Cittaja || Indian Historical Romance

27.

Mayurakshi set aside the fifth letter she received from the hawk.

"You, bird, need to stop dropping these letters. I am not writing back to him!!" She exclaimed and passed a piece of meat to it. The bird happily focused on the meat.

She sat before the hawk and watched it. There just a little tiny locket around the bird showing it to be belonging to Shakra. With one finger she pet the bird. Shakra had trained it to take pets from her like it does from him.

No matter how much she wished to ignore him, he kept coming into her mind.

His kiss was rough unlike how he shows himself to her. The fiercest tiger in the sub continent was usually more than happy to play a pretty little cat purring in her lap. Shakra's body was hardened due to battles but it also had this heat that confused her brain and body.

Mayurakshi's secret attraction to his roughness almost made her feel ashamed. She was very familiar with Shakra being the gentleman with her but she didn't know how to react when he asserted his dominance on her.

She was an intelligent woman who was taught to be a fierce Princess. A woman didn't need to be submissive to her husband at all times.

When it was needed the sweet and calm Parvati became Mahakali. One of the ideal women, Sitamma too wasn't shy about questioning her husband's decisions when she found it wrong. Draupadi wasn't always a submissive little wife, she stood strong proud and tall for her respect. Saavitri, a poster woman for what a wife should be like, even won an argument against Yama himself. She couldn't have been a meek little woman. A woman who doesn't stand for her self respect is a woman who will never find self respect.

Yet, why did she feel such an urge to be this good little princess who followed the Prince and stayed within her line?

Mayurakshi wasn't like that. She was one with morals and respect. So, her own reaction to Shakra's aggression was a surprise.

She put her head down by the window sill. The soft yellow clothing, her brown skin, and the beautiful golden sunlight. The softness of a Princess outpoured from her masking away the storms swirling within her.

The way his sword moves and the way he moves was hypnotic. It was hard to catch him once he was in action. He was swift with his movements. Before they knew, the knife would have already slit the throat. He could kill men with bare hands.

His arms were neither thin nor fat. It had the right shape. The right mix of fat and muscle.

Mayura closed her eyes.

"Can't fly too far away from me, Sparrow..." he whispered and winked at her. His Anga vastra was gone. A single locket with a lion on it was hanging around him. It belonged to his grandfather and then his father when they were given the title of the Crown Prince. Instead of a jewel studded girdle keeping the dhoti tuck in its place, he had a cloth tied around his waist.

His first toe and the last toe had rings. A gift from his grandmother. His leather shoe was embroidered in Kalika Empire's special embroidery. It was known for its embroidery.

He walked over to her like he owned her. The crown rested on his head. She arrived for his crowning ceremony. He was so cheerful that she joined in. Every time people told he was of age now and he should already have been married, he turned back and looked at her with a grin.

"There is only much patience I can show, my Queen. Soon enough it is going to be spent away and I'll carry you away."

"I think my father believes to have found a groom for me. One who is easy to handle and easygoing..."

He laughed, "Let me also see who is this man willing to fight with me. If it takes a war so be it but I will have you my present."

"I'm not a gift you want to claim."

"Well, that delectable beauty of your is wrapped so properly and decoratively just for me. If that isn't a gift then I don't know what is."

He leaned and delicately gripped her lower jaw in the hands that can easily choke people to death. He stared at her lips.

The problem was that she didn't feel the need to move him away from her or slap his hands away. The feeling didn't fill her even when he had his arm wrapped around her bare waist.

To her horror, it felt perfect there. 

She enjoyed the touch even that day when he was drunk. Even so the touch of his lips on her neck.

No wonder people always kept unmarried men and women away from each other.

The day dream was crashed by Yuvika entering the place. "Anna's wedding is fixed." She declared.

"Poor woman who has to suffer him..." she muttered too low. "Convey my congratulations to him."

Mayurakshi wished to return to her day dream. She might as well find herself in his arms properly around her and doing things that he shouldn't.

"Will it hurt you at least look a little excited?? Our Anna is getting married."

"Really? Our? Since when did he care about truly being my Anna? He does surely care about being your Anna. Also, I know that I do not have any role in this wedding. I'm more than happy to be in the background and just go on with the whole thing."

She wanted to be really left alone by her family for a while.

"Always looking out for just yourself. None of us ever matter to you."

Mayurakshi's moon was dead and she stood up. Fire in her eyes. She faced her half-sister.

"Your mother, your brother, and you bully me. Destroy the last gift I had from my mother and all my clothes and jewellery. Then you have the gall to come and say I don't care about you. Yes, I don't give a single broken cowrie about you. Go and do what you want in that case. Don't come and wail to me about how I don't care. Such a pathetic attention seeking way."

The slap resounded in the room. Mayurakshi did not react. She didn't let a single emotion cross her face. She wouldn't react to the abuse. She had enough of crying and giving them the peace of mind. She was just as stone faced as before. She had long to learn how not to let a single reaction on her face. She knew better than to show weakness.

When Mayurakshi was 12, her mother had decided to leave Krishneri and stay at her maternal home. It made Mayurakshi angry because she wanted to live with her father. The arguments with her mother went from bad to worse. Untill her mother didn't want to argue anymore and let Mayurakshi return to Krishneri. That was day her life had changed.

Mayurakshi was determined to win her father's heart to prove her mother that her decision was right. Even the abuse was acceptable to her when her father gave her so much love.

She was like the desert which was looking for the rains of love and there were clouds that threatened to flood the place with water, Shakra. It could be a disaster with the floods but wouldn't that quench the age long wish for water?

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