The One Shot Chapters (18+)

King!SteveRogers (AU) - Wildflower

Then he smiled. Amberley couldn't quite tell why. "If you want your life spared, then I would make that point clear to the King and the court when you come to stand before them. He is not an unfair man. If you want to survive then may I suggest you start playing your cards right..."

"And how would I do that?" She looked at him challengingly.

He pushed himself off the wall and held out a hand for her to take. She did and he helped her up from the floor. Amberley stayed frozen to the spot as he circled her like an eagle to its prey. "It's a game...a dangerous one at that." She now felt him behind her, his breath on her neck as he moved her hair over to one side of her shoulder. "But I have no doubt that you are clever enough to play it..." 

Then he made for the door, knocking on it so that the guard could unlock it. 

"There has to be a start..." she said as he went to walk out. He stopped and looked back at her. "To every game...it must have a start..."

He now looked her up and down. "We've already started, haven't we?" and then he walked out. The door closing behind him. 

**

The guards said nothing as they came in the next morning. They simply shackled her, led her out of the cell and down the steps. They didn't answer her questions, demanding to know where she was being taken – so she gave up and allowed fate to take the lead. 

All eyes were on her as she was brought into a hall where at the head of it, sat King Steven. Stood to one side of his throne, watching patiently was Sir James Barnes - Steve's best friend and commander of his Army, and on the other, Sir Sam Wilson. Another trusted man within the King's inner circle.

Amberley was immediately pushed down onto her knees once she reached him. Now looking up and seeing the man who apparently was the King staring down at her. She had been a fool for not realising that her visitor was in fact the very same man who had slain her father.

It had been a cruel trick.

"Lady Amberley..." 

"Your majesty..." She tried not to let on that her voice was shaking.

Steve now tapped his fingers on the arm of his throne. "You understand why you have been brought before me?" 

She looked up at him. "Yes sire, you think me a traitor..." 

"Because you are. You and your father." Steve replied firmly. "Who, by the way, is rotting on a battlefield as we speak...you wish to receive the same fate? Death?"

Amberley swallowed. "No, sire...my father was a stubborn man, even I know that. It does not surprise me that he refused to pledge allegiance and fought for what he believed in." 

"But you do?" Steve now questioned but did not await an answer. "Barnes here thinks that you are a very clever young woman. One who was led to believe that Tony Stark and his faction were the true family to sit upon the throne of Brooklyn. It makes sense, so I have a rather generous offer to bestow."

"An offer? Sire?" 

Steve looked at her, "Marriage to the me will secure your allegiance to me and my Kingdom. It will grant you many benefits, one of them being the High Queen...but should you choose to make the same decision as your father, then you will face the block at dawn..."

"Do I have a choice?" 

"No." Steve now spoke coldly. 

She swallowed. "Then you have my allegiance..." her eyes then went to his, "and my hand..." 

"You were right Barnes. She is sensible..." Steve smiled, his eyes still on Amberley. "And very beautiful...it would have been a great shame if you were to have chosen the block."

"I am a woman who knows what is good for me, sire." Amberley felt herself becoming a little more confident now. She had to show him that she did not fear the man who was to now become her husband. "A trait I inherited from my mother, so I am told." 

Steve chuckled. "and you are amusing. I have no doubt that you will thrive here." Steve now gestured for her to get up. "You are pardoned and hereby welcome at court. Lodgings shall be arranged for you and wedding preparations will start immediately".

She curtsied. "Thank you, your majesty." 

Amberley couldn't have walked out of the hall fast enough, then grabbing onto the wall to steady herself. She couldn't breathe as she now had to process that her father was well and truly gone, and she was to marry the man who, in her eyes, was her enemy. 

"It's a game...a dangerous one at that." Steve's words now echoed in her mind. 

The game had already begun from the moment that the King himself had arrested her, and now she would have to play to ensure her survival.