The King's Claim

e l e v e n - a kings intuition ✔️

That night, I don't get a wink of sleep. I can no longer rest easy knowing that Ara's hundreds of meters beneath the earth, suffering in silence.

I toss and turn for hours on end, finally deciding to take a midnight trip to the library - if I can't sleep, I might as well carry on working. I put on my slippers, not bothering to change out of my pajamas and head to the library.

I head back to my spot in the corner of the library, throwing my bag down onto the table. I'm too busy organizing my books to notice the energy change till it becomes too strong to ignore. My hands unwillingly freeze as I feel a set of eyes on me. I've grown to recognize this paralyzing feeling - King Eres is here.

"It's been a while." He says in an accusing tone, as if he was mad at me. It takes me a moment to get over the shock of hearing The King talk so informally with me; also to get over an important realization -

he noticed my absence.

"I'm sorry your highness," I had no idea what I was apologising for, "I've been at the lab doing my chemist work." 

He just carried on staring at me - his anger seeming to dissipate. 

"What work are you doing?" He asks. I try and sneakily push the brewers books back into my bag but he's already by my side.

"This looks interesting -" He picks up a book about X-bane.

"Y-yes, I'm doing some work on X-bane right now." I choke out, petrified from having The King so close to me. Why is he talking to me right now? He never speaks to anyone, is he like Beta Marcus? Waiting for the right moment to ask something immoral of me?

I find myself stealing glances, trying to make out an outline of his face but from this spot of the library, it was almost complete darkness if not for the little table lamp and the gentle glow from the moon. He's scanning through my notes; oblivious to my staring. 

"Try making your gaze less noticeable." He nonchalantly mentions, I blush a scarlet red. I guess not.

"Sorry." I blurt out, horrified.

I felt like I was dreaming, how is he talking so casually to me? He moves away and I find myself disappointed at the distance he created.

What is wrong with me?

King Eres makes his way to the grand couch a couple meters away and spreads himself out on it - his legs stretching out in front of him.

"Teach me." The command echos the room.

"T-Teach you?" I ask, stunned. 

"Are you making me repeat myself?" I must be imagining it but I could swear there was a playful tone in his voice.

"Of course not My King," I collect myself and begin to blabber on about my research and the months long testing I've been conducting. I look up occasionally but don't dare make eye contact, despite this, I feel surprisingly at ease in his presence, it felt different than the other times I was around him. I could almost ignore that suffocating aura of his - almost.

I could tell he really was paying attention, even though I couldn't see his face. I never took the King to be one for this kind of stuff. Plus he has every expert available to him at a moments notice, he could easily go to someone much more educated than me. I try not to think about it as I carry on talking about the mice experiments we conducted.

As I'm talking about the properties of X-bane, I'm interrupted.

"You said your mate died." He states, I'm caught off guard by the question.

"Y-yes, My King." I get over my initial shock and put on my best grieving face.

"How?" 

"I'm the daughter of the late Alpha Maddox," I stand taller, proud of the legacy my father built before the infamous extinction of my people. "My mate was a member of our pack and he died during the massacre."

I've kept the lie consistent over the years, no one ever asks for more information once I tell them my mate died - out of respect of course. It's considered cruel to needlessly pick at information about deceased mates knowing how painful it is to talk about. King Eres began twiddling with his gold rings - I could see the veins in his arms flex at the motion.

"Tell me about him."

So I guess King Eres is not known for his manners then.

That's fine, I've had time to refine my lie.

"His name was Edward, son of the late Gamma Marean and his wife Flaire." I keep it nice and short, making sure to sniffle a bit every so often. It wasn't a complete lie, Edward really did exist. He was my close friend, we were attached at the hip and people had already speculated we were mates so it added validity to the story - not that anyone who remembered is still alive. 

"You speak of him so formally." He notes.

"The pain of losing a mate is unbearable, it helps to distance ones self from it." I smile. I feel the energy around me intensify, I no longer feel at ease. I grab onto the table to stop me from collapsing.

"My condolences Belle." I put a hand on my stomach as I hear my name come from his mouth, I feel strange. The energy shifts again, back to one I'm more familiar with. 

Not again.

I begin to get light headed, I detested this stupid feeling so much. It took me back to times I'd much rather forget - Lycans and their vile auras. They use a power bestowed onto them to make everyone around them suffer, I focus on my breathing, trying to not let The King know how badly he's affecting me.

After composing myself, I look up but find myself alone, the couch is vacant and the air around me no longer heavy. I let out a sigh of relief and look back at my work but my mind is fixated on one question.

Why did he just disappear like that?