Bride Of The Tecan Lord

Nauel's POV MY MOTHER IS A PERFECTIONIST, perhaps that is why she has unnecessarily taken it upon herself to revisit my ceremonial routine each night since the beginning of this month. I am to be married in a few days, which is of course no new news, since my mother also took it upon herself to ensure that no soul in all of the Seven Kingdoms remains ignorant of the alliance between our noble Hohr and the highly respected Kingdom of Tec through my marriage with Raun Vine, the infamous Tecan Lord. Mother grabbed my cheek roughly, jerking my face forward and turning my chin sideways as she inspected my face. "Does it hurt?" She asked. "What?" I replied with a question. I knew my mother hated it whenever I replied to her questions with a question but I couldn't help it, I was confused. "Your face, does it hurt?" She repeated through gritted teeth. I felt the anger boiling within her, it was like a flame threatening to destroy everything. I straightened up in my seat and placed my hands on my laps in a little feign of seriousness. "No mother, my face is fine. Why do you ask?… If I may ask" I tried hard to mask the c***k in my voice as I spoke. "Then is there a particular reason why you are not smiling?" Mother asked as she ran a thumb across my chin before giving my face another jerk forward. There were a lot of things I hated about my mother. I hated the way her long fingers pricked my skin with each contact they made, I hated having to wake up to her shrieking soprano voice each morning to rehearse for my nuptials but there was nothing I hated more than the fact that she sold me off so easily to a man I knew nothing about, to a man closely associated with a curse. I opened my lips to speak but my mother beat me to it "I have no interest whatsoever in what you deem a good reason to wear a frown on your face but I want you to replace that dreadful look with a bright beautiful smile… c'mon now" I grimaced "But mother this is just rehearsals, you most certainly do not expect me to smile like an imbecile" "Everything you do right now reflects exactly how you will behave on the day of your nuptials… You most certainly don't want to show up in front of a kingdom like Tec with a face that looks like it saw a dead body before walking down the aisle" Mother retorted, her eyes subtly hinted that she would not repeat herself a second time. I flushed away the disgusting look on my face and replaced it with a half smile, I knew better than to argue with my mother, it would simply be pointless. "Good, now I want you to replicate this exact smile on the day of your nuptial ceremony... we don't want our in-laws thinking that the highly esteemed princess of Hohr is a sadist " Mother said crudely, a wide grin plaguing her face. She never felt the need to filter her words, they always came out as bitter as herself. My stomach churned as a certain thought crossed my mind 'You don't even know how much you've been sold for'. I remained smiling on the outside but I grimaced inwardly. "Tell me dear mother… Exactly what does our darling Hohr stand to gain from this alliance?" I mustered the courage to ask. "Are you pretending or are you seriously this foolish?" Mother retorted as her prickly fingers strolled towards my hair, tugging, pulling and gathering it into what seemed like a bun. She stood behind me but I could see the change in her eye shade through the mirror glass that stood before me. "Perhaps the time I've spent away from my studies has heightened my foolishness, please explain to me mother" I replied, it took everything in me to refrain myself from sounding ill mannered and uncultured. Mother sighed exasperatedly but that didn't stop her from answering me. "Since you have accepted to be foolish, I'll answer you just like I would to a fool… The kingdom of Tec is the strongest kingdom of all the seven kingdoms, do you know why Nauel?" "Yes mother" I replied almost immediately "Go ahead and tell me" "It is because they are the only kingdom who have control over the strongest creatures in the seven kingdoms… The—" "Dragons…" Mother stole the words from my lips. "Exactly darling… They have control over the dragons, do you know what that means?" "No mother" "It means that you, my darling daughter will be getting married to a Dragon Lord, your offspring will be of dragonlord blood… our dear Hohr can boast about protection from the clan served by dragons… we would become very powerful" mother outlined, almost cackling, the lust in her eyes could be visible to even a passerby. I clenched my fist and turned my face away from the mirror, fighting back the urge to cry out loud before my mother. The realization that I have been sold off to a tyrannic cursed Lord just for the sake of power made my dinner from last night threaten to surge back into my throat. I suppressed a gag, suppressing all my emotions along with it before turning to look my mother in the eye "And why does the Lord want me?" I asked, curiosity written all over me. "Because you, my darling, are of powerful noble blood " mother smiled.