The Lost Warrior Princess

Struggles with in

My vision kept going in and out of clarity. I knew I needed to get back to the group so I could get patched up enough to make it to the cabin. As I’m about to speak again, Alice and three guards come running into view. Alice and the guards all have the same look on their face as they got closer.... relief. Alice came to a stop in front of me, looking me over just like how the prince did. Her eyes filling with worry, she went to speak but I held my hand up and shook my head at her to signal that I was okay. I didn’t want everyone to know how bad it really was. The guards had created a perimeter around us, Alice glanced at the prince and then back at me before her eyes fell on the large black wolf laying motionless on the ground. I stepped towards it and pulled the knife out of it neck, turning and holding it out to the prince. I slapped it down in his hand before speaking. “next time I give an order for you to retreat to safety, you do it.” With that I started heading back to the others with my hand pressed to my side to slow the bleeding.

Alice walking next to me, I could tell she wanted to ask something but didn’t because of the enhanced hearing the prince and guards had. The prince walked behind us and the guards walked in a protective formation around him.

I could feel the eyes of the prince and Alice on me as we got back to Riley, Max and the other guards. I went to my saddle and grabbed my first aid kit out.

Grabbing out the bandages, antiseptic and a cotton cloth to place over the wound. I pulled my shirt up carefully letting out a hiss of pain as I pulled my shirt from the open claw marks on my right side.

Alice came over to help me. Pouring the antiseptic over the open wound. Then she handed me the cotton cloth to place it over the wound, she then helped me wrap the bandage around my torso to hold the cloth in place as tightly as I could handle it being. After we were done, Alice helped me pack the remaining first aid materials back into my bag. I mounted my horse and gave Alice a nod to let her know I was fine, she went and mounted her own horse. Even though I was in pain, I didn’t want anyone to think I was weak. I could handle this.

Before we could get moving the prince spoke, “you should come up here so that someone can keep an eye on you.” everyone was looking at me. God he really had a way of being a pain. First he disobeys me and now he wants to have someone babysit me. Like hell I was going to be okay with that, just as I was about to voice my disapproval Max spoke. “I will swap positions with you, I can keep an eye on you from in the back of the group.”

“ it’s settled then.” The prince said “you come up here and he will take your place in the back of the group.”

“It’s not necessary, I’m fine.” I replied. Max had already moved to stop next to me. He had a look of concern on his face.

“Cap, you don’t look so good. Maybe it would be better for you to be in the middle of the group, just in case.” Bloody hell, I guess I wasn’t hiding the fact I was feeling light headed and my side was actually damn near killing me.

I nodded and moved next to the prince, Alice looked me over one more time and Riley looked over his shoulder at the prince and I but neither of them said anything.

Everyone was just waiting while they stared at me, “alright lets move on to the cabin.” I say to everyone with a hint of annoyance in my voice. Riley and the two other guards set a steady but quick pace. We were at least another couple of hours from the cabin even with the faster pace we were travelling at.

Every movement my horse made sent burning pain up my side from where the wolf had shredded my skin. I wasn’t sure if I would make it to the cabin at this rate with how my vision was starting to blur around the edges, but I was determined I would make it as far as I could without blacking out from the pain.

I could vaguely hear someone asking me if I was ok but I just didn't have the energy to respond to them. I quickly squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them to try and get the blurring to stop. From the vision I still had I could tell that we were getting close to the cabin now but we were still a while away.

I could see the sky growing darker and darker but then again that could have just been my eye sight slowly giving out. I could hear my heart thumping in my chest the more my vision left me. I could feel that the blood had soaked through my bandages and was slowly running down my side and leg.

I moved my hand to put some pressure over it letting out a staggered hiss at the white hot pain that radiated through my entire body from the touch of my hand. That alone was almost enough to make me blackout but I kept trying to push through it. I could hear a muffled voice telling me to stay awake but couldn’t focus on who it was. I heard someone tell the group we had to move faster.

When we finally came over a hill that I hadn’t even noticed we had been going up, the cabin finally coming into view. It couldn’t have been more than a couple hundred metres away. We would be there in just a couple more minutes. I could feel the wave of relief wash over me as I felt my body give out, my vision completely blurring before going black. The last thing I felt was my body slumping over the front of the horse and someone’s hands catching me before I fell off my horse.

……………………………

Nicolas POV.

I was able to grab a hold of my mate before she had fallen off her horse. Worry started to consume me as I watch her get more pale by the second.

“Captain? Captain, wake up!” The big arrogant human yelled. He came up next to her and tried to wake her. It took all of my self control not to break the hand he had on my mate. “Luna, you need to wake up.” My mates name left his mouth.

How dare he address my mate like that. She is my mate! A low growl came from me as he went to move her to him. He stopped instantly and scowled at me. No way was I letting him be any closer to my mate than he already was.

“Your Highness, we can’t stay here. We have to get her to the safe house and treat her injuries.” Hunter my head guard said as he carefully placed a hand on my shoulder. I had to calm down before I killed this overgrown i***t.

Even though no one other than my mother knows who she is to me it still didn’t stop me from being possessive of her, my tiny fragile mate.

I nodded to Hunter, the stupid human boy tried to pull her to him again only for me to slap his hands away.

“What’s your problem?! Hand her here, I will protect her, I don’t trust you not to feed on her!” He said with pure hatred and disgust dripping from his words.

“I suggest you watch your tone when you speak to me.” I growl out while flashing my fangs at him. It was probably not my smartest move because he pulled a small hand gun out of its holster and aimed it at my head.

The small female with blonde hair quickly came around to be between us. “Riley! Lower the gun! That’s an order!” She was small but her voice carried authority, she must be the second in command.

“No, I don’t trust him.” He replied still pointing the gun at me. My guards had already pulled their weapons and had him surrounded incase he decided to be even more stupid and actually fire the gun.

“Riley, she is bleeding out man, just lower the gun.” The redhead spoke up. I looked down and my mate and I could hear her heart beat slowing down.

When I look back up he had lowered his gun but still had a scowl on his face. I pulled her to me as Hunter took the reins of her horse. I pulled her in close to my body.

“You hurt her and I will kill you, got it.” I nodded and quickly took off towards the cabin. As I drew closer I could see the protection markers around the perimeter of the cabin. All the cabins in this forest had been spelled with a protection barrier to make sure we had someone safe to stop and rest along the way.

Once I was inside the protection barrier I dismount my horse and grab my passed out mate. I rush to the door of the cabin and kick it open. I look around frantically for somewhere to lay her down. There is a small table off to the right by a small counter and sink. I lay her down and rummage through the cupboards to find something to put some water in and a cloth to clean the area of excess blood. I needed to be able to see how bad the wound was.

I found a small dish in one of the cupboards. I hear quick footsteps come through the front door. “I have the medical supplies from our first aid kits, what do you need?” I hear a female voice come from behind me as I quickly check my mate.

I didn’t think it would be possible but she had gotten even more pale. “ I need a clean cloth and some clean water along with antiseptic. I need to clean the area so I can see the damage.” I tell her, I think her name is Alice. I’m not sure, I haven’t paid much attention to her if at all. She wasn’t my mate so I didn’t have any need to give her attention.

She holds out the water and the cloth I had asked for. I grab the bottle of water from her and pour some over the cloth still in her hand. I hand the bottle back and grab the hem of my mates shirt and rip it up the side so I can see her injury better.

I grab the cloth from the girl named Alice and went to work cleaning as much of the injury as I could. When I was done I could see that the cut was deep, almost all the way through to her organs.

“See if you can find me a needle and something to stitch this shut.” I told Alice. She went and rummaged through the first aid kit and handed me some surgical thread and a needle. I wouldn’t be able to stitch her wound straight away.

I knew that my saliva would help her heal but not all humans knew vampire saliva had healing properties, we didn’t want our people being hunted and caged just for humans and other supernaturals to use them for their own gain.

I didn’t have a choice though, if I didn’t do it my mate would die and I would never get the chance to get to know her and spend the rest of our lives together.

I had heard that the blood of your mate was intoxicating to a vampire. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to hold my control long enough to just help her body heal or if the blood thirsty beast inside me would take over.

“Is something wrong?” I’m brought back to reality when a panicked Alice speaks. “Is she ok?”

“She will be, I need to do something to help her heal but I need to know that you wont speak of this to anyone and I need you to make sure that if it looks like I have lost control that you stop me by using any means necessary, can you do that?” I asked knowing that the only way to stop me from killing my mate faster than she was already dying would be to kill me.

She looked at me with concern but still nodded. I turned back to my mate and knelt down next to her. Her sweet scent was suffocating, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before I put my mouth to her side. I stuck my tongue out and the moment her blood touched my tongue the bloodlust hit me. Her blood tasted so sweet, the sweetest I had ever had. I had to fight for control, I wouldn’t be the reason for my mates death.

I was able to get my saliva deep into her wound as I could to make sure the deepest sections healed faster. As I continued to get my saliva into every cut in her skin, I could feel the cells of her skin knitting back together. I moved on to the other cuts in her flesh.

I could feel myself slipping into the lust to feed from her but I only had a little more to go. Once I finished I tore myself away from her. I had to take a few deep breaths to keep myself from rushing back over and drinking every last drop from her body.

“Holy s**t, what did you do? She is already healing.” Alice asked staring with wide eyes. I guess she didn’t know how vampire saliva could heal a human.

“Give me the needle I need to stitch up the remaining wounds.” Alice handed me the needle with the thread ready for me to stitch the wounds shut.

“Why don’t you just do that again and heal her completely?” She asks from beside me. I look at her sideways, she didn’t know how close I was to killing her captain. I didn’t answer, I didn’t know what to say. So I said nothing.

After I had finished stitching my mate up and had a clean bandage on her, I gently picked her up and took her into the single bedroom and placed her on the small double bed.

It was no where near as luxurious as the bed I was accustom to but I wouldn’t be sleeping in it. I gently placed my mate down on the bed. I look her over and realise that her clothes are covered in blood.

I walk back out to find Alice talking in hushed toned to the red headed human. “Is she ok? I need to tell him she will be ok or who knows what he will do. You know how he feels about her.” The boy says to her. “ I know, she is stitched up and out cold at the moment. We wont know until she wakes up if she is ok or not. Just keep him from killing anyone ok Max, can you do that please?”

The boy looks at her for a little while before he nods. I step out into the room and made my presence known to them. They both look at me, “she should be fine, she just needs some rest.” The boy names Max nods at me before he turns and goes to leave but before he can reach the door it bursts open and the human named Riley walks in and looks around.

His eyes land on the blood on the table before his eyes find me. He looks me over before his eyes land on my shirt. I look down and see the blood of my mate staining my clothes. He stomped over to me before he stops only inches from my face. “What. Did. You. Do?” He grits out through his teeth.

Alice and Max come over and try to pull him away from me but he struggles against them. He is much larger than them and it wasn’t an issue for him to shove them both off. “Riley! Stand down!” Alice yells at him.

“No, what did he do to her?! Where is she!? He has her blood all over him!” This human really has some issues. I had a feeling he had some sort of romantic attachment to my mate but until she knew what I was to her I couldn’t just snap his neck like I wanted to do. I didn’t know how that would affect my mate and I didn’t want to risk her wanting to reject me.

“Your Captain, will be fine.” I make sure to enunciate her rank to him to remind him she is his superior.

“Where. Is. She?” He grits out like a rabid beast. I don’t answer him, I just stare him down. I am a prince I don’t have to answer to a weak human like him.

“She is resting Riley.” Alice answers.

“I want to see her.” He demanded, like hell I was going to let another male anywhere near her. She was vulnerable right now, I wasn’t going to risk her safety.

“No.” I reply with a blank face, I wasn’t going to show my true emotions.

“What did you just say?” He asked.

“ I said, no.” His body tensed up with rage at my words. It was becoming increasingly difficult to not kill this stupid human.

“Riley, man maybe we should go and make sure the perimeter is clear, Luna wouldn’t want you to fight with the prince. Alice can stay and keep an eye on her.” Max said as he puts his hand on his shoulder. Riley shoves him off without even looking at him. He goes to move around me and my body reacts, in the blink of an eye I’m blocking him from the door.

“Move out of my way.” He grunts out.

“No, she needs rest.” I reply. Even though most of me wanted to prevent any male from being near her, the logical part was saying she truely needed to rest. My saliva would only speed up the healing, it wouldn’t heal her completely. It needed time to help.

“I want to see her now move you bloodsucking freak!” Within seconds Hunter was next to me with his knife to Riley’s throat. “You will remember your place, you do not speak to the future king in that manner.” Hunter said while flashing his fangs.

“Enough. Alice, her clothes are covered in blood, can you please remove her clothes?” I ask, I had had enough of this. Alice walked towards the door while Hunter still held his knife to Riley’s neck.

I opened the door for her to enter and then closed it behind her. We all stood there while we waited for Alice to come back out.

After what felt like an eternity in silence glaring at this possessive idiotic human that thought he had a right to my mate, she emerged from the room.

“She is fine, she is sleeping. Thank you Prince Nicolas for helping her,” she said with a small smile. “Riley, Max go and take first watch. That’s an order.” Reluctantly Riley stepped back.

“If anything happens to her, I will kill you myself.” He turned and stomped out of the cabin slamming the door behind him. I turned to the room my mate was in and went to open the door.

“Thank you, I know what you did wouldn’t have been easy.” Alice said, she didn’t know the half of it. I nodded before entering the room with Hunter hot on my heels.

Once the door was shut I slumped into the seat across the room. I rubbed my hands over my face in frustration. This is why I don’t interact with these warrior humans, they think they know everything and that they don’t have to respect the royals or leaders of the supernatural race.

“My prince, may I ask a question of you?” I let out a sigh already knowing what he is going to ask me.

“Go ahead Hunter.” I reply.

“What is this human to you? Why did you run off after her? Why are you so protective of her? I have known you may years and I have never seen you be so protective of anyone that wasn’t your family.” He was right, I normally don’t act so protective of anyone that isn’t close to me. “ my prince,” I hold my hand up to stop him.

“Hunter we have been friends for decades, call me Nicolas.” He nods and takes a deep breath.

“Nicolas, the only reason I can think of is that she is your mate.” I sigh, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hide it the entire time we were on this mission but I had hoped to at least keep it a secret a little longer.

“Yes Hunter, she is my mate. But she doesn’t know. You and my mother are the only ones that know and I would like to keep it that way for a little while longer.”

“But why? She should know what you are to her.” He replied.

“Hunter. As much as I wish to tell her, she is human. She doesn’t feel the bond like I do, it would be easy for her to just walk away from me. I need to know her before I can reveal that she is my mate.” It was killing me inside to think that she could reject me and it wouldn’t affect her the same that it would me. It hurt thinking that I would live without her if she chose to walk away.

“My Prince, as your loyal soldier I will not tell a soul. I will protect you and our future queen with my life.” He placed his hand over his heart as he made this oath.

I smiled at the loyalty of my long time friend. “Thank you my friend.” Hunter nodded and walked to the door. Before he left he turned to me and said “ You might want to get cleaned up though before she wakes, I don’t think your mate will be all that pleased at seeing her blood all over you.” I laughter to myself, he was right I needed to get cleaned up.

I quickly left the room to grab some clean clothes for myself and a clean rag to clean the blood from my skin.

Once I was done, I got dressed. I went to go back to the room my mate was in but a hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back. I could already smell who it was before I even turned around.

“Stay away from Luna, she doesn’t need some filthy bloodsucker around.” Oh how I wished this human wasn’t acquainted with my mate. I shrug his hand off my shoulder before turning to look him in the eyes. I had to maintain control, I had to resist the want to kill him, to taste his blood as the life drained from how worthless body. “ she doesn’t need someone like you in her life, I can take care of her and I will.”

This human must have a death wish. I gritted my teeth as I clench my fists as my nails extended into razor sharp claws. “You will address me with respect human.” I grit out. “And as for what she needs, that is up to her. She will decide who she needs in her life not some dim witted, idiotic muscle head who has a death wish insulting someone much stronger than them.” I took a step closer to him before I spoke again, “and I am finding it very difficult not to rip your head from your body and leave you here for the rabid mutts. So I would be very careful how you speak to me, are we clear? Now if you will excuse me I have to go and make sure your CAPTAIN is ok.”

With his next words I feel my rage taking over.

“She isn’t yours! You have no right to be anywhere near her! She is my friend, I have known her longer than you have and I know what is best for her! Not you!” He yells.

Yep he has a death wish, I’m going to kill him. “You are her friend and yet you didn’t say anything when she was injured, you didn’t insist of going with her, you didn’t go after her. I did, if it were up to you, we would have left her behind. You wanted to leave her behind to die.” I growl out at him.

He has some nerve trying to tell me he knows what is best for her when he was happy to leave her behind.

“I was following orders.” He said through gritted teeth.

“Following orders? If you were her friend you wouldn’t have cared about orders, you would have gone after her. I know you have feeling for her and I would suggest you back off because it’s going to cloud your judgement and get you killed.” His expression changed from anger to shock and then to pure hatred.

“You don’t tell me who I can care for, if it weren’t for you and your stupid family she wouldn’t have gotten hurt! You’re the reason we are in this situation in the first place! If we hadn’t been assigned to escort you, she wouldn’t be in there unconscious right now!”

Blood, I want his blood!