BELOW ZERO: THE DRAGON'S MYSTERY VOL 4 (Cregan Stark x OC)

Chapter Eighteen (Alana)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Alana

Winterfell

*SMUT WARNING*

ONE WEEK LATER

Aside from my usual sitting down with Cregan Stark for each meal we have now upgraded to spending the entire day outside the walls of the castle so that Jace believes we are actually planning some sort of a wedding. In reality, he takes me to a meadow rather than the Wolf's Wood so he can teach me to ride a horse.

It feels wrong to sneak around and to be lying to both Jace and Cregan. I love Jace but I do not want to leave this place on bad terms with Lord Cregan. I would have found a way to make this work had Jace not just shown up with some insane plan of just taking me back to Dragonstone and to what? Sit there and hope my mother doesn't hang us for getting married and showing Joffrey to the world as our son instead of just doing as she says?

And then what happens when word gets back to Lord Cregan Stark that he had been apart of an act of deception? Surely he'd feel some type of way and I'd understand exactly why if he did. And I know that once I do tell him the truth he will feel something. He might hate me. He might even have me killed... Sending my head back to my mother with a note that declares war on her for what she's done.

But.. Lord Cregan Stark is a man of honor and honesty. I shouldn't be scared to talk to him. Even though I am absolutely terrified of what he will say and do. I know he only wants to play the fake wedding card while Jace is here. Then he'll probably agree to let me leave and I'll just go somewhere else. Maybe Pentos or Essos? Somewhere far from here where I cannot be found by my mother.

There's a little farmhouse on the outer perimeter of the meadow that Cregan has taken me too. It takes a few hours on foot and half that time by horse to get here. We always leave Winterfell at first light and then make it back just in time before the sun has set completely for dinner. Tired and not wanting to even speak we always just sit down and eat before going our separate ways to sleep for the night.

Today I noticed Cregan had packed more than he usually does and packed his bow as well as his sword. Once we arrived at the meadow he started right toward the small farmhouse. I raised my brow at him and he smirked. "Want to see the inside?" He asked.

"Doesn't someone occupy the home?" I ask nervously as he reaches for the door.

"Yes." He replies. "I do when I go hunting. My father built this home for him and my mother's honeymoon."

"Ah..." I say as Cregan opens the door to the small little cottage. Inside is completely cozy. A fireplace that has the logs set up already and a table with two chairs close to it. The bed is across the way with fresh linens. I touch the mattress to find it's not straw but it is in fact a featherbed.

He hands his sword by the door and puts his bow and arrow down with it. "I want us to stay here until we completely get along."

"So forever?" I tease.

"You really dislike me that much?" He hangs his cloak on a hook and offers to take mine off for me. I decline and undo the brooch myself. Handing him the cloak and letting him hang it but never would I let him undress me.

"You expect me to really like you when your plan is to trap me in the place where you were possibly conceived?"

He looked at the bed and swallowed a gag. "Why would you say that?"

"Am I wrong?"

Cregan Stark shakes his head and suddenly I'm laughing at the idea of how many thoughts could be roaming his mind right now. Swirling around like some sort of wind storm and blowing in new reasons to want to burn more than just the bed in this cottage.