The Vampire Prince and His Slave Princess

Chapter Four

Carly's POV

The next couple of days in the hospital flew by; Jax had wanted to immediately get me released so he could take me back to his room, but it was shot down when Doctor Alice had checked my wound and noticed it was infected. She had quickly gotten some heavy antibiotics into me and insisted that I needed to stay longer to keep watch. Jax wasn't happy about it, but eventually agreed to it and called his second-in-command, Nathan, to have him bring some paperwork for the Kingdom into the room for him to do.

Apparently, his father had been really excited about him finding me as his mate, so even though he didn't have to leave to do his usual duties as the crowned Prince, he did have to go to an occasional meeting. There was one scheduled for today, later on, and he had to read through the paperwork to catch himself up for it since he'd been gone at war for awhile and recently returned a few weeks ago.

I stayed silent and watched him as he scanned and flipped through the pages. I took a couple of naps throughout that time and woke up to him either watching me with a smile or still reading.

He made sure I ate properly when the food came and took a couple breaks to talk with me about miniscule things.

Soon, it was time for him to go and he made sure Alice knew to watch over me while he was gone. He leaned down to press a gentle kiss on my forehead and then to my lips, "Get some more sleep. I should only be gone for a few hours, but I will be back as soon as it's over."

I nodded, "I will. See you soon," I said sleepily, giving him a small smile in return. With that exchange, he left and I went back to sleep.

I wasn't sure how long I slept, but when I woke up, I met eyes briefly with Princess Jada, who had a sinister smirk on her pale pink lips.

"You really thought that I wouldn't find you?" She growled as she pulled me up from the bed harshly by my injured arm. I tried not to let the pained gasp escape but failed as she dragged me out of the room behind her. I didn't even dare look around for Doctor Alice to get me out of this situation for fear of what the Princess would do to me, but I silently begged the stars that Jax would somehow get me out of this.

"I can't believe you tried to run from me knowing that I would punish you severely for it, you worthless swine!" Her grip on my arm was making it go numb and I realized that she was taking me to the dungeons, where slaves were kept and punished in the most ghastly of ways; I'd only been here once before and it was when I'd accidentally spilled tea on her new dress and soiled it. She'd kept me down here for weeks after I'd been whipped. I could only imagine what she was planning on doing to me this time.

As she led me through the dark cement walls, I heard screams and gasps and crying from the other slaves that were trapped down there. The sound of chains and whips cracking had me flinching and I could feel my body trembling, from the cold and the fear gripping me, but also from the medication running through my veins fighting the infection.

It seemed like she was taking me to the same cell I had been in before, where two of her personal guards stood by the door. She pushed me into them where they caught me and roughly tied my hands and feet together before attaching a chain to my wrists and pulling me from the floor to where I was in a standing position with my arms over my head and my toes barely touching the ground.

"Fifty lashes, front and back!" She barked at them before taking a seat gracefully in the chair they'd brought for her to watch.

"Yes, Milady," they said before each grabbing a whip and standing in front and behind me. I was breathing heavily at this point, the pain in my shoulder nearly blinding me to everyone around me, and my fear consuming me.

I heard the crack of the whips hitting the floor in unison and jumped, closing my eyes so I couldn't see them come at me.

I waited for the bite of pain, but it never came because then a loud voice rang through the halls causing everyone to freeze, "JADA!" I opened my eyes in shock before the relief kicked in; it was Jax, and he was coming for us with purposeful steps.

When he stepped into view, I saw how angry he was and I was just glad that he wasn't mad at me. He met my eyes for a moment, seeing if I was okay or not, but when he saw the position I was in, his gaze hardened and his pupils thinned out. I could see the muscles in his jaw clench before he turned a murderous glare onto his sister. "Well, hello brother," she looked less than impressed and completely calm as he stalked into the cell more, "what brings you here? I was just about to punish my slave for disappearing from me."

He growled loudly, the sound echoing off the walls, "Father terminated your rights to her two days ago and gave her to me. She is no longer yours to punish." He turned to the guards, "Release her now and then leave us."

They did as he said, untying my hands and feet before promptly leaving. They may have been Jada's personal guards, but Jax outranked her in status, so they had no choice but to do as he said. I sat on my knees on the floor, clutching onto my arm as pins and needles went up and down it as the circulation went back to normal again, and watched the exchange between the siblings silently.

"I am well aware of what father has done," Jada said harshly, standing up eloquently in a swirl of skirts to face Jax, "but as you've seen, I do not care. She needs to be punished for leaving my side because, before she became yours, she was still mine. The rules clearly state that I am allowed to do whatever I please to my slaves when they are under my orders."

He rolled his eyes at her, "Since when have you ever followed any of the rules? If you actually listened and followed them, you would also know that when the transaction is immediate, which it was, that you are no longer entitled to do anything involving them. So, in this case, it is you who will need to be punished."

"You would have me punished for a filthy human slave, brother?" She asked in disbelief, her normally rosy complexion turning pale at Jax's words. I shivered as my adrenaline began to fade and the altercation between them became even more tense than before.

"Yes, little sister, I would." He turned to me, his words firm and final, and signalled for me to come to him. "Come on," he said gently. I stood shakily and walked to him as Jada glared at both of us. "Father will hear of this and you will atone for it. Do not ever come near her again, Jada, or so help me, I will have you executed for treason."

He grabbed my arm gently and led me out of the dungeon and away from everything. The silence was deafening compared to how it was before I came down here; it seemed like everyone and everything took note of how serious that whole thing was. He picked me up once we were away from everyone and rushed me to his room using his advanced speed, "It's okay sweetheart, you're going to be fine. I'm not letting you go back to the hospital now, I'll have Alice check you over from my room from now on." I buried my face in his neck and tried to calm my erratic breathing. The stress of what just happened had finally reached me and I just couldn't get my bearings back.

Once we reached his room, he put me down on his bed gently. "Did they do anything to you?" He asked, cupping my face in his hands and making me look him in the eyes. I shook my head no, all they did was tie me up. I was just lucky that they didn't get a chance to do more before he got to us.

"N-no, they didn't. It was just what you saw," the tremors in my body got worse and he pulled me into his arms to try and calm me down. Luckily, the feeling of his warmth and his arms around me aided in doing just that.

"Okay, it's okay sweetheart. It's over now," he ran his hands through my hair and down my back soothingly and kissed my head over and over again until my breathing settled. I leaned against him as he held me and finally felt myself relax fully in his embrace. "I have to call Alice so she can come check on you, will you lay here and try to rest for me?"

I leaned back to look up at him and nodded, "Yes. I'll try to."

He smiled and gave me a quick kiss, "I'm just going to step out onto the balcony. I'll be right back to be beside you when I'm finished." He helped me get under the covers and made sure I was comfortable before leaving. I didn't think I could actually sleep yet, so I took this time to look around his room. It was basically like a full apartment, but without a kitchen because the castle had many different chefs to cook for everyone here. His bedroom was connected to the living room, to my right was a full walk-in closet and a desk where he does his work, and to my left is the bathroom. There was a huge flatscreen TV hanging on the wall in front of me, where the living room was as well. He didn't really have very many decorations or memorabilia, since he was always away at the army base camp, so it just looked like a barely lived-in apartment.

He had left the door to the balcony open when he'd stepped out so that we could see each other, so once I'd finished looking around the room, I ended up just watching him.

He was speaking quietly on the phone, so I couldn't hear what he was saying, but the low rumble of his voice was soothing and it was slowly lulling me to sleep.

He came in as my eyes were closing and sat on the bed beside me. I opened them back up and saw him looking at me through bleary eyes; I couldn't believe how tired I was. I'd been sleeping so much the last few days, it was a wonder I was still able to fall asleep. He sighed and ran his fingers through my hair, "Alice will be here soon. I also spoke with my father about Jada. She will be dealt with accordingly." I nodded sleepily, even though in the back of my mind I knew we'd just awoken the monster inside of her. She was ruthless on a daily basis, even on a good day, I can't imagine how angry we'd just made her. Especially Jax, when he chose me over his own sister. I felt a wave of guilt because I'd just split up the two siblings unintentionally. The guilt faded away when Jax slid into the bed beside me and pulled me to him though, making my guilt switch to surprise and then sleepy contentment in just seconds. "Sleep. I'll be right here with you."

I didn't fight him and instead grabbed onto his shirt and laid my head against his chest, closing my eyes again as he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer.

It seemed like I had only closed my eyes for a few seconds before I jolted back awake at the sound of a knock on the door and barely registered where I was before Jax's soothing voice instantly calmed me down, his warm hand rubbing along my side bringing me back to reality, "It's Alice, sweetheart. I'll be right back." I nodded as he slipped out from beside me and kissed my temple before heading to the door to let the doctor in.

"Thank the stars you're alive!" She exclaimed as she pushed past him and rushed to my side in a whirlwind of blonde hair and white lab coat. "I heard the Princess dragged you out of the hospital but I hadn't been able to come after you because I was stitching up one of the warrior's sides. Jax came back minutes after she took you and one of my nurses relayed the message to him before I could. Let's take a look at you, dear," she helped me sit up and I looked over at Jax as he closed the door and leaned against the back of the couch with a small smile to watch us.

I winced as she pressed around the wound in my shoulder, "It's still pretty red and tender," she grabbed my hand to test my mobility and I bit my lip at the burning pain but managed to keep quiet. Once she was finished, she looked in my eyes and asked, "Does anything else hurt?"

"No," I breathed out quietly, "just my arm. It was pulled on and put above my head. Other than that, nothing was done to me."

I saw Jax's jaw clench at what I was assuming was the memory of seeing how close I was to being hurt more, ran through his head. The memory was relatively traumatizing for me. I can only guess as to how he was feeling about it. But I knew it wasn't anything good.

"Alright. I'm going to give you some more antibiotics and pain medication to take. I'll bet the Prince here is going to make sure you rest no matter what I say," she grinned at the jab to Jax while he scoffed quietly, "but I suggest that you don't do anything too strenuous and the pain meds will make you groggy, so it's best to stay off your feet as much as possible. Keep eating regularly and you should be feeling better by the end of the week and your stitches should also be healed enough for you to move around better as well. Just keep an eye on the infection and if you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to call me."

I nodded and gave her a small smile, taking the pills she handed to me before she sat the bottles down on the bedside table so I could reach them later, "Thank you."

"You're absolutely welcome. Anything for the Prince's mate!" She grinned and gave me a wink before striding past Jax and out the door. My eyes were wide when they landed back on Jax.

"She knows too?" I thought we were keeping the whole mate thing quiet until he could heal me?

He chuckled before pushing off of the couch and making his way back to me, "Of course. She's one of my good friends, so she saw right through my concern for you after I brought you in. I can't exactly lie to her, one of her many talents besides her healing is her intuition about things."

"Oh. Okay." Now I see why the sudden attitude change towards me came from; she was relatively indifferent to me when I was first brought in, keeping a professional front on, but after they'd stepped outside to talk, she had become extremely friendly and way more careful in handling my needs than before. I should have known after he'd told me that that was why she'd changed. I was brought out of my thoughts when his hand cupped my cheek. I looked up at him and watched his smile turn to concern.

"It'll be known sooner or later of your change of status once you're healed, sweetheart," he said softly, "does it bother you?"

I sighed, "No, it doesn't bother me really," I put my hand over his, "it's just very new and unexpected. I thought I'd spend the rest of my life, however long it would be, as a slave, only for it to change in a second to me being a Princess and your mate. It's a lot to process, that's all. I never expected to even come close to having someone like you in my life for me," I moved so I was closer to him and ran my other hand through his hair at the nape of his neck, "but I'd never change this."

He smiled and pulled me onto his lap, where I was pressed against his chest and we were almost nose-to-nose with each other, "I'm glad to hear that," he said sweetly and leaned in to kiss me. I gladly returned it before pulling away and leaning into his chest to catch my breath. I curled into him and sighed happily, "Let's get you lying back down so that you can get some more sleep. It was interrupted earlier so I know you are exhausted after the day you've had," he said into my hair. I nodded and he sat me back on the bed so I could get back into the spot I was lying in before.

He laid back down beside me and we got into the same positions we were in before. He was so warm, that it was easy for me to relax and drift off once again.