The Alpha King Marked Me. I Still Haven't Told Him I'm A Girl novel Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Seventeen

I bolt upright, gasping and drenched in sweat.

For a wild minute, I don’t recognise where I am, clawing for my throat and checking if it is still intact.

At the feel of marks against my skin, I tumble out of bed, staggering for the mirror across the unfamiliar bedroom. I grip the dresser’s edge and stare into the mirror, craning my neck.

"Oh gods..."

The skin of my neck is scorched with fingertips.

"Are you alright?"

I whirl, heart racing, and at the sight of Prince Rafe I push up the collar of my tunic, hiding unexplainable marks. It suddenly becomes imperative that I hide them, or whatever sorcery this is. I couldn’t trust anyone in this place enough to confide in them. Not about the horrors of my nightmares. Not about the King of Ebonheart. Not about what I am.

With only a vague suspicion that I was one of them, they tried to execute me. Goddess knows what they’ll do to me if I tell them I’ve suddenly developed the ability to...dream-walk, and I was communing with none other than the enemy.

"Just a bad dream," I stutter. My eyes flit about the room. "Why-- How did I get here?"

The Prince hands me a cup of something brown that smells like brew. "You collapsed from fatigue."

Right. I clutch my head, wincing at the mild headache. "How long has it been?"

His lips purse. "A day."

"A day?!" I exclaim, eyes wide. "I’ve been in here for a day? Why didn’t you wake me--" My gaze whips down as I glance at my body. Untouched. I release a sigh of relief.

"You needed the rest." Without meeting my eyes, he nods towards the table. A tray of mouth watering food sits, covered. On the wooden chair beside it, clothes are folded in a neat pile. "Dinner and fresh clothes. The bath chamber is on the left. I’ll be back in an hour. We’re on patrol duty tonight."

I start to respond but he’s already out the chamber, leaving me staring at the door in confusion.

True to his word, he appears an hour later, clad in nondescript clothing, light gear, twin swords at his hips, cloak slung over his broad shoulder.

I’m tightening the sword belt a little too large for my slim waist when he tosses me a black cloak, identical to his. A strong scent of spice and man hits me and I stomp on the heat that spreads in my lower belly. "Draw the hood tight over your head. The bleached roots have begun to show. Bright enough to draw attention."

Oh. I forgot about that completely. Hard to keep tabs on your looks in a place where mirrors were a fancy necessity. The only surface we were allowed was the steel of our blades and I’d been too caught up in my thoughts to notice.

Clasping the robe around me, I trudge after him. "I thought the guards manning the gates were in charge of patrol."

"They are." His hulking frame takes up the entirety of the stairwell and I have to widen my steps not to trip over. "But ever since the attack, we’ve sent men to patrol far beyond the walls each night. The enemy is within our borders. The attack on Grimrose was as a result of our negligence. They have made a stand there, closest to us, and if we receive the first wave of attack without warning, it will be deadly. We’re all that stands between death and Silvermoor. He will attack, eventually. So, it is important to keep tabs on his army, it’s size, the distance and any sudden movement. That way, we always have an edge."

I nod, teeth clattering as we mount our horses and ride into the dark night. Rafe nods at the men manning the gates and barks and order to shut them as we step outside, into the thick forest that shrouds the encampment.

"Have there been spies from their end?"

He nods, voice thick with venom. "We kill them before they ever get close enough."

He leads me deeper into the dark, ducking under tree branches on silent feet. He doesn’t spare me a glance once, even when a branch smacks into my face and I grunt. He only hisses an order to be quiet. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Danger rolls off him in waves tonight, and though I get the feeling that he might be angry about something, I don’t ask him about it.

After what feels like hours, we halt at the Néré river, by which time my bones ache from the numbing cold. I can’t feel my toes or fingers, and slipping the coat tighter around me doesn’t do much.

"How much further?" I croak, whisper echoing in the too-still forest around us.

His shoulders tense. "We don’t stop until we reach the last group’s marker. And then, a little further until we cover enough to place ours."

I nod, exhaling a cloud of cold air.

We continue onward, but something uncomfortable lingers in the air between Rafe and I. It’s in the way he keeps ahead and doesn’t spare a single glance back. The way whenever we come withing touching distance, he visibly flinches. Or the grunts of frustration he releases every now and then.

He finally speaks when we clear the steep path. "Valerian, about what happened yesterday..."

My heartbeat quickens. I’d been trying not to remember it. Because thinking about it makes it real. That the Crown Prince of Silvermoor has feelings for me. How do I even begin to unpack that? How do I begin to unpack the way it makes me feel? Feelings ignored often amount to nothing, but it scares me that I can despise him and yet want him in ways that defy logic.

Because me and him cannot happen. The only way we can ever be in the same place is during this war. The King’s Court is cruel to Omegas and peasants of low standing. I have no future with the heir of a Kingdom, if I’m being realistic.

And father always did say that my greatest strength was the lens with which I viewed the world. With eyes too sharp and old for my age. With pure, unfiltered truth.

I have no place in Rafe’s life. Much less when he is betrothed.

"It’d be best if we both pretend it never happened."

Something plummets inside me, fast and hard as a rock. Anxiety strums my blood, something bitter filling my mouth. Still, I put on my best puzzled look and say casually, "What are you talking about?"

His head snaps back so fast, I’m sure it must have hurt. The horse underneath him slows in its gallop, so that he ends up sidling up beside me. "You really don’t remember?"

I blink blankly, wearing a bewildered look. "Remember what? Was it something important?"

He suddenly looks furious, his fists clenching around the railings. "He suddenly looks furious. "No. It’s nothing dire. Nothing fucking important."

Still, if I could get close enough to aim right...

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