Mated: An Enemy King

Something Unexpected And Sweet

My wolf knew exactly where we needed to be. After I’d shifted, nothing else mattered except ensuring that we protected Leif. Or so I'd thought.

"Bloody hell!" The sound of battle and the stench of intruders was heavy in the atmosphere once we hit the borders and I couldn't help letting my presence known as I let out a howl that echoed throughout the entire forest, signalling my men to take their positions too. Whoever had dared to venture so close was going to wish they had thought twice. I did not even care that they were already engaged in a battle of their own.

Stepping out in the clearing of where some sort of camp had been set up, however, I realized that it was I who would need to think twice. Because as the winds suddenly shifted in my direction, bringing with it the familiar smell of battle and death, it carried with it something else too. Something unexpected and sweet. A scent that left my wolf frozen in its path while all those memories I’d fought to tuck away since Xatis came loose and clouded every ounce of my judgement. She was here! There was no mistaking that alluring scent which had made me lose my mind more times than I would have liked. The one which would forever belong to only one person in the entire realm and one meant to be savored by me alone.

The idea of it had me shifting back into my human self without a second thought and pinning my gaze on the sight before me as I frantically searched every figure. Both alive and dead.

"What is this?!" Zakariel growled beside me, but whatever held his attention in the raging battle had completely escaped mine as everything in me kept searching…for her. Despite our history, which I cared not for at the moment, I did. Even when I knew that it was plain impossible for me to find what I was looking for, here in Leif, possibly engaged in this battle, I still searched. My eyes going from wolf to wolf, while my nose greedily inhaled every part of her scent that mingled with the stench of death. Letting it guide me until I finally laid my eyes on the prize. And what a prize it was!

Aryn… the most beautiful sight shining brightly in the midst of the bloody battle. Surrounded by fur and blood. The only being who’d not shifted. She was as a beautiful wild flower among the forest’s thorns that sent my heart melting and hammering in chest. Something I shouldn’t have been doing and risking death, but I couldn’t help it as I drank in whole the unexpected warrior.

Her hair violently whipped about in the wind, bearing the remnants of what would have been a perfect hair do.

Something had happened to her gown, but God, it only made her appear so fearless. Every one of her movements precise, announcing her opponent's impending doom.

I didn't even know she could wield any form of weapon, let alone that piece of blade I could recognise from anywhere. And since her father was not dead yet, I knew this one had been forged specifically for her or was it that Elian had already gifted her the ancient relic of the kingdom Xatis? My own curiosity about that, however, was interrupted by an impressive sight I had ever seen when my mate’s dagga sunk into a wolf's chest while her blade slashed a nearby throat sending two bodies crumbling to the ground.

I could watch that the whole day, I realized, but it was the third wolf that lunged for her, the one she'd not been aware of that finally got my head out of the clouds, shifting and cutting through the chaos. I’d done this for my men countless times before. Fueled by my desire as their king to keep them alive. For Aryn, however, desire did not even come close to the thing that spurred I and my wolf on as we slashed, tore with insane precision and speed, clearing our path while our focus remained on her.

My gaze still remained on her as I sunk my claws into the intruder’s back, cutting short their intent. She still remained my focus when my canines sunk into the intruder’s neck and when the dying wolf whimpered, her beautiful orbs became my sole focus as her gaze met mine. Fierce and daring, pulling me into her world so effortlessly. That was until I became the sole object of her bloody dagga and blade.

“You!” Even without her wolf, her growl resounded around the camp, getting my full attention while at it. And I could have sworn her blazing gaze was sharper than the tip of her dagga that now rested on my throat. “Are you insane?!” She demanded, but for the love of all that was sacred, that was not what I or my wolf wished to know at the moment. So I shifted and stepped into her, pushing her blade to the side.

“Are you hurt?” My gaze and hands went everywhere, frantically searching her body for any injuries. I did not even care how odd that was at the moment.

“Why do you care?” She shoved me off of her, her reaction reminding me of the last time my care for her had been unwelcome. Thankfully, it was also the thing to get my head working again.

What the hell was she doing here, in Leif? After being branded a traitor and an enemy, I did not expect Elian to simply let his treasure end up anywhere near my kingdom. Unless… I gritted my teeth as the only possibility of ‘why’ presented itself. She was my weakness after all. My own choices from a moment ago proved me right.

"I thought the mighty Elian would be the one bursting through my gates with his armies." I sneered, yet not because of disappointment at not having faced the king of Xatis himself or the fact that the wretched king had played his cards right once again, but because I was furious that she'd been the one to be placed in danger in such a manner. As odd as that was, it was true.

"That can still be arranged Lord Eu– which shall I address you as?" I blinked, taken aback by the stern look she was giving me and if I was being honest, I was blown away too. More than the fierce fighter I’d just witnessed, it was as if she'd blossomed in the little time it had been since I last saw her. She was so much more than the wolfless maiden who’d crumbled to the ground at my words. The memory of it brought a bitter taste in my mouth even when she stood before me, alive and well.

"King Eugan–" I couldn’t help but growl. It’s not like she did not know who I was. Although, the thought of how she may have found out about my true identity only added to the bitter taste in my mouth.

"Yeah right.” Aryn scoffed, the response instantly rubbing me the wrong way. “I'd like to speak with King Koberic."

"I'm the king!" I growled, hating that she could make me, someone who’d known who they were all along, fight to get recognised in such a manner.

"Of course you are, but King Koberic and I have some important matters we left hanging between us while we were still in Xatis."

King Koberic? Important matters? Us?… She refused to acknowledge me, but it was her choice of words and how fondly she spoke of Koberic that sparked an unexpected fit of jealousy that left me with no doubt that if Koberic was around I would have blamed him for it.

“You speak to me or no one at all. And that goes for stepping foot in Leif too.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so unreasonable if I were you, Eugan.” Eugan… I’d forgotten just how sweet my name sounded on her lips and if it weren’t for the underlying threat in her tone, I would have revelled in it. And in her closeness that had come with her decision to step into me while she spoke.

“Are you threatening me, Princess?” I stepped into her too, yet not with the intent to intimidate, but for a test. I wished to know if her heart still raced at my presence. Disappointment slapped me, hard and fast on that front as only a furious glare greeted me.

“You did all that by yourself the moment you unleashed your wretched soldiers on the heir of Xatis.”

My soldiers on the heir of Xatis? She had to be insane. “What in God’s name are you talki–”

“Eugan.” Zakariel’s demand for my attention ripped through my mind link, making me swing around to face him and whatever he held out for me to see, had me shooting my gaze past him to the gory sight behind him. The battle had ended. Well, for the insufferable pigs who’d just posed as soldiers from Leif, while mine was just beginning.

“I know how this looks like, but these are not my men.” I declared, even when I knew that averting whatever was coming would not be as simple as me mumbling a few untrustworthy words.