The Crippled King

She was led to the throne room and as the ornately carved doors swung open, revealing a man on the throne, bathed in the cool light of the rising sun, she felt a wave of of feelings roll through her as she stared with unabashed pleasure at the man seated high above everyone else.

He sat upon a throne of obsidian, black as his brooding eyes that met hers in an instant and she shivered from the irritation radiating from him.

'What did he have to be so mad about? She had been the one forced to be here.'

She wanted to cower then she reminded herself that Yvette would never do that and so she raised her jaw even while she trembled inside, determined not to let these scary strangers feel her fear.

"Princess Yvette, welcome to our kingdom. I am Odo Darius, uncle to the king and custodian of the kingdom. I trust that you had a seamless journey." At the sound of the firm voice goose pimples rose on her skin and she hid the shudder of fear that travelled along her spine.

The emotion was raw, primal, and she fought it with all her might, for whatever reason the man's voice sent tremors down her body and she wondered if it was the same for everyone else.

She turned and looked into the grey eyes of a man who looked nothing like his voice sounded, he looked like a firm but pleasant man and she wondered why she had such a reaction to him.

He did not look like she had expected, none of them did. Were Lycans not savages? Why then did they look like cultured and civil people?

She curtsied low before standing up and saying. "The roads were fair even though the journey was taxing."

"May I introduce to you, King Kael your groom." He said and she turned to the throne once more.

Kael stared at Odo, totally ignoring her presence and Odo stared back at Kael not looking the slightest bit intimidated while Naiari was quaking on the inside.

"What is this I hear about a groom?" He asked lazily, the easy tone of his voice doing nothing to hide the danger emanating off of him.

"We have spoken about this Kael, we need to—"

"I do not need anyone shopping for a wife for me, i don't need a wife." Kael interrupted with a frown and a dangerous edge in his voice.

"The kingdom needs a queen and it is my duty as your uncle to help you anyway that I can, that includes finding a suitable wife for you." Odo stated firmly.

"And that suitable wife is this frail human?" Kael raised an eyebrow derisively before looking at her critically before looking away and she bristled at the way he spoke about her.

"Send her back, I have no interest in this union." He demanded coldly.

When no one moved to his command he snarled loudly. "I said get her out of here!"

Odo moved closer to him and spoke as if he was speaking a child who was throwing a tantrum. "You can't keep rejecting all of these women, you have built a reputation and soon no one will accept our—"

Naiari interrupted, "You know, I do believe the king is right…" at her words everyone turned to her in amazement wondering what game she was playing at.

She shrugged nonchalantly. "There is no need for this marriage to hold and there is no need to bother yourselves on my account, my carriage will simply take me back and he can go back to playing the bored spoiled Royal with a stick up his ass." She said and turned towards the exit.

She hoped that if she was rude enough to this king he would probably feel insulted and send her back home. It was better to face the torment and disappointment than to stay here and be burned at the stake for practicing magiks.

The entire room went deathly silent in disbelief at her words but before she could get to the door, she heard a loud booming laugh which made her turn around. To hers and everyone else's shock, Kael was not upset by her words, infact he seemed very amused.

Naiari turned and felt like she was under the spell of his beauty as he laughed, he no longer looked cold. The smile lines gave his face a softness and lit his eyes with a warmth she thought him incapable of and she wished that he would laugh all the time then she shook herself back to her senses. What did it matter if he laughed or chose to look like a petrified carving.

He stared at the little human in amazement as his laughter died down. She looked so frail that if he roared in her direction she would probably be blown away but she dared to stand up to him and even tried to walk away, what a delightful surprise.

Usually he was skeptical about the women that his uncle brought to the palace as his brides because they were his uncle's stooges. They had to be coerced to come in the first place because of his reputation as a cripple but immediately they saw his city's wealth and had a good look at his handsome face they changed their minds and wanted to stay.

Unfortunately for them he had no use for a woman like that and the more they tried to seek his favor the more he was turned off by them. This one was different, she even insulted him. He was interested to see how entertaining she could be.

"Maybe I judged too quickly." He said, his blue eyes trailing over her body.

The intense concentration made her want to cover herself with her arms but she forced herself to not fidget or show her disappointment.

She had been so glad to see him reject her and had seized on it to make her way back home but apparently she did the wrong thing by agreeing with him and now he seemed to be changing his mind. What a disaster.

"Maybe getting married is not such a terrible idea, I will need to get married eventually." He said and noted with satisfaction the disappointment in her eyes at his words.

'So she does not want to get married to this cripple then.'

The thought gave him a perverse feeling of bliss. He would love to see how she was going to react now.

"You have had a long trip, you should retire to our room." He said, biting his lip to stop the wolfish grin when he saw the fright in her eyes.

'Not so bold now are you little lamb.'

"Ou.. our… chambers?" She stammered uncomfortably.

"Of course. Since you will be my bride it is customary for the wife to sleep with the husband." He said patiently as if she was dumb and she frowned.

"But we are yet to be married." She blurted out, feeling cornered.

"Ah." Kael said nodding, "you are impatient to get on with the ceremony. Fine, we can have it done this evening. Lady Kassandra will show you the way." He dismissed her and a regal looking older woman dressed in elegant flowing clothes with gold jewelry adorning her neck and wrists led her away from the throne room.