Page 45 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
But before his thumb reached her lip, Alezya took out the small dagger she’d taken, as if to confess, and handed it back to him.
Kassein chuckled, realizing that maybe she’d thought he was asking for it back. He shook his head, and gently pushed her hand with the weapon back toward her. He pointed his index finger at the weapon, then back to her.
“Your dagger. Alezya’s dagger. You can keep it.”
She stared at him, still a bit confused, or maybe surprised by his willingness to let her take a weapon for herself. But he smiled at her faintly and turned back to head outside of the tent.
Somehow, that confusion in her eyes made him happy. Why was that? Another mystery. Still, Kassein walked out of the tent to go and get food. The soldiers he walked past seemed surprised to see him again, and he did realize he’d been going out a lot more...
Usually, all his food was brought directly to his tent, while his only outings were to hunt or climb up the mountains, and never more than twice a day, so his men seldom had a chance to see him unless the barbarians attacked, or he decided to hit the training ground. This was a rare sight that left a lot of them dumbfounded.
Their gazes annoyed Kassein even more when he’d just come for two bowls of meat soup. Thus, he hurried back, ignoring them all to bring the warm food back to Alezya.
The woman was back on the bed, sitting with her dagger still in her hands. She lifted her eyes up to him when he walked in, but she didn’t try to conceal the weapon. Instead, she just put it aside and took the bowl of food. He’d thought this before, but she was too skinny. Did the tribes not hunt enough? The men he’d fought were all of decent size for their height, though.
The scene of Alezya being attacked came back to mind. Was she starved by her own kind? She ate with the appetite of someone who knew to appreciate food, not unnecessarily slow and gracefully like the women who usually tried to seduce him. He preferred that. He’d always hated the decorum of the Imperial Palace...
He sat down on the floor and began eating too, the two of them enjoying the food in silence.
“...Ruokaa,” he finally said, suddenly remembering that word she’d taught him.
He glanced up at her to see her surprised eyes.
As if to confirm, he pointed at the meat stew in their bowls and repeated that word again. She smiled and nodded.
Then, they simply resumed eating in silence. Kassein’s mind wasn’t at rest, however. He kept trying to think, glancing toward Alezya and her injuries, the bandages on her feet right next to him.
Was it really a good idea to send her back? She’d been hunted once; what if it happened again? What if he couldn’t save her this time?
Outside the tent, his dragon growled, upset. Kassein knew he had to be more reasonable than the beast that mirrored his true feelings.
He had to when it was clear she wanted to go back. Her sad eyes on the mountain couldn’t deceive anyone. Moreover, if she wasn’t happy about going back, she could always let him know the next day, while they were heading there. She’d have the entire journey back to change her mind...
For now, he was just hoping she’d rest and get better. He hoped Tievin wouldn’t come back too soon with those undergarments and whatever else he would have found for her, and he hoped his men wouldn’t make her coat too soon.
However, Kassein knew a coat and underwear wouldn’t be a good enough reason to hold her back. He hated even more that he felt like he needed a reason not to send that woman back to her people.
Despite all this and the dragon raging outside, he hardened his heart and decided they’d go out the next day to send her back. The next day, at dawn.
The sooner he sends Alezya back to her people, the sooner he’d be able to forget her.
Chapter 5
The silence between them wasn’t awkward, but it was unsettling.
That man, Kassein, had a dark expression in his eyes that she didn’t like. He’d cleaned himself before going out, and he’d come back covered in blood again. Was that animal blood? Or...?
For some reason, Alezya wished he hadn’t fought against her kind. She was an outcast of her clan, but she didn’t hate most of those people enough to wish for their deaths. Perhaps she was too kind, or perhaps she was holding on to the last bit of respect she had for them to not completely despise them. It was still her homeland, after all.
And, most importantly, she hoped someone had found Lumie. A kind clan, one that would have protected her. That was what she hoped, the thought she was holding on to.
When she’d caught a glimpse of the mountains earlier that day, she’d felt subjugated with pain again. She only wanted to go back for Lumie. She loved the mountain itself, but aside from her baby, there was nothing and no one waiting for her up there. All she wanted was to retrieve her baby, and then...
She stared at Kassein again.
That man was hard to understand. He had an aura of anger, fear, and death surrounding him at all times, yet he was kind to her. Maybe it was because she was a woman as he didn’t seem kind to anyone else.
When they’d briefly gone out earlier that day, she’d seen many, many more men, and it was clear they all feared him. Those men seemed to fear that man as much, if not more, than that gigantic beast outside.
