Wolf and the Fey

Chapter 4

Three days. It had been three days before the King wished to see the Fey Queen once more. They had avoided each other in his home, eating their meals at separate times(her carefully watching the servants prepare her food) and even slept at opposite times. It wasn't until the mid afternoon that the King appeared in his garden, his hands folded behind his back and a solemn expression engraved onto his face.

He wound through the trail slowly, his icy eyes focused on the lanky figure that was sitting in the midst of his fields. More flowers were growing, some he had never seen before. But, he had heard of them. They were not native to his lands but native to hers. And the motif of color was almost too much for him to bear.

The Queen sat in the meadow, her hair braided back into two snowy trails and her frame adorned in silky fabric of midnight blue. It was a much simpler dress than the one he last saw her in. Low cut and off her shoulders as the last was, but this one had no adornments, just a bit of lacing in the back to hug her figure. And it did hug her in every right way.

She could feel his presence before she could hear his breathing and heartbeat behind her. She sat stoic as she had been, running her hands through small bare patches of grass and having immediate, colorful blooms burst through the soil. Her fingers carefully trailed over the purple star shaped petals before she finally looked back to the King.

"Have you come to a concensus?"

"Your work is beautiful. I never would have thought you carry both light and shadow magic."

He was avoiding the talk. She knew it. She sighed under her breath as he came to sit next to her in the grass.

She had chosen a nice sunny spot underneath a willow tree beside one of  his ponds. He had to admit, it was one of his favorite places within his gardens.

"Thank you."

"My pleasure."

Silence consumed them both for several long moments as both of their gaze went to the small pond to the left of them. The wind was smooth and warm, carrying the bird calls and hum of insect life with it. Nexus turned his gaze back to the Queen's to find her hard autumnal stare boring into him.

"I...I apologize for my words the last we spoke. I didn't believe you. I didn't want to believe you. I've heard stories of my great grandfather, but I never thought of him to be capable of such things." He bowed his head, averting her gaze completely as he folded his hands in his lap. She couldn't help but think he looked distraught. "I went digging around in the archives. Found his journal from his youth along with the rest of my family's." He took a small breath in.

"You were right. He did do that to your grandmother. I knew he had left her because he fell in love with another woman who would later be my great grandmother, but I never knew that they had been involved enough to create another life." His gaze came back up to meet hers. A deep sadness lingered around her eyes. He couldn't help the way his throat tightened, and the knot that gnawed at his stomach grew deeper. "Your family never deserved that pain. She never deserved that pain. He was a monster, one that hid very well among the royal status. I want to amend the wrong that was done."

A small smile came to grace her lips as she turned her attention back to her flowers. She kept growing more around them, contemplating her words carefully before she spoke.

"Will you give me Lithia?"

"I have a better idea." Her gaze shot back up as her brow furrowed together. He could tell her defenses were on edge, and she was ready to argue once again. She stayed silent for a moment, indicating for him to spill his idea. "What if we make Lithia both of ours? Instead of it being the border for our lands, it's a place for merging the both of them. I'll help you rebuild it, and we come together regularly when affairs need to be settled within it, and we do it together. Is that okay?"

He shifted his body to face her fully, his hands coming to pluck a few of her dark flowers out of the ground before scooping her hands in his. He made it to where they were both holding the flowers carefully. She looked back and forth between him and the flowers. She couldn't help but think that hope had started creeping into his sharp features.

"What's the catch?" She was apprehensive, and he couldn't blame her for it.

"No catch. We reign over the city as one. We'll make it into a trading center for both of our lands, and we'll decorate it in honor of your family. Of the wrongs that were done and ensure they'll never happen again."

She chewed carefully on the inside of her cheek as her gaze landed back on the flowers in both of their hands. She could feel his power roiling underneath his skin. She could feel his wolf creep closer as his eyes scanned over her features. She couldn't help the way her cheeks flushed red and how her heartbeat began to speed up. She breathed in deeply before removing her hands from his and standing upright. She carefully dusted herself off before speaking.

"I'll need some time to think about it. We'll speak more before dinner is served."

She left him there in the grass, face twisted into one of confusion. But, it wasn't an outright no, and that had to have some hope to it. It was a lot to take in as it wasn't exactly as she wanted, but it was a compromise that could make both of them happier and stop the bloodshed. He carefully placed her blooms back into the grass before flopping onto his back, his senses taking in the overflowing sweetness of the life she gave his garden.

He had to admit, she was frightening in her own right, as any queen should be, but she also held immense sadness and anger. He kept rolling around in his head about the memories her great-grandmother had shared with her. How much trauma she had to witness through her and how much she was holding on to. What she showed him was only a fraction of what she was shown, and it damaged his heart greatly to learn about what his blood was linked to.

His head rolled to the side slowly as she now became a pinprick in the distance, almost back to his home. He couldn't tear his eyes off the way her hips swung as she walked, how much poise and grace she had being in not just unfamiliar territory but enemy territory. She was stronger than she let anyone believe. And if the stories he had heard of her teenage years to be true...Well, that was always the downfall of her enemies. An enemy is something he did not wish to be anymore.