Replacement Bride for the Alpha of the North - Chapter 254

Chapter 254: REAL INTENTION
“What was that about, Zan?” Zaya asked, she looked at her brother with disapproving look.

Both of them stopped walking as they had put a good distance away from Rowan.

Zander looked at her sister and then sighed deeply. “I don’t want you to get hurt, Zaya. You don’t need to learn the sword fight. That’s not for you.”

“You are not the one, who decided that.” Zaya was upset, but she was not sure what the reason why she was very upset. She didn’t learn the sword fight for the sake of learning, but to vent out her emotions and even now, Zander still refused to talk about Zenith.

Zaya felt so angry with him, because it felt like he wanted to forget about Zenith, but at the same time, she could understand how it was hard for Zander, which made her angry at herself for being so dramatic and unreasonable. And the circle continued.

“Do you like him?”

Zaya pressed her lips. She didn’t answer that and turned around to walk away. Zander didn’t come after her, which annoyed her. He didn’t want to have a confrontation with her, he chose to avoid it.

And for the next few days, Rowan couldn’t see Zaya anywhere. He came to the training ground at the same time when they used to have their training, but she didn’t come.

Instead, one night, Rowan found king Zander there. He was holding a sword.

“Spar with me,” Zander said, as he unsheathed his sword.

“If you wanted it.” Rowan withdrew his sword and soon after the two kings fought against each other. The sound of the swords clanking and their quick footsteps filled the open area.

Because the shifters lost their beasts, they adopted the fighting skills from Marca El people, thus Rowan prolonged his stay in this continent, though Zander doubted that was his only reason to stay. He could see the way he looked at Zaya.

However, what irritated him was how Zaya acted around him, she was… flustered.

“What did you kill your father?” Zander asked, as he ward off his attack. He was good at it, since he had learned sword fight long before this, because losing wolf spirit was not something new for him.

“Are we having a conversation over a sword fight?”

Zander ignored that mocking remark. “You killed your own father and your own brother, so you can usurp the throne. What do you want with Zaya?”

Zander was wicked, he wouldn’t be in this position and be the king of this kingdom without his wickedness, thus he knew someone like him when he saw one.

“What is your real intention with Zaya.”

“I like her. I want to ask her hand for marriage and the reason why I killed my father and brother, believed me, the world is a better place without them.”

They breathed raggedly, as the other tried to take down their opponent. They were serious in this fight. The warriors and the knights, who watched from the side grew restless because they were afraid it could be the start of another war.

The chance was pretty high when you saw the killing intent in their eyes.

But, they could breathe in relief when princess Zaya came and create a barrier between them. “What are you two doing?” She approached the two kings and to everyone surprised, chided them. “Sheath your swords.”

“We are only sparing, princess,” Rowan replied, but he did what Zaya asked him to do. He unsheathed the sword and Zander did the same.

“You look like you are going to kill each other.” Zaya put down the barrier.

“Actually, you have the same look when you fought me, princess.” Rowan held back his smile. Zaya couldn’t answer that, she pressed her lips, refused to talk to him. “I will see you tomorrow at the same time for training? You have skipped so many days and I don’t think it will improve your fighting skill.”

This time, Zander didn’t say anything and watch Rowan walked away with his knights. Just like that the crisis stopped and all of the onlookers could breathe in relief because there would be no blood that was spilled.

“You like him.”

That was not even a question, Zander said it in accusatory tone. He looked at Zaya closely. There were only the two of them now in the training ground after he dismissed all the people. He needed some time to talk with his sister. He had been dismissing her for long and this matter needed to be discussed.

Zaya opened her mouth, she tried to find the right answer, but she couldn’t and what came out of her mouth was a silly reply.

“I will need to marry eventually, so I thought why don’t we strengthen the kingdom with the marriage alliance.”

Zaya learned about the crisis in the kingdom. They lost so many people and without their beast and how the shifters were still trying to adjust with this fact, their kingdom looked so weak.

They would need Marca El knight’s help more than they could admit. Zaya understood. Zander did not only bury himself in his work, but there was indeed a lot of things he needed to do and decide.

It was a win win solution if Zaya entered this marriage alliance.

It would be Rowan’s obligation to help her kingdom and Zander didn’t need to reveal and ask for his help more than he already accepted.

More so, Zander would never ask for Rowan’s help if it was up to him.

Zaya believed Zander would find another solution eventually of how to strengthen their kingdom again, but this was the fastest and safest solution for them.

“Do you even realize what you are talking about?” Zander narrowed his eyes at his sister. “I will not marry you off for that reason.”

Zaya was exasperated. “What if I said I like him?” She tried to say it as nonchalantly as possible, but she couldn’t help, but blushed. “I like him a little, respect him because he could choose to turn his back on us during the battle, but he didn’t. He helped us in the battle, whether you wanted to admit it or not, the result of the battle might be worse than this if he didn’t help, so I think married to him is not a bad idea.” Zaya then added when she saw Zander wanted to speak. “Moreover, he has been nice to me. I think I can make this marriage work.”

Zander looked at her intensely, which made Zaya felt uncomfortable under his scrutinize gaze.

“You are very logical Zan, you know that this is the best solution for our situation.”

Zander could see through Zaya. The realization left him speechless for a moment. “Are you trying to justify your feeling by using that excuse?”

Zaya pursed her lips like a petulant child, because she didn’t have the right answer to reply for that accusation. “He is cute, though.”

Zander shuddered when Zaya used that word to describe Rowan. “You once said a monster was cute.” Zander shook his head. “We will talk about this later. I will have a deep discussion with him too.”

He needed to clear his mind before he was making an impulsive decision, because right now, he really wanted to refuse Zaya’s idea.

But the problem was; Zaya liked this king too and Rowan had not done anything that could harm her. Only if she showed some sign of reluctance, he wouldn’t be faltered by his desire to send that king back to his continent.

“No. I will talk to him,” Zaya said firmly. “If this is happening, I want to be the one, who discussed the term of my marriage.”

And what Zaya didn’t tell Zander was she had a few requests to Rowan if he was really serious in this marriage.

“I want one hundred thousand knights as my dowry. They will guard this kingdom.”

That was what Zaya asked from Rowan when she met him again for the sword training the next day. The pale moonlight fell on their features, created long shadows on the grounds.

“One hundred thousand knights?” Rowan raised his brows. “That’s a great number, don’t you think, princess?”

“Am I not worthy of one hundred thousand knights?” Zaya challenged him.

Rowan took a step closer and caressed her cheek. “You are more than worthy of the whole kingdom, Zaya,” he said softly.

***

“One hundred thousand knights?!” Addie looked like he was going to have a heart attack when he heard that. He took a step back, but he shook his head in disbelieve. “And you agreed to that?! You must be kidding me!”

“Watch your tone, Addie. I am still your king,” Rowan said sharply and Addie needed to exert everything in him not to explode even more.

“Yes, my king, but I am sure that you are aware of the civil war in your kingdom. You have not forgotten about that, right?” Addie wanted to pull his hair and hit the king, but of course he wouldn’t do the latter. “One hundred thousand is a great number. We can’t do that!” Addie cleared his throat and corrected his wording and tone. “It will cause us a great damage, my king. What about the knights at the border? Our enemy will manage to break it in no time if you agreed to send one hundred thousand knights!”

“Is our border that weak that our enemy would have breached it in no time?” Rowan tilted his head, he raised his brows at his knight.