The Alpha King Marked Me. I Still Haven't Told Him I'm A Girl novel Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Six

The days elude me as they pass.

I move and train with one conviction--I will return home and place flowers by my father’s grave. I will return for my mother. I will see this war to its end.

It isn’t easy, living for someone else. Death is easy. It grins at me every waking hour of the day. It waves at me everyday on the training grounds. It graces me with its cold embrace every time the General has us scaling walls and completing obstacle courses. Dying, is the easy part.

I have considered it more times than I care to admit. Impaling myself on one of the staffs during the grueling trainings. Running into an aimed sword. Getting in the direct line of sight with a nocked arrow.

Living, however, is the hard part. Choosing not to end it all by impaling or inducing my own death. Going through everyday, not because I see a future for myself after this, but because of the image of my mother alone in House Ironfang, grieving and dying slowly. Living, fighting, that is harder than dying.

I wake up earlier than most every day to attend to myself and begin training. If I ever hope to be as good as the rest, I’d have to do the extra, go harder. More often than I want, Prince Rafe finds me in the ring training and sweating hard.

On some days, he trains with me and beats me mercilessly. On some days, he ignores me completely. I prefer the latter. It makes it easier to ignore the odd, underlying tension that always seems to exist between us.

I can’t tell why. All I know is though I aspire to be as strong as he is one day, I still loathe him.

If he’d just taken back the decree, perhaps, father would still be alive.

With war drawing closer with each day, and the forces of Ebonheart approaching our borders, I have no choice but to ignore what I feel and learn all I can from him.

"I suggest you get to it, Val," Thane says, pushing back a tall curtain of grass. Those insufferable men will be up soon."

Scowling, I wrap my towel tighter around my hair. "This is far enough. I don’t need you watching me while I bathe."

He tosses me a scathing look. "You think I’m the pervert when you’re the one moaning Rafe’s name in your sleep?"

My cheeks flame and I glare at him. "Stop talking nonsense--and I wasn’t moaning." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Frankly, I have no idea what Thane is talking about. One morning, weeks ago, I’d woken with the Prince’s name on my lips. I have no recollection of what I had been dreaming about, but Thane says I had been calling out his name the entire night.

And now, he won’t let me hear the end of it.

"You should have seen your face when you--"

A soft sound has my ears perking and I jerk to a stop. Thane stops too, dark brows furrowing as he peers back at me. "What?" He mouths quietly.

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