A Lover and A Liar

Something Wrong With Him

The ray of sunshine that stubbornly penetrated the cream-colored curtain and fell right in King Julian's face, made him almost groan internally. The servants should have changed the curtains already. Did Julian have to deal with such small things himself?

Turning his head slightly to the other side of the bed, his eyes fell on her.

His mate.

Katherine.

She was beautiful, Julian couldn't deny her that. Her long chestnut hair were spread up on the white silky pillow, and her pretty face looked peaceful as she slept, almost contented with what had happened last night. After months that they hadn't slept together, as two mated wolves should, Julian had finally made up his mind last night; to make love to her... and mark her.

The first he had done properly. It was the second one that he had failed spectacularly. And as his eyes wandered on her face, her beautiful neck where he should have left his mark, her flawless light skin, her naked body underneath the sheets, for the millionth time in these last three years, Julian asked himself: what is wrong with me? 

For one thing he was sure, Katherine had came to his room last night with the only purpose to get pregnant. Her father, although he had never said anything directly to Julian, had started to question them, and so was his entire Court and his entire pack too. There hadn't been a Wolf King in history that hadn't marked his mate in three years, when he lived under the same roof with her, and let alone not get her pregnant with his pups. Lots of pups.

And Julian was afraid he didn't want any of these. Not now, he had said himself, every day, for the past three years. Now is not the right time, we're young, we have our entire life ahead of us. 

If that was the real reason or not, Julian was not sure at all.

Even his wolf wasn't much persistent in marking his mate, and he couldn't understand why. Their animals were possessive over their mates, they wanted their female right there with them the entire time. This was a wide-known fact.

However, this wasn't the case with Julian's wolf. He was laid back, quiet, even indecisive, Julian could say. He let Julian make all the decisions, and never once he had been mad that Julian hadn't acted up on his instincts to just plunge his canines on her neck and make Katherine permanently his.

First, Julian had blamed this on the fact that Katherine wasn't entirely his type. At all, actually. She couldn't understand him, his world, the hard decisions he had to make. She could't be part of his world, or maybe it was Julian that didn't allow her to fully be.

But for a few things he was sure; Katherine talked a lot, even when it was not appropriate to talk in that right moment. All she cared about were balls, and gowns, and jewelry... lots of jewelry. She was stubborn, a bit clingy, and kind of obsessive over him. But Julian never blamed any of these on her, it was his fault only that he had been courting her for years now, making her feel helpless and insecure. And he felt terrible for that.

If only Julian could force his wolf to mark her, he would. Just for the sake of not seeing her sad, of stopping the rumors and the words all around them that probably made Katherine cry at night, in her own chambers.

Yes, Julian felt terrible. He had been terrible to her.

But he couldn't do it. For the life of him, he couldn't make her his.

And he couldn't talk to anyone openly as well. Not without telling them that there was something wrong with him. That their King was broken, that he couldn't manage to accept his mate fully when all he had to do was love her, and accept her for who she was. What would they think of him? That he was just as horrible was his father was, but on his own, different twisted way?

That was what terrified Julian the most; becoming like Robert. Only the fact that that man's blood ran on his veins, that everything he had now, his throne, his pack, his people were because he was his son made him want to vomit.

That was why Julian had tried his best to make a name for himself, out of insane King Robert's son. To be deserving of what he had, deserving of ruling over thousands of werewolves. And that couldn't include him being broken. It was out of question.

His hand reached to stroke one strand of his mate's soft hair, but it stopped midway, and Julian pulled it back as if only touching her was a mistake. And once more his wolf didn't urge him to do it. To take her in his arms.

Something was wrong with him, Julian was more convinced for this as the days passed by.

The knock on the door draw his attention from her beautiful sleepy face. And once more Katherine didn't wake up at that noise.

She was lucky to be that peaceful. There were millions of things going on inside Julian's head, he envied her right now.

"Come in," he ordered.

The servant that came in, a young she-wolf blushed a little, her eyes not meeting his, but Julian smiled at her anyway. He always smiled at them, no matter what was going on with him. They didn't deserve to witness his bad days. Julian had always wanted for everyone to feel like they belonged here, no matter their rank or the work they had to do. Everyone was respected in his Court, he had made sure of it. And everyone, especially the lower ranks, were happy with it.

Or maybe the nobles weren't. Julian didn't know, nor did he care.

"The Gamma is waiting for you. He says the elders and the advisors want to have an early meeting with you," she informed him.

Julian narrowed his eyes. This didn't happen a lot, but once again, he had allowed them permission to organize meetings themselves, with the only condition that he was present in all of them. Julian wanted to be a fair King, and a considerate Alpha.

"Tell him I'm coming in five minutes, please," Julian said, getting up from the bed so he could get ready as fast as he could.

When he was out of the bathroom, the servant had already organized his clothes for the day. Julian gave her a thankful smile, allowing her permission to leave.

When he was out of the room, Cedric, his Gamma, was already waiting for him on the hallway. He gave a small bow that made Julian roll his eyes. They had been through this a thousands of times. At least when they were alone, Cedric didn't have to bow to him, nor refer him in his title. They were best friends, and Julian had risen him in position despite the fact that he had been simply a maid's illegitimate son. That had made his elders mad at his decision for a couple of months at least, but Julian hadn't backed down. There were decisions he made based on their opinions, and there were some he had to make himself. And this was one of them.

"Good morning, Cedric." Julian gave him his hand for their usual weird handshake thing they had as a secret since they were children instead. "What is this about?" He questioned, more serious this time.

"Sir Vincent is the one who organized the meeting," Cedric informed him. "I think it has to do with that rogue situation."

Julian let out a sigh. Of course it would be about that. Since some rogues had tried to assassinate Estelle, his sister, more than three years ago, under the order of some strange man that called himself the King of the Rogues, they had only been growing in number. They hadn't attempted another attack on her, which even though Julian was thankful about, he still couldn't figure out exactly out. Maybe they were just afraid of her powerful elven husband. Or maybe there was something more to it.

When Julian entered his Throne Room, he figured all the members of his Council were already present, and all had serious looks in their faces. He apologized for being late, although there was no one that would question him about that, and the meeting got started.

Firstly, his trackers informed Julian on the situation. The rogues had taken yet another powerful pack. This had been happening a lot lately, no matter how many rogues Julian's warriors managed to kill. They never once told the identity of their King, nor the reason they were taking over his Kingdom's packs.

The later was obvious of course, the King of the Rogues obviously desired all the lands Julian reigned over.

The situation was getting out of hand really quick, and all of them were worried. If the King of the Rogues somehow managed his way to the Court, Julian couldn't predict what would happen exactly. Not when they couldn't know how large his army was for sure.

The door of the room opened without a knock, cutting off their really serious conversation. All heads snapped at that direction, and Julian's blood boiled in his veins when he saw Katherine walk inside as if he hadn't ordered her more than a dozens of times not to interrupt the meetings with his Council.

"Hello, gentlemen, ladies." Katherine smiled. "Julian, I had something important to talk to you."

"Don't you see there's a damn important thing we're discussing here, Katherine?" That sounded harsher than he intended to, especially when her father was right in front of him. However, Vincent's face didn't gave him away. "Later. Wait for me a few minutes, please." This time, he forced his voice to be softer, and went back to the job he had at hand.

When the meeting was finally over, and the room was empty, he ordered his guard to inform Katherine he was waiting for her. She got inside without losing time, not really worried of what she had caused earlier. Sometimes Julian thought she couldn't understand the weight of her actions, especially not when she was going to become Luna Queen one day. And sometimes he thought she simply did not care. She walked around like she was already the Queen, you couldn't make the difference if you didn't know that she was simply his fiancée.

"What is it you wanted to talk to me?"

In contrast with his serious voice, Katherine rested her hands on his chest, stroking it gently, a playful smile on her face. "Did I get you mad, my love?"

That was something else Julian couldn't stand. Her calling him 'my love'. But the worse was that he knew, separately, that was such an endearing thing to say to your lover. It was the fact that she said it that didn't sit well with him.

"It doesn't matter. Just please don't walk inside my meetings again like that. The fact that you're Vincent's daughter doesn't have to make a difference when it comes to my rules," he told her, already knowing she wouldn't follow his orders nonetheless. "Now tell me, Katherine."

"Do you remember my friend?" she simply asked.

Julian furrowed his brows at her. "Which friend? You have a lot of friends here."

"No, I'm not talking about here." She shook her head. "I'm talking about my witch childhood friend. Alina."

His heart started to race at only the mention of her name, all of the sudden. Julian remembered her. Strangely, he remembered her so vividly, despite the fact he had met her only once, in his sixteenth birthday. "Kind of, yeah," he answered. "Why are you asking?" Julian wanted to know so bad why she was asking, but he made it sound as if he was uninterested.

"She wants to visit us," Katherine said. "Actually, tomorrow she will be already here. I told her, of course she could. That doesn't make a problem, right?"

Julian couldn't understand why his heart couldn't stop pounding in his chest like that. "Of course not, she can be our guest anytime she wants." What he said was mostly true, yet there was something about her visit that made him feel uneasy.

Had she changed? The last time he had seen her, she was a tiny fifteen-year-old timid witch, which his teenage self had found endearing.

What about now?

"Excellent!" Katherine grinned, looking actually happy. "I'm going to prepare the guests' chambers now. I cannot wait for her to come."

Julian swallowed down hard. "Me neither."