Just like that, four months passed by in utter and complete bliss. During these times, simple royal edicts came for the General to take care of, about small border skirmishes including a few theoretical conspiracies against the King.

Hoseok had glanced at it, then consulted with his network. Finding no big problems, he had delegated it to Ha-Ru and Hoon Chul, who had faithfully carried out his orders, solving the matter in days.

But one day, news came of a section of nomadic tribe attacking the eastern border of the Kingdom. That in itself did not warrant any attention, but the attacks of the eastern tribe was abetted by the neighbouring Kingdom that was looking to use this opportunity to infiltrate the small eastern town rich in trade and agriculture.

The royal edicts for the war had come to Hoseok when the neighbouring Kingdom had come out of the hiding and openly declared war from that front.

Hoseok's presence was a must for the troops to be fighting in the war.

Anya had been worried about it, experiencing anxiety after months of bliss. Hoseok had watched her, amused by the way she fidgeted. He had glanced at Arissa who had been quietly making preparations since the edicts had found their place in the house. It had been Arissa that Hoseok had gone to consult with, ignoring everyone else.

When he could not bear it anymore, he had pulled Anya in his arms and placed his hand over her head, calming her, "You are going with me." He had simply stated.

For a while, Anya remained dumbstruck on hearing a solution about a possibility she hadn't even pondered on. How could her crazily protective Warrior be willing to take her to the War?

Anya had reached out and placed her hand over his forehead, "Are you running a fever?"

Laughing at her adorable confusion, Hoseok had ignored any other presence and placed her on his lap, "You are my precious person, Gazelle. Only I am able to protect you."

That had rubbed her the wrong way.

Anya yearned to be someone who was capable of not only being able to defend herself, but she also wanted to be someone powerful enough who could be able to protect him.

Hoseok had ignored her pout, "A place where I am with you, will always be safer even if it is in the camps of war. Being alone in this protected estate without me, is worse in every way. I will worry for your safety, my attention will be halved and there might be a slight chance for someone to come here."

Anya had glanced at her Nana who was diligently preparing poultice without sparing them a glance, "Why does your reasoning sound a very well crafted one?" she asked in a deadpanned voice.

"The good news is!" her Nana chirped in before Hoseok could honestly reply, "That me and Guk will be coming with you!"

"I am truly at awe how you make going to war sound like a fun trip." Anya levelled her Nana with a gaze. But she gave her a big smile.

Anya had thought giving Hoseok space would have been better but had warred with the voice inside her urging her to follow him. Something in her asking her to never leave him alone. Nana had done the thing which her heart wanted but her mind refused.

The preparations had been made, Hoseok's men surprised at the decision but never did they dare to question him. Anya would be going as his wife, even though they had not married following the mourning period needed after the death of her family when marriage could not take place.

Hoseok did not want to wait for three years, but for Anya, that was the least she could do.

Nana on the other hand, was going as the General's physician.

Hoseok had gone to the Palace for the final placements, then joined the troops for the travel. He rode the horse while the three of them were carried in carriage. It was only after reaching the stationed garrison of the eastern border that word reached Hoseok of the 4th Prince coming to assist in the war.

As expected, it had disturbed the General completely, his anger boiling over.

"You are feared by all General, can you not stop the Prince from commanding my presence?" Anya had asked him softly, "Because if you ask your men to guard our tent in the evening when you return back, there is no way that I will be roaming the grounds during the time the Prince is in the camp. I will only assist Nana during the day, disguised as a man."

The promise of restricting her own movement had settled his visible anger, but the instructions he passed down for her to be watched closely resembled more of a statement of her being imprisoned, making the men misunderstand.

Before the war began, the Prince had arrived in the camp.

After the pleasantries were over, they had discussed about their enemy, the tactics they would use to attack, their battle strategy. It was the General of the neighbouring Kingdom who was the craftiest, instigating this disagreement. His high ambitions made him dangerous enough for him to be a personal target of both the Prince and Hoseok.

Before the men were to retire, the Prince had asked Hoseok, "I hear you have taken a wife General? Dare I say it was rude of you to not inform the King?"

Hoseok had ignored the Prince, concentrating on the strategy laid out before him, "Felicitations for my personal matters are not needed by the Palace. My personal life does not need the approval of the King."

This statement was bold enough to be punishable. It was well known that often times, the King would give the gift of marriage to his General which would be politically favourable to both the person receiving the union and also the throne.

The Prince clenched his fist and spoke through gritted teeth, "Do you understand what you are saying? Whom you are speaking to? You forget, you are under the control of the King."

Hoseok had glanced up then, "I met the King before arriving here. He had no objections to my union. Does the Prince care to tell why he thinks he can raise an objection?"

Provoked by his words, the Prince had still calmed himself, "I only pointed out the rudeness for not introducing your wife to the status she has acquired."

"My wife, does not care for such superficial things." Hoseok moved a piece on the board, saying in an off hand manner, "I will ask the Prince to not be worried about her."

For some reason, the Prince had still continued, "And if I command her presence?"

Straightening, Hoseok had directed his chilling gaze on the Prince. Slowly, step by step, the General walked towards the Prince, who stood his ground.

When he stood right before him, Hoseok's eyes blazed with a dangerous challenge while his voice had been coldly polite, "Do you dare to?"

The insult was sharp and stabbing. The Prince raged at it.

"If you wish to keep your life, I suggest you to stop here Prince." Hoseok had continued, "Do remember, your death will not affect the King, or the throne." He had paused for a moment and lowered his voice, "While my death, is something you can never achieve even in your dreams."

With an insulting ease, Hoseok had brushed past the royal who trembled with helpless anger, each word hitting him in his chest for the absolute truth in it.

When the General had returned back to his tent to find his beautiful girl waiting for him with a smile, he made love to her with a passion that left her dizzy. Repeatedly, he took her that night, not letting her rest. Addicted to her pleasurable moans, Hoseok drove into her again and again, entwining his scent with hers, making her drenched in his essence.

"Give me death before you belong to another Gazelle." He murmured in her ears while their bodies cooled from their passion, "My death will be enjoyable than the life where I have to see you be with another. I'll thrash in pain as an animal imbibed in a torment I cant hope to stop while I crumble away in a crushed coffin of glass."

He dragged her, lifting her face to his, the moonlight making her eyes a transparent shade of silver, her long locks draping his forearms to cover their bodies, "If you wish to be set free to go to another, make love to me the night before and stab my heart with your dagger. I will hold you close and accept the pleasure of dying bathed in your fragrance."

He hushed her before she could speak, his thumb brushing her soft lips, "Because if I am left alive, I will skin your lover till I break his bones, then use that bone to plunge it in the heart I will expose after breaking open his chest. I will bathe in his blood and of any who come between you and me."

"Hosoek. . . . . ." Anya had kissed his thumbs, "Stop listening to these fears, these insecurities. What will it take for you to not indulge in these toxic nightmares? When will accept that I only belong to you? That I won't leave?" his intensity scaring her a little.

Hoseok had chuckled without any humour, "I don't know." He confessed.

"I don't know how to stop this fear. I know it is corrosive, it never lets me rest, it never really allows me to fully partake in the happiness you bring me, always encroaching with a sense of doom for the day you realise that I am someone who is not fit to touch you, let alone be with such purity." He had hollowly replied.

Anya breathed deep, understanding something that Hoseok, in his blind obsession for her did not get.

It was her fault for making him feel that way. Her. . . . . . purity.

What was the use of such a virtue? Did it not meant being naïve? Of being foolish to the world which operated on corruption, ambition, power and greed? Purity just meant a person who needed to be protected by the people who appreciated it.

Purity, Anya slowly understood bitterly, meant being weak.

What about it was appealing? Why could she not be someone who upheld her own values without compromise but was also wise to the deception of the world to avoid it? If she would be such a person, she could never be called a naïve girl who needed guidance.

If she was powerful yet loving, then Hoseok would not feel guilty for being who he was. Because the difference between them would only be in the choices they made, never about being superior in a way she could not be human enough for him to be afraid to corrupt.

She had realised another truth, "For all your claims of being inhumane, you are too much of a coward General." Anya spoke clearly to Hoseok, who by then had placed himself between her legs again, slowly sheathing himself in her warmth.

"Coward?"

"Yes." She arched her back, welcoming him. wrapping her arms around him she replied, "Why can you not be unapologetic about your claim on me? Why do you not laugh mockingly at the thought of me being taken away? For all your repeated declarations enforcing me to be yours, why do you not have the confidence, the knowledge of me never being able to look at any other?"

He stopped moving, "Can I be that impudent?"

"Why are you not??" Anya asked back.

Before long, the night had swiftly passed by. Anya woke up to an empty bed, her General having gone to the war.

Her days fell into a pattern. During the day, she moved freely, mostly helping out in the camp, while in the night, her warrior came striding back after having his discussion with his men. He would clean himself in the tub while she attended to him, his mood completely relaxed, enjoying the simple pleasure after a day of brutal killing on the battlefield.

Then he would passionately make love to her, his obsession and hunger growing with every night, his fever for her touch never abating.

During one such baths, he listened to her humming a song before cupping her face with his wet hand, "I desire a life with you where I am not a General."

"Oh?" Amused, Anya had kept cleaning him, "A general who is winning a war predicted to be dire wanting to do something else? What would you be, if not the warrior that you are?"

Lounging inside the tub, Hoseok had played with her hair, inhaling the fragrance, twining them around his fingers as he thought, "I would enjoy being someone who can make jewellery for you."

A wide smile spread on her face as Anya asked with surprise colouring her tone, "I never thought of anything such as that."

Hoseok had ruefully smiled, "I thought about it a lot." When Anya invited him to talk, he spoke a bit hesitantly about his dream.

"I want us both to be away from all this bloodshed. I don't want to be the way I am, ruled by the future of you being gone. We'd have a big house with a huge garden and flowers. You love that." He tilted his head, smiling,

"I'll be making jewellery for you. Some, the ones that aren't the best, I'll sell to make money. In that life, we'll be surrounded by people we can trust." His eyes dimmed as he opened them.

"In that life," a mocking sadness infecting his aura, we said, "you will never fear me. In that life, you will proud of who I am."

Anya could not speak anything to refute his dream because saying anything would be false. Right now, she was not wise enough and he was not strong enough to achieve it. But with time, in the coming years, she was optimistic that she would.

"More importantly," Hoseok continued in the low voice, "I wont be owned by anyone. No King would control me. I-" he stopped, then looked at her, "I will have you, in a way where our bond will never be questioned."

"What is stopping you now?" Anya had asked, "May be you will remain a General, but the rest? Can we not fulfil it together? Time is all we need. And time, is something we do have." She kissed him lovingly and whispered, "There is no need to rush."

Hoseok stood up from the bath, cradling her in his arms, "My Gazelle." Kissing her back, his eyes alight with hope, he smiled softly, "I'll make you happy being mine."

Day after day, Hoseok drove the battalion hard. He fought recklessly with skill and strength which the offending force could not withstand. He unleashed his true nature, holding nothing back in his desire to end the war early to take his love back home, away from a filthy place like the battlefield.

His focused brutality not only broke the spirit of the enemy, but also made their own men respect him and fear him a level higher than they had. The Prince too, reluctantly acknowledged his superiority.

For two months, the battle raged on.

In those two months, over twenty of the Prince's personal security went missing. When the Prince had raised his voice of its occurrence, fearing for an enemy having sneaked in their camp, Hoseok had replied, completely unbothered,

"The disappearance of men who attempt to pass the boundary to what is clearly forbidden is not my concern Prince." He had continued cleaning his sword as he conversationally added, "Perhaps, they should have not gone near my wife's tent. If they hadn't, I might have been able to act a little worried."

The Prince had frozen in place, knowing that it had been on his command to spy on Hoseok's wife that had them near a place they were discovered.

He had remained silent for the duration of the meeting about the rations. When it had been the time to disperse for the night, Hoseok had walked past him, whispering in his ears, "If you are very concerned, then you will find their bodies in the forest behind us. Although, I doubt you'll be able to recognise them after the animals had enough time playing with their meals."

The Prince stood there for a long time after the General left, his mind warring in terms of anger at him being so open about killing the men of a Prince and fear of the Man he was that the Prince knew, he could not cross.

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

If you are enjoying the story, please do vote. . . . . .