VULPINE: Her Second Chance

The King's Speech

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The King's Speech

The entire incident...took less than a minute.

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Thalia stared unrelentingly at Omega De La Paz. The witch, as Thalia had thought she would, squirmed under the scrutiny, her interlaced fingers worrying against each other as her eyes darted back and forth between Thalia and her sisters. The king, who sat with a space between himself and the witch, looked much less nervous, though he was bearing the brunt of Claire and Helena's scrutiny.

Thalia wasn't looking at the king; she was mad at him, but not suspicious of him. She'd had the situation handled, and she very much didn't like that they'd had to put all their food into to-go boxes and eat on the bus, but also she would be foolish to expect anything less from a "Mad Wolven King". The Mad Wolven King, even.

No, Thalia wasn't suspicious of her new mate. The witch in front of her, on the other hand, had told her she could only read minds. Thalia was keeping some secrets of her own, so she knew she had no true leg to stand on, but her secrets were pretty harmless to anyone but herself. And probably Scott. But this was a rather anxiety-inducing revelation, and she was also a little mad at the king for not warning her about it.

While Thalia's mind was circling in this way, the "omega" was cracking under the pressure of her blank stare. Thalia didn't notice this until De La Paz began to speak as if vomiting, which was the norm, but this time tinged with a more frantic energy than usual.

"I can only do that when touching someone, just so you know. And I don't touch people very often at all, and never for those reasons when I do. Except for times like those, when it resolves an escalating conflict. Or when I help the king. Or if I'm in immediate danger. Or if, like, I have consent, for some reason. Or-"

"So, why not tell us this when you told us about the mind reading in the first place?" Helena cut her off, blessedly, having understood that they were going in on Omega De La Paz first. The witch had practically volunteered herself, after all.

Said witch averted her eyes in discomfort, but soon rose her gaze to meet the werecat's. "People get leery when they find out what I can do. I used to be a lot more touchy-feely, believe it or not." It came as absolutely no surprise to Thalia that the person in front of her was a hugger. "Honestly, I just didn't want to jeopardise any friendships or relationships that we could have made." Mirella was unable to keep from glancing at Claire as she said this, and Thalia almost felt the real explanation click into place in her head.

Thalia was unfortunately not much of a people person, so she not only didn't vibe with others immediately, but also rarely understood others' motivations unless the situation was extremely black and white. Or if they told her what they were, of course, and then the problem became that she took everything at face value and was somewhat easy to lie to when it came to that. After all, the heartbeat wasn't an infallible lie detector.

Mirella's words, coupled with her not-so-subtle reasons for wanting to touch certain people freely, rang true and made sense, both, so Thalia was satisfied. But then the king spoke up on the witch's behalf, and Thalia became confused. Not because of his words, which - though unnecessary to Thalia - were succinct and provided more insight. It was her internal reaction to his words that was confusing to Thalia.

"I allow Mirella to disclose the full extent of her powers in her own time, so I am also partially to blame here." The king was clearly supportive of the witch under no uncertain terms, and though his tone was measured and calm, it brooked no arguments or further complaint.

Thalia, who had been satisfied with the witch's explanation alone, suddenly wanted very much to argue and complain. As she was shoving down this feeling so she could analyse it into submission later, Helena turned her sharp gaze to the king.

"Speaking of, what the hell kind of wolf is your Spirit?" Her tone was combative, which made sense since Helena refused to follow most orders, especially silent ones. "I've obviously not seen every wolf there is to see, but that can't possibly have been a direwolf, because those only get up to about the size of a very large riding horse."

The king took a deep breath before speaking. "I'm something of a 'wolf-'bear hybrid. As far as I can tell, the size comes from that. There aren't many hybrids of my kind, since the Bear-Wolf Alliance began and ended with my parents and the first queen, and what I learned about the 'bears, I learned from her."

Ah. The first queen of the Northern Moonstone Kingdom. Svetlana Yerenikova, the Great White Bear, was a direbear of the first class. It was absolutely insane to think that the next queen of the North would be the literal smallest subspecies of shifter.

"And why did you need the witch to pull you back?" Helena continued, "Can't you control your Spirit? Is that something we need to be worried about?"

Thalia interrupted the budding argument with the question that had been pressing on her mind since the stranger opened his big mouth. No, since the moment she saw her name on the proposed mating contract:

"What did he mean when he said I wouldn't be his queen for long?" Thankfully, she didn't need to know the shifter's name for them to know whom she spoke of. "What will happen to us, to me, once we arrive?" The implied question hung in the air: what have you been doing with the females that were sent to you?

The king took another deep breath. Thalia wondered if that was a self-soothing ritual. "Well, Kieran was wrong about that, hopefully. But what he thought would happen isn't what will happen. In order to tell you that, I have to tell you what has been happening with the previous brides that have come and gone from the pack."

He breathed deeply again, and Thalia almost cackled as she realised that he just wasn't used to speaking aloud, and for so long, but was luckily able to hold the delirium in. Then, King Jackson began to tell them what Claire would later refer to as his anti-hero origin story.

King Daniel hadn't been eating the females, literally or figuratively. He never even touched them, but once, to check if they were true mates. Then, when they weren't, he sent his spy - who he did not name, but could apparently see Spirits' bonds - to find their true mate for them. So far, they'd found the mates of all excepting the last one, who hadn't wanted to find them. The king had essentially been running a covert dating service with the females who'd been sent as "sacrifices". And Kieran had assumed they would do the same for Thalia.

"And that was what I was planning to do, before I arrived. I was going to set you free without receiving your bite, and accept your rejection once you were safe across the border. You would have been part of my pack, and my queen if you wanted, but free to find your true mate."

Thalia felt deeply sad, instead of the relief she thought she would have felt. Perhaps it was because her real true mate had been such scum. She opened her mouth to say she would like that very much.

"But Scott was my true mate," she heard herself say. Ah, f**k. That's not what she meant, and she definitely didn't mean to say it so weepishly.

"My Queen, I've never seen a true mate treat another like that, though I can't say I've been around many 'foxes in my time." He rose, and Mirella - clearly knowing what he was thinking - vacated the seat in front of Thalia. He walked the two steps over and stood near her, not close enough that he felt overbearing, but close enough to be a distracting presence.

She barely noticed as Mirella held her hand out for Claire, who hesitated for a brief moment before taking it, then Helena's, and following them to the bar area. When Daniel sat across from her, though, Thalia did notice how his broad shoulder brushed against the partition.

That must be uncomfortable, she thought. Must be why he's always sitting at the end. I thought it was so he could sit near-

She broke that train of thought as he leaned forward and spoke, drawing her eyes to his well-defined lips and those teeth he flashed as though it was nothing. She thought perhaps it might be nothing, to him. "I wouldn't treat you like that."

She snapped her gaze up and had to recall the train of conversation. She wished he wouldn't look at her with those distracting eyes, all foresty and sunny and like the night at the same time. It made it hard to think when she was trying to categorise the colours. Ah, Thalia remembered. The king was rejecting her, like she thought he might.

"Why would you treat me like anything? You said you were going to free me, to reject- to let me reject you." Like she wished Scott had.

"Well, Sweet Queen," He smiled and tilted his head at her, and she felt something like a heart palpitation. What the Hel? She blinked a bit so she could focus as he continued. "I'll still let you reject me if you want to, but I'd love for you to check something with me, first." He held out his hands to her. "Is that okay?"

She nodded, but didn't reach out with her own hands, expecting he'd held his out for a different reason. She was right.

He pinched the fingers of his gloves, slowly revealing two large, soft palms. Shifter's bodies didn't form calluses on their hands nor feet, what with the advanced healing. Nope, focus, girl.

Her mind automatically tried to shy away from the moment, which seemed to be becoming charged with some emotion unknown to Thalia, but she needed to be fully present for this, whatever it was. Anticipation, maybe? She didn't know what to expect from the king's now outstretched hands, but she at least knew he now wanted her to touch them.

Thalia tentatively placed her hand in his, then gasped at the sensation of their aurae meeting for the first time. The power exchange almost felt like static on her skin, and goosebumps rose the gingery hair on her arms.

The "mate tingles". He should be feeling them, to a degree, but I certainly shouldn't at all, she thought, and her brow furrowed as she shifted her gaze to her mate. He had been watching her the whole time, waiting patiently and knowingly for her to come to a conclusion.

She gasped again as her vixen sat up and looked - really looked, after having been resting dormant all this time - through her eyes into Daniel's. His eyes flashed with emotion, a pure and bright violet, and she found her other hand in his before she had thought about it.

"It's not supposed to feel like this, yet." Thalia murmured, confused yet feeling as though she knew what he was going to say next.

"It is for us," Daniel smiled wolfishly, showing harmless teeth, as usual. "It's rare for the gods to give us a second chance, but it does happen. And it has happened for us, in the oddest way. We're true mates, Thalia."

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