The King's Bed

Chapter 1: Disturbed Peace

Ray woke up because someone's soft buttocks started rubbing against his thigh. He half-opened his eyes, not betraying his awakening, and focused on the woman lying beside him.

"What's her name?" flashed through his mind as the insistent touches repeated. "Ah, to hell with her. Where did I get so drunk?"

"I can feel you're awake," purred the blonde, turning her face to him. "You stopped snoring!"

"I never snore," Ray answered her sharply and reached for the bottle of whiskey on the nightstand by the bed. "And don't even think about arguing with me: I can throw a man out the window if I'm in a bad mood..."

"We're in a tent, you fool," the girl laughed merrily and lightly slapped his thigh. "I noticed yesterday that you're very funny, even though you were drunk..."

Ray didn't answer her: his head was splitting terribly as the man tried to remember what had happened yesterday. Oh, right, it seems his father had announced his arrival, which is why Ray went with his soldiers to the local bar, where he apparently picked up this whore.

"How much do I owe you?" the man rasped, taking a swig of the burning drink straight from the bottle. "That is, if you haven't already emptied my wallet..."

"Are you mocking me?" the girl jumped to her feet, covering herself with a sheet.

"No, darling, I've just sobered up," Ray looked at her with swollen eyes, trying to recall anything from last night.

"You bastard!" she cried out and, grabbing her dress from the floor, ran out of the tent.

"Why did she get so angry?" Ray asked himself. "Did I not pay her enough yesterday?"

The man dressed leisurely, somehow combed his black and perpetually messy hair, and decided to head to the wagons to replenish his own supply of wine. Alcohol, much to Ray's regret, ran out very quickly and constantly needed replenishing. And he couldn't do without it. Especially at a time like this.

Ray left his tent and found himself in the middle of an entire military camp. Day had already broken, and soldiers hurriedly scurried past Ray, gathering their belongings and taking down tents. They should have set out long ago, but apparently their commander had ordered them to start packing a little later than scheduled the night before, to allow him to sleep off his hangover.

"Damn, father will definitely kill me," Ray wearily ran his fingers through his hair. "What other orders did I manage to give last night?"

But his thoughts were suddenly distracted by a huge, canopied cage he was passing by.

"What the hell is this in my camp?" the man headed towards the soldiers standing near it. "Where did this come from?"

The soldiers looked at their commander-in-chief in bewilderment, after which one of them, standing at attention, answered:

"You ordered it to be left here, my lord!"

"Damn it," Ray swore and turned to the soldiers again. "Then tell me, son, where did I get this thing?"

"Sir," another soldier began cautiously. "Yesterday, after midnight, His Radiance arrived at the camp. His Radiance said he was entrusting a trophy to your care, and you... you ordered it to be left here last night and went to your quarters..."

"Thank you," Ray froze by this mysterious cage. "Now, be so kind as to hand the keys to me, and take this thing to my tent!"

The soldiers rushed to carry out the orders. Ray suddenly became terribly interested in what was behind the canopy. Could it be something alive? Then why was it so quiet? Animals usually aren't that modest. But whatever it was, he wasn't going to find out in front of so many curious eyes. Especially since there were a couple of more pressing problems now: the booze and his father, who, as it turned out, had already arrived at the camp, though he was expected only in two days.

***

"Melissa, dear, what's wrong with you?" asked the king, sitting on his portable mahogany throne right in the middle of the huge tents. "Since we arrived here, you haven't left the tents, don't you like the local fauna?"

The king laughed heartily at his own joke, which made Melissa curl her lips in contempt.

"No, father, I'm not feeling well, you know how military camps affect me!"

"True, true, you're just like your mother—all delicate and dreaming of holing up in the castle!"

Melissa sat down on the soft cushions near her father's throne and grabbed a bunch of grapes from a tray. Her father watched her intently. It was very noticeable that he was preoccupied with something.

"Women have no place on the battlefield," the girl replied coldly, devouring her favorite treat. She was a delicate and elegant, but very proud girl. She looked like her mother, but in character, she resembled her father in many ways. Except she didn't like drinking and wars...

"You are needed now more than ever, my love," he ran his hand through her hair, black as onyx. "Harsh times have come for us all, and your brother needs support more than anyone!"

"Raymond," the girl uttered this hateful name with disgust. "He's a simple drunkard, dragging every woman he meets into his bed..."

"Do not dare speak of my heir like that!" the king loudly cut off all of Melissa's objections. "And of your future husband..."

"What? Father!" Melissa recoiled from the throne as if struck by lightning. Such a statement stunned her. "What are you saying? He's my brother! Why on earth should I marry him?"

"You are my illegitimate daughter! You know that," her father calmed down a bit and continued in a half-voice. "The Church does not recognize you, no matter how much I dream of it. And I cannot marry you off to a noble lord... In their eyes, you are nobody, no matter how beautiful you are. But my son can marry you, making you my heir!"

"But, father..." such calculations simply didn't fit in Melissa's head, and she was simply lost from the surprise of this verdict.

"I don't need some hussy from another kingdom who will meddle in our affairs, controlling Raymond with the beauty between her legs, you know your brother... A woman could become his weakness. But you will rule and govern through him on my behalf. Only you do I trust. I've thought it all through and decided. This option suits me!"

"I beg you, father," Melissa threw herself at the great king's feet, tears of plea streaking her cheeks. "Don't make me! I've known Ray since childhood! I can't! I simply cannot share a bed with him! It's disgusting! And what will people think?"

"I was not allowed to acknowledge you as my daughter!" the stern man raised his voice again. "And to everyone, you are a simple girl who has been friends with my son since infancy and whom I took under my guardianship from childhood. It won't be strange to anyone that he suddenly marries you!"

Melissa sat on the floor before His Radiance, torn by internal contradictions that spilled out in bitter tears on her face. She never thought it could end like this. Before, the girl thought she would always be by her father's side, conveying his orders, overseeing the court and order in the palace. No one ever treated her as just a lady-in-waiting's daughter. She was under the guardianship of the king himself, his ward, whom he took in after her mother's death.

"And now, go, my daughter," ordered the ruler, pointing a hand adorned with multicolored rings towards the exit from the royal tent. "I will inform your brother myself! And prepare yourself, the wedding will take place in a week! Right after the capture of a certain town..."

"As you command, father-Your Radiance," Melissa said in a trembling voice before rising from her knees and, swaying, walking away, leaving the king alone with his thoughts. What she had heard simply didn't fit in her head. Her father's sudden decision struck her like lightning. Although it had surely been decided long ago. All her life, her father had spoiled her and fulfilled all her girlish whims.

And now, it was time to pay for everything...

Chapter 2: The Fiery Maiden

Ray forgot about his father as soon as he got to a bottle of good wine. The liquid soothed his head and lifted his spirits. And Ray immediately decided to return to his tent and deal with the mysterious trophy that his father, for some reason, had decided to entrust to him. "He was always a strange old man," the man smiled to himself, thinking about how long it had been since they'd seen each other. "I might even have missed him, if not for his eternal lectures and desire to control my every move... I've risen too high to listen to that."

Ray didn't notice how he reached his tent. Thoughts had been occupying him very often lately, making him forget about the world around him. The man freely entered his quarters and looked at the dark canopy covering something in the cage.

"Can you hear me?" the prince addressed someone, sure that something was lurking in the cage. "Silent? Well then, let's see you in person!"

"Milady?" Ray's surprise hadn't passed and was clearly noticeable in his tone. "Milady, are you alright?"

The girl flinched slightly, and her red hair fell from her shoulders, exposing her flexible back, rounded buttocks, and slender neck.

"Have you come to beat me, milord?" came the girl's gentle, high-pitched voice. She pronounced words clearly, without an accent, certainly not like a commoner.

"What? No, please, don't be afraid," Ray crouched next to the cage, fumbling in his pocket for the keys and trying to find the right words. "I just want to talk to you!"

"So you've come to rape me," the girl raised her head, and her face was right in front of Ray: blue-eyed, with delicate features, high cheekbones, she was captivating and alluring. Perhaps his father had sent her as a gift? As a concubine?

"I'm not going to rape you," Ray decided to reassure her, though he wouldn't have refused sharing a bed with such a woman. But Ray was not a rapist. All women slept with him voluntarily.

"Yeah, right," the girl's face lit up with anger, but she didn't become any less beautiful. "They all told me that, until they lured me out of the cage... Well, I'll tell you this: I don't care! Rape me! There have been so many of you before, I've lost count! So why not try once more! You all love taking weak and defenseless women!"

Ray, overcome with astonishment and fury, jumped to his feet. Such treatment of women was not in his nature. But his father... how could he do this to a captive woman? He pulled the keys from his trouser pocket and headed towards the lock on the cage.

"Get dressed," he ordered the girl when she was free. "Whatever you've done, I won't allow you to be kept in such conditions... The guard will watch you from outside. I don't promise you freedom, but from now on you will be treated more decently!"

She didn't thank him. She only accepted the clothes he offered, rewarding Ray with a barely noticeable nod. The girl seemed a bit strange to him, but elegant and alluring. Ray couldn't take his eyes off her chest and naked body as she dressed without embarrassment.

"Had a good look?" she asked sharply, tightening the belt on her green traveling pants. "You lords are all the same: noble on the outside, until it comes to a woman's charms..."

"Now it seems even stranger to me that they put such a fragile creature in a cage, instead of just gagging her," Ray replied, deciding what to do with the girl, who merely smirked at his words. "I'll be back soon, and you think about how it's better not to test the patience of someone trying to help you..."

"I won't sleep with you willingly," she replied defiantly, stirring in Ray a desire to actually take the girl against her will to teach her how to talk to men, then added mockingly: "Don't bother trying to seduce me, noble lord!"

The man didn't answer her. At the entrance to the tent, he only ordered the guard to be doubled, then headed to his father for explanations.

***

"Are you afraid of a naked maiden?" Ray asked mockingly, for which he was rewarded not with a father's look, but with the fierce gaze of a stern and ruthless king.

"Don't you dare be insolent to me, boy!" he rose from his throne, blazing with anger, which Ray barely fought the urge to step back from. But no, he would no longer yield before his father, he would stand firm, as he stands against his enemies on the battlefield.

"The gods know what I would do to you for such words, if you weren't my son!" he came closer, wanting to frighten and crush Ray morally, showing again who was king and the arbiter of justice. "And now answer me: did you release her?"

"Yes, father, I released that fragile woman, but she is guarded by my elite guard and..."

"I'm afraid that at the moment your elite guard is choking on their own blood," hissed the father. "That witch has fooled you!"

"It's not kingly to lock a woman in a beast's cage and then treat her like a rag for satisfying your own needs..."

"Did she tell you that?" at this question, Ray lowered his head, here he understood his mistake, understood what the girl was aiming for, playing with him. "No one has laid a finger on her, and she, in turn, has slaughtered a dozen of my best soldiers. Did you notice a single bruise on her body? Now imagine what she would have turned into, changing one bed after another, especially the bed of a soldier, rough and relentless!"

Ray was shamefully silent. Trying to think over his father's words. He couldn't believe that the fragile and beautiful maiden from his tent could possess unique skills allowing her to deal with elite fighters of the royal guard. But now at least it was clear what the cage was for.

"And now let's go, we need to send a squad after that girl..."

The young man followed his father and patiently waited for him to give orders to the captain of his guard. He called the girl extremely dangerous and extremely necessary to him alive and unharmed.

"Father," Ray dared to address him when he finished. "What's so special about her and who is she?"

"My bride," the king allowed himself to laugh. "And I entrusted her to you for safekeeping while I settled into the camp, you understand, a king needs the protection of loyal people, and the others could watch over the girl. Didn't I express myself clearly last night?"

Ray averted his gaze again: he didn't remember what happened last night and kept wondering if his father had understood his drunken state or simply hadn't paid attention then.

"And I can't even trust you with a woman, let alone a whole state!" the king threw contemptuously, then continued: "And pray that my men find her, otherwise you'll be running through the forests yourself as live bait..."

Ray's humiliation knew no bounds. But all this had happened before, and therefore the impulses to stab his father with a dagger right in the throat were more controlled than a couple of years ago, when he

even spent a couple of days in the dungeon for slapping the King. A foolish youth—that's how the king ultimately characterized his behavior, but forgave him, promising that for