The sun faded away the darkness of the night and everyone got assembled in their places and started to prepare for the royals bath and breakfast.
Ambroz woke up ,but there was no sign of valentina in his room who was supposed to wake him up ,and he already expected this to happen.
The last night had created new mysteries in his mind ,he never thought that his life would be filled with all these suspenses , war ,fight and protection were something he was accustomed too ,but the last night's incident demanded him to become slightly affectionate and acknowledge all those things in his life that he had swore to never even think of in his own life.
He hated how he lost control ,and abused that innocent soul.
She had no fault in this , his monsters were only his to tackle ,but it was like they were coming out and running towards her .
He knew she was only here for a very short time and her plan was to return in her world soon ,but after the last night's incident ,he was not really sure whether she would be able to return to her own world.
The biggest challenge in front of him was to face valentina right now,
He already knew that she won't be in any stable condition as the supernatural creatures were not able to take his torture ,and here ,she was just a mere human.
She never even talked to him properly but now , his sixth sense told him ,that he won't be able to resist this mate bond.
And as delilah ,the mysterious entity said ,that they have less time ,ambroz knew he must ensure valentina's safety as her words gave him a hint already ,that valentina was in danger , whatever was going to happen ,it was linked with valentina , and he had made his mind to accept her himself and make her accept him too.
No matter what he has to do ,persuade ,purchase ,punish or exploit her weakness ,he would make her his .
She needs to know about everything .
But first he has to win her trust and gather her trust.
He after getting ready ,stroded out to visit valentina.
The guards were no more guarding her tent and he went in .
There she was laying still ,breathing slowly ,her face scrunched in discomfort.
Coming closer to her ,he sat down on the edge of the bed and his heart leaped in his chest when he saw the handprints of his slap turning into an ugly shade of blue ,with her lip busted from the side.
Needless to say, she looked severely abused ,and his heart pained to see her like that.
For the first time ,he had decided to let his emotions loose and now that he saw her with a slightly less burdened heart ,he couldn't help but feel the pain by looking at this fragile girl's face.
He was going to hide and reveal a lot of things to her ,but the question was that would she accept him .
He ,somewhere in his heart was afraid of his own self as he knew that if things went out of control and if his relation with her turned from being simply a duty to love ,if he fell in love with her ,hell would break loose if she would ever try to leave him.
He was a fucked up man ,and he knew it was going to be hard to change his ways ,he was doing all in fear of what challenges the future hold,
And as a powerful king ,he was already preparing himself for the war ,falling in love with her was still out of question ,he just wanted her to acknowledge him and stay with him ,until the storm passes.
He bent down and brushed away the strands from her face ,and palmed her cheeks softly and took a close look at her face .
She was his mate , a mate needs to be protected ,but here he harmed her.
Self humiliation ran in his ways when his eyes confronted the painful side of the girl lying limp on the bed.
Slowly he closed his eyes ,and brought his own wrist close to his canines and bit it ,drawing out blood.
Slowly he brought it close to her mouth ,and parted her parched lips with his other hand ,letting the droplets of his blood fall on her tongue.
He lifted her head up slightly so that the crimson liquid can go down her food pipe.
Slowly her throat bobbed up and down letting him know that she has drank his blood .
Within few minutes ,the prints on her face started to fade ,and withing ten minutes ,her skin turned spotless ,if any other mark or spot was on her face ,then it also disappeared ,her skin looked too much bright and beautiful .
Well ,this was the power of vampire blood ., Vampires were known for their youthful look ,vitality and charm and being immortal ,a vampire can never die an easy death , he can either be brutally assassinated or he would accept death himself and would leave his body. Even a drop of their blood can treat the wounds ,make the skin look lively ,and they can even save a person's life ,if they want , well , only the royals have the permission to save lives and turn the other species into vampire ,the other can only do the bare minimum.
Ambroz , now knew that valentina would no longer be in pain ,and would soon wake up ,so he left the tent and went to the place where all the people were having dinner.
Reaching the table ,he sat on it ,and waited for the food to be served to him ,
Feeling someone's gaze on him ,he lifted his eyes and met the cold eyes of his sister,who was looking back at him with a blank gaze ,but only he knew the lava that must be boiling inside this harmless looking ferocious tigress.
He couldn't wait for her to marry and go away ,as the way she used to nag him ,had become a pain in his ass.
He knew ,the absence of valentina ,had already given her a hint ,and he knew she is gonna give him an ear full sooner or later ,whenever she would find him free.
His annoyed exression soon turned blank when he smelled the same morning dew smell that smelt like pine too ,now ,as she had consumed his blood ,so he knew it was going to linger on her for a few hours , and he felt his chest filled with pride when the feeling of his female smelling like him entered his heart.
She took slow yet hesitant feeble steps in their direction and stood behind him ,waiting for them to finish their food ,so that the servants can sit on the table ,and in the meantime she decided to look for his necessities.
Valentina ,when woke up ,felt tears blurring her vision when the events of last night hit her ,the devil was behind her ,and she couldn't even do anything about him or else she knew he would take her soul this time ,her attempt of showing all this to aurora had already gone invain ,so now she had thought of not having a talk about this to anyone ,and she had come up with a solution of not sleeping the whole night and staying out of her tent whole night along with the guards and the other servants who would sit by the bonfire in the night and chat ,while guarding the tent of the royals and their ministers,the devil wont attack her infront of everyone and she would be safe ,she would sleep in the daytime ,by taking short naps whenever she would get some time.
Getting out of the bed she stroded in the mini bathroom and took a bath and wore a brown long dress with a black corset and tied her hairs in a simple braid,in hurry ,she was extremely surprised on seeing no marks or imprints on her face ,but shrugged it off ,because she thought that the devil must have done that in order to not be seen ,because if the marks would have stilll been on her ,she would have showed it to the royals and they would have definitely thought of doing something to help her ,and as valentina ,was his prey now ,he would not let himself get caught like this ,
She was also now determined to protect hersef from the cruel ways of the devil king.
Coming out of her tent ,she reached the royal blue tent ,from where the sweet aroma of the food was spreading in the air.
She knew she was late ,making sure that she had her notepad and pen tucked in she hesitantly went in .
The clattering of the spoons stopped ,making her self conscious ,her knees almost got wobbly when she felt unwanted attention and the numerous gazes burning holes in her body.
Looking up she met the eyes of aurora ,who was scrutinizing her with her sharp intimidating gaze and then the servants who were glaring daggers at her ,making her confused ,as to why the servants were holding her hostile in their gazes,
If only looks could kill ,valentina would already had been burnt down into ashes.
Ambroz had his back to her ,she noticed how his muscles looked tense ,and thought that maybe he is angry so she went and stood beside him with her head bowed down in respect.
Within a few seconds his body relaxed and he continued to eat.
Valentina ,discreetly observed all the people who have gathered in this tent ,and noticed how everyone was minding their own business ,some had their eyes bowed down ,while some were looking around.
She suddenly spotted a little kid standing along with his mother ,who was standing beside the commander zachary with her head bowed down ,The women had her head bowed down ,and was slightly shooking her head towards her kid in fear ,and the kids eyes were filled with tears and he was pointing at the food .
The kid almost lunged forward to grab an apple from the basket but then the minister stopped eating his food and got silent ,making the women panic and hold both the hands of the kid and glare at him ,however the pain and helplessness in her eyes was too much evident too valentina ,
She felt pity for the woman and felt bad for the kid who has to stay hungry until the royals get done with their food.
Valentina tried to divert the mind of the kid ,and kept on looking at him ,hoping for him to notice her ,and as expected his teary eyes turned towards her and he looked at her ,valentina smiled at him and waved her hand slightly .
The kid ignored her and looked away ,valentina made a hurt expression on her face and made a pout with a sad face while looking at the kid ,soon the kid slowly turned his gaze toward her and saw the hurt expression on her face and kept on looking at her ,soon she morphed her face expressions into offended one ,and then stick his tongue out and pretended to look away ,and then after few seconds she turned her gaze back to the kid who was looking at her without unblinking ,and then she again sticked out her tongue at him .
This soon turned into a competition and they both kept on making weird faces ,and glaring at each other ,unknown of the gaze of all the royals on them .
Ambroz felt the whole table going silent and looked up from his plate and saw the kid who was making faces at him ,astonished he looked carefully at the kid and realized that he was not looking at the him but someone behind him ,he turned around and saw valentina making weird funny faces at the guy and then turned to his front and saw every other person looking at the scene ,
He gave a glare to everyone and when they all felt it they looked down in the form of apology and continued to have their food.
Ambroz cleared his throat and said in an emotionless voice ,,''sit with us''.
This snapped valentina out of her competition and she looked at ambroz with confused expressions as she knew that he has said something but didn't knew what ,in particular.
So she waited for him to speak something again which he did ,'valentina ,sit down!''
He commanded ,and embarrasment coated her features when she realised that she again got careless and somehow ,made him embarrassed.
The innocent girl ,simply didn't knew that he cannot get embarrassed this easily .
She slowly took steps toward the chair and sat down on the chair ,and lowered her head ,in shyness and nervousness,
She was also a servant and now ,he had suddenly asked her to sit ,among the royals ,
''All the kids can sit too ,there's no need for them to wait for us and hold their hunger in'',he said while still munching on his food .
There was only one kid in the tent and that was the little boy .
Valentina smiled knowing that the kid can also eat his food now ,and then took scrambled eggs and served them on her plate and took some fruits along with it and started to eat without looking up as she could feel the burning gaze of all the girls drilling inside her head.
She didn't fail to notice how ambroz was the tallest and strongest one among all and he had an appetite of a beast ,well he was a beast indeed .
The table reached up to her chest ,whereas it reached ambroz's abdomen.
They continued to had their food in silence.
After having their food ,ambroz and their ministers left to tend to the village matters ,ambroz deliberately decided to not take valentina their as he had new plans for her ,he already knew that she knows nothing about west and decided to leave her here only .
Valentina was relieved when she noticed how busy the king was ,this somehow made her relax and happy knowing she doesn't have to encounter the king and get scolded for getting late.
If onlys he knew ,the man punishes ,scolding is not in his vocabulary.
Soon she watched all of them sitting on their horses ,all the women along with her were assembled ,with her standing in the last row ,they all bowed down in respect of the king ,valentina looked at them and forget that she has to bow too ,but then she met the eyes of ambroz who was looking straight at her with an unfathomable gaze making goosebumps appear on her neck ,and she realized that she was the only one who ddin't had her head bowed down in his respect ,so she immediately bowed down ,and stayed in the position ,until he disappeared.
Ambroz on the other hand ,didn't like it when she bowed down in front of him ,she was his mate ,she didnt need to bow down to him .
He decided to ignore it for now and left with his soldiers behind.
All the servants scattered away and began doing their own tasks ,aurora had also left with the king ,she was about to turn around when she felt a tug on her dress and looked down to see the same little boy smiling shyly at her.
Valentina smiled and bent down to his height and forwarded his hand toward her and gave him a toothy smile ,remembering the fact that she is mute, the boy grinned shyly and said ,''my name is chris ,I am a brave boy and i love apples ,what's your name ?pretty woman?''
Valentina smiled at the little guy ,she could feel her heart swelling in admiration by witnessing the little guy's innocence , she was the first guy she genuinely liked and felt carefree around .
She brought out her notepad and wrote ,''Hi chris! I am valentina !I also love apples! Would you be my friend?''
Chris read it and said ,''oK ,valy ,let's be friends now ,but being my friend comes with a price too !''
Valentina furrowed her eyebrows and wrote again,''what?'''
''You gotta prank someone!'' he whispered close to her making her widen her eyes.
The boy looked around and said ,''You have to prank atleast two people ,only then i would consider you as my loyal friend ,would you be able to do it?''
Valentina thought for a while and then nodded nervously.
Even at this age she was not this much mischievous but this boy seemed to be the king of mischievousness to her ,she was now ready to experience this playful act in her life too ,all because of chris.
Chris grinned and told her the plan ,''i would help you this once ,you have to prank the other one by your own self ,and remember we would prank the bad ones only ,it's bad to trouble the good people''
The boy took some mud in the bucket ,plucked out few strands of grass and poured water in it and brought turmeric and a weird looking sauce from the kitchen and mixed it well with a wooden stick and said ,''Ha!Now it's ready ,Let's go pal! ''
Valentina also nodded putting away all the worries .
He and valentina went and attached the bucket over a tent and tied it with a rope , chris held valentina's hands in his small hands and went to hide behind the wood ,valentina looked at him with confused expressions ,noticing which he said ,''This is the tent of princess aurora's servants ,princess is good but the servants are very bad ,they bully my mama alot ,so it's time to take revenge on them'' valentina nodded with an understanding expression .
Soon the servants stepped out of tent and as soon as they did that ,chris pulled the rope and the stinky dirty solution fell on their clothes making them shriek in anger ,they tried to clean their face ,while valentina looked at the scene with her jaw dropped and eyes bubbling with laughter,but her joy was short lived when chris pulled her from the grass and ran in other direction ,she followed him ,after some time they reached the back side of other tent and their was a slit made on the tent ,from where they entered the other tent while panting loudly .
Soon they broke out in a loud laughter ,valentina was also chuckling softly .
But soon they heard a voice ,''Chris!'' they looked towards the source and valentina found the same woman in front of her eyes whose facial features matched chris's a lot .
Valentina recognozed her as the kids mother and bowed nervously at her ,thinking that this lady can scold the child and her for being mischievous and may take chris away from her ,but the lady was very gentle ,she asked chris about whatever happened while chris told everything to his mom.
She looked at valentina with a thankful expression ,surprising her ,the lady said ,''thanks for treating him well ,he is a bubbly kid and i am afraid of this darkness to consume him ,he always tries to make friends but gets treated roughly ,i am extremely thankful to you for taking care of him and being nice to him''
Valentina smiled and simply shook her head and wrote on her notepad letting the lady know that she is mute ,they all introduced themselves ,and valentina had now made two friends in a day ,and she felt really comfortable while being with them.
It was already evening when valentina and the other servants were done with their respective chores of cleaning the room and preparing for food.
It was the time of arrival ,all the soldiers ,ministers ,aurora and king entered their place ,when chris again came to her and said ,''you have to prank someone ,i have already taught you how to do so ,now it's your turn,''
Valentina got nervous but nevertheless got ready as she didn't want to disappoint the kid .
As it was evening time ,and everyone was tired she didn't want to pour the dirty dangerous solution invented by anyone so she collected some feathers ,sand ,leaves and other waste material and collected it in a bucket.
Their was a soldier in his late thirties who always stole the fruits collected by chris and he now wanted to seek revenge on that man , so they now decided to do the prank on him .
Chris told him that he had seen him coming out of his tent and going in other direction ,so they stood at the corner and adjusted the bucket in such a way that anyone who would pass beneath it would get dirty.
They heard the sound of footsteps and on the count of three ,valentina pulled the rope and all the content of the bucket poured on that particular person .
Chris laughed loudly and instead of running away came out and started to jump ,dragging the attention of all the people resting in their tent ,valentina also came behind him ,in panic ,and everyone came out of their tents.
Chris was still laughing while making fun of the man infront of him ,when valentina's eyes met the man who was supposed to be their target and was standing behind the giant person ,with horror written all over his face.
Valentina gulped and looked at the man whose face ,hairs and clothes were covered with the dirt and leaves and he looked like a chicken that's got run over.
Slowly she nudged chris shoulder and pointed at the man who was standing behind the man ,all clean making his laughter die down ,
Silence prevailed the air ,everyone's eyes were on the three of them ,when valentina slowly stepped forward and gently yet with shaky hands dusted away the dirt from the person's face making her gasp in fear.
She had already somehow figured out that this man must be some royal ,but never had she imagined in her wildest dreams .that the person who got pranked by them would be the-
king itself.......
Hi guys !
Late update !
i Know ,but i am extremely busy due to my exams ,and preparations ,but i assure you i would update whenever i can ,so dont stop supporting this story
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stay blessed
Author sylvie