Enslaved

Chapter 40

The morning was really rushed, with all the preparations of returning back home. Before I knew it, all was ready and father was waiting for me by our convoy with King Terrance.

"No baby you can't take all these pillows with you." 

Raph whined clutching the mountain on the bed closer to him, "Pwease mommy!"

"We have plenty back home, let go of them." I stared at him sternly, not understanding where all his stubbornness was coming from.

"What's wrong with taking them, Prince Dorian won't mind, neither will his father." Byron smirked at me and sped to the bed, sitting next to a grinning Raph.

My eye twitched as I tried to contain my annoyance.

Off course. Dorian, Carl and now Byron. Too much stubborn male guides, my sweet little boy is bound to take after them.

My lips thinned when Byron patted his head like he would do to a good pet but what riled me up more was how Raph beamed at him in pride.  

"I didn't know you were friends now." My annoyance managed to seep in my words and the pleasure in the king's eyes told me all I needed to know.

"What can I say, I am an amazing story teller, apparently."

"And shoft shoft hair." Raph added dreamily fidgeting with Byron's braid.

The pleasured flushed out of the silver orbs that now glared at my smug smile.

"Indeed. Lucky you, King Byron loves children and is utterly kind." I grinned when Byron narrowed his eyes as Raph leaned over him to get better access to his hair. I was loving where it was going. "And I am sure he will teach you how to braid by letting you practice on him!"

There, I said it. In a flash my hands were on my mouth, trying to contain my laughter that was begging to be let out. I gasped doubling over in mirth when Raph squealed and threw his arms around a stiff Byron who barely moved, his stormy eyes fixed on me. No doubt planning my murder. My breaking point was when his eyes widened in horror when my baby kissed his cheek and happily skipped to me, babbling about how he would spend the journey with Byron, sharing his horse. Pillows long forgotten. I smirked in victory.

You reap what you sow.

Byron sat there frozen all the while staring at my son warily, barely able to wave back when Raph left with Chaz to where we were being waited for. The moment he was gone, Byron snapped his attention to me, his expression thunderous,

"Out of all the things you had to trap, it had to be my hair! And that to with your son, toddler son." He pressed his jaw hard, the nerve on the side of his face straining hard.

"You can always say no and break his tiny innocent heart." I suggested ever-so helpfully.

"Tempting as it sounds, I am not sure how that will help me win his mother."

"So, you are using my son as a pawn. Only tolerating him to impress me." I raised a brow.

"Off course." He had the audacity to smirk.

"My son isn't a pawn." I glowered at him.

"Everyone is a pawn Princess. How this any different from freeing my slaves or bring you gifts you like? The motive is to make you happy, win you over. So, what can make a mother happier than her child's happiness?"

"It is different because he is my son!" I exasperatedly went and sat next to him. His reasoning was right but so was mine.

"And I am not hurting him. I am merely making him happy, warming him to me."