulled upward roughly as a cold and thick metal collar was clasped over her neck tightly by Duncan as the pirate started down into Courtney's eyes as he bent downward at her, the captain's eyes filled with nothing but brutality that managed to put Courtney's voice to a halt of all protests.

Duncan let out a breath, more husky than before as he watched down at Courtney stoically,"Everyone and everyone on this ship belongs to me, the captain. It does not matter who you are or how you feel about it. If you're on this ship, you are mine. And don't you dare think otherwise."

Before Courntey could register the threateningly calm words in her mind, Duncan let go of the rope end collar and stormed out of the room.

With her throat now left open for air, but the sliver collar still over her neck, Courtney panted lowly as she touched the tight neck piece. Squinting under the dim light in the room, her eyes moved to touch the rope piece of the collar Duncan was pulling at before.

What had I done to deserve this?