A king's desire

Chapter 2

Alexander

I sighed softly to myself as I walked out onto the training grounds. An annual inspection of the knights. It was simply a formality at this point though. I had a whole trip to plan and this was a waste of my time. My steward and one of my personal guards followed as I approached the captain. He bowed deeply to me as I approached. The respect a king deserved and yet I found a lot of it far too tedious. Too rigid. Yet I could not show weakness. My face remained stone cold and emotionless as always.

"Your majesty. Welcome." The captain greeted me and I gave a small wave to my steward. He stepped forward and spoke to the captain, writing down the report for me. I would read it later. My eyes swept the grounds and a flash of silver caught my eye. I turned to see the female knight from a few days ago. Her hair wasn't tied up and it hung down her back to the back of her thighs. Her shocking purple eyes were looking down towards the targets at the end of the shooting range and I noticed the bow in her hand for the first time.

She was shockingly beautiful for a knight, perhaps even for just a woman. I had only met one other person with silver hair but I had never seen eyes that color before. They were like jewels and it was no wonder that she had a small crowd behind her. She was focused though as she raised the bow to take a shot. Her body was smaller than I would have expected, but as she pulled the bowstring back I once more saw her muscles tense like in my study. It was clear that she was far stronger than she appeared. Though her thin waist and ample assets would be put to just as good use in a dress. I couldn't help myself as I briefly wondered how she might look naked. She was enchanting to look at and she drew in the gazes around her.

As she let the arrow fly, I looked down at the targets and frowned as I saw she hadn't hit any of them. Though somehow the men watching her cheered loudly. My guard scoffed beside me and shook his head at the absurdity of it. How could they cheer such a failure? The captain walked back up to my side with a hearty chuckle.

"Well, I'll be. She did it. Guess I owe her now." He laughed like a proud father and I turned to him. I gestured to the targets.

"It would appear that she missed." I stated flatly. My steward adjusted his glasses lightly before nodding at my assessment. The captain frowned as he followed my hand to the targets and laughed again.

"If you're looking there, yeah. She wasn't aiming for those. Got too easy for her after a week. Her target is over there." He said, pointing past the targets and towards the tree line around the grounds. Sure enough, in the distance, a small target had been fixed to one of the trees which now had an arrow sticking into it. My guard began chuckling as he saw it as well. I almost couldn't hide my surprise. "I bet her it would take a year to hit it. It's been six months. I owe her a whole silver. Eyes like a hawk that one. Maybe it's the purple." He laughed again. I turned to my steward.

"Assign her to the travel party. I want her eyes watching our backs." I said simply and he nodded, making a note quickly. My eyes traveled back to Cassandra as she held her bow in triumph over her head and beamed in pride as the men praised her. There was a stir in me at the sight of her pure joy. "Tell her to pack light," I said, looking toward the captain. He nodded quickly and bowed to me.

"Oi! Back to it!" He called and the eyes of the entire group turned to us. When they spotted me, they ran to get back to their training. Cassandra stood frozen briefly and then she bowed deeply in shame once more. The sight of her showing such deep respect and shame to me only caused the stir to grow. She placed down her bow and ran to collect her arrows. The captain strolled over to her and I watched as he approached.

She didn't even dare to look my way again as they spoke. Her eyes went wide and she shook her head quickly. She said something and I watched as the answer made her shoulder deflate. I felt my jaw clench softly as she bowed sadly and nodded. Was guarding me such an awful fate? Did she hate to be around me so much? She didn't even look at me if she could help it. I turned and started to walk back inside before I could grow angry over this one woman.

It wasn't long before I was met by my mother just inside. I sighed softly and she frowned deeply at me.

"Alexander, must you turn down every woman I pick for you?" My guard and steward took a stride to fall back as my mother joined me on my way to my study.

"I have no use for a bride mother. Especially not now." She scoffed loudly at that.

"You must have a queen, Alexander. The people are already whispering about you. If they knew their next king could be born from a secret meet-up there might be more than just whispers." I stopped in my tracks at that. My mother stumbled slightly at my sudden stop.

"Let them talk if they like. What I do is none of their business. I am their king. I am far too busy to get married." My mother had found out about the women I had snuck into my bedroom a few times and had not been happy. Though I didn't care. I had a lot on my shoulders. My father had left a mountain of things when he died. I had only taken the throne two years ago and I was still dealing with it.

"Alex, you are 20 now. Your father and I were married at 16. You are far too old to be throwing a tantrum." She sighed deeply and her shoulder slumped softly in defeat. "Would you at least dance with a few ladies at the upcoming banquet? For your mother." She pleaded softly and I rolled my eyes. My mother and my most trusted confidantes were the only ones I showed my emotions to. She clasped her hands together and closed the distance between us. I sighed deeply.

"Fine. Pick them if you like and I will allow them a dance." I hated dancing at those things. Everyone wanted to dance with me since I had no queen yet. The women at those things treated me like some prize cow that they wanted to win. I turned and continued my walk toward my study.

"I'll pick the most beautiful ladies for you my son!" My mother called to my back as I walked away. I scoffed to myself. Beautiful or not, I didn't care. I still had no plans to pick any woman.