The King's Concubine

Please leave feedback! Feed the authors! Or at least just tell me if you want me to continue!

~*~
Serena found any way she could to avoid Orphen during the next few hours. She made herself as scarce as possible, afraid of the elf’s seething wrath that was often brought down on her. She shivered in anticipation of the day she would escape and be allowed to join her mother in the River Forest, when she would be allowed to become just another visionary. Instead, every day she lived in fear of Orphen’s wrath and anger. It was all because of the curse that Orphen hung over Lena’s head. For twenty-one years Serena belonged to Orphen, she only had three more years of suffering to go before she was free to return to her mother, but would she live so long?

Serena was out in the gardens, tending to the flowers of ice that seemed to bloom even in the summer. When the heat beat down and the summer sun was directly overhead, the flowers of ice would grow out of the ground, offering a cool breeze. Serena often blew her soft breath over them, freezing a sweet kiss to the frozen petals. It was one of her favorite things to do, and she knew she would be caught with them. She knew where he would find her, when he would find her. He knew where she was, always. There was no real escape.

Serena turned her head while the king cleared his throat. Her blonde hair cascaded around her shoulders and down her body in sweet tendrils. Orphen watched her pale movements, her gentle steps away from the delicate ice flowers. He watched her through green eyes like a cat watched a bird before striking it down from flight.

Serena reached her hand up and trailed a perfect nail down her throat, leaving a red mark behind where the blood had risen. Orphen stepped forward, his dirtied hands from sword practice and working in the dungeons, marring that perfect skin as he wrapped his hands around her throat. He did not cut off her breath, only toyed with her, tilting her head back so she was looking away from him.

“Do you let your mother see what happens between us?” Orphen asked, taking some sort of sick pleasure in the idea. “When she has visions, do you allow her to see these particular moments between us, when I am harming you?”

“I can not control what my mother sees,” Serena said, her voice shaking. It was not true, and Orphen knew it. He knew that she could keep her mother from seeing her; it was the blood of a visionary. Sometimes Serena simply forgot how long he had been around and how much he had seen.

He wanted Lena to see. He wanted Lena to see every move he made with Serena, every second he spent taking advantage of the milky white skin. Lena would watch, and squirm at seeing her daughter taken over, being controlled by a man. Lena had always done the controlling so well. She had even done it on Orphen, once. However, he was smarter now. He knew how to turn a controlling moment away from him and onto his intended victim, and he would do the same with Serena.

Serena closed her emerald eyes to the world and allowed Orphen to draw her closer. His breath tickled at her ear, whispering through the stray strands of blonde hair. Serena felt those familiar chills that betrayed her heart. The need to be touched, the want to have his lips bruising hers in a kiss that would leave her breathless, but her heart screamed for him to go away. Her heart yearned for something more, and she knew just where to find it.

Orphen was oblivious. His mind was scheming of ways to save his kingdom and ruin Lena, all in the same moment. Lena was a powerful ally that Orphen could not afford to lose and at the same time he wanted to crush the woman underneath his boot for having ever seduced him. He was too distracted for games. He released Serena so abruptly she fell back onto the pebble pathway, her skirt flying upwards so bare skin scraped against the pebbles.

“I have too much to do to waste my time with you,” he snapped at the girl. “Shouldn’t you be doing something useful? Like scrubbing floors?” They both knew she did not clean the castle; her job was simply to look pretty when guests arrived and to entertain them until the king was able to join them. Most of the visitors to the castle were well-behaved nobles, but the king, having a mysterious background before he had become king, had many friends who were anything but noble.

Orphen turned on his heel, leaving the poor girl to sit in the pebbles. She waited a few moments before pushing herself up onto her feet, not wanting him to see the pain that struck across her delicate features. She ran a hand over her backside, knocking dirt and pebbles from her skin and skirt. She was rattled. She had seen more in Orphen’s eyes than she had ever wanted to see from the king. He was full of hatred. It made Serena want to know more about the king and his many thoughts and ideas. She wanted to know his background. He was not born a prince; he was put into the position of king after the whole royal family was murdered at the dinner table one night, along with half of the staff. Only the chief advisor had survived, and he went to find the closest relative to the king and his family, and it had been Orphen.

Orphen still had the same wild eyes and messy hair that he had the first time he had walked into the castle. As king, many things had changed under him, including the happiness of the kingdom. He was a man of war, and under his thumb the world went to war. He slowly began to take over every kingdom, and save races of animals that were considered deadly to the many human-like races on the planet. Not just the dragons, but the sphinx and the merpeople. These were races of animals with thoughts like the denizens of the world, but that were almost as cold-blooded as the king who now ruled most of the land.

Dragons were good for many things besides there killing abilities and their lethal minds. They could even be considered kind at times, but the world was not a kind place. The dragons who were surviving now were of the bloodlines of the cruelest. The only kind dragons that had been left had all fled to places where even their kind would not go to look for them.

Serena wondered if the chaos of the world was all do to this king, but she was young. He had become king nearly twenty-two years ago, before she had ever been born.

Her mother might know more about him. He had become king after they had met. Serena nodded with a determined look upon her innocent face and hurried out of the gardens to beg for a leave of absence to see her mother, and maybe a few other people along the way.

Author\'s note: Sorry this was so short! I will try to make the next chapter a bit longer! Thanks for reading, as always *bows*