The Princess's Guard ✔️

2

Word Count: 1474

~Kiva

I stare at the mahogany door, knowing what conversation is going to occur beyond it.

"Fuck this," I mutter under my breath, knocking on the wood.

"Come in, daughter."

My father waits beyond his desk as I enter the room. The deepening lines between his brows tell me all I need to know.

"How many casualties?" I ask gently, not stopping until my hips bump against the desk.

Father runs his hand down his face. "Too many. We are lucky we are alive."

I shift. That's an understatement.

I should be dead. This morning I woke, feeling like I'm now living on borrowed time. Were that man not my mate...

"What made them back off?"

"You tell me. You were at the mercy of one, and they spared you," Father asks distractedly, sighing as he sifts the paper in front of him.

Memories flash through my mind, vivid and dark.

The way he had pinned me down against the bed like that, the raw power he was so willing to inflict upon me just to harm me.

What kind of man is that?

"I don't know father. I begged for my life, and whoever he was, he obliged me."

I can't even imagine my father's wrath were he to know I had a mate, let alone one that tried to kill me. Being a Princess only worsens that reality.

Father leans back in his chair, tapping his stubbled chin. "You're going to need a personal guard."

"I want Andri."

"He's gone, Kiva."

Grief nestles into the depths of my stomach, causing it to ache so badly I could double over from the pain.

We were friends, Andri and I. Those are rare for me, in the manor. I go rarely, so I would often confide in him.

I doubt I'll find that connection again, with another personal guard.

"I want to attend his funeral."

Father sighs, not looking up. "You can't leave these grounds, not for a while, until we track down who did this."

Turning, I sit on the edge of his desk, ignoring his gestures to move away from his documents.

"I can't believe I could have died," I muse quietly.

At the hand of my own mate, no less.

"Your personal guard will be arriving tonight from a nearby Kingdom. He will also be training you," father adds.

I whirl around, gaping at him. A new guard so soon?

"Training me? In what?"

"Self defence. From now on, you need to learn how to protect yourself in case this happens again. This man is apparently the best in the land."

Father gets to his feet, stalking past me and out the office. I follow him.

"Do you trust him?"

"He's an ex mercenary. He will do a good job," he responds.

A mercenary to protect me? I thought they were hired killers...

"I'm assuming I don't get a say this time." Such matters are not a Princesses burden, he has always insisted.