Page 92 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
He heard his dragon growl loudly in frustration somewhere behind him, but he didn’t turn back to check. With Kiera and Kiki back there, Kein shouldn’t go overboard... and Kassein knew he was more shocked than angry. He just wanted answers, now. Kiera had been right all along. He knew nothing about her. Maybe it was all his own wishful thinking...
He finally walked into his tent, and for a second, he wondered what he was doing. Was it even right for Alezya to sleep here? Still, his legs carried them to his bed anyway, and he put her down, still in a strange daze, and put a knee down to help her take off her cloak without thinking.
“...Kassein. Kassein!”
He looked up. Alezya had been calling him, and he’d just now realized. She put her hands on his cheeks, looking worried. Was he acting out of it? He sighed and closed his eyes.
Regardless of her past... He wanted to believe the woman she was now. Her gestures, her gazes. Everything she gave him, he’d take it as it was. After a couple of seconds, he put his hand over hers and re-opened his eyes, looking deep into those long, big, dark eyes of hers. She looked worried, scrutinizing him for clues.
“...Is it alright to want to believe you?” he whispered.
“Kassein,” she whispered again.
They both lacked the words, the language to tell each other everything, everything they wanted to know, and everything they wanted to hear. It was cruel, and it was helpless... In the distance, his dragon growled again. Kein would take off and go to vent their frustration elsewhere.
Alezya glanced up.
“Dragon,” she said in his language.
“Kein,” he nodded.
“Dragon, sky.”
“Yes.”
How much could she learn of their language, and how fast? He didn’t care for Kassian’s opinion, or even Kiera’s. He wanted to understand Alezya right then and there.
He let out a long sigh of frustration, but also to relieve the tension in his body and heart. Then, gently brushing off Alezya’s hands, he stood up, hung up the cloaks, and went to re-ignite the lazy fire. The day had been good, but one couldn’t predict when the next snowfall would occur and the temperature would drop again. This offered him a few seconds to turn his back to Alezya and catch a break from those black eyes.
Lorey’s revelations had shaken him to his core, and once again, when in doubt, he hung on to what he knew to be true.
Alezya needed him. Her tribe had cast her out, attacked and hurt her. Even if a family was waiting for her back there, she’d need help getting back... but was there a family? What had happened to the child she’d carried? ...Was the child even still alive? Why wouldn’t they be with their mother, then? Kassein felt even more frustrated.
If she had a partner, a husband, why hadn’t he helped her? Why hadn’t he come down from the mountain to retrieve the mother of his child? Was he dead? ...Or had the child’s father taken them from her?
Alezya looked young, around his own age. Could she have suffered such a terrible loss? Her days and nights of crying came back to his memories. She’d been desperate to go back... Now things were starting to make sense.
He took a deep breath in. If she had a family she longed for, she deserved to reunite with them. He could bury his own feelings for her sake. He wanted to ask... If there was a child,there was a father. If so, maybe he’d been so horribly mistaken. It ached. His sore heart ached already, a pain that no Dragon Blood would be able to heal.
And still, he was more resolute than ever. He had to know.
When he turned around, however, and saw Alezya lying on the bed, looking nervous and watching his reactions, his willpower broke down. He walked up to her, and with slow movements, helped her get under the blankets. It was early, but she needed the rest, and his heart needed the night to strengthen and gear itself up for any answer. At dawn, he would ask.
Once she was under the blankets, giving him confused glances, Kassein turned around, took off his armor, and lay down on the fur rug right next to the bed, like usual, staring at the ceiling above. He wished he’d stayed to drink with his sister. Getting drunk would have been nice, rather than letting so many questions harass him most of the night...
Alezya ought to be way more tired than he was, for a while later, and while sleep still avoided him, he heard her shallow, sleepy breathing.
Kassein was still lost in his confusing thoughts, imagining every possible scenario, trying to figure out which parts were true, and all the possibilities he might have to prepare himself for.
He couldn’t help but find himself worried about Alezya’s child; not because they might exist, but because they would be separated from their mother right now, and perhaps in danger... Was that why she’d been so desperate to go back? But what of the child’s father? Had she loved someone else? Was there someone else…?
His downward spiral was interrupted by a faint cry. Kassein frowned, and got on his elbows, glancing at Alezya’s sleeping figure. She wasn’t peacefully sleeping anymore. Instead, her thinbrows were furrowed, her breathing hectic, and her hands were clenching her pillow. Tears appeared in her eyes, and she was whimpering something unintelligible.
Kassein waited for a couple of minutes, hoping it would pass, but it only seemed to get worse. He grabbed her hand to hold it before she pressed on her injuries despite the bandages, hoping his warmth would soothe her a bit.
“Alezya,” he whispered, caressing her hair.
She woke up silently crying, and visibly disoriented. He saw her eyes quickly glance around the place behind him, before going back to him.
