Prince Charming's Beloved Wife

The Journey

“What are you doing?”

“Get on. I’ll carry you.”

Adela blinked a few times as she looked down at Cason’s broad shoulders. She didn’t want to say yes and risk Cason thinking she was weak and had “princess syndrome” (although she was a princess), but her body and mind couldn’t stop her.

Adela lifted her dress up and climbed onto Cason’s back. He took a second to feel and accept her weight before he stood back up. 

He took a few steps before turning his head around, “You are so light.”

Adela felt her cheeks heat up, and she made an excuse for herself by thinking that the cause of her blush was the heat and the bright sunlight. 

Adela’s body was indeed shorter and skinnier than Alvina’s, and she didn’t complain about it. 

“Are you not tired?” She asked after she had counted 137 steps.

Cason smiled, the same playful one he always held on his face, “A little. You are getting a little heavy.”

Adela frowned and rested his chin onto his shoulder, trying hard to tense her body up and hopefully lessen the weight on Cason.

Cason obviously felt her failed attempt, and he smiled, “It’s not you, it’s the sack.”

Adela blinked a few times and suggested, “Let’s eat another carrot?”

---

They continued to walk, and the sun slowly set over the hill, casting a golden shadow onto the world. 

Adela slowly fell asleep due to Cason’s rhythmic steps and his comfortable back. Cason flinched slightly when he felt Adela’s head land on his shoulder, and he glanced back to see her eyes closed.

He slowed down his pace as he looked straight ahead, his breath neither ragged or heavy. Who knew how many muscles were inside the loose shirt and pants of his? Adela would soon. . .

The sound of the leaves underneath his shoes crunching as he stepped on them didn’t wake Adela up, and even made her sleep deeper. 

When only half of the sun could be seen over the mountain, Cason woke Adela up to eat some dinner.

Adela rubbed her eyes as Cason handed her a loaf of bread that was dried after being toasted in the sun all day long. The sack was also burning hot, and it was like an oven heating up all the food and water inside.

Adela reluctantly took a bite of the bread and it indeed tasted just like it looked. She grabbed the water and took a gulp to find that the water was also warm. 

“I’m not hungry,” Adela said as she swallowed the bread. 

Cason took a bite of his bread and nodded his head, “Me too.”

They continued on their way with Adela walking on her own feet again, although Cason had offered to continue carrying him.

“Are we almost there?” Adela asked after a while. She could see the sky darkening, and it made her nervous. The sun was completely gone behind the mountain now, but luckily, they could still see where they were going.

However, Adela could feel that in less than an hour, they would be surrounded by complete darkness.

Hearing no reply, Adela looked up at Cason to see him smiling.

“We are here.”

Adela looked forward to seeing the same array of trees as the rest of the forest, “Um. . .”

Cason grinned as he pointed at something on the ground, but Adela couldn’t see clearly what it was. She took a few steps forward and gasped in surprise when she saw a dead rabbit on the ground.

Cason placed his hand around her waist when she fell a few steps back, “I had killed this when I was hunting right before his people came. This arrow is mine.”

He pulled the arrow out from the rabbit, and Adela could see the dried blood on the arrow, causing her to scrunch her face up in fear and disgust.

This was the first time she has ever seen a dead animal in her life. . . Well, dead as in dead but not cooked yet.

Cason grinned and lifted the rabbit up by the ear, holding it up to Adela, “You are scared of it?”

Adela nodded her head and after careful thought, she decided to bury her head in Cason’s chest, grabbing onto his arm “in fright”.

Cason was surprised at her sudden intimacy, and he raised one eyebrow as he looked down at her head. After a few seconds, he smirked. Did she really think he couldn’t see through her little acts?

“You don’t have to try so hard to get me to like you. I promised you I would marry you, so I will. I won’t break my promise.” He said with an amused smile. 

Adela lifted her head up slightly and peaked at his face before gulping, “What do you mean? I’m actually scared of it. . .” She said, her voice getting softer and softer.

Cason smiled and grabbed onto her hand, “Let’s go. We are almost there.”

‘You don’t have to try because I am already starting to like you.’ 

They walked for a while and Cason was more and more certain that this was the hunting grounds. Soon enough, they saw the stable where the horses were kept. The lights were turned off but the cottage next to it had lights on.

The lights were like a spark of hope, and Adela immediately felt her weak legs strengthen as they walked over to the cottage together.

Cason knocked at the door and a few seconds later, a man in a guard uniform opened it.

“Who are you?” He asked coldly.

Cason took a step forward into the light so the man could get a good look at him.

“. . .” The man’s eyes widened, “Prince Cason?! You’re -”

Cason smirked, his face and eyes cold as ice, “Open the stable. I need a horse.”

The man gulped, unable to react for several seconds.

“Do you not hear me?”

“I - Yes, yes. Right away, your highness.” The man stumbled out of the cottage and ran over to the stable, then remembered he forgot the keys, and ran back to the cottage to get it.

Cason crossed his arms together as he stared at the man come and go. He was the head of the hunting grounds. . . That day, there was no way he didn’t see those men enter the hunting grounds.

And, when he had escaped the men for a quick second and rode back to the stable to ask for help, no one responded to his loud screams. The lights in the cottage were open.

Cason Thorn narrowed his eyes and grinned sinisterly before turning around, the smile on his face returning, “Come on, Adela. We can ride a horse back to the palace.”