Among Lions and Wolves • |Book 1|

.chapter twenty-four.

"Have I?" She pulled away, a smile teasing her lips. "I've had so many tell me I've changed, yet no one to tell me how. Tell me, Lord Stark, what is different about me?"

His blue eyes followed her as she walked around the tent, she could feel them boring into her back trying to piece it all together. She stopped walking, her eyes locking with the woman that had been holding a damp linen cloth used to dry Robb's hair.

"You no longer remind me of a lady afraid of the world," he said, pulling her attention back to him but not entirely. She was still studying the woman. "Her name is Talisa."

"Mm," was her reply, her brow lifting out of curiosity at the woman before turning back to Robb. "Times aren't like they used to be. We've all had to grow up since Winterfell."

"We have," and then his blue eyes started to remind her of the approaching storms rolling in from the sea. "My sisters?"

"Arya is missing, somewhere out there I suppose," she said. "And Sansa is quite safe now. Tyrells have made their appearance and their daughter, Margaery has requested she be queen. Willingly, because he dislikes your sister and no one dares let him have me, he's agreed."

"Joffrey wanted you to be his wife," there was a hint of amusement in his gorgeous blue eyes before it vanished. "You said Arya is missing?"

"Mhm, she last came to me before your father's execution-"

"You mean when he was murdered?"

"Execution is murder, Robb. Whether a man is right or wrong, killing him is murder. Anyway, she promised me she'd be safe and I knew it was better she be free than kept at the keep."

"You let her go?" His nostrils flared, anger darkening his stormy blue eyes, making him appear dangerous. "How could you let her go? You promised me, Rhaella! You promised to look after my sisters!"

"And I did!" She hissed, stepping up to him. "Joffrey hates you all, especially Sansa and Arya after what happened to him. If I had forced Arya to stay, there is no telling what would have happened to her. Sansa was nearly stripped naked, abused, and raped! She was the king's intended! Worse would have befallen Arya, you know how she is."

Robb took a deep breath, the darkness leaving his eyes, "I know," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. And then his eyes followed the woman. Rhaella too watched as she put down the cloth and turned to leave the tent.

"Rhaella, I'd like you to meet Talisa," he said stepping back from her and holding out his hand toward the woman. "She's to be my wife soon."

"Your wife?" She felt short of breath as if she'd been riding without rest. There was a familiar pain in her chest, one she tried her best to ignore as she watched Robb take the woman into his arms and smile at her the way he had Rhaella the first time she'd seen him, except, this smile was slightly different.

She inhaled a deep breath, forcing her heart to beat at a regular pace instead of its now irregular rhythm. She pushed aside the growing pain and forced herself to blink away the tears that tried to rise up and she forced a smile onto her face.

"So this is the woman to replace me," she made sure to disguise the pain in her voice.

"No," Robb turned toward her smiling, "I was betrothed to one of Frey's daughters. Well you know the stories, half the seven kingdoms do. She makes me happy, and I love her."

The words stung Rhaella, she recalled a time when he loved her and then she had loved another. She still loved that other, but with each passing day of them being apart, she had convinced herself to love Robb as well. He was to be her husband someday, or at one point would have been had he not been the one rallying the North against the South.

"I'm glad you have found happiness in these dark times," she said, "I just remembered I still have some days before I reach my destination. If you could tell your men that mine mean no harm, we shall be on our way."

"Your men?" He turned from his new love to face her, she couldn't bring herself to call her by her name even in her own thoughts. "Lannister men?"

"Maybe?" She shrugged her shoulders. "I am still their ward."

"You are," he replied softly. "And you could have been my wife once, Lannister's ward and a Stark. Do you think if things had been different we would be at war with one another?"

"The Lannister's war has nothing to do with me," she said. "I'm merely just a pawn. Tywin places me where he sees fit, and some day soon I fear that will be at his side. Apparently, I'm pretty."

Robb snorted, "You're not pretty Rhaella," he said, but that was all he said.

"To answer your question, yes," she said. "But the difference would be who was winning."

"What do you mean?"

"Think, Stark, what does Tywin want with a girl, the youngest of six and the daughter of a poor lord? What use can she be? Surely Tywin would supply her dowry, so if married to a house with vast armies, I can see, but me? I've other sisters, older sisters. They're all unwed and just as useful, yet I was the only one chosen. Why?"

"I don't know?" He replied.

"Because my father is a Targaryen!"

"All Targaryens were murdered years ago, Rhaella," he turned toward her. "Except for the ones that fled. It's impossible."

"It's not," she said. "Tydore is a new house, one no one heard of until after Robert Baratheon sat upon the throne. My father begged Tywin Lannister to spare him, said he'd give up every right to the throne, even his surname. And so Tydore was born."

"That doesn't make sense," or he just didn't want it to. She wasn't entirely sure, all she knew is that her blood was boiling by the second and tears were blurring her vision

"You have Jamie Lannister, am I correct?"

He looked at Talisa briefly before nodding his head, "Why?"

"Take me to him," she demanded.

"What?" He looked at her like she'd gone mad.

"Take me to Jamie Lannister now!"

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