Chapter 10

Rhys stares at Ve's back as she walks away. Her pace is hurried. He can't say he has seen another moment in all these years when she has actually walked away from him. She is always just there, close enough to be a constant but never enough to be an inconvenience. No matter what he says, she just follows behind, and he has said much worse than that. Never showing a shred of emotion.

He still can't even work out what he said that was the breaking point, what she took such offense to. He didn't even know she could sound that way, her tone reminiscent of his father's.

Ve walks until the trees clear from around her and the blanket of green lays in front of her. The large castle looms above. Her place of residence for the last fifteen years, never a home. The only place that has ever felt like home in her life is the training camp and sometimes that just feels like a vague memory. The people there were not who she thought they were, so maybe no one is.

Maybe the pleasant memories were just something she conjured up in her mind as a reminder that the world is not as bad as it seems. Maybe she needed false memories in order to survive.

As she looks at the castle, the anger disappears, and she realizes that she made yet another error.

Now is not the time to be so emotional, she needs to protect Rhys. Even through everything, it is still her duty and her purpose. It is all she has known. She scrubs her hands down her face in an overly aggressive way, pulling at her cheeks as she sighs in exasperation.

She needs to pull herself together. What happened at training? It is a question that haunts her. As if she has been able to forget it for even a moment.

‘You have been given opportunity, you have been taught every skill, yet you haven't utilized any of it, all of this is a f*cking waste because you are not the person you should be. You are not doing anything you should be doing and all of it is going to result in your failure… It will all be on you because you were never good enough’

All Ve feels is cold at the words of her trainer and mentor, everything till that last day made her believe she had someone by her side, even with the rocky start.

But that hatred from her closest person, all her accomplishments were dismissed so easily as a failure. It was a personal attack that made her feel worthless. Ve expected it from everyone else, not her. Rhys' rant while it was directed at her. She knew where his anger lay, nothing cut her like what she heard the day before.

The rose-colored glasses shattered and, instead of being able to see clearly, the shards tore her eyes apart, she is hurting so much, leaving her blind and isolated in the process.

Instead of being allowed to take a chance to grieve, she is just subjected to more of the same. All of it piling upon her until she couldn’t take it anymore.

None of that is Rhys' fault, everything she has done today runs through her head. Even if no one else believes in her, she knows she has to do right by him. He has never been warm to her, but he deserves protection, he needs it, and she knows in a completely messed up way that she is the only person that can guarantee loyalty to him.

Her mission has never changed, it has been the same at ten as it is at twenty-four.

Ve swallows down her pride, it is just the nature of the job. She will never come before him and she's content with that. He is what is important, and she does believe in him.

Ve doubles back, she won’t admit that she is wrong, she will just fall back into line and hope that Rhys allows everything to go back to how it was. Rhys is in the same spot that she left him, still staring out into the trees, his arm still out stretched yet his fingers empty.

The arm finally falls back to his side as he feels Ve’s presence once again. It is strange to be so accustomed to it. Outside her training times, he expects that shadow. It is just now that the shadow is more dangerous than he assumed.

Maybe he always knew it to some extent because, as he now realizes, he feels more comfortable when she is around. He always assumed it was because there were an extra set of eyes watching, but maybe unconsciously he did feel safe in her presence, maybe his wolf knew something that he didn't.

Rhys may not be able to see her, but he can feel her, a ghost of a smile rising on his lips as he feels her oh so familiar presence.

He starts walking slowly back to the castle. The meeting with his father is completely stricken from his mind as he focuses on Ve and what it could mean.

He has not got the courage to bring up her training once again, but his interest in her as a person is growing exponentially. Maybe with her help he has a chance.

Through everything else, he has never once questioned her loyalty, whether that was just a subconscious thing because no one would care enough to try and turn her against him,

He has only seen such a brief glimpse of what she can do. But that was enough to turn his whole way of thinking. If he fails to see it, then there is no chance that anyone else has.

Maybe this could be his secret weapon? Or maybe the briefest glimpse has wildly exaggerated what she can do. For now, all he knows is he has to pay more attention.

Rhys emerges from the tree line with such purpose, appearing normal as if his massive outburst never happened.

"Ve"

Ve emerges from the trees, quickly falling into line behind Rhys, the same few steps behind him as standard.

"Yes sire?"

"What is on for tonight?"

Ve pauses, she is not sure what she was expecting, an admission that she was right, maybe agreeing that she will be his trainer, maybe just any acknowledgment of her skills.

Maybe the best she can hope for is to gloss over what happened. She feels a little disappointment in her heart, but at this stage maybe things will never change. She is not sure why she even expected more.

Ve remains silent for a brief moment, but anyone could just consider it thinking time.

"You have a meeting with your friends at the club at 10:00 p.m."

Ve releases an inaudible sigh, today just keeps getting better and better. Far from the few being Rhys’ friends, she considers them snakes in the grass.

In reality, every single person around the Prince is a snake in the grass, as was verified the night before.

While Ve’s head is filled with matters of security involved in an undertaking like a basic night out of pack. Rhys’ mind is taking a completely different route. While he understands how many enemies he has to a certain extent, he wouldn't even be able to take the knowledge of the sheer volume of people that would happily see him dead. He remains oblivious and Ve shelters him from that, because it is not his job to worry about that. That is all on her. She works in the dark so that he can live in the light.

Rhys is not as clueless as Ve thinks. He is well aware that the group he meets fortnightly aren't his true friends, but throughout his life he has had very little taste of what a true friend feels like.

They may be using him, he is also using them because he meets up with them for a brief taste of normalcy. Even if it is a facade, as long as he goes in with eyes wide open, then it is better than the alternative. Complete seclusion.

The problem is that the few are notorious playboys, who like to push women onto everyone else and, of course, Rhys is their favorite target, trying to make him as corrupt as them, or maybe in an effort to get dirt on him, but a bit of womanizing in his position is expected.

Rhys has been safe for the last six months with Arrabella's presence, but since he has not seen Arrabella, no one he has asked has seen Arrabella, and she has not responded to his text. He can only assume that he will be going solo tonight.

Rhys glances behind him as he walks and the strangest idea pops into his mind.

"You can accompany me to the event tonight"

Ve resists the urge to roll her eyes at the man. Of course, she knows her duty. If she didn’t, she would be long gone.

"Yes sire, that is my job"

Rhys chuckles deeply as he looks at the girl from head to toe.

"No, you misunderstand, I mean as my date"

Ve stops dead in place as she stares at Rhys who is facing the castle once again. She knows his voice. She knows every tone, she knows that he's not joking. Far from being his trainer, Rhys now wants her to be his date? If she didn't know any better she would think she was still sleeping because this is the most insane dream. Maybe it is some condescending nightmare.

"Absolutely not"