Love and Chaos Series
The Alpha King’s Ugly Bride Chapter 72

It wasn't the first time Mia had slept in his room in the past months, but it was the first time he woke up and didn't find her in his arms.

He wanted to always wake up to her in his arms, sleeping soundly, mumbling sweet nothing. Then he would spend the first hour of waking, playing with her curly, coarse red hair. When she'd finally wake to stare at him with her adorable amber eyes kissed by the sun itself, he'd smile and greet her. Those routines got him ready for the day.

Waking up without her didn't feel right. It sucked, and he didn't like it.

He knew he'd have to let her go sooner than later and the very thought hurt him.

He had suggested the one-year agreement to her without thinking about what it meant. Mia was a creature of beauty both inside and out and he didn't realise it then. If he did, he would have made their agreement longer than a year. It would have been selfish, but he would have had more time holding onto her.

This all would have been an easy fit if his feeling didn't come into play. He had grown soft for her. He didn't know when or how, but it started when she stood up for him with his father, and it had grown ever since. Every day was harder not being able to tell her how much she affected him.

He couldn't. That would make things weird. On entering the agreement, they both wanted one thing: freedom. Just because he was having a change of mind didn't mean that she was, too.

And just like that, he was letting the fear of the future steal his present joy. His vision cleared, and he rubbed his face when he saw Mia standing beside the shelf on the right side of the room next to the window.

She wore her silk nightgown, which stopped around her upper thigh and left the rest of her thigh down her leg on display. The gown clung to her and brought out her full shape, and this made it his favourite nightgown on her.

Mia didn't realise Xavier was awake while her eyes searched through the shelf, looking for nothing in particular. Her hand glide around the top when she caught sight of a drawing not so far away on the top shelf. She reached for it and pulled it closer and it's a drawing of a young maiden looking happy. She bore a striking resemblance to Xavier, especially her smile. She had to be the former queen Layla Ainsworth, his mother.

"That was the only thing I took from my mother," Xavier said, and she spun around quickly to meet him already awake and standing beside his bed. "She was a queen and a witch, but she was also an artist. I didn't get her gift of witchcraft, but I got art." "This is her, right?" she asked, pointing to the picture.

Xavier nodded and strolled over to her. "This was a few weeks before her death." he collected the drawing and ran a quick hand over it.

"She was beautiful."

"She was." he dropped the framed drawing down on the shelf. "I wanted to draw what I remembered of her, her beauty, and not the sickness that ate her away. So, I sat by her bedside and drew this." pain lingered in his voice as if it was yesterday. She reached out and gently stroked his face, and his eyes briefly fluttered, a deep sigh escaping him. "Do you miss her?"

"It's been over twelve years since her passing." he said, a wounded look on his face as he revealed this, "Yet I miss her and wish she didn't leave. Nothing has been good since she left."

Flashback...

Being trapped in a state of helplessness was one thing Xavier hated. That was how he felt as he stared at Layla on her deathbed, clinging to the last line of hope.

His mother was beautiful, with the fairest of skin and shiny and silky blonde hair that radiated her beauty to the rest of the room. Perhaps it was his fondness for his mother, or maybe she was just that beautiful. That was how he remembered her. But now everything about her was fading.

The sickness is known as the shadow sickness, at least that was what the priests called it. Maybe the priests called it that because they couldn't find the name or cure for their sickness. When anyone caught the shadow sickness, their families would begin their mourning because there was no coming back from it. The body of those with the shadow sickness ate itself until there is nothing left. It was a self-destructive sickness that would first take everything away from you and take your life in the end. His mother had the sickness, and it had sucked the life out of her from the first day until now, six months later.

She was reaching her last hour, and it showed. Her face was paler, her lips dry and broken and her skin patched and worn. Nothing about her resembled the woman she once was.

Xavier placed the bowl of warm water on the floor and dipped the towel into it. He squeezed down on it and moved it to Layla's face. This was his way of bathing her and he knew the servants would do it, but this he wanted to do.

He had done it for two weeks, but today it felt harder. Harder because he knew she would not be here tomorrow. He knew it and hated it and she knew it, too.

Robb didn't come to see his wife. There was nothing more important than the Queen's critical state, but he made excuses. The few times he visited, he'd kept a reasonable distance. When Xavier confronted him of his reason for keeping distance, he said no one knew the shadow sickness, so there was no certainty that it wasn't transmittable. Long story short, he and Xavier fell out because of his insinuation, and it was a big and ugly fight. Robb stopped coming three weeks ago, and he sent his guards to tell them why. Xavier hated him. He had treated his mother so terribly for so long and even in her last hour; he didn't change. This was something he wouldn't forgive him for.

Xavier instructed Edward to keep his distance from them. If Robb's remark about the sickness was right, then Xavier could have as well been infected and would soon die. That would make Edward next in line once he's gone. That wasn't a debate and when he told Edward, his brother obeyed, keeping a reasonable distance whenever he came to visit.

Today, Xavier couldn't hold his mother's gaze. Layla had the deepest blue eyes that would captivate everyone she beheld. But her eyes now were paler than the sunny sky and staring at her tore at his heart. So he didn't.

"Are you going to look at me?" her faint voice called out, and Xavier almost didn't hear it. Her question wrecked his heart, but he didn't have the guts to look at her. "Xavier Blue Ainsworth! This will be my last hour. The least you can do is look at me, please." "Don't say that mother, if we say that, then we believe it and it becomes real."

"Then look at me."

His green eyes lifted, and they met her pale ones. There was no life in them and he whimpered out on seeing them. His hands on the towel clench.

"This is not how I want you to remember me, Xavier, but I want you to know life is fleeting and nothing is forever."

"Save your strength, mother. Damn it, say nothing." a pained tear ran down his face, burning his skin all the way.

"I won't be here tomorrow, Xavier and that's the truth we both know."

He abruptly rose to his feet and stepped back. He placed his hands on his waist and let out a defeated sigh. He pressed his trembling lips together and stared down at the floor. Tears drop on the floor uncontrollably. "This can't be real." he cried, feeling both pain and anger surge through him at the same time.

Layla held her hand to him, and it took a lot of effort to do it. Without wasting a second, he came back to her and took her hands. "I think you have the biggest of hearts, and I'm proud to have you as a son. You will make a great king someday. I know it. I see it, but you will need to master your rage. The ring would help you tame it for a while, but you have to do the work yourself. You will need to rule your anger or it will rule you." Her eyes flutter. "You're my lovely son and I can never ask for another. I love you and your brother so much. Please take care of Edward. He looks up to you more than he does to your father. And as for your father, find a place in your heart and forgive him."

A few of his tears fell on her hands as he listened to everything she said. She smiled at him and took her final breath.

Xavier's heart broke, and he wasn't sure anything was ever going to repair it.

Staying beside her and watching her give up hurt. Why did the moon goddess take her? She was good; she was the best thing that ever happened to Wahala, and yet the moon goddess took her away like a common sinner. Why did she get to die and a man like Robb live? It made no sense.

He dropped her hand beside her, reached out, and closed her eyes. He rose from his seat, leaned in and placed a tender kiss on her forehead, whispering tender farewell to her.

He wiped at his teary eyes and although they were red with rage and from crying hard. There were no more tears, no more weakness, and no more trying.

The Queen was dead, and hell birthed.