The Princess's Guard ✔️

4

Word Count: 1869

~Kiva

"I've never met someone so unlikeable."

I stretch my legs out in front of me, staring off over the mountain. The moonlight illuminates the snow, allowing us to see for miles out over the ranges.

Thankfully my other guard is on duty, and at the exact hour expected, I found him slumped outside my room asleep.

I will not be telling Ark about his tendency to do that.

"Once everything calms down, he'll be gone, I'm sure of it," Louis, my only friend exclaims.

I met him on a Royal visit to his village, where we bumped into each other, and he struck up a conversation without having any idea who I was.

Now...well, our relationship has always been complicated.

I draw my legs up, hugging them. "I hope so. I can't stand him."

"Mercenaries are strange." He gazes off in the distance, as if recalling a memory. There is so much about him I don't know, and I don't bother asking.

He's made it clear he prefers it that way.

"They kill people and it doesn't bother them. It's beyond strange," I mumble.

I can just imagine those strong hands wrapped around someone's neck, while he is covered in another victims blood.

"You could try to ignore him?"

I shake my head. "How? He's my personal guard, and he's meant to be training me. I can't escape him."

"You did tonight."

"But by tomorrow morning, he may take one look at me and realise I snuck out." He has a special talent for that, and once he realises, I won't have my other negligent guard taking the night shifts.

Louis frowns. "What makes you think that?"

"Because somehow, he knows I get up in the morning to...you know, relieve some tension," I say.

These topics aren't usually uncomfortable with Louis. We crossed the line between normal friends and ones with benefits months ago.

"Seriously?"

"It's freaky, I know. Something about my pink cheeks and shoulders." I shudder. "I don't know, it was weird."

His knack for observation won't unnerve me. He isn't going to win this. I'm going to retain my freedom, or what little of it I have.

Louis leans back on his elbows, grinning. "Were you thinking about me?"

"Oh stop," I mutter dismissively. "My mind was all over the place this morning, actually."

Mostly it was on one man, but I don't want to think about that.

Louis rests his hand on my back. "It's because of everything you've been through."

"Maybe."

It doesn't feel like I've been through anything. It will hit me later, I imagine, but right now, I'm more concerned about my unknown mate.

Louis leans closer, grabbing my chilled hands in his. "I care so much about you. I hate having to be apart."

"My father can't know about us. Seriously. He would murder you, and then me," I warn.

I think learning about a sexual relationship between his daughter and a random citizen of his Kingdom would be the final straw that would kill him...

These days that's a tempting though.