The Dragon's Second Chance: The Past

Chapter 39: DEVIATION

Princess Nuri's POV:

Throughout dinner, Roark kept complimenting my cooking, and it was taking all my will power to not flat out question him about what I had heard in the corridor and his motives. But 3 years is a lot of time to come clean, and since I was kept in the dark for all those years and it did not seem like he was going to disclose his plans anytime soon, I knew I had to proceed with mine if I was ever going to learn the truth.

Before he could leave, he helped me clean up the kitchen during which he tried to indirectly find out when I would be returning to the castle. But I did not give in to his cross-questioning and instead asked him, "How did you find this place? How did you know I was here?" I saw something flash in his eyes but that vanished almost as soon as it had formed and he looked at me smiling, "I will always know where you are... You are my mate."

When he was at the door he turned to me saying he would visit me soon. But would inform my parents before coming over, as he understood that I needed time, and would understand if my answer was no, though he would prefer a yes.

After he left, I lay on my new bed, and couldn't help but wonder what could be going on in King Fin and Roark's minds to do something which was a violation of our customs and laws. They had to have used magic to make me believe that Roark was my true mate, even though he was not. What would they get by preventing me from meeting my real true mate? 

When I put my mind to it, I realised that it could have been Roark himself who cast the spell since his mother was a fairy and he was a dragon-fairy hybrid. But I was still unable to understand why would they do such a thing. 

The Phoenix clan had been one of five strongest dragon clans for a long time, however, since the reign of King Fin, it had risen to be the second strongest. The only clan stronger than them was us. So was this all about power? But what would they accomplish?

Questions kept floating through my mind, but the answer could not be given until we knew the actual reason, all we could do was speculate. 

I eventually started to doze realising that only within a few hours the initial portion of the first phase of our plan was already accomplished and now the plan was in motion.

Roark's POV:

After leaving from Nuri's place, I returned to the castle and went straight to the chamber assigned to me. On opening the door I found my father sitting on the couch.

As he saw me he questioned, "So? Where is she? Why is she not back with you?"

"Father, I think dark magic is involved, she was led to believe that I was killed." I continued to explain in explicit detail how she had reacted to seeing me, leaving out the parts so my father would not figure that I had actually grown to love the female he wanted to use. I finally ended by saying, "She is currently living in the mortal city. King Devlin has given her a house there. And based on her behaviour she will need some time."

Father had listened to me while I spoke but now he just scowled, "This does not answer all my questions. Are you going deaf?"

"Father, I know exactly where she is and she needs time to heal. That is why is not back with me." I stated bluntly.

On the completion of my sentence, I was slapped across my face with such force that I fell to the ground.

"DO NOT THINK SO MUCH OF YOURSELF THAT YOU DARE TO BACK-ANSWER TO ME!  First, you could not even to get her to mate with you. Then came the whole drama of her not going to mate with you till she is 18. Following which she declared that she would not mate with you until you'll are married even after she turns 18. You have only given me one successful result, making her believe that she was your mate. But after that, you have been completely useless. It has already been 3 years. And now you dare to talk back to me!"

For each thing which had hindered my father's plan, I received another hit.

He finally allowed me to stand only to pull me close to him and whisper in my ear, "You better mate with her and impregnate her soon, or it will be you who is dead and me who will be her second chance mate!"