How do you know?

Hazel looked at the man for a long time and then tears started to form in her eyes and she shook her head.

"No! I can not take the risk! What if he had decided to attack our empire and kill all of us? I could not let that happen!" her words came out checking. As if she was getting drowned in the pressure. She shook her head and wiped her tears as she looked back at him.

Her eyes were filled with brimming tears which she was trying to control too hard! After coming back, the thing she had practised most was to bring tears to her eyes whenever needed. She was getting so perfect in it, that she was proud of herself.

His brows knitted in a thin line when he saw her breaking apart. Though he felt that his reaction was too exaggerated. He did not know if she was so broken-hearted or not. But he still felt that it was his responsibility to assure her that nothing would happen.

He wanted to help her not create problems for. But before he could explain her, she had already started bawling her eyes out.

"That would never happen. Our empire had never forced a woman to marry. It totally depends on your free will on who you want to marry. I brought you here only so that you would not get pressured by your family.'' He wanted to add that her family was full of greed and only looking at her like she was a ladder to climb the rank but he stayed silent. If she did not understand this much.

If she did not have the capability to understand her good or bad, then even if he would explain it to her, she would not understand. Yet his eyes darken when he remembered how happy her fiance was when he came to know that he was here to ask for her hand in the marriage.

Even her father, he did not even wait to know who had asked for her hand before agreeing for it. As if a burden would be lifted from their shoulders. Should he kill both of them to pay the debt he owes to her? But what if she blamed him for her demise? He gritted his teeth at that. Humans and their greed had no bound! They were too complex creatures for his understanding.

But no matter how he assured her, she continued to shake her head and disregard his words.

"No! How could I believe in the words of a messenger? If they did not listen to you and attack my nation and my family then I would be doomed! It would be killed mercilessly and lose everything." he sighed! Why was she so stubborn and had not learnt to listen to others?

"Where will I find you then? I would be killed even before I could get a glimpse of you!" she shook her head again. He had started to get annoyed now. She had tested his patience more than enough, and he was only holding the last threat of patience he had!

"If I said that I would take care of the matter, then would I? Why did you not listen to others?" he asked through gritted teeth and she clenched his hands.

"Because I am afraid of my family, you have no idea how they were and what they could do with me." she glared at him with red eyes. Though she was acting all this time. But every time she remembered what her family had done with him, she felt fire had engulfed her. Her body started blazing with hatred and the will to have revenge.

He was taken aback by her sudden burst out. Though he had seen that her family was full of greed, he had thought that she was naive and did not understand that. But when he saw the hatred in her eyes, he knew it was not an act. She hated them. But why? What had they done to her to get so much hatred?

Only then did he remember that she was wailing in the woods too when he had seen her for the very first time. His animalistic instincts took over when he felt the will to protect her.

He moved closer to her and held her jaw in his hands. Hazel who was still coming down with her sudden burst out was stunned to see him this close to her! He was looking straight into her eyes as he uttered the words in a very low voice and very slowly.

"I told you that you would never be harmed by the Alienore empire. But if you chose to be the empress there, you will have all the powers of the world to take revenge from those who had hurted you at a point of time." his words were cold and merciless, there was not an ounce of warmth in it. But she still felt like an ointment was applied on her burns. She felt herself losing into his eyes that were filled with determination. A promise that he would be there for her if she needed him forever. She did not needed promises of all the wealth of the world but a promise that the person would help her in getting the revenge, she desired.

No one had ever promised to help her or stay with her but then how could she even trust a man whom she had met for the very first time. Won't it be repeating her mistake like she had trusted Amelia and her fiance. No! She would not do that again.

She would not let her emotions take over her, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath and when she opened them, they were calm like lakes.

Her lips curled into a smile, "as a messenger, you are looking too sure about everything. How do you know what your prince had heard and how do you know that he would understand if i deny him from getting married to him?"