Chapter 49

“Elena.” King Harvey helps me sit up and rests my head on his shoulder. “I am sorry to frighten you.”

“You are formidable.” I say feeling weak.

I can’t imagine the extent of his power, or mine, for that fact.

“Elena, you have been quiet.” King Harvey tosses over his shoulder as he stirs the pot in our kitchen. He is making us a healing soup because we both need rest.

“Your power made it impossible to breathe, King Harvey. I felt the skin would fly off my bones. How do you contain it?”

“I would die if I constantly was in my werewolf form, exhaustion, Elena.”

“Really?”

“Yes, Elena.” King Harvey replies patiently. “I am a living creature, despite my powers.”

The icicles hanging off his words stun me. Did I misstep?

“I never thought of exhaustion killing a werewolf, King Harvey. Are you mad at me?”

King Harvey turns to face me slightly. “Not you, Elena. I am scared my power could have killed you. I am rather upset with myself.”

“You meant no harm.” I offer comfort, pressing my hand to his bicep then rubbing his back.

“I could have killed you, Elena.” King Harvey repeats shallowly. Tears fill his eyes. “I do not wish to bury you, Elena.”

“King Harvey,” I gasp. Opening my arms to him, I hold him tightly as he breathes shakingly into my neck.

King Harvey uses all his strength to hold me to his chest, almost squeezing the blood out of my body.

“It sickens me to know what you have endured, that I could not have found you sooner, or saved you sooner. It sickens me that I could have killed you twice as much. It was foolish. I can show you my form after we are fully bound to one another, because you will be able to withstand it in full. The only peace I have is that you do not fear me as you once did.”

“I don’t believe I ever fully feared you, King Harvey,” I whisper to him. “I…did desire you.”

I feel it is a bit too early to admit this, but that is my embarrassment talking. He is my husband.

“I felt it too, Elena.” King Harvey confirms as he pulls away from me to bend sweetly and kiss my lips.

I believe our soup will be eaten in silence when King Harvey sets down a white heart shaped plate in front of me, overflowing with a simple chicken soup filled with vegetables and rice. Instead, he studies me for a moment, and I blush.

“King Harvey… I do need to know about war and your powers.”

“I agree, Elena.” King Harvey nods diligently. “Ask me what you would like to know.”

“How many have you killed?”

“It is difficult to keep counting in a span of a decade, Elena. But as many as I needed to, to protect.”

“Is protecting your main goal?”

“Especially after meeting you, Elena. My only goal is to protect you and my people. Our people.” King Harvey smiles.

“You are right, King Harvey.” My heart skips a beat. “Our people.”

“How else did you master your powers?”

“A lot of drawing and being put in simulations of war, demanding that I force my powers to work. I learned healing first out of pure necessity. My left arm had been chopped off.”

“…what?” My spoon drops into my bowl of soup. “By whom?”

“Father.” King Harvey replies casually. “He was frustrated with me.”

“…I can’t believe that.” I sigh heavily as tears pour down my face.

In a flash, King Harvey has me sitting in his lap as he stirs my bowl of soup with his free right hand.

“It is nothing, Elena.” King Harvey whispers to me. “It is the way of war. I did learn, if anything, I ended up extremely thankful.”

“Thankful?” Sniffling pathetically, I just decide to abandon the soup all together and rest my head on his shoulder.

King Harvey adjusts so I can sit comfortably.

“Yes, Elena. It saved my life.”

“So, you did a lot of drawing… and bleeding?”

The thought of my husband’s left arm on the floor, bleeding and him screaming in pain is making me sick. I am glad King Harvey is so wide, that I don’t have the room to turn my head in his tree-trunk neck to check his left arm for a scar.

I will though, inevitably when we are intimate again.

King Harvey chuckles warmly. “In a way, yes. I also transformed during war when I was deeply wounded, a blade through my stomach, or bullets, or something of that nature.” King Harvey’s light and casual tone is sickening.

“What does it feel like to transform?”

“Weightless, initially, Elena. Then all the power surges through my body, it feels like a protective warm fire surrounding me. Step after step shakes the ground and fighting becomes second nature. There is no thinking, just doing. It is freeing. My wounds heal faster when I am in this form.”

“Our mating, King Harvey?” I whisper.

“Our mating was my completion, Elena. It felt as if I finally understood why I was alive. To protect you, to be your mate, to be with you.” King Harvey kisses my forehead.

“I wish I had the words, King Harvey. Being with you is the only happiness I have known of this form, gilded.”

King Harvey smiles at me brilliantly but says nothing. He stares at me, and I expect a kiss, but instead he says. “Elena, with your power you will be able to do more than me. I may never master my powers; I have no patience, I always focused on the physical aspects of war. Your mind is centered towards these luna powers. This patience puts you ahead of me power wise. Since you are a luna, you balance me out to the point of endless possibilities. You calm me, Elena.”

“I do?”

“Yes. With your natural ability to calm me, you can go as far to prevent me from going to war with a simple word. You will have this same ability to aid our werewolf people, Elena. It will take you longer to master this, however. A mutual bond of trust must be harvested.”

“This is a lot to understand, King Harvey…”

“You are irreplaceable, Elena.” King Harvey kisses me on the lips, and I kiss him back, wrapping my arms around his neck.

Before the kiss can take us anywhere, the sound of a window breaking freezes us both. In a blur, King Harvey attempts to put me in our bedroom, when his father appears to block the doorway.

“Your wife hurt my wife, boy!” King Harvey’s father stands in front of us, his eyes a blaring feral red. His fists tremble with every panting breath.

“Stop.” I whisper, hoping my luna powers kick in.

His father simply glares at me.

“A battle for honor, Father?” King Harvey asks as he places me on the small sofa a few feet behind us.

“Honor, you spoiled brat!” His dad roars as he tries to slap King Harvey.

King Harvey ducks the attack and kicks his father in the stomach, sending him back a bit. I know he is restraining himself.

King Harvey’s father rears his head back and roars, his fangs completely popping out of his mouth.

“Stop!”

King Harvey twirls away from a punch and takes his father’s left hand and breaks it.

The sickening crack makes the blood rush through my body in fear. This could be King Harvey soon.

“Father, just flee!” King Harvey yells as his father howls insanely foaming at the mouth.

“I will kill your bride!”

“You will kill me first!!” King Harvey roars back as his eyes burn silver and his hands begin to twist and crackle like hours ago.

“STOP!” I scream.

King Harvey turns to me confused, halting automatically and reverts to his normal form in a blink.

His father has frozen as well, but stares at me, a lost look in his eyes. Recklessly, his father grins and kicks King Harvey so hard that he goes flying above me and lands onto our dining room table, in a heap of broken wood.

In a blur, King Harvey’s father stands above him and howls again, fist poised.

“STOP!” I scream again and stomp the floor; it cracks instantly at his father’s feet. The sound of a tree falling in the distance follows, and in his shock, King Harvey’s father leaves.

I throw myself on top of my husband and sob.