The Alpha King’s Hated Slave Chapter 281

“Thank you for saving my life, Anarieveta.” Declan rasped at her hair.

“Thank you f-for staying alive.” Vetta cried, “You have no idea h-how… how you have helped m-me now.”

He continued, “All these years, I get flashes of our time in that cage…and my last moments. I felt so much hatred towards you,” he admitted, “my memories were all jumbled up. I remember a betrayal from a woman that has taken punishments for the King. I remember the woman stabbing me.”

Declan pulled back then and looked at her, “But as I stepped into the boundaries of Salem and my memories welcomed me, my heart set you free. I remembered fully then that it was the maid—Talia—who owns that rage and hatred.”

“It would have been a disaster for me if your memories didn’t return…” It was a joke, but it came out tearfully.

“It would have been. Because you would not have explained.” He stepped back.

“There was nothing to explain. I stabbed you. You died.” She shook her head, “There was nothing to explain.”

“Now, you can allow that guilt to let you go. You stabbed me to save my life. Here I am today… Alive.” Declan gave her a small smile.

She returned with a wobbly one. “Yes, now I can let everything go.”

Declan found that word strange.

Then, Vetta faced the King again, this time Declan has laid her bare in front of him. So, she can only stand and wait for his decision.

It came when he closed the distance between them and enclosed her into his arms.

She went willingly, letting the tears flow. For the second time for as long as she can remember, he was holding her so close, so tight.

And yet, it doesn’t feel like a lover’s embrace like it would have felt like to her before. Why? Does it have something to do with the fact that she is starting to see things more clearly for the first time in sixteen years?

“Nothing has scared me in a long time than these those three minutes I thought you really did have a hand in Declan’s dead.” King Lucien grunted softly.

“It was the second hardest command the Monster King had ever given me… right next to killing Yeaha.” her breath quivered, as she referred to Lord Gedony’s wife which was her first kill, “I couldn’t do it, it was t-too painful. L-Living with the thought that he died all these years has not b-been easy.”

The King pulled back then, he turned and stared at his younger cousin who he’d thought was gone… who’s return has freed his heart and gladdened it immediately. “I’m glad he is back too.”

Declan grinned at him. That boyish grin that is always so familiar lights up his face and reveals identical dimples on either of his cheeks.

King Lucien returned with a smile of his own. It was a full-blown smile. The first of its kind.

Vetta’s jaw slackened at the very sight of that transformation. King Lucien is smiling. Really smiling.

Searching her memories, she tried to remember the last time she has ever seen this look on him.

Her head came out blank. He is happy. Truly happy for the first time in sixteen years.

*******

Words of Declan’s return spread like wildfire. In Mombana, they were happy tears and jubilation in the palace.

Baski, Queen Danika, and Sally were in tears in the Queen’s bedroom. It was happy tears.

“Heavens, I can’t believe this!” Baski kept saying for the umpteenth time.

“Me too!” Sally, “To actually think that he’s Princess Kamara’s lover back at home…!”

Queen Danika remained speechless in her happiness. The pain in her waist was very forgotten under the onslaught of the news she’d heard. It has her too happy!

Thank the Gods… At least, one of Lucien’s family survived her father’s cruelty. Less pain in her heart, in her conscience. More happiness for King Lucien.

Her King deserves to be happy. “Thank heavens, he is alive… Oh, thank heavens…!” She cried in happiness, voicing it out at last.

Sally hurried to her and hugged her tight. The both of them held each other. Baski walked closer and wrapped her motherly arms around the two women.

It is a happy day in Mombana.

**************”

In the hours that followed, King Lucien and his brother remained in his Chambers, talking. Vetta had gone back home.

Declan told him everything that happened right from the moment an old woman drove him out of Mombana to the Kingdom of Navia. He told his brother everything about his relationship with Princess Kamara.

And in turn, King Lucien told him bit by bit the things that happened in the last six years. Starting from the feud they raided in Mombana and escaped. How he built up Salem. How he took Mombana’s princess in as a Slave.

Then, he told his brother everything about Danika. Right from her time of being enslaved, to the status of his relationship with the Queen of Mombana now.

“You love her?” He finally voiced out, his throat too dry. It was so unbelievable for Declan. He was too shocked.

“Yes. Wholeheartedly.” King Lucien admitted.

Declan can only stare at his brother with a jaw slackened by shock. His brother fell in love with King Cone’s daughter. He set her free from Slavery. She is carrying his child.

“Woah.” He has no words.

King Lucien shrugged, staring out of the window. Night has fallen. “I find it hard to believe too, but you know the truth, Deck?”

“What is it, big brother?”

“I do not think I can live without that woman.” He stated bluntly, “I do not want to. When you see her…when you spend a little bit of time with her, you will understand why everyone loves her. Baski. Remeta. The guards. The people. Chad. Z—”

“Woah, Chad likes her too?” That was a surprise. The guard Chad hates people in general. The Chad he remembers will never love any product of Cone.

The King’s lips curved to one side of his cheek, “He protects her with his life. And he does it wholeheartedly.”

“Woah. And Remeta too? It is all so hard to believe.” He g*****d truthfully. He tried to imagine himself liking Cone’s daughter.

The impossibility of it is too much to even consider. It’ll take a miracle.

King Lucien saw the look on his face, and he knows it for what it is. “You do not like her.”