Stolen by the Beastly Lycan King-Chapter 31: Jealous

Lorelai felt as if all of her insides jumped up to her throat. Both scared and surprised, she pressed her body closer to Rhaegar's, hugging him tighter which the man only enjoyed more.

Even though the distance between her window and the ground was not that great, she wanted to scream as she was frightened that the two of them would inevitably get hurt.

"Why, you––" Once they landed, Lorelai struggled to form the words, fighting with both her frantic heartbeat and the lack of air in her chest. "We could have left properly! I know a secret passage!"

"Shh!" The king did not stop moving even after his feet touched the ground. He glared at the princess for a moment, offering her a warning look, but he could not stay serious for too long––he was enjoying this way too much.

"You wanted to learn more about Gypsies, right? Well, in that case, the only way to do it properly is to start off in a Gypsy way as well."

"Tsk."

Lorelai clicked her tongue in disapproval but still had to admit that there was logic in the man's words. Every single thing he did in her presence was intriguing and fascinating, and she really liked it about him.

Suddenly, she realized that she had been clinging to his neck all this time, their faces almost touching with Rhaegar's every step. A strong blush covered the princess' cheeks and she tried to loosen her grip on him, but the king only held her closer, ignoring her meek attempt to create some distance between them.

"You need to hold me closer if you don't want to fall," he warned her, his amber eyes glowing in the dark.

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"I would not have it if you had let me take my cane!" She retorted but still followed his advice, resting her head on his sturdy shoulder.

"You don't need your cane, Princess. I will carry you around."

Lorelai pouted. "I don't need to be carried around."

"But that is no longer up to you, won't you agree? Can you guess who was it that tricked you into such an arrangement––a Gypsy or an animal?"

He scoffed and the princess could not help but smile, hiding her face inside the hood of his cloak to make sure Rhaegar could not see it.

As the rough fabric of the garment touched her face, she instantly drowned in a warm, almost intoxicating mixture of smoke, wood, and a pleasant blend of spices. It was his scent. The one that refused to leave her body after that night they had spent together in the inn.

She closed her eyes and tried to take it all in, feeling its warm and soothing combination spread across her body.

Everything about this man was dangerously unfamiliar and yet, his scent made her feel like he was the most comfortable person in the world.

Rhaegar's scent combined with the lulling movement of his stealthy steps started dulling the princess' senses. She was about to close her eyes and drift off when the king's low voice jolted her back to alertness.

"We are here."

Lorelai blinked several times before turning her face to her right and when she did, her insides began to tremble once again.

Unlike on the day of the festival, the Gypsy tribe was now located near the exit of the Capital, taking over most of the city's slums.

Still, even in the shadows of the poorest district of the Capital, their tents continued to glow brightly from all the lamps and little fires flickering around their tents, and just like before, with all the music and cheerful movements, it almost seemed that those people never stopped celebrating.

"I will need you to wait here for a bit," Rhaegar carefully placed Lorelai on a bench next to a large brown tent decorated with numerous colorful ribbons and fixed the hood around the princess' head.

"Where are you going?" She asked, scared to be left alone.

"Don't worry, no one will touch you," he smiled reassuringly. "Everyone has already seen me bringing you here which means they know not to mess with you."

He winked and before Lorelai could add anything else, the king turned around and started walking toward a group of his people who had been engaged in dancing and playing musical instruments.

The moment Rhaegar approached them, both men and women greeted him with utmost warmth and sincerity as if he was not their leader or the king of the Beast Kingdom, but just a common man, no different from the rest of them.

'Now that I am looking at him...' Lorelai took a good look at the lycan king. No, it was truly difficult to call him "king".

He was dressed in simple black fitted pants, a loose black shirt similar to the one he was wearing that fateful night of their first encounter, and a simple tailored vest with round gold buttons.

'If it was not for all that gold, I would have never thought of him as a noble.'

Gypsies seemed to love gold. Every man and every woman had at least three things on them made of gold and that was what surprised Lorelai the most.

'They are a nomadic tribe; if I did not know better, I would assume they steal gold from others, but they have been never known as criminals. Where does all that money come from? From Rhaegar?'

As Lorelai continued to wonder about the real origin of their wealth, her eyes instinctively wandered back to the king and the moment she saw him again, her heart skipped a bit.

A tall, astonishingly gorgeous Gypsy woman dressed in a simple black dress with green embroidery, placed her lean and elegant arm on Rhaegar's shoulder, leaning closer to him as if prepared for a kiss.

She did not kiss him, but her full, red lips moved closer to the man's ear, whispering something as they stretched into a light smile.

Rhaegar lowered his face, his own lips curling into a smirk. He then nodded at the woman and the latter slid her fingertips across his cheek, her round hips swaying as she slowly walked away from him and disappeared inside one of the tents.

The princess suddenly felt hurt.

Not wanting to watch Rhaegar any longer, she turned her head away and lowered her gaze to her feet.

'I must be a complete fool... Of course, men like him are always surrounded by beauties like her, why would he fancy someone as small and sickly as me? These women are full of color, full of life. He called me cute... That is hardly a compliment a woman wants to hear.'

Lorelai bit her lip and clenched her fists under the cloak. She was jealous.