VICTORIA'S POV

"Wait, what? You are kidding me, right? What in the world are you talking about? No, let me finish.

" I said when I noticed him trying to add something.

"Look, if you think this is some joking time, then it's not. If you haven't figured it out yet, then let me tell you, we are in the middle of a war, and seeing how you don't react to these half-humans and half wolves, I am assuming that you know all about them. How about we catch up a bit later? I have a king to protect on my bucket list right now.

" I blabbered, not knowing where it was coming from.

"Victoria, my darling, my savior, you haven't changed a bit. Still as sunny and funny as ever. I remember the day when I had told you that for saving my life, I'll make you a queen. Don't you remember?

" Robert said, making me go in a flashback of memories.

It was the time of autumn when I had come here for the second and the last time. Since the incidence of me being lost left a great impact on my parents, they decided that this place wasn't for me.

It was when I was playing down the hills, which I must mention, was me sneaking out to play because my parents won't let me off the house, I had found someone screaming not far from where I was playing.

When I walked closer to the source of the sound, I saw a drowning boy my age, flailing his arms in the strong stream. From the bloody water around him, I had depicted that he was badly injured and couldn't help but jump in the water to save him.

At that time, I was so proud of myself for saving a life that I didn't even notice that I had walked a bit too away from where I was playing and lost my way to find the source of the voice.

It didn't help with the strong stream of water that carried both of us for some distance before depositing us on the banks after we fell from the waterfall.

For two days, it was just me and that boy, and we had become good friends.

Since the boy was badly injured and looked like he has stabbed a few many times, I didn't let him do any heavy work and took it upon myself to take care of him. For two days, I was responsible for arranging food, water, and shelter.

It was funny how I had healed his wounds when I didn't know a single thing about first-aid. Now that I think about it, I think it was all my powers who had saved him that day.

When the boy gained proper consciousness, he told me how he was betrayed by his family and was stabbed to death, and it was pure luck that I saved him because he had lost all hope in living.

It was so sad to hear about it. When I had looked into his sad tearful eyes, I knew he loved his family and people very much. The little me was so angry thinking about it that there were family members like those, who would do such an audacious thing to their child like that, and at that time, I had told him to take revenge for what his family did to him. To pay them back with tenfold of the pain of what he received.

Now that I think about that time, I was really vengeful from the very beginning and was too negative at that time.

However, I didn't know that my words would make such an impact on the boy. I very well remember the dark glint that passed through his eyes when he had said that my words were a command to him, and for what I did that day, he will make my life tenfold better and will make me his queen.

Such sweet words had really appealed to me and made me feel loved at that time because I didn't have many friends because of my telepathy thing. I had used my telepathy on him, and everything he said about the betrayal and his story was indeed true, which lead me to trust him.

I had told him at that time how no one ever called me a queen and that in my school also, teachers and students won't let me play the role of the queen because according to them, I looked like an empty vase and was like a weird bad omen and that's why no one wanted to befriend me.

I had laughed at his statement when he said he would made me queen, thinking he was bluffing to make me happy and was joking like he had been doing for the past two days.

Remembering that day, I also remember that he had kissed my cheek goodbye when my parents had come into the woods in search of me. He didn't want to be found by someone and had parted ways with me before my parents could reach me. It was miraculous to me how he had known about my parents' arrival even without any hint from them. It must've been some werewolf thing.

I can't forget the words that he had uttered before departing and after kissing me,

"I vow my life to you, Victoria. I'll make sure that you are mine when we grow up. I'll become stronger for you, my princess, and will turn you into a real-time queen. I will cherish you and will love you with all my heart.

"

"Robert? You are kidding me, right? That's not really what you mean, right?

" I started, stepping forward consciously.

"Why would I lie to you, my love. To be honest, I had lost all hope in myself and felt mentally dead when I was being chased by the palace guards. I knew it was my end and I wasn't that bothered with that. I had nothing anyways. People hated me and I knew no one would ever love me. I was feeling all the negative emotions in the world until I met you. You gave me hope.

" Robert said, making me want to laugh at my twisted fate.

"Victoria, my love. You are the reason, I had been trying so hard to win over this palace. You have no idea how hard I've worked. How much I have loved you. I wasn't there by your side all these years, but I have been looking out for you these past years. I know I couldn't find you but the thought of you never left my mind even for a single second. I know you might not be my mate, but there is something higher and pure than this mate bond, and it's love, which I do. I love you so much that when I came to know it was you, Alexander's mate, the first thing I did was take away Alexander from your side. It boiled my blood when I came to know you two mated, and that was the sole reason I planned all this stuff, or I would've attacked long ago.

I wanted you to see that Alexander doesn't love you. You think it yourself, is it that easy to capture an alpha king? The ruler of the werewolves? It's all because he never loved you enough that he didn't want to come back to you, try harder for you. If he had loved you, then he would've used all his powers to break all the chains, but he didn't. Because he didn't love you enough!

" Robert said.

"Wow! Bravo, Robert! If you've been a politician in our country, you would've definitely won with your skills of manipulation.

" I clapped.

"Do you really think I'll believe your words just like that? Do you think, I don't know that you have a strong witch by your side, who is even capable of creating human illusions? If I would've known you were such a power-hungry mean person, then I would've never troubled my life to save you!

" I almost shouted.

"You are lying! You saved me because of destiny! It was fate! We were meant to meet and stay together for eternity. What if all this mate bond between you and Alexander is a lie? I got a witch to do soo much, but are you sure that Alexander is as clean as you think? That he didn't get any witch to create this mate bond. That he didn't do all this because he wanted to keep you by his side? Because he wanted a powerful luna?

" He asked, stepping closer to me while holding my hands, shocking me.

Does he know about my powers? No, it can't be.

"Robert, I saved you because I only saw a drowning boy at that time. If I would've known I was saving a monster, I would've never saved you.

" I spat before jerking off his hand, making him stumble.

"Okay, very well. Since you are not leaving me any choice, I'll just use force then. Leave the girl and kill the rest of them. Attack the mansion!

" Robert hollered, pulling me closer to him, and immediately tens of wolves started piling in front of me with red blazing eyes as if ready to hunt me down.

"You can kill me if you want, but I won't budge from here. I might not have been declared a queen yet, but I am Alexander's mate, which makes me the queen of this palace, and I will protect my people and these people are my responsibility.

" I hollered.

"Victoria, how can I kill you? Can't you see how much I love you? What is it that you can't seem to understand, hmm? You are fighting me, the person who loves you, for these people? See, these people don't even cherish you anyways. If they would've cherished you, then they wouldn't have let Laila beat you. They wouldn't have let you get hurt by Katie's and Aiden's manipulation. They are incapable of ruling this species. I am capable. Can't you see that? I'll love you with all I have. I promise there will be no other girl in my life apart from you. Not even a close friend, like Alexander, keeps saying who Laila is.

" Robert said, placing his hands on my shoulder again.