The ruthless king and his long lost love

Chapter 7: Rynn

Amanda has been leading me all over the place all day. Frankly I’m quite exhausted and I miss Phillip and Rowan. But it was really nice to be with Amanda and feel at home again, even though I’ve never been here. Amanda has done a great job of making feel loved and seen in the midst of so much anxiety and un comfort. When Amanda showed me my room I was shocked. It was way nicer and much larger than I would have imagined. Right away there was a big dining area with a round table in the middle of it, there was a bowl full of fruit in the middle of it and it looked amazing. In the dining room was a beautiful fire place with a couple chairs around it. Then there was a beautiful curtain and the bedroom was behind it. The bed was huge compared to what I’ve had for 10 years. And the bedding looked so warm and comfortable I wished I could wrap up in them right away. By the bed there was a huge window facing the forest. The view was so breath taking I couldn’t help but stare for a while. When Amanda come into the room with a dress in her hands I was a little shocked and confused at first. It was a beautiful pink dress with short flowey sleeves. It was the kind of dress I always wanted to wear as a little girl. It has a beautiful floral design almond the bottom to middle of it. The kind of dress that a princess would wear, not a nobody like me. Amanda must have sensed my hesitation, and immediately she started reassuring me, telling me that I was like a daughter to her and she wanted me to feel loved and welcome. But I can’t shake this nagging feeling of not belonging. I feel like an imposter, a broker little girl who won’t ever belong. Now we’re about to enter the dining hall for dinner and I’m scared out of my mind that everyone in there will realize how much I don’t belong here.

When Amanda and I enter the room it feels way too quiet, I thought we were the first ones there at first, then my eyes met the blue eyes I’ve been thinking about all day. The blue eyes I will never deserve. A chill rushed through me and my arms bust out in goosebumps. I force myself to look away, the intensity of his eye contact felt like it was burning into me. I wonder what he thinks when he looks at me. If he still sees the girl he grew up with, or if he sees a broken human, to weak to survive on their own. When Rowan walks over I feel a little bit of the weight on my shoulders lift. “Wow Amanda! You really fixed her up!” He laughs a little and I feel my nerves lessen. “Oh don’t listen to him Rynn, you look amazing” Amanda rubs my shoulder as she speaks. I smack Rowan in the arm as retaliation and we both start laughing. When Phillip walks up we make eye contact instantly and my heart picks up a little, but I can’t look away. “You look beautiful Rynn” his eyes pierce into mine as he says it and I don’t know what it means or why he’s been looking at me so intensely all day, there’s been times when I start to think that it might mean something more, but then I remember who I am. There’s no way someone like Phillip would ever love someone like me. I know I’ve been locked away for 10 years, but my mind can’t help be assume that he might when he looks at me like that. He doesn’t just look at me, it feels like he’s studying me, making sure that I’m safe and okay. “Thank you Phillip” I feel my cheeks start to flush and I’m powerless to stop it. When I look at Rowan there’s a look on his face I can’t quite read. It’s a mischievous look that I don’t know what to make of it. When a bell rings behind us, a delicious smell fills the room and I immediately search for the cause of that beautiful smell. “Man you must be hungry” Rowan’s teasing tone makes me laugh a little as I turn my attention to the group. Everyone is chuckling a little as they start to move towards the table “come on sweetie, let’s get some food in you, you must be starving” Amanda couldn’t be more right, all worries and fears leave me for the next hour or so as we all eat together like one big family. It feels like it did growing up, and that thought fills my heart with warmth. I finally have a family again. Rowan’s talking about all the training that he did today and how he got to be head of the royal gaurs. It’s nice to hear more about what my brother’s been doing over the years. We’ve mind linked a bit over the years but not for very long and not that often, it takes a heavy toll on us when we do it from great distances. He’s always been such a mature little man, so it’s crazy to see him all grown up and twice as mature. After we finish eating we all move out to the gardens, they are absolutely stunning. The sun is starting to set and there and so many lighting bugs out. The flowers fill the air with the most beautiful smell and it puts me to ease. We all walk for a little bit before Amanda leaves to get a couple of things done before it gets too late. I’m not sure what errands she has but it’s sad to say goodnight to her. Nothing about this day feels real yet, it still all feels like a weird dream that I could wake up from at any moment. “King Phillip!” I turn around to see a tall blonde man approaching us. He seems important based on the clothes he’s wearing and the way he approached Phillip. Everyone else I’ve seen today has been super respectful and almost fearful, but not quite. This man seems very confident though. “Liam, what is it now” Phillips time seems annoyed instantly. But this man, Liam apparently, doesn’t seem to notice or maybe he just doesn’t care. He looks at Rowan and then he looks my way and his blue eyes price mine. He gives a little bow but he doesn’t look away. I’m not sure quite what to do so I decide that maybe a quick small bow is probably the best move, so I bow a little and look at the ground for a second to try and escape his eye contact, but when I look up he’s still piercing me with his eye contact. He clears his throat slightly and then introduces himself to me “you must be Rynn, it’s a pleasure to meet you, I’m Liam, advisor to king Phillip” there’s something about him that I’m not quite sure about, something that rubs me the wrong way slightly, but I push it away for the moment and try my best to remember my manners “it’s a pleasure to meet you Liam” I’m getting more and more uncomfortable the more time goes by so I desperately look towards Phillip and Rowan to try and figure out what to do. The look on Phillip’s face scares me a little bit, if I thought the look on Liam’s face was piercing then the look on Phillip’s face is so much more intense. He looks like he’s mad at me about something but I have no clue what I’ve done wrong. The awkward silence doesn’t last long before Liam starts speaking again “King Phillip you don’t mind I’d like to talk to you about so thing real quick” Phillip lets out a long sigh before motioning towards a different area of the garden to chat at. Then all three men start walking away and I’m left alone with my thoughts and doubts. I start walking further into the garden towards the trees. At this point in the day I’m not sure if I’m actually emotional for a real reason or if I’m just tired. A noise in the trees immediately makes me nervous, I start to panic a little as I desperately search the trees for what made the noise. Then I see a white blur move between trees and I recognize what it is instantly. The wolf is back, but this time it stays. Slowly it approaches me from behind the tree. Its eyes are green as emeralds and they’re staring right into mine. I don’t dare to move, I don’t feel scared at all, there’s something familiar about its eyes. Something that’s not threatening at all, but a feeling I haven’t felt before. “RYNN!” Phillip is standing in front of me in an instant, facing the wolf head on, holding me behind him. I put my hands on his back and give it a little pat. That action sends goosebumps up my arms and I feel my checks flush again. I really have to get this thing under control if I’m going to be around him all the time. “Phillip it’s okay, it’s wasn’t going to hurt me, I’m pretty sure it’s the same one from before” he turns to look at me and his eyes are glowing gold. A deep and perusing gold. I gasp and little bit, I didn’t know they did that. Why do they do that? He looks back at the woods and the wolf is gone. Just like before, it vanished. I step out from behind Phillip, but he doesn’t fully let me go, his arm is still reaching across me, protecting me. He’s still looking in the woods searching for the wolf. “Phillip, it’s gone, it’s okay” he must finally believe me, because he slowly lets me go and turns to me. “You’re okay? It didn’t hurt you at all did it?” I can’t help but overthink when he looks at me like he is now. I don’t know what to make of it, but it doesn’t seem normal. “I’m okay, we only just stared at each other it didn’t get close to me at all” he still looks concerned and he hasn’t broken the eye contact yet. I wonder what he thinks about when he looks at me like that. Does he like what he sees or does he pity me? Could I ever be good enough for someone like him. What a crazy thought, I just have to keep reminding myself who I’m talking about and who I am. I’m too insignificant, too broken for him. Eventually he’ll find someone who can make him a better king and a better person. It’s just hard to remember that that’s not going to be me.