CHAPTER 63

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CHAPTER 63

Tonight, the tree people lead me to the prince’s house. The prince met me at the door. He takes my hand and tells the tree people they are excused.

“Lana you’re as lovely tonight as you always are.”

“Thank You” I said making no further attempt to talk. The prince led me to a huge dining room and pulls the chair out for me like he had done the previous night. After I am seated, he takes the seat opposite me. He starts talking to me about Dominick. Asking me about how Dominick could have gotten in the incantation to get in the Fairy Realm. I tell him I don’t have the slightest clue as to how Dominick had managed to get here. Prince Osier finally let the subject go when the food was brought out. Tonight, we are having rack of lamb with baby potato steamed carrots and a salad. The food looks great and I’m hungry, so I decide to eat and try to keep the conversation going and see what I can find out. If I’m going to have to spend time with the prince, I may as well try to find out as much as I can.

After we finish eating and the plates have been removed, I find I had managed to keep the prince talking the whole time. I can tell by the way, the prince talked, that Dominick had been right he didn’t have the slightest idea Case is here. I also found out the tree people are the protectors of the Fairy Realm, and they come from the trees. They are unisex meaning they aren’t either male or female. The trees give them life they start out as pollen attached to the trees. As they start to grow the tree cocoons them within them. It takes about three years for them to develop then the cocoon breaks, and they are released. That’s the reason they're called tree people.

“So, is this Dominick your mate?”

“No he’s not my mate as you call it he's a friend.”

“By what the tree people tell me he seems to be more than a friend.”

“Well the tree people have the wrong idea.”

“No I think the tree people know what they're talking about. Maybe you only think of him as a friend I don’t know.  For him to risk coming here, he had to know that once he was here the odds were he would never leave here again yet he came anyway. That shows his true feelings for you. Not that I blame him. It would be hard to be around someone with your beauty and not fall in love with you.”

I felt my face blush at his comment. Not because he thinks I’m beautiful, but because of what he said about Dominick. Wanting to change the topic of conversation off Dominick, I asked. “Why don’t you just make me marry you instead of holding me and my friends here against our will?”

“I do not want to make you marry me. I want you to want to marry me. I have to hold you prisoner so you have time to get to know me. I hold your friends here for you so you will not be lonely. I am a good man and could make you very happy if you give me the chance.”

“You threatened to harm my friends tonight if I didn’t meet with you of my own free will as you call it. How is it of my own will if I know if I decided not to come, you would hurt my friends?”

“Princess I want you. Your friends are just a means to an end for me. I will keep them here if they can make you happy, but I will also use them to get what I want. I want you to come to me and tell me that you will marry me and have my children. In the Fairy World if a woman says those words, she can never change them, and she will be bound to her mate for life. She will only ever see him or be attracted to him. She will become her mate's slave. If I force you to say those words, then they would not hold true. You would never truly be mine.”

“Don’t you think it’s forcing me when you’re holding me against my will and my friends against their will?”

“No, not at all Princess, the laws of my land

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