Royal On The Run (unedited)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Natalie

Thick silver cuffs were bound around my wrists, being tugged every so often by a very attractive yet cruel man. Too bad these handcuffs were the serious kind and not the fun kinky way in the bedroom. What a waste of handcuffs if you ask me.

As if accentuating what I was thinking, Captain Anthony Mellark tugged at the cuffs while using his booted foot to kick my ass, moving me forward. I grunted as I jolted forward and back all at the same time. It took everything I had in me not to level a kick back at him. The whimpers from just behind me were what really had me reigned in.

As we walked back to the palace, I was in cuffs with a gun pointed at my back. My weapons had been distributed to the guards flanking Anthony. Aspen had my sword currently, he jabbed it in various directions, nearly hitting a few of his fellow guards as he made swooshing sounds with the blade. Once, he nearly caught Brooklyn with one of his swipes. That had been the only time I tried to escape from this little posse of Anthony's. No one harmed Brooklyn on my watch. But that little outburst was the reason I was in cuffs and Brooklyn had her hands and feet both bound and was now being carried by another guard.

Out of my reach.

Anthony wasn't a stupid man. He plotted to assassinate the King and Queen of America with a successful bombing and now he was hunting down the Princess and Prince, or well the Queen and the Prince. Even without the formal ceremony, everyone knew that she was now the Queen.

Which meant that Anthony couldn't officially start his reign of terror until her and Deacon were dead. Although he was putting on one hell of an opening act.

"Move!" His voice was in my ear, I cringed at the feel of his hot breath on my skin. All I wanted at that moment was to take a shower and wash off his smell, the feel of him from my skin. I didn't want any part of that traitor on me.

"Why should I?" I shot back. He may have taken me captive, but I wasn't going to hand the rest of myself over to him like candy on a dish. If he wanted something from me, he was going to get it the hard way. The only way I knew. "This isn't some pity party, Anthony. We all know there's no time for that, so why should I rush?"

The gun he held dug into my back. The cold metal of it was like ice on my skin. I tried to resist but a shiver still rolled through me at the touch.

"Don't be cheeky, Natalie, it won't end well for you if you do."

I scoffed. "God, you sound like some dude in a movie. Thought you were better than that. Step up your game."

He chuckled darkly, his lips still at my ear. "I really don't think you want me to step up my game, doll. It wouldn't end so well for you."

Anthony certainly was insistent I knew that my life wouldn't end well in his hands. It was already frazzling my nerves.

"You're a real prick you know that?"

As I spoke that, Anthony shoved me forward just as we came over a tree branch in the forest floor. My face met dirt and all I could taste was blood and dirt. It was foul. And exactly what Anthony would do when irritated by a woman, make her feel like less than she already thinks of herself. He'd changed a lot since I last saw him. Almost two months ago.

Then he seemed a straight up gentleman, a guard to be admired. Now he was a piece of shit traitor who thought highly of himself and he regime of terror that was in the works. I didn't recognize who he'd become, I missed who he was, I missed the Anthony I knew.