Chereads / Beast and Prince / Chapter 20 - childhood memories

Chapter 20 - childhood memories

Her eyes spotted the food stall the prince had talked about, and her mouth quickly filled up with her own saliva again as the prince took it upon himself to go fetch food for the two of them.

This time they found a rickety wooden bench to sit down on. They shared the seat as they began eating the fluffy mounds of potato inside their bowls. She was happy the prince asked for more meat on hers, as good as the mash was by itself, she felt the meat added a whole new layer of taste. It was a whole new food that she had never eaten before. She liked the way the fluffy mash of potato went down her throat with ease, its special blend of spices created such a simple but flavorful dish.

"It's good isn't it?" Prince Sam asked her after lifting another spoonful of the food into his mouth. "We'll have to return the bowls but it's still easier than taking the time to be seated at a table."

"Do you do this often?" She asked him as another spoonful went into her mouth.

"I did when I was younger," his lips curled into a reminiscent smile, "not so much now as I can't escape as easily because of my quick-thinking aide." She nodded as she remembered the sharp-featured aide she had met when they had dinner at the prince's palace. Somehow she could effortless picture a much younger version of the Third Prince, he seemed to her like he would have been one of those children who would always find some way to scrape his knees, the rambunctious type that never ceased playing.

"You must have been quite a handful," she commented, the image of the younger prince escaping from under his escorts' noses played through her mind. "When I was a child I was too scared of my parents to ever disobey them."

Her hand froze in midair as she held onto her spoon. Her mind had slipped and she had mentioned something she would normally never say. Especially to someone she was supposed to sever ties with as soon as possible.

"How was your childhood?" He casually asked her, studying her face for any signs that he had crossed the line with his question.

After a moment, she decided she would answer him. She didn't need to make such a big out of answering his question about her childhood.

"I grew up in a small village," she wanted to say the name of her village but decided against it as he would most certainly not know of the place, "it was nestled in a valley between two of our biggest mountain ranges. My father was one of the village's main Hunters which meant he would leave our home early. As long as there was enough light outside to be able to see the prey, he would be out on the mountains Hunting. My mother was in charge of tanning the hides."

"They sound like they were good people." He listened intently to her as the corners of his eyes crinkled and he smiled in the usual way of his.

"I suppose they were good people. They taught me everything that I needed in order to survive." She didn't want to make her parents out to be something they were not. They weren't warm and they certainly weren't as loving as he might have been thinking.

"They were strict with my upbringing. My father made sure I knew how to Hunt and my mother corrected me whenever I misbehaved." She didn't know why she was explaining how her parents were. The prince didn't need to know nor would he remember her much after she returned to her homeland.

"Correct you?" The smile that had been on his face was nowhere to be seen. "Did she hit you?"

She drew in a short breath before sharply exhaling it out. Again, her words had spilled from her mouth in another slip of her tongue. Why was it that she could not keep herself in check whenever she was with the prince?

"Some Beasts educate their children that way." She shifted her eyes away from the prince, not wanting to see the horrified expression on his face. "I suppose that means your noble father never lifted a hand against you despite how much you displeased him?" Her brusque voice surprised even her, as an unexplainable emotion bubbled up inside of her. She suppose talking about her parents exposed some sour feelings she never fully got to explore because of their untimely deaths.

"I apologize Pri-"

"Sam," she quickly corrected herself. "You don't need to answer me, I was out of line with my question."

"Kiera," one look at his face and she felt that her whole insides warmed up, "I'm fine. You don't need to apologize to me." His affectionate smile gripped at her heart and as she looked at him she realized how close they were to each other. She was able to see his eyes in greater detail. She could see his delicate eyelashes move every time he blinked.

"My father isn't the best at holding back his anger," he began answering her question, "but even so, he has never once lifted a hand to beat me despite my entire existence being akin to that of a giant thorn at his side. I'm just not seen as that much of a threat to him or to any one of my brothers. No matter what I may do, I am simply an easily disposable fool in their eyes."

Something about the way he said that made Kiera think he really didn't think himself the same way his family thought of him. Her eyes caught the moment his eyes hardened before they reverted back to their lighter lustor.

"My father never hit me, but only because he had no reason to. Throughout my childhood I had only seen my father a handful of times, I met him for the first time on my tenth birthday. It was my sweet mother that took care of me until I was old enough to be sent away to study abroad. When I finally went back home that was when I found out she had passed away."

Kiera didn't know what to make of this latest revelation. She wanted to somehow fill up the silence that stretched between them but she didn't know any other way except to talk more about herself.

"My parents," she cleared her throat, "they died when I was eight. My whole village was killed after we came under attack by a band of deranged Beasts." She saw the puzzled expression on his face and quickly explained.

"The Deranged are what we like to call Beasts who don't follow the Law. They believe themselves to be free as wild animals. They believe they're free to do whatever they please even if that means killing other Beasts."

"When I took up my position I mainly focused on Hunting down as many of the Deranged as I could." Without meaning to, her face twisted up. "Though I quickly came to find there would never be any shortage of deranged Beasts. No matter how hard I tried they always sprouted up from every corner of Wolfcyre Forest. Even when I pushed myself to my absolute limit, I would always hear of another attack, of another child that lost their everything in the blink of an eye." Just like she had.

Her parents were far from the ideal, but they were still her parents and they died horribly at the hands of the Lawless. When she thought of them she could still see their lifeless eyes peering back at her, their mangled bodies laid above the pools of their own sticky blood. She could remember that fateful night with such vividness that she swore she could still hear her village's screams, she could smell the sickeningly metallic scent of blood as it hung heavy in the air. She could see her parents' guts strewn across her family's home.

"Kiera?" She heard the prince call out her name and she jolted back to the present. He reached out to her with his hand and she immediately pulled back her face on instinct.

"You're crying."

She blinked and a tear fell from where it had welled up inside her eye. Kiera couldn't believe it. She reached up to her face and wiped at the tear that had escaped from the usually placid Beast General.

"I don't know why I'm crying. I don't usually cry." She also didn't know why she was explaining herself to him, but of course, as she explained herself another tear fell from her eyes, followed by another.

She felt the prince reach underneath his cloak to retrieve something from his pant pocket. He tried to give the square piece of fabric to her but she refused with a shake of her head.

"It's to wipe away your tears."

"I know what it is for." She retorted back to him. Kiera angrily wiped at her face as more tears streamed down from her eyes. She knew she was showing so many different sides of her to the prince, sides that she wouldn't dare show anyone else. She had been taught to be strong above all else, to show resilience in the face of her biggest foe. She is, after all, a Predator Beast, and a Wolf no less.

"Kiera," as her eyes cut back to the prince, more tears dropped from her eyes, "I've reached my limit." He whispered down to her, inside his serene green eyes she saw a different emotion hidden within that made her breathing stutter.

Before she could open her mouth to ask what he meant, she felt his arms wrap around her. She was pulled in close to him in an embrace she had never experienced before. She rarely hugged anyone, let alone a man.

She immediately pushed herself away once her nose caught a whiff of his scent. The smell of meadows and of all different kinds of plants was too overbearing in her current vulnerable state.

She stopped her attempt of pushing away from him when she felt his arms around her slightly tighten. He had no intention of letting her slip away from his hold. Her tears had stopped, only to start all over again as she buried her face into the prince's shoulder.

She did not sob. She did not let out a single noise from her mouth. She only held on to the man next to her tightly as tears fell down her face.