The Lycan King & I

Twenty.

When I wake, I have a migraine. But that isn't what startles me, it's that I have a snoring furnace of a body flush to my back. I blink a few times to recognize by the four feet of mattress in front of me where I am.

Ben's massive arm tightens around my ribs, weighing me down from moving back to my side of the bed. I crane my head down to investigate, only to lost my breath at the sight of me in only a giant T shirt. A men's T shirt. Ben's shirt.

"Relax," His groggy voice is in my ear. 

"Why-" I begin.

"I was only putting you to bed," He explains calmly. "And fell asleep."

"Putting me to bed?" I am confused.

"Remember? You refused to get in bed unless I stroked your hair-"

"No, I don't." I squirm around so I am able to meet his eyes. They look sleepy; his hair sticking every which way. I try to think back to last night. I can't get much beyond bits and flashes of moments. I remember making a promise to Grace and her friends... I remember meeting Cole... I remember complaining that Ben needed to trim his hair in the car...

My flashbacks end abruptly when my stomach lurches. "I think I'm going to be sick." I mummer, pushing against his arms which open up this time. I'm able to crawl out of and dash to the bathroom.

"Are you okay?" I hear Ben ask on the other side of the door.

"Yes." I splash my face a few times with the cool water of the sink a few times. After a few breaths, the nausea subsides. I fling open the door, Ben is leaning against the doorway, still showing too much skin for me to keep my eyes focused on his.

I turn back to the mirror to grab my toothbrush, but my eyes zero in on myself in the mirror. Most specficially, on a slight purple mark on my neck. I pull on the collar at my deck and find an identical one on the place where my shoulder meets my neck.

"Ben!" I gasp, getting a short, few second flashback of me melting like putty in his grasp. "You said nothing happened!"

"I know what it looks like," He defends, taking a few cautious steps towards me. He pauses behind me and meets my eyes in the mirror, he is tall enough for the top of my hair to barely tickle his chin.

"It looks like you came very close to biting me!" I fume. I didn't want him pushing this 'marking thing.

"You know it's called marking, El." He rolls his eyes. "Look." He reaches a hand up to push back his unruly curls, revealing a neck full of the same marks on my neck. Some big, some small, but at least ten of them. I'm stunned in shame.

"I asked before each kiss," He says gently, trying to break his words to me gently. "And spent the rest of the night.... trying to handle you." He struggles to find the right words. Those words are not it.

"Handle me?" I hiss, spinning around. The movement makes my head throb, another round of nausea hits me again. Only this time, it doesn't go away. I'm on my knees in front of the toilet in seconds.

"Way to knock down a King," Ben mutters as I feel his hands in my hair, brushing it out of my face.

"It's not you," I assure him wearily, before pausing to get sick once more. "It's that Poison, I just need to get it out of my system." He grabs a towel once I turn away from the toilet.

"You've had Lycan's Ale before?" He asks, reaching forward and gently wiping my face with the soft linen.

"Only once." I stand up and leave him in the bathroom as I patter back to the bed. My eyes are shut before my head hits the pillow." The Shifter's used that stuff on me on the journey to the Middle Kingdom, more of it keeps humans asleep." My voice drifts off lazily. Only I can't fall asleep; there's a nagging feeling at the back of my head that's keeping me awake. An undercurrent of rage.

"Can you stop thinking so loudly?" I groan.

"You can feel that?" Ben's voice sounds closer. I feel the pinch of anger in the back of my head dull a bit. It had to be his, another freaky Lycan thing, my head was pounding too hard to care.

"Yes. And it's making me wanna hurl even more." I complain miserably. "Just think more quieter."

"Got it." I feel the end of the bed dip with his weight. I jump out of my skin when I feel his arm slink it's way around my waist, I sit up

"Really?" Ben sighs, "I can't lie next to you? My neck is stained with your lipstick and love bites-"

"Shhhh!" I cover my ears in embarrassment at his words. "You're not getting any more."

"Real mature, Elliette." He rolls his eyes, not even bothering to lift his head off of the pillow. "You know someday we'll have each others marks for forever? For everyone to see?"

"Are you trying to tease me?" I cross my arms. I was angry

"And our scents will be mixed when we mate?" He pushes a bit further.

"You're not biting me." I notify him, in case he wasn't aware.

"Don't call it a bite!" He finally sits up in bed, frustration is evident in his voice. I had seen him angry plenty of times; but it still jolted me each time. He so rarely raised his voice at me.

"That's what it is!" I exclaim, if felt like I was the only one seeing that we were talking biting into someone's flesh here like some vampire.

"Marking is sacred to us- to me," He says after a long moment, "It's one of the most beautiful traditions we have, I don't like that you refer to it as some sort of animal attack. Can't you understand that?

His words have my feeling a bit guilty; I never meant to disrespect his culture, even if it was nuts. But deeper down, the fire inside me found a new log. Why was it that I was the one that had to do all the adjusting? To everything? Why couldn't anyone try to accommodate me.

I take a long, measured breath. "I can, if you understand this: before the change of power, all you wolves saw us as is floozies because we don't have mates. Do you know what happens in the South if a woman is caught sleeping with someone she's not married to?" I put my hand on my hip at his ignorance.

"Mar-" He begins.

My voice rises an octive in anger, "She gets blacklisted. No one will marry her, no one will hire her, no one will be their friend - her life is over. I'm not writing all these rules to make you chase me, I'm obeying what your kind forced us to do."

"How would I know that unless you shared that, Eliette?" He strains, "You can share with me when you aren't intoxicated."

"You should know that because that's an Entire Kingdom you exploited!" I throw my hands up in anger. There were thousands of us that depended on the Werewolf population for everything. How pompous. How egotistical. How wolf-like.

"That's not fair." He frowns, "I am not my grandfather, the exchange of power happend before I was even born."

"How would I know that unless you shared that, Benjamin?" I say in the same condesccending tone. I've never used his full name before; I never thought the first time I used it would be in annoyance.

Instead of rising up to match my ire, Ben cracks a wry smirk. He reaches out his hand and latches it onto mine as it lingers mid air, though I am annoyed with him; his touch cools me down a bit.

"Angry today?" He chuckles. I shrug, though I couldn't deny I had been uncharacteristically irrtated all morning. It started with the hangover and was fueled by this argument. "Come back to bed and rest, I'll stay over here."

He makes a show of wiggling back to his pillow, I climb in, my sleepiness outweighing my stubborness. I turn my back to him and hate that I can feel his stare on my the back of my head. Ben is a talker; I know he isn't going to let me go to sleep that easily.

"I can tell you why you are maybe feeling on edge, if you tell me more about marriage." He offers kindly.

"What about it?"

"What it is, for starters."

I sigh, opening my eyes and flipping to my back. "You get engaged, you get married."

"Engaged?"

"It's the time when you're betrothed." I explain half-heartedley.

"It's just hard for me to wrap my head around; what is tethering the two together for life?" He isn't being critical, but honest.

"At the wedding, you exchange vows and rings." I supply, knowing he'd never get it, so there wasn't a point in explaining too much. Mates were all he knew. "So that, I guess."

"Rings." He repeats dully.

"Like the jewelery."

"But why? Isn't it just a pain?" He is genuninley perplexed, "I wouldn't want to have to take it off every ime I shifted and find it later-"

"We don't shift down there." I say flatly. Duh.

"But I do," He's mulling his thoughts out loud to himself, "If you have my mark, I wouldn't think a ring is a even necessary-"

"Can we change the topic?" I whine, the thought of blood and biting was not helping my upset stomach whatsoever. I didn't even want to open the can of worms that was discussing marriage right now. 

Ben chuckles and rolls onto his back as well. We're both eyeing the wooden slats of the ceiling, waiting for the other to talk. "The mark is a primal act of passion, the heightened emotions are... to speed things along." 

"So we're going to fight until you mark me?" I make a point of saying mark, to show that I am respecting what he says. "I don't see how that works." 

"Tension, anger, passion... they're all similar." He explains. "They make up the marking."  

"And after we do... that, will I have any freaky side effects then?" I ask, my eyes fluttering shut. 

There's a long pause. I felt a feather light touch at the ends of my hair, lightly brushing them. I am already half asleep, still feeling sick. I don't have it in me to protest. 

"We'll worry about that later." Ben finally answers.

"What's that-"

"Shhhh, Elliette." Ben says softly, coaxing me to sleep. The hands in my hair do the trick, or is it the hangover? Either way, I'm out in seconds. 

The next week passes by uneventfully. Mainly because Ben works from home in his office, I prefer it for the first few days. At first I ponder if Ben's working from home to keep Hamilton away, but I learn that it's to hide the evidence of my attack on his neck. 

The day the marks are practically faded away, he returns back to wherever he goes during the day. I'm happy to have Hammie back, I missed him. I quickly get bored of staying at home with him all day, and on the fourth day get him to take me out  for a walk.

"We've been looking for this stupid plant for hours," Hammie whines for the hundredth time. 

"I've been looking, Hammie." I roll my eyes at his childish as he trails behind me. I too was growing impatient; it was freezing outside. Like always. Hamilton had stalked behind me and complained about his older brother played unfairly in a spar the previous day. 

"I tried but all I see is snow." He defends, "Again, plants don't grow in winter."

"And again," I kick up some more snow under a new patch of trees I hadn't tried yet. "This plant does- aha!" I yell in victory when I find the root I am looking for. Reaching for the knife in my back pocket that I took from Ben's kitchen, I start wearing down the roots.

"s**t where did you get a knife?" Hammie exclaims as I roll my eyes for the thousandth time. When I get the leaves I need, I shove the plants into the cloth bag I brought from my trunk.  Can't you just tell me what this is for?" Hamilton whines again as we begin the trek back to my house. 

"Fine, but you can't tell Ben." I warn him, "I'll tell him soon, I promise." 

"You know my loyalty is to you, Ellie." He responds.  I wasn't trying to keep this a secret; making a few herbal teas wasn't something to be ashamed of whatsoever. But, Ben hadn't asked me much about my blessing. He didn't seem like he approved of it, especially when I had predicted Grace's pregnancy. I wanted him to hear the news from me, not from Hamilton.

"It's for Grace's baiter friends." The look on his face is perplexed, before he can ask, I explain. "The ones who also miscarried last year, I promised to help them conceive again." 

"Benjamin told me not to ask you about it." Hammie prefaces, "But will you tell me more?" 

"I've always just had an instinct when it comes to pregnancies and babies and children." I shrug, "I'm intuitive that way, some Shifters saw that and sent me North to use my gift there." 

"We don't hear much about humans here." Hammie grabs my arm as I almost stumble over a patch of ice, we resume walking. "The blessings of humans are kind of a tall tale around here." 

"Well, it's not like we're supuperheros." I snort. "It's just something we developed to keep us from going extinct." We're back to the cottage now, Hammie holds the door open for me and I revel at the warmth inside. "When did Ben-"

"Before my first day, he gave me a long list of rules." Hamilton supplies, shrugging out of his jacket and throwing it on a nearby chair. That doesn't sit right with me, why didn't Ben want anyone to ask me about my gift? Was he ashamed of it? Did he not believe in me?

I never get to ask Ben about it; because he doesn't come home that night. Instead, I'm surprised by a Grace knocking at the door.

"Wells and King Benjamin had to leave for a few days to go South." Grace informs me cheerfully as she takes off her jacket. "I am here for night shift  with my Queen!" 

Hamilton and I exchange looks with one another, I knew exactly what he was thinking. We were two kids whose babysitter had just arrived.

"Ahhh, I'm not trusted overnight." Hamilton mutters darkly. "Mates are ridiculous sometimes."

"Just following orders." Grace invites herself in and sinks into the couch. She is wearing a tight cream sweater, her baby bump has emerged. With twins, it is bigger that I expected. 

"When will they be back?" I ask, disappointed. Why did everyone else seem to know what was happening but me? I felt caged and in the dark. I didn't even get a goodbye.

"A few days, they had some business to do in the South. They do this pretty often, nothing to worry about" She shrugs, "Plus this will give you some time to check on the babies." Her eyes light up and her hand instinctively rests on her stomach.

"Perfect." Hammie comments, "We just spent all day making tea out of dirty roots for you."

"Shut up." I hit his arm as I grab the kettle of root tea on the counter, I pour a cup and bring it back to Grace. "Drink this, it'll help your babies get the nutrients they need." 

Grace doesn't need any convincing, nor does she asks any questions before finishing the glass in one gulp. Either she is desperate, or she really trusts me to drink without any question. She makes a face when she's done.

"Do you mind?" I ask her, setting down onto the loveseat and reaching my hands out towards her stomach. 

"Feel away!" She invites me. She is normally so poised and collected, this is the first time she is flustered with excitement. 

"I can go if you're doing... lady stuff." Hamilton lingers awkwardly in the doorway of the kitchen. The two of us ignore him, as I place my hands softly on Grace's stomach. I close my eyes and push down lightly, feeling it out.

"Your babies are big," I comment, "You haven't been shifting, right?" 

"Should I not be?" Grace sounds guilty.

My eyes shoot open, "Absolutely not. Grace, please tell me you haven't shifted." The look on her face says it all. "Your wolf genes are strong, when you shift, they are even stronger. Shifting makes the fetuses too strong for your non-shifted body."

"Oh my." Grace starts to panic, tears welling in her eyes. I'm distracted by Hammie collapsing onto the giant fluffy rug and grabbing for the remote. 

"You'll be okay, I promise." I assure her, closing my eyes again. "They are healthy, they are okay."

"Thank you so much," Grace breaths, tears of joys now pouring out. "You are exactly the Luna we need, you are the only one I trust through this." Her words make my heart swell as I grab her hand and smile softly. I was an outsider here, but I was treated with more respect than I had seen in my life. 

I wasn't just a tool here, I was a person. 

"Grace," I ask a little later as I grab a handful of popcorn from the bowl we had made. "What happened to the midwife for the North?" I had been curious, and no one told me much. It was odd that the North operated without a birthing doctor or midwife, and Ben wasn't keen on me stepping into that role. 

"Doctor Theodore?" She asks, eyes glued to the tv screen. "No one knows, he vanished."