May Death Do Us Part

“The kingdom has never known such tranquility your majesty,” one of the council members pointed out, “your decision to ensure equality reigns amoung the races has won you a great deal of public favor.”

“I merely fostered what was right,” Gareth responded, “it’s high time things change for the better.”

Even though most people were very overjoyed with Gareth’s decree of equality, he was aware that there were some who did not find it appeasing. Those who were bumped to the top because of their race were now on equal grounds with everyone else and it infuriated them.

“Pardon me my king,” one of the lycans spoke up, “we all know that the previous king was more or less a figure head standing in for the man who was truly in charge, king Elric of Meria. Don’t you think that after he notices the changes you have made he will retaliate?”

“Thank you for bringing up your concern,” Gareth responded. That wasn’t a concern at all, the man was merely trying to challenge Gareth’s decision by factoring in Elric who the lycan thought Gareth feared. Gareth was good at reading people, and from this meeting alone he would know who deserved to be sitting in those chairs and who didn’t.

The eleven king turned to Zander and gave him a nod, “lord Zander, care to enlighten our good man over here of our plans to pacify our not so friendly neighborhood tyrant?”

Zander nodded and turned to face the occupats of the table, “a peaceful treaty will be drawn and sent to king Elric, urging him to end his tyranny and foster equal rule. The message of this treaty will be sent to him tomorrow and he will be given a total of fourteen days to accept. If he denies, or he does not respond, we will march for Meria and dethrone him forcibly.”

“But king Elric is a powerful man!” The lycan blurted out before immediately regretting his words, “or so I’ve heard. Isn’t going to war with him a little reckless?”

.....

“Who said anything about waging war?” Zander responded, “I said we will march to Meria and dethrone him. Besides..” Zander leaned back and smirked at the lycan who clearly supported Elric, “even if war was an option, our king has fought with the lycan and defeated him, it won’t be difficult to do it again.”

The lycan general sunk back into his seat clearly agitated, but tried hard to hide it, it seemed there was no stopping Gareth, the life he had come to enjoy where lycans were at the top of the food chain had come to an end.

After the meeting was over and the council members had left, Gareth remained in the library with his men. Finwe who was sitting on his left hand gave him a slow clap.

“I have to say brother, you were born for this role.”

“Well it’s not like I had much of a choice, I’m my father’s only son,” Gareth responded with a sarcastic smile on his face. “And I’d like for you to draw up that treaty to send to Elric dear brother, you do have a way with words.”

“I’ll get right on it your majesty,” Finwe responded with an equal amount of sarcasm.

“Do make sure to include that I will be wanting my future wife back as well, now will you.”

“That was going to be my opening statement,” Finwe chuckled and so did the rest of his men.

“And as for the rest of you, I’d like to thank you,” Gareth spoke to his men, “no really, thank you so much. I know I made some impulsive decisions especially when it came to matters of my heart, but I want to thank you all for helping me keep my sanity.”

“Like we said the first time we met your majesty,” Beric responded, “you aren’t just our leader, you’re our friend, so you need not thank us.”

“Precisely,” Ivan added on, “and besides, having a king for a friend will really rake in the the women.”

The rest of the men all sighed at Ivan who was practically drooling at the thought of having hordes of women swarming over him. Good thing he was a decent fighter.

“Oh and before I forget your majesty,” Finwe spoke as he dug into his pocket and pulled out a piece of wrapped up parchment. “This came for you from Guria.”

“Guria?” Gareth reached for the paper and read it with much intent, wasn’t Guria where that lycan had whisked his wife away to?

The men at the table where suprised when their king scoffed in amusement, and shortly after, his scoffs turned into chuckles and then into full blown laughter.

“Is he going to lose it and try to burn us again?” Zander whispered to Finwe, “what is in that note?”

“I don’t have a clue,” Finwe whispered back, “now that he is king I am not allowed to pry into his personal letters anymore.”

After Gareth’s laughter had died down, he tucked the note away and broadly smiled at his men. “It seems we have allies in Meria,” the new king explained, “I can’t wait to see the look on Gareth’s face when he loses everything.”

A few days back when Bahram had sent an invisible message to his wife, he had asked her to write a latter to Gavaria and adress it to Gareth. In the letter, Astrid was to inform Gareth that all of Melissa’s brothers were on his side and had taken precautions to ensure that Elric wouldn’t lay a hand on Melissa until he came to retrieve her.

It had been the best peice of news Gareth had gotten, he had tried not thinking about it but when Zander and Finwe had told him that Melissa was away on honeymoon, he had been battling with frustration and anger. He didn’t even want to imagine Elric holding his woman.

*

As the carriage moved towards Meria, Melissa was feeling a little uncomfortable with how dotting Elric had become. He had been forcing her to snaggle up against him, he was stroking her back and stomach constantly, and he kept looking at her longingly as if she was a plate of piping hot rabbit stew.

“We should have some coats made for you,” Elric spoke as her rubbed her shoulder. He had his arm around her and she was, against her will, leaning on his side. “Winter is coming, you need to keep warm.”

“Thank you for the concern your majesty, but I think as a nosferatu the cold doesn’t affect me as much.”

“Maybe not as much, but it will still affect you.”

Melissa sighed. She knew arguing with him was futile, so she accepted, “thank you, some new coats would be lovely.”

Elric planted a kiss on the top of her head and continued rubbing her shoulder. This is what he had been hoping for all this time, to rekindle with his beautiful wife and have her snuggled up against him.

Melissa couldn’t help but wonder if letting this crazy man believe that they had relations over their honeymoon was such a good idea. What if he started expecting a child, what then? Or what if she was unable to reunite with Gareth in time and her pregnancy started to show, he would think it was his and really cause a problem.

She glanced up at the silver haired king and noted that he was in a particularly good mood and seemed very pleased with himself. Her mother, Emma Morrell, had once told her that the best moments to ask for something from your husband was after he has had a good meal, after you have given him some good sex, or a combination of the two.

Melissa couldn’t believe she was about to do this but he really left her with no choice. “My husband?”

The king quickly threw his gaze down at the woman in his arms. Had she just referred to him as her husband? She hadn’t done that in a long time. He pulled away slightly and cupped her doll like face in his hands, “yes my love?”

“I was wondering,” Melissa spoke calmly, “now that I’m here with you and we are now on good terms with each other, what is the need to keep my family hostage?” She looked to the carriage floor and faked a pout. “It makes me question your love for me.”

Elric pursed his lips and thought, she was right, there wasn’t a need to keep her family around. She was with him and Gareth knew better than to try anything because of the threat Elric had made last time.

“please allow them to return to their families and homes,” Melissa pleaded, “for my sake.”

The king placed a hand at the back of Melissa’s head and pulled her in for a kiss, much to the redhead’s dismay. When he pulled away he smiled lovingly at her, “anything for you my queen.”