Katarina's POV
"Please sir," I kept on begging him as I held onto his clothing like my life depended on it because it actually did. "Please don't let them take me away."
I watched the men keep begging as the man was confused on what to do. After a while, he dismissed the men.
"You two can go. When I need your services I will call you," he said as they both looked at each other before looking back at the man.
"My prince," one of them said. "We cannot leave this place without her. That's how important she is to us. Our elder sister will have our heads if we come back without her."
The man who was identified to be a prince looked into their eyes with anger as the men shook under his stare before looking at their shoes.
"And I will have your head and her head if you keep standing there, now disappear from my sight or face my wrath."
The men bowed before running off into the forest to leave us alone.
I was shocked when the men only hesitated and left. I had expected them to stay behind and try to fight but now they were gone it meant that I was finally free from their tyranny.
I was amazed by how much power this stranger possessed and how he could easily do whatever he wanted with no one being able to control or come close to him in power.
I had only seen two dangerous people bow to him and I felt like he had to be at the top of the food chain before that would be done to anyone.
Since I arrived here, all I had seen was people getting to insult me, so it was a change to see people actually bow to someone before me even if it wasn't me. It still meant a lot to me.
"Thank you so much, prince," I said to my feet. I was very grateful for how he had saved me and I was lucky to have bumped into him. I was sure if I had bumped into someone else the men would have killed me and the person to cover up the fact that I was being kidnapped and was about to be killed.
I was about to leave when he pulled me back which had me turning till I hit his shoulder with my arm.
This felt like a movie or a dream. It all depended on the one people lived to believe in. To me it was words having to deal with multiple emotions at once. I was happy, sad and confused as to what I was doing in this position.
"Where do you think you're going?" His deep voice had my insides tingling.
"Uhh… home? I guess," I said absentmindedly before rethinking but it was too late to change my answer.
"Home?" He chuckled. "You can't go home. Not before you give me an explanation on what is actually going on and why you were running through the forest this evening. Why are those men chasing you? They look like thugs. Forgive me if I called your brothers thugs."
"No, no," I shook my head, going away from him as I was ready to answer him. "It's fine. They do look like thugs by the way."
"I still need answers. Give me everything I need to know."
But I knew I could not reveal the truth to him. I didn't know what the consequences for telling anyone my secret identity in this world would be like and I didn't want it to be a dangerous one so I resorted to telling him a lie as I knew it would be better than the truth.
I couldn't come up with lie on the spot so I thought of something and while I was still trying to think of something to say, his eyes zeroed in on the pendant of the necklaces on my neck.
He reached for the necklace and turned it over before calling out my family's name.
"I recognize that name anyway. It belonged to the town's doctor's family. I know your father and I am really sorry about his passing away."
I could only nod as I knew now that lying would do no good seeing as the man literally knew my family name. Why did Jane have to be so popular? She was making my job a bit harder than it was supposed to be.
Maybe if she was born to some backwater family that no one knew, I would have gotten away with my lies but now, it would be harder to do that.
"Did you steal the necklace?" He asked as I shook my head.
"Why would you come to such a conclusion, my prince?" I asked.
"Because if you actually know who you are and where you're from, you should have told me by now. But you're still beating around the bush which tells me that the necklace is stolen and it doesn't help that I haven't seen you before. You are also stuttering to tell me who you are, this is also an indication that you are trying to come up with a lie."
Shoot, I thought. He was really smart. I didn't know what I was going to do. Now I was really screwed if I lied and he found out who I was.
"Now I'm only going to truly ask you once and I expect the truth and nothing but the truth from you. Who are you and what are you doing here?"
I still could not say anything to him. From the look on his face I knew he was serious but my soul was more important than whatever story he was expecting to hear from me.
"I will have you locked away in the deepest darkest dungeon if you lie to me young lady. Tell me who you are right now."
Now I knew I could not lie or I could risk being a prisoner.