Chapter 53: Dealing with the vicious red head!

Dominic Vanhuesan was currently setting a lot of ladies hearts into fire as he leisurely strolled around the royal grounds of Valyria. He was doing it ever so nonchalantly but he clearly had a purpose in his mind, and that was to ‘accidently’ run into the princess as if by fate.

He was embarrassed by his behavior yesterday, of how he was unable to retort anything witty back and all he could manage was to stare at her blankly, open mouthed like a fool and he intended to fix her image of him. He intended to charm her.
He finally found himself smiling and stopping in his way when he finally caught sight of the woman, he had been ardently looking for everywhere.

She was ever so nonchalantly feeding her Falak dragon some meat from a gigantic basket and the dragon was whooshing everything down that she gave him, apparently being ravenous.
He suddenly found himself loosing the little confidence he had built up his way here. What was it about this woman that made him so rattled down and nervous to the very core? He was Dominic Vanhuesan, the direct descendant of Count Dracula. He was the most sought-after man in this world and still he was a complete mess when in front of her.

He paused on his way as he saw his grand uncle headed straight towards Selena. He frowned at Caro Silva, wondering what the hell he was doing in the Kingdom of Valyria?
Selena noticed Caro Silva’s presence and there was a sort of awkward air among them that Dominic was forced to watch from the sidelines, unsure of what was going on. Having already done a full length research on the princess, he knew that she had been engaged to his uncle fifty years ago, but the engagement had fallen through when they realized that she was not the first princess and later on Caro Silva had to marry her half sister, Vanessa. He and his grand uncle had always shared a cordial bond and Dominic had always respected him, but now for the first time, he found himself being jealous of his grand uncle. However not wanting to interrupt, he instinctively hid behind the huge oak tree, while silently eavesdropping on everything they were saying.

Caro hesitated on his way, being wary of the gigantic dragon, standing guard next to the woman he adored.
“Hey”, Caro murmured softly as he eyed the woman he loved warily and ensured to keep at least three foot away from the dragon.
Selena nodded at him, acknowledging him and Caro jumped to the point, not wanting to play any longer and waste any more time, after all, he had waited for over fifty years, “ Where were you all these years? How have you been faring? Why did you never attempt to contact me?”
Selena frowned at him, then said in a spiteful tone, disapprovingly, “Caro, I think I had made it perfectly clear that we were done when I left the palace fifty years ago, nothing you say or do can ever change my mind. You slept with my sister. You don’t have to attempt small conversations with me for the sake of allyship as it is purely awkward.”

Caro slumped his shoulders disappointedly and retorted back, “You never even gave me the chance to explain. You marched out with your dragon without even taking a second look at me.”
Selena raised an eyebrow challengingly at him and snapped at him, “I heard about your marriage with Vanessa right after my departure. After all your contempt and act of disapproval for the woman, you couldn’t wait to wed her.”
“Selena, I have already divorced her when it finally came to life what had exactly happened at that night.”, he stated calmly and Selena frowned at him, taken aback by the news of his divorce.

“And that is?”, Selena pressed.
“I was drunk that night, drunk enough to even put a vampire in a state of dizziness. At a point like that, my natural defenses as a shield were rather diminished and Vanessa had only dragged me back to the room. Yes, she slept beside me, obviously seeking for a chance to implicate me so that I would be forced to sleep with her, but nothing else happened.”
“Then you could have come clean about that”, Selena said suspiciously.
Caro hesitated for a second, then continued on, “Even though I was drunk, I was still a shield and someone deliberately messed up with my mind to think that I actually slept with Vanessa when I clearly didn’t. Only someone who was supremely powerful would have been able to mess with my mind even in a state of drunkenness. So at that time when your eyes for looking into mine desperately, seeking for an explanation, I truly believed that I had indeed slept with your sister and hence I couldn’t say anything to defend myself.”
Selena scowled at the man in front of her, as her mind started reeling, having already figured out who could attempt such a vile, unscrupulous thing.
There was only one person in the royal family who had mind related powers……The Queen.
“My mother”, she murmured to herself and Caro winced at her.
Selena then remembered how her mother had repeatedly asked her to woo Caro, but to make sure as to never fall in love with him. And she had promised her that the marriage with Caro would never take place as he already had a concubine and a son.
So, this was what she had been talking about. Her mother never meant for this marriage to happen. She merely played along with it for the sake of securing an ally.
Selena’s fingers formed into a tight fist, furious that her mother had once again so shamelessly interfered in her life, and made decisions for her without her consultation. It was true that she had really been wary of Caro at the beginning because of his rather old fashioned thoughts and lifestyle, but over time, she had warmed up to him and genuinely loved him and yet her mother had to ruin everything. Without another word, Selena stalked off, presumably to confront her mother, leaving a flustered Caro alone. And seeing that Selena had stalked off, the dragon too raised on its hind legs and took off into the forest.

He desperately hoped that everything would be once more alright between them now that she had found out the truth about what exactly had went through that night and him having already divorce Vanessa. At that time, when he too firmly believed that he had committed the atrocious act, he didn’t want to ruin the reputation of a noble lady and was forced to take responsibility for an action he didn’t commit. The thought that had been eating him away was why did the Queen help Vanessa? Only later did he realize that it had been two different plans from the two different ladies that had ironically enough worked in both their favor as both of them achieved their desired objective and the Queen had very conveniently made use of Vanessa when she found out about Vanessa’s attempts to get into my bed, which ironically worked out well for the both pf them.

After his marriage with Vanessa, his people had protested against taking her as their Queen as they had already accepted Selena as their rightful one and wasn’t too fond of Vanessa’s arrogant and domineering nature.
He had come to Valyria to send her back home after the divorce, that’s when he had learned that the first princess was back and about his grand nephew’s attempt at invasion.

He heard a rustling of leaves behind the trees and frowned. Within a second, he ambushed the eavesdropper, slamming him hard in to the bark of the oak tree in which he had been hiding. He let go in surprise, astonishment flooding his face when he realized who it was.