“Ray! Is Her Highness safe?” someone called to us from outside the carriage.
At this, Ray snapped back to his senses. He ushered us outside and over to a young man with trim and tidy silver hair. He was shorter than Ray, but more tan and muscular in build.
It was none other than His Highness Prince Dario himself.
“I’m glad you’re here, Patricia. What an awful welcome this has been... I’m so sorry.”
A handful of protesters were now bound with rope, but they scarcely needed it. Now that Dario was here, the entire crowd was still.
“Your Highness...” Patricia meekly stepped up to him, and as he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, she continued, “I thought you were waiting for me at the castle.”
“Eh, I got bored, so I asked my bodyguards to escort me here...and am I ever glad I did.”
“Then...were those roars we heard your roars?”
“Yes, I’m afraid so. We came by horse, but when we saw the commotion, we transformed.”
Beyond him on the hill, I could see a few horses trotting in our direction to reunite with their masters.
Dario glanced at the crowd, then back at Patricia. “Don’t worry. These rioters will be dealt with accordingly. It seems they were only acting out of concern for their country.”
“I think they have the wrong idea about me.”
“Yes, it seems they’ve bought into some baseless rumors.”
“Where would such rumors even come from?”
“I’m not sure... I’ll have my men continue to look into it. For now, I think it’s safe to say the true culprit lies elsewhere. Don’t worry about it too much, all right? These things happen whenever foreign royalty is introduced to the ruling dynasty. The people worry that an outsider will damage the country, and then they start to take their own paranoia as fact.” Dario smiled, flashing his pearly whites. “Just relax. The rumors will die out once the citizens get to know you. They’re going to love you, I promise.”
For one so young, Dario seemed to have a good head on his shoulders. I could envision the great king he would someday become.
“Okay,” Patricia replied, blushing faintly.
“By the way...” Dario began, glancing in my direction, then turned to Ray. “Isn’t this the woman you thought was your Bondmate? What’s she doing here?”
“She’s my hairstylist. I got special permission to bring her along,” Patricia explained.
“Oh, that’s right. I remember you were telling me about her. It seems we meet at last.”
Ray scowled as Dario and Patricia continued their conversation. It was my first time seeing him upset, considering he was all smiles back when we were “Bondmates” or whatever.
As Dario grinned mischievously at his faithful bodyguard two years his senior, I remembered how Ray had told me that he both respected His Highness and thought of him as a younger brother. Back then, their rapport had seemed rather fraternal indeed—but now Ray seemed to resent every fiber of Dario’s being.
“Oh, I know!” Dario exclaimed, clapping his hands together.
“Don’t you dare,” Ray shot back hastily.
“At least let me finish!”
“That look on your face tells me you’re up to no good.”
“Nonsense! Perish the thought!” Dario insisted, a playful smile on his lips. “I’ve decided I’ll make you one of Patricia’s bodyguards.”
“You’re demoting me? I thought we had already chosen her guards,” Ray countered, quirking a brow.
But Dario didn’t miss a beat. “I’m not demoting you. This is just a temporary placement,” he clarified with a sunny smile. “And while I’ve already assigned a few men to the task, I’m sure Patricia would feel more secure having someone around that she already knows and trusts. You don’t mind joining the team, do you?” He turned to Patricia. “What say you? I’ll bet you’d prefer to have at least one familiar face nearby, am I right?”
“Yes, please,” Patricia answered dutifully, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine how I must’ve looked in that moment...but I’m willing to bet “Kill me now” was written all over my face.