The Kingdom Thief

Chapter 32

But I straighten my spine and steady myself, never taking my eyes off of my biggest source of hope and happiness.

"If the time comes" I start. "And I should find myself to be the new ruler of Terrian, I would love nothing more than to have you be my head of security."

He lifts a brow at me. "You want me to be your main line of defense?" he asks.

"I want you to be my General" I correct and I don't miss the way Kane's chest caves in at the word. I know that, out of all of the things he had to leave behind when we fled the castle, his position as General of the Royal Guard was the hardest.

"You will assemble a new team of guards to protect the capital and the government officials who live there" I go on. "It will be similar to the Royal Guard except you will come up with the rules and morals your team is to follow. They will not be taking orders from anybody except you. I will not control them. Mason will not control them. Only you will have that power."

As Kane exhales, he tilts his head down and raises his hands to his face. His shoulders jump with unsteady breathing before he finally looks back up, tears brimming his eyes.

"You can't possibly know" he breathes out, a slight laugh of relief making his words shaky. "How much that means to me. The fact that you would trust me with that kind of leadership."

I smile softly and step closer to him until I am close enough to cup his face.

"You will be my protector" I whisper. "You will be my last line of defense. You will answer to no king or ruler. We will answer to each other. Whatever you need to create your security team, I will provide."

He lets out a relieved breath. "You are the best thing that has ever happened to me."

I give him a small wink. "And don't you ever forget it"

Kane opens his mouth to respond but is cut off by Mason suddenly hissing "do you hear that?"

All three of us still and strain our ears to hear the noise. After a moment I know what he is talking about. Off in the distance, down the gravel rode beside us, comes the sounds of pounding hoofs running far too fast to simply be another passerby.

I whirl around and through the trees I catch a glimpse of the brown horse that gallops down the gravel road. As soon as it is close enough for me to see the rider atop it, I am sprinting to them.

As I near the rider and her horse she slows the horse to a stop and climbs off of the beast so graceful I would have believed her to be an expert horse rider.

That is, if I didn't already know the woman to be so much more than that.

Wren shoots me a grin. "Hope I wasn't gone long enough for you to actually start worrying."

My arms are immediately around her. "Thank the gods" I mutter into her hair as what feels like a 20 pound weight that has been sitting there for the past 2 weeks finally leaves my chest.

As soon as I pull away Wren is opening her mouth to say something.

But she doesn't get it out before another person steps in front of me, immediately cupping her face and examining her exposed skin for any sign of a wound.

"Are you hurt? Did they hit you? Whip you? Were you caught? Did they try and torture you? Did they put a chip in you?" Mason hurtles through these questions as he frantically scans her neck for any sign that she now had a chip in her.

Wren simply rolls her eyes before pulling Mason's hands away from her. "Please, I'm far too fast for them to catch, let alone hurt. The only thing they messed with was my patience. Bridget, I can clearly see why you decided to become a guard and not a maid."