49. I killed her.

"We leave in five minutes. Tell that to Prince Arthur." The lycan king, King Alexander said to a male slave of his.

"Right away, my king." The male slave replied and bowed his head before turning to leave.

On getting to the room of Prince Arthur, the male slave knocked on the door, and on the second knock, he replied from inside.

"And who is it?" Arthur's voice was heard from inside.

"My prince, the king said to inform you that you will be leaving in five minutes." The male slave replied from outside the door where he stood.

"Alright."

As the male slave turned to leave, he bumped into Winifred who was about to walk into Arthur's room. The male slave quickly apologized and ran off to return to the king. Winifred opened the door without knocking, which made Arthur to turn.

"Who enters my room without caring to knock?" He said as he turned to face whoever it was that just stormed in. Seeing that it was Winifred, he looked at her with a smirk on his face. "Who do we have here?"

"Me, of course." She replied as she closed the door behind her.

"You know it's wrong to walk into the prince's room without knocking, right?" He asked her, folding his arms.

"And what is it you would do to me for punishment? Behead me?" She asked playfully as she walked further into the room.

"You're lucky you're my slave. Assuming you were stuck with someone like my father or my brother, you would not be able talk anyhow you please and you wouldn't be glowing as you are right now, you're really enjoying."

"Ouuuu," Winifred replied as she touched her chest with her right palm. "Is that a compliment? You flatter me! Why, thank you." She added playfully, with a smile on her face and they both burst into laughter. When the laughter resided, she spoke. "I am here to ask if there's anything you'd like for me to do for you."

"Uh, nothing. I'm good."

She was about to turn her back and leave the room when she noticed that he was not in his usual casual wear that he wears in the palace. She squinted her eyes a bit, trying to figure out if there was a ceremony they were preparing for again that she didn't know of. Seeing that she couldn't think of any, she decided to ask him to clear her thoughts. "Uh, is there something special happening today?"

"Something special?" He asked with raised eyebrows as he turned to face her.

"You are in a different wear. I don't think I've seen you in this outfit before." She simply stated.

"Oh, this." He said and touched his cloth. Then, he faced her again. "I'm going out with my father."

"Hmmmm." She said and nodded her head slowly.

"What is it?"

"Father-son time bonding?"

"What, no. That's a stretch, we're just going on a business trip to get some soldier materials and stuff that we make use of to protect our kingdom in case of war or any frightening disaster that would require us to fight for ourselves and our people." He explained to her.

"Oh." She was about to speak again when someone knocked on the door.

"Yes?"

The door opened and Martha walked in. "The king is ready sire. He asked for you to join him right away." She said and bowed her head before taking her leave.

"That's a goodbye then." Arthur said to Winifred, who just nodded her head in return, as he picked up something from his bed and walked out of his room, leaving her behind.

.

Arthur and his father went alone for the business trip, taking no entourage along with them. The business trip was a successful one, but on the way back, they decided to pause at a desert to have some rest.

"The horses look so tired. They aren't even running as fast as they normally do, I wonder why they are so worn out, they were fine before." Arthur said as he jumped down his royal horse.

"This one looks thirsty to me." King Alexander replied him, staring at his own royal horse. "Is there any water remaining in the bottle?"

"I carried the largest bottle, father, and we've finished the water in it on our way here. Besides, this is a desert, I don't think we can be able to get water for them until we leave this premises, both for us and for the animals. The best we can do is let them have some rest and we'll continue the journey later on." Arthur replied his father.

"Tie them up to something safe then, and let's have a walk down the desert." He said to his son as he waited for him to tie the horses down.

There was a lone dried tall tree near them, so Arthur brought out two string ropes from the sack he carried with him and used it to tie both horses to the tree. When he was done making sure the knots were tight enough and they would not be able to run away, he headed towards his father.

"That's done. Shall we have the walk now?" He asked his father politely and he nodded.

As they walked down the desert under the scorching sun, Alexander started a conversation with his son. "You know, this seems like the first time I would be alone with you in a place asides the palace, and be talking to you like this one on one."

Arthur chuckled lightly before saying, "does that make this a father and son session then?" His mind went to Winifred as he said that, and he smiled a little, remembering the young beauty.

"Something like that, son." King Alexander replied and smiled a bit at his son. He noticed Arthur was smiling and seemed a bit lost, so he spoke again. "That smile seems suspicious. What is going on in that young mind of yours?"

"Uh, nothing, absolutely nothing." Arthur quickly replied as he snapped back from his thoughts.

"Does this have to do with a woman? Are you already thinking so much about Elena now that you just took a little time away from home? Hmm, young love, I miss that a lot too." He said to him and patted him in the back, much to Arthur's surprise.

He was going to tell his father that he wasn't thinking about Elena, but he changed his mind and decided to ask him something else so as to take the discussion off him. "Speaking of young love, how was it with mother and you before she died?"

As he asked that question, Alexander suddenly coughed, as he clutched his hand to his chest. The question caught him unaware.

"Father, are you okay?" Arthur asked with a look of intense worry on his face as he stared at his father and held him close.

But then, instead of the cough to get better, it only got worse. Seeing his father continue to cough and clutch his chest, he realized there was danger already. "Father! Father are you okay?" He continued to ask his father as he went down to the ground, and he grabbed him, going down with him.

"Wat… water… get me water." Alexander managed to speak, but both of them knew that was impossible at the moment because they had no water with them, not even a drop. To make things worse, they were in a desert.

"Hang in there, father. There's no water here, but—"

"Arthur," Alexander coughed as he spoke, holding tight to Arthur's hand. "I don't…" cough. "I don't think I can…" cough cough. "I don't think I can survive this."

"Father, you will. Don't even dare scare me like this. You're the great Alexander O'Brien. You will survive this fight, father." Arthur tried to reassure him, even though, deep down, he was as well scared.

Almost immediately, Alexander began to cough our blood. This terrified Arthur even more as he gasped and stared at his father helplessly. His eyes became teary as he also accepted the fact that his father didn't have much time left. "Father," he said as tears slipped down from his eyes.

"There's something you should know before I die," Alexander managed to say in between his coughs. His voice had gotten weaker by now.

"Don't do this, father. Don't do this. You can't leave like this, what do you mean by die? You can't die, not yet." Arthur said, not minding the fact that he said he had something important to say.

"Your mother…" He said and coughed again. "She wasn't killed by the humans." He coughed again.

Arthur gave him a confused stare immediately he said that. "What… what are you talking about? You told me she died in the hands of the humans."

"She didn't." Alexander said and coughed out blood again. "She didn't."

"So…"

"I killed her."

"What?!"