Unloving His Majesty

Beginning of the end

In their chambers, Princess Zania started pacing. Nothing at all happened the way she remembered. Her heart was already won over by the prince and that terrified her.

“Zania?” Prince Maxwell called to her. She was too quiet for his liking.

“You…You executed Mary.”

“Yes,” he confirmed.

“Why?” she questioned. “You loved her,” she added, what he did starting to settle in.

“She was a threat to you. I shall not harbour snakes in this island. Father should have executed his brother, but he didn’t. We all know how that turned out. He and his daughter abducted and tortured Noan royals. We all paid a price for it. To this day no country wants to do business with us. I let Mary have all the power in our past life. I can’t let anyone have that much power again. My wife is untouchable,” he declared tenderly.

“Max,” she called to him softly.

“Mmmh?”

“Maybe we could try it out and see,” she suggested while fidgeting with her hands.

“Try what out, My Queen?”

“Being married for real, you know,” she suggested and shrugged her shoulders. Her response made him laugh.

“We were always married for real, Zania.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Does that mean you are going to stop taking the contraceptive?” he asked and watched her jaw drop.

“How could you possibly know about that?”

He wrapped his arms around her waist and flashed her his mischievous smile.

“It won’t work. Our heir is going to come and he or she will be perfect,” he declared instead of answering her question.

“I will stop,” she replied decisively causing his heart to dance. He was getting his wife back but he knew how much she gave in their previous life. He knew that he was not even close. She loved him unconditionally despite everything and he desperately wanted that.

“I want more than that, Zania. I want to be loved by you. I want to own your heart,” he confessed while she shook her head. She knew what he was asking but that was still her nightmare.

“I don’t think I can ever love like that again, Max. I was naive and stupid. That woman died in the dungeon.”

He held her closer, her words reminding him of his past cruelty and stupidity.

“I want her back, Zania. I want the love of my life back,” he insisted and expected her to untangle herself from his arms, but she didn’t. His sinking heart picked up again. They were making progress.

“You are asking for too much,” she pointed out.

She was touched by everything he did to correct his past actions but she vowed to never let herself be that vulnerable again. She would never live with herself if her friends suffered again because she let her gut down.

“I am asking for you to trust me with your heart, Zania.”

“Max,”she called to him. He had no idea what he was asking of her.

“I will give you the assurance you need that I will never take you for granted again. I will never hurt those you love ever again. I will have no power to do it.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

“What are you going to do?”

“You will see.”

His mysterious response did not alleviate her concerns.

“I want to know now,” she urged. “You executed Mary without a second thought. I don’t want you doing something crazy for me. Tell me,” she added. She did not want him doing anything that would harm him while trying to prove himself to her.

He curled his lips at his small victory. His wife cared about him.

“I will never hurt myself. You love me too much for me to be that stupid,” he teased and laughed when she rolled her eyes.

“You are everything to me, Zania. Everything,” he declared before leading her to the massive window. He stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist and quietly watched the scenery before them.

“This is the most beautiful view I have ever seen,” she declared after a few minutes of taking in the almost mystical view before her.

He only responded by planting a kiss on her neck.

“What are you planning to do with the Lokey’s?” she asked and felt him tensing.

“I will execute them all.”

She let out a sigh and turned to face him.

“You are too close to this. They are the respected members of this island and have a lot of influence,” she told him softly.

“I don’t care, Zania. They have to die,” he said angrily, how close he almost lost her again, very fresh in his mind.

“I don’t like them either, Max, but the island is still volatile. We are trying to unite our tribes. We can’t be seen to be unfair in our decisions,” she tried to reason with him while he frantically shook his head.

“They framed Celia, Blake and set the game reserve on fire to torture you. They fooled me and I destroyed you. I can’t…”

“I know, Max, but we have to be strategic in everything we do. People are impressionable. We can’t be seen to be targeting your tribe’s nobles,” she interjected.

“Zania.”

“The word out there is that I bewitched you. The news of you executing Mary is going to perpetuate this. Executing the rest of her family will just make matters worse,” she explained her reasoning before counter suggesting. “Let Luke handle this. Let the elders decide their fate.”

He let out a sigh. That would be a long process not guaranteed to give the outcome he wanted, but it would restore people’s confidence and trust in the process.

“The Lokey’s have a lot of followers. What if they manage to influence the elders and come out free, Zania?” he asked.

“I can’t let these people continue to plant division in our island and to conspire to kill you,” he added.

“My bewitched king will protect me,” she added wittily before proceeding. “Maybe Luke will find enough evidence and everyone will know that they deserved the punishment. How about we cross that bridge when we get there?”

“Fine,” he conceded. There was nothing he would not do when his wife looked at him like that.

Sir Luke was surprised when the maid informed him that the king has appointed him to handle the case. He planned on doing a thorough job to prove to everyone that he was fitting and qualified to be in the position of being the king’s most trusted advisor.

It was two days later when Lord Blake arrived at the castle. With him was the man Prince Maxwell had seen in his past life. The man he hunted down and never found. The man his queen supposedly cheated on him with. He flinched when his wife let go of his arm and ran to the man’s arms…