Dragon's Sorceress Queen

3. First Meet and Greet

Rosabella-

*Whoosh*

Another arrow pierces through the air and hits the target, a wooden bird's eye. I quickly get another one out and hit the bird beside it as well. 

Being satisfied seeing my work, I drop my hands to my side and view all my targets laid down on the floor that were once hanging through the rope. I've been training since a good hour now and practising my sword skills before taking upon the bow and arrow. The sky shines with the stars and tomorrow, it'll be a full moon. Besides the light of the moon and the stars, the mashaals set around the ground provide enough light to practise my skill. 

"For how long would you continue, Rose? C'mon if anyone sees you, it is going to be a problem. It's not appropriate for a soon to be wedded girl to be out of her chamber. You know what talks people would spread, right?" Nina says.

I swiftly turn towards her and smirk, "That's the reason why I'm here and not in the actual training ground. I don't want any more problems now." I say and turn back to pull another display of birds hanging through the rope.

I'm gonna get it this time.

"But anyone can see us here as well. You are going to get married, Rose. You can't behave like this anymore. Once you get married, you can't be the same as you are in your father's place. You know, you aren't getting married to your mate, for you it's an arranged marriage and you would need to compromise..." I turn at her and look at her with sharp eyes making her shut up. 

She knows I don't like talking about mates and still...

"I'm not going to change for someone else, Nina. This marriage is by my father's and Dargan's choice, not mine! So he needs to accept me the way I am or should've considered taking my consent before agreeing to marry me!" I say. This conversation is just boiling my blood again. I had come here to calm myself and after an hour, I'm again the same.

"Rose..." Nina tries to say.

"No, Nina. Please. You know I still don't understand why he would agree to marry me. His kingdom is the strongest and our kingdom won't ever plan anything against his and still..." 

The sound of arrows cutting through the air catches my attention and my head snaps to the targets. The targets get my attention first because I want to know who made all three targets fall at once by shooting three arrows at once.

"Alpha Dargan!" Nina says suddenly and instinctively, I turn my head to see the person behind before a thin piece of almost transparent cloth fall on top of my head and covers my face. My hands go to push the cloth aside but I feel someone yank my hand to turn me around. Everything happens so quickly and when the cloth comes off me finally, I see Nina's anxious face.

"Oh my God! Rose! He cannot see you! I hope I could prevent the misfortune before it happened! Now, before he sees you completely, we should leave!" She says all in one go and I stop her. 

"Calm down, Nina. Nothing happened except for when he shot three arrows at the same time! I’ve been trying to get two at once and he did it with three!" I say before swirling the cloth behind my head and wrapping my head with it. It is dark already and so I didn't find it necessary to put on my warrior suit and came down in my sleeping gown with a Dupatta, my long scarf. 

As I take the first step, I hear another 'whoosh' sound in the air and my steps halt when I feel a slight resistance. At the same time, I hear the sound of some cloth being torn. My head snaps to look down and I find the hem of my gown pinned under the tip of the arrow and the rest above is torn. 

My brows furrow and I snap my head towards the man I was running from. I keep my face covered with the help of my one hand keeping the dupatta in place. 

"Stay." And for the first time, I hear his voice. Deep and dominating, that makes me go still and gasp a little. 

"Alpha Dargan..." Nina tries to step in but suddenly looks down. She steps aside and I rise the almost see-through white dupatta behind my head and wrap my head at its one end before I take the leftover piece of the cloth. I first fold it to prevent it from being completely see-through and hold its ends and wrap it around my face except for the eyes before tying the knot behind my head. I give the final hitch to my knot and pull the arrow out from the soil before turning around to see the man I'd be marrying tomorrow.

I gasp behind my made-up mask looking at the man in front of me. He has a black, bold suit on with black bottoms. He has those carved black boots on and the fabric over his shoulder that depicts pauldrons. His face seems perfect with the gold of the fire illuminating his face. His brown eyes seem to be fiercer and his brunette neck length hair lay free and gentle on his head. The strands going at the back of his head in a smooth way. His nose is perfect and pointed. His eyebrows are arched in a way that matches his personality, cold. His brown eyes stare deep into my blue ones. His forehead has the perfect broadness to it and his beard is the gem of his good looks.

He looks so handsome that I don't think I would ever be able to put it in words. 

But why did he wear black? That's not believed to be appropriate to wear on any good occasion. It's impossible that he doesn't know about that. 

Dargan moves closer. He lifts his hand and reaches behind my head but I push his hand way gently with the arrow. His eyes squint for a second probably offended that I just declined his first move.

"Greetings, Alpha Dargan. As much as I hope for a better introduction than this, I can neither do anything to change the culture nor can I make the sun rise early. Please do not put me in a predicament where it would be rude to say 'No' to you and disrespectful by not following our culture." I say politely but he doesn't seem to be paying any heed to it. His lips form a small smile before he yanks me to his chest and I keep his own knife dangling by his waist, on his neck. Everything happened quickly and now I have a knife on the throat of the strongest man ever to be born in the world. 

I hear Nina gasp and Dargan looks down for a second.

"Roaming out in the night in thin clothing with wild open hair isn't appropriate for young maidens, Princess Rosabella." He says looking in my eyes with interest.

"This is my home," I say in a voice as low as him.

"Beasts don't see the place." He says.

"I thought you were a friend. It's up to you where you put yourself." I say with my hand still holding the knife against his neck.

His fiery eyes go down at my face before he holds the back of my head.

"I'm not a friend but more than that. And you are not like a gentle rose I had thought. Your name doesn't suit you." He says still admiring my eyes.

"So, I see we both misunderstood each other?" I ask just to keep this conversation going.

"We did." He says and his fingers start caressing my head gently. 

"Why are you hiding your face from me?" He asks.

"Because it is regarded as a bad omen," I say.

"Do you expect me to spend my whole life without seeing you?" He asks and I can't help but notice his lips. Moreover, his claim about spending our whole lives together does something to me.

I'm really going to spend my life with this man. This very man. 

"It's just for today. You shall see me thereafter." I say.

"Do you believe it's a bad omen?" He rather asks.

"It doesn't matter," I reply.

"It does. If you believe something is bad, it'll bring you the worst. If you believe it is nothing then it eventually turns lucky." He says and something snaps in him cause he suddenly encloses my fist with the knife in his and pushes it away from himself. The knife falls from my hand and I notice Dargan's hand moving. I quickly dodge it and run away. 

I wouldn't be able to outrun him.

 Being sure of that, I take the nearest sword and turn to face him. He smirks before a shrill sound fills the air for a second and I see a shining sword in Dargan's hand.

He doesn't wait and charges for me. 

"Rose!" I hear Nina while I dodge his attack by ducking down and move the swords to his legs which he dodges just in time with his own sword.

I straighten myself up and step back. I do not want to attack him because he has come to our Kingdom and I won't be a bad representative. 

He charges at me again and our swords clash together making a loud clink followed by many others as we keep going on. I can tell he isn't going harsh but at the same time, he is making me step back with each attack. 

"I like my preys fighting back, Princess. I don't like an easy hunt." He says pushing my sword down and keeping it there before I yank it away with mine.

"Easy hunts are safer hunts," I reply.

"Safe hunts are monotonous."

"It can't be regarded as monotonous if it had caught your attention, Alpha. I believe you like the ones who think they can defend themselves more than the ones who think they can attack you because if they do the latter, the chase stops early with you killing them." I say continuing to defend myself. I duck and go for the attack when he jumps and my sword goes sharp from underneath his boots.  

He stops suddenly and I standstill as well. He observes me for a second before plunging his sword in its dangling case. I furrow my brows at his action for a brief second.

"I don't go behind the weak prey. You had the opportunity and you didn't take it." He says.

"Well, I'm not opportunistic. I wouldn't want to make you bleed after just a few hours of being welcomed." I say and see him come close to me.

"Your statement makes me feel like I'm your prey. Are you sympathizing over me?" He says and a shiver runs down my spine when his hands slid down my arms and enclose my fists.

I feel his breath fanning my face as I'm shorter than him. 

"Maybe my name indeed expresses me the best. Maybe I can be really gentle sometimes." I say.

"You can never answer anything straight?" He asks.

"Is that a question?" I ask him again while smirking behind the mask. 

He stares at me for a few seconds before finally leaning down to whisper in my ear.

"I'll deal with you soon."