"You despicable man!" I spat out at Connor about a half an hour later as his men began gathering his things together in order for us to return to the ship he had just left only that morning. He only threw me a hard look before continuing his orders with an efficiency that I admired. Forget that! I refused to admire the man who had just promised to marry me without even talking to me about it first. Connor sighed as he finally allowed himself to register my ire.
"This is not a love match, sprite. I've had that once in my life and I'm not looking for it again. You may even keep your virtue intact if you wish. I have no desire to make you feel uncomfortable. But when I see a political opening, something that can work to my advantage, I tend to utilize it." The prince remarked as he turned back toward his task. I stared at his back both in dismay and in utter disbelief. Did he just call me a political gain? The little…
"I'm a what? Excuse me, Connor, but you've lost me. Somewhere between 'this is not a love match' and 'political opening,' I somehow found myself very confused. Imagine that!" I spat out in derision as he stood up quickly before raising a brow up at me in amusement. I'm so very glad he found me such a great piece of entertainment today. As for the use of his name, he had obviously released me to use it by implying we were intimately involved, telling the wonderful Lord Horton and his daughter that he had met me years ago before my imprisonment and that he had been appalled upon discovering I was enslaved here. I could seriously ring his neck right about now!
"You're missing the point here, Bella. For someone so adamant about the need to find a way to release the breeds from the prejudice and injustice against their heritage, you have totally overlooked what I have just done back in that palace." The man explained reasonably as a niggling thought began to eat away at the edge of my brain. What had he just done? And then it suddenly made sense. Well, if it didn't…of course, it made perfect sense now. But…well, it wouldn't work. It couldn't work. My telepathic senses opened up as my anger grew and I felt the waves of his own anger as it flowed from him, felt the way he understood what doing what he had done could mean. I froze.
"You want to use me to garner rights for the breeds? A prince marries a breed and suddenly the breeds are acceptable. Am I right? Have you forgotten, sire, that the deeds of the royals are mostly over-looked—that I may be accepted as your bride but that it may not change what happens to the other breeds?" I asked quietly as realization finally did sink in. He glanced over at me then before pointing at the horse that had just been handed to him by one of his servants. I knew he wanted me to mount the animal and so I climbed up on it slowly, watching with wariness as he climbed up behind me before wrapping one arm around my waist while using the other to grasp the reins.
"Fall out!" The prince shouted to his entourage as we all filed toward the shoreline in the distance. I glanced behind myself only once to see the faces of Lord Horton and Lady Gabriella peering from one of the towers with a look of hatred that could turn stone into dust. The prince was not preventing war. If he didn't watch himself, he may be creating one. Connor hadn't answered my question.
"What happens when you bring me home, your highness? What happens when your family finds out you've betrothed yourself to a breed?" I asked him breathlessly as he flipped the reins causing the horse beneath us to gallop. He seemed reluctant to have this argument in front of his men, allowing the horse to move several yards ahead before leaning down slowly.
"Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?" He asked me in a whisper as I shivered when his breath fanned across the sensitive skin of my earlobe.
"Oh, plenty." I remarked gaily before looking ahead at the ocean, reveling in the sunshine, in the fresh air that had not been allowed to me in years.
"But that's beside the point, sire." I commented lightly as he sighed, letting his movement sink into my back as he shifted slightly.
"We are at war as it is, sprite—at war with a country for the usual reasons, power and land. But what the kings of both Ridgeland, my own father, and the king of Freemont do not realize is that by allowing the prejudice to ensue against the breeds they are cultivating an altogether different war. There will be an uprising eventually." He whispered as I shivered again. This time at the ominous tone he had just set forth for me to envision. He was right. The breeds' numbers were growing. You couldn't keep citizens from Freemont and citizens from Ridgeland from falling in love and mating. It wasn't possible. It seems the more forbidden something is, the more people want to do it. I was one of those mistakes. My father was from Ridgeland, my mother from the country of Freemont. My appearance displayed a perfect mix between the two cultures—my eye shape and color as well as my hair and height leaned toward the darker reds and browns of the people of Freemont. My eyes were green and slightly slanted, my skin an olive hue. But, unlike the people of Freemont, I had blonde streaks in my hair denoting the blonde appearance of those from Ridgeland, my skin was slightly fairer than those of Freemont, and my height teetered at an even medium—well below the taller stature of the Ridgeland folk but also well above that of the Freemont people. There would have been no problem if both kings had not passed a ruling proclaiming that no one from each culture could mate with the other. It had something to do with an old feud. But it had escalated and become hateful when the breeds who were born were not allowed any rights in either country. It was worse for women breeds. Men had dubbed us temptations for our exotic appearance, even being dubbed 'beauties' by one of the politicians. Well, the 'Beauty' had just met the 'Beast' and it seemed he was determined to enslave me in order to break the curse between the two kingdoms. Wonderful. Just wonderful. I truly hoped the Beast had claws because he was going to need them when he introduced me in court. He shook his head suddenly from behind me.
"You have a sharp tongue, sprite." He pointed out as I rolled my eyes at the statement.
"The better to induce anger it seems, my dear." I replied sarcastically as he laughed. Good thing this wasn't a love match, if we ever even ended up married. It seems we couldn't quit arguing. I had only known the man a day and I already loathed him. Let the games begin, prince. I was not an easy woman to have around.
Author's Note: Thank you so very much to all of those that have reviewed! I greatly appreciate you taking the time to do so and hope that you continue to read and review. You guys are fantastic! Good wishes—licensetowrite.