She stared out the stone framed window looking longingly over the unfamiliar land before her. This castle had become her home, a choice that she had not willingly made, nor agreed to. Her father had sold her to this cruel man without a word or any regard for her own wishes - not that he had ever concerned himself with such trivial matters. She had felt as if suddenly she couldn’t breathe at hearing the news from her father and had attempted to flee the room hoping to escape her fate. Unfortunately fate was not on her side that day as she spun around directly into the arms of two formally uniformed guards, sent to take her to her home – HIS home. And like that she was to belong to a man that she had never seen but had heard only stories of. What would he look like she wondered? To be Endymion’s first General he must be older, and probably covered in battle scars, she had thought to herself, imagining the worst. Most of the soldiers she had met in her life tended to have a foul disposition towards women, seeing them as being inferior, and a man of the General’s rank was probably the worst of them all.
She arrived after three days of traveling by carriage and cried upon reaching her new home – a cold castle that was gifted to this man by the crown Prince himself. A middle aged woman, who she later found out to in charge of the estate, had shown her to her new room which fortunately was separate from his. It had been several more days before she was to meet him for the first time. He sent the same woman who had originally been the one to greet her upon her arrival (if one could call the cool, simple exchange a greeting) to retrieve her from her room and had her brought to his quarters for all intents and purposes, to examine her. What was he expecting from her?
He entered into the room where she had been brought to wait and her eyes widened at the sight of him. She had envisioned that he would have looked many ways, but not like this. Very few men could be described as being beautiful without loss to their masculinity, but his features were more than what handsome could describe. His was a face that drew you in with its defined features and sharp gray eyes that seemed to hold a lifetime’s worth of wisdom. He appeared young, not many years older than she, which is probably what surprised her most of all. His toned body proudly bore the uniform of the Prince’s Generals. The white jacket seemed like it was melded to his muscular chest while his tall legs were fitted in brown pants with leather boots up to his knees. A brown cape with a midnight blue lining hung freely from his shoulders, stopping at mid calf. The jacket was lined with gold piping that ran the length of his chest ending beneath the brown leather belt that adorned his waist, supporting a holstered sword. The look was striking and the dark colors of his clothing provided a contrast to his light features. His cool eyes locked on hers and all thoughts of turning away were lost. He watched her quietly, unmoving, and she wondered if perhaps he was waiting for her to speak. “I’m-.”
“I know who you are,” he spoke sternly interrupting her. She opened her mouth to respond but then quickly closed it as his eyes turned a steely gray and looked her over. “That’ll do.” His mouth turned into a frown as he turned to walk back into the room he had come from, and like that he was gone. She was brought back to her room where several more days went by before she was to see him again, with yet another week passing before he would speak another word to her. Time passed slowly with each day blending into the next. Monotony became routine and after some time she found herself desperate for companionship - even in the form of monosyllabic conversations with the General.
Her thoughts were broken now by the sounds of the men riding on horseback as they approached the castle. She looked down and watched as they came closer into view and noticed the pack was being led by a man in a white and brown uniform with silver hair, his cape flapping behind him in the wind with only the blue underside visible from her angle. It was him – he was home, and bound to be angry with her as he tended to be. But what was she to do? She didn’t ask for any of this, this isn’t what she wanted, to find herself the property of this man who by all appearances was as cold as this castle. With a sigh she turned from the window and smoothed out her dress, anticipating the argument that would soon ensue. Sometimes agitating him was the only source of amusement that she had, although today that was hardly the case. On days where she knew he was genuinely angry, she made every effort to avoid him. Although seeing as she was the reason of his current anger, she knew that she was not going to be able to avoid him and delaying the inevitable would do little to improve the situation. The sounds of footsteps on the stone floor outside her hallway grew louder until her door flew open and she found herself staring into his eyes – cold and angry.
“You had an appointment today yet you decided not to show,” he said walking towards her. “You disobeyed me.”
“I couldn’t go. It’s just too much for me, I’m not ready. I have asked you for more time – why must we rush things?”
“You’ve had enough time, now you are stalling and I will not tolerate it. You were chosen – maybe you don’t understand the importance of your situation. Any other girl would have all but killed to stand where you are now, yet you continue to respond with contempt. I have been patient enough! You will do as you are told and I will not hear anything more from you!”
“I will not do as you say and I will not continue with this ridiculous charade of yours!” she shouted, energy radiating from her small frame. She stood up from her seat by the window and walked away from him.
He approached her in a few short steps and grabbed her left arm firmly with his right hand. His height made him appear to loom over her. “I will not say it again.”
She lifted her chin, trying to close the height gap between them with little success. “And I will not -!” The rest of her sentence was lost as she found herself being pulled off her feet and flung ungracefully onto the bed next to her in a flurry of limbs and pale blue dress layers, her legs resting over the edge of the mattress as she landed on her backside. She moved to pull herself up, her feet flailing in an attempt to find the ground below her, but was pushed back by the weight of his body. A shock ran through her as she felt his hard chest pressing down on her and the way his face hovered just over hers. “Release me,” she spoke defiantly, hoping that he would not notice the panic in her breathing.
“Enough is enough, Minako. I want to make it clear to you that I am the one in charge and you will do as you are told. I am your master now and I will not stand for your insolence. My patience runs thin and as many can attest to, I doubt that you want to see that side of me.”
She fought to control herself – to not let him sense her apprehension so that he wouldn’t know the way he affected her. With every breath she could feel his body pressing into hers. A feeling began to spread over her that she couldn’t quite explain making her want to escape from him even more. “You want my submission and you have it.”
“You have no idea what I want,” he growled at her, any traces of humor fading from his features. She suddenly feared that she said the wrong words.
“I only assumed that you – that you would – that you wanted…. “ Her voice trailed off, no longer sure of herself nor of the man above her. “I’m sorry.”
“Good. I will not have this ‘discussion’ with you again.” He paused as he looked down on her and then quickly, without warning, he brought his lips down on hers, lightly grazing them. Her mind froze at his sudden contact but her body did not suffer the same affliction as she responded to him in turn. His kiss deepened and hardened as he pulled her closer still. She started to push herself away from him as his kisses turned bruising, and at feeling her shifting under him, Kunzite pulled back from her and the lustful intensity of his eyes startled her, instantly breaking her mind free from its frozen state and causing her to bring her hand up to slap him. His eyes turned an icy gray as he brought his fist down to the space near her head and after a moment pulled himself off of her. With a sharp tone he said, “That one I will allow, the next time will carry further consequences. You will not be warned again.” She continued to stare at him breathlessly from where he left her. As he walked towards the door he said over his shoulder “I’m done with you for now. But I will be back to deal with you later.” And with a slam of the door he was gone.
She slid off the bed to the floor and brought her knees to her chest, leaving her dress to flow around her. The effect he had on her was overwhelming and she feared the effect that his appearance had on her body. He had been curt with her in the past, but he always kept his guard up not allowing her to see his true emotions. His kisses had been hard and she could still feel his lips on hers. She had been kissed before by others, but never with so much intensity. She needed to escape from here before she lost herself to him. Rumors of him and his cruelty were wide spread across the land – no one more feared than he. She had hoped that the stories were wrong – that she need not fear him – but when she found herself to be his ‘captive’ she realized that the tales might not be so far from the truth. He was her betrothed and when their wedding day came she would be his….
