Mattheus sighed and shook his head, remembering their earliest, hardest days.
Since Mattheus had pawned away his ship to have the money to purchase her legal papers, all he had left was the tiny one-room transport pod that he had taken to the auction ship.
Of course, at the time, Poppy hadn't known that they were essentially homeless. She had thought that this was where he normally lived.
She had seemed scared of him and would not talk much so he let her sleep on the only bed in the transport pod while he made do with a mat on the floor near the command chair.
It seemed to reassure her tremendously that he had not tried to physically assault her as soon as he got her inside the transport pod, and that made him happy. He did not want that haunted look to remain in her eyes for the rest of her days.
It was an entire day later that he finally got the chance to see the color of her eyes.
Since she had no clothes, and he had burned all he owned at that time on buying her from the slave auction, Mattheus scrounged around for spare change to purchase two basic black bodysuits and a pair of boots for her to wear.
When he brought them to her, he had laid them on the bed next to her.
"Wear these for now. They're not fancy or high quality, but they will at least keep you warm. When I can get more money, I'll buy you better things."
She had turned to him at that moment and looked straight into his eyes, and Mattheus had nearly choked on his own breath.
The girl had warm intelligent violet eyes full of a regal fearlessness that reminded him of his own mother's gaze.
But his mother was the Queen of Emporia whereas this girl…heavens knew who this girl was.
Those unique violet eyes were looking into his own sea green eyes with confidence.
"Thank you for the clothes. I know you spent all your money paying for my freedom. You don't need to spend anything more on me."
"Why don't you let me worry about that." He had tried to reassure her. He did not want her to think that she was stuck with an impoverished man for the rest of her life.
Mattheus Cordera knew his worth. He was the once and future king of Emporia. She just didn't know that yet.
"It's not that hard to make more money. Give me a few months and we'll be back on track again." He gave what he had hoped was a reassuring smile, but Poppy had not responded.
She had never asked for anything more from him after that point, so in order to give her some spending money, he had to make it seem as if he was hiring her to do some basic work for him.
It was at that point onward that she became his gopher.
She would 'go fer' this and 'go fer' that, running around taking care of the small mindless tasks that allowed him to do the more complex things.
The one thing that nearly broke his heart was when Poppy cut her long red hair short and turned herself into a young prepubescent boy to more easily run his errands without getting harassed by the pirates.
He understood why she did that, but the knowledge still did not make it easier for him to have to accept the fact that she had to hide her beauty in order to live in his world.
The transport pod would be their permanent home for the next six months while he worked various high-risk gigs to pay off the pawn broker who was still holding onto his warship.
By the time he had gathered enough funds to pay the pawn broker to reclaim his warship, Poppy had completely turned into his right-hand man.
He remembered the day he had proudly shown her the ship that he had been able to reclaim.
She had smiled as he took her around to show her the interior and when he asked her which bedroom she wanted to claim, she had looked at him with those strange violet eyes full of surprise.
"Why should I choose a bedroom for myself? I'm supposed to sleep with you. Isn't that the reason why you bought me?"
He had sputtered at that moment, realizing then that she had been told by the slave trader that she was to be the bedmate of the person who would own her.
She had literally taken that to mean 'sleeping', rather than having any sexual contact, and since the transport pod only had one room, they were actually sleeping in the same room every single night.
Because he did not want to correct her assumption, they had continued to share the same bedroom throughout the first few years, although after he had regained his ship, he had placed a small bed inside the captain's bedroom so that he no longer had to sleep on the floor.
After the first year, even though he had begun to make serious money again once he regained his ship, Poppy never wore anything other than the basic black bodysuits that a warrior or space pirate would wear.
Throughout the twelve years she stayed with him, Mattheus had tried his best to shield her from the evils and nastiness of the pirate world and had given her a safe home. In return, she had given him all her love and had treated him as the only family she had.
Sadly, it was the pure wholehearted love of a younger sister for her older brother. There was nothing more between them because she simply never saw him as anything more than a brother and protector.
There was a reason for this and it took Mattheus almost a year to figure it out when, one day, Poppy inadvertently turned into a bat. He had confronted her and she had told him exactly who she was.
That was the day when he realized she was an Imperial Princess of Erenveil who was living with a lowly space pirate.
Mattheus knew one thing. He could never win her love if he continued to be a common space pirate.
At that moment, Mattheus Cordera made the decision to retake his kingdom from the uncle who nearly killed him and stole his throne.
But to retake the throne meant he had to be King of the Pirates. If he couldn't even do that, there would be no way he would have enough power to do what he needed to do on Emporia.
It had taken him over a decade of careful planning to achieve the first goal. He had worked like a mad man to become the Pirate King.
And then finally, after the heist of his life, the abduction of an Erenveil Prince to force the hand of the Emperor to take down his uncle Mortimer Cordera, he had finally been able to reclaim his rightful position as King of a world that was legitimate and not on the pirate side of space.
He was finally worthy enough to offer himself to Poppy.
But somewhere during his frenzied quest to become a legitimate king, Poppy had left him to go back to her family. He couldn't force her to stay with him, so he had to let her go.
Mattheus sighed as he looked at the visual stream and saw the way that King Ashwyn looked upon his precious Poppy. There was no hiding the supreme interest or the tilt of his head as he looked upon her with adoration.
The more Mattheus looked at the visual stream, the angrier he became.
King Ashwyn was a king of a world, but damn it, so was he! Wasn't he good enough for her?
Mattheus snapped his fingers.
"Yes, Your Majesty." His attendant came to his side.
"Get my ship ready. I need to go to Marakaran as soon as possible."
"Yes, Your Majesty."