Chapter 37: Tonight

Marcia

Marcia did not remember leaving Marcus's arms. Nor did she remember moving around the desk, but she found herself wrapped in the King's arms, holding on for dear life. Her fingers dug into his back as she fought to keep the tears at bay.

She had a family that wanted her, that had always wanted her. The thought kept swirling around in her mind as she held onto the King. She knew that she should move so they could keep talking, but she was afraid of losing what she had just found. Through her link with Marcus, she felt his joy and worry.

Not wanting to upset her mate, she slowly pulled back with a smile and returned to her previous seat. Every step was hard. Yes, she was going to the man she loved, but it felt like she was abandoning her family.

Fighting to control his own emotions, Dmitri cleared his throat before continuing. “Thank you, my dear, it means the world to me that you are willing to acknowledge an old man. Unfortunately, not all of the news I bring is positive. You will change on the night of your eighteenth birthday, and it will not be easy for you. Normally, lycans prepare for months to get ready, but we do not have the time. It will be painful and dangerous, but your mate and I will be there every moment. With his help, I have faith that you will come out of the change stronger than ever.” The fear in his words seemed to seep into the room and made Marcus even more upset. The King was far less confident in the end result than his words conveyed.

Wanting to reassure him, Marcia looked at Marcus. Placing her hands on either side of his face, she looked deep into his eyes before speaking. “This is going to be nothing. I can handle pain; I have been doing it for my entire life. I am hard to kill, you know that more than anyone.” Her words were meant to be comforting, but instead, they triggered an instantaneous reaction in Dmitri.

The roar shook the pack house walls and caused the twins to submit to the King instantly. “What is Isabella talking about? You said she was safe with you.” In his anger, the King stood, towering over the couple. His Lycan fighting for control, his eyes flashed as his bones slowly extended.

Before Marcus could respond to the obvious threat in words, Marcia chose to do it for him.

“Do not raise your voice to my mate. I know that you are the king and my grandfather, but he is the Alpha of this pack and my mate. He has never, and would never harm me." The tone in her words made it clear that no one should dare to argue with her.

"When I said that I have been handling pain my entire life, that is exactly what I mean. I was beaten in my foster homes daily, to the point that I tried to escape the first chance I got. Unfortunately, when I ran, I was caught. After that, I tried to escape by marrying at age sixteen, the youngest I could legally do so." Her breath was coming quickly, and her knuckles were white from her grip on the edge of the desk.

"It was Marcus's older brother who found me the night my husband threw me out to die. Then he saved me again, this time from those who meant to harm me at the sanctuary. He never failed to protect me. Even when something happened to him, he protected me. This time, by sending a message to Marcus to come and get me, to bring me here. Since meeting me for the first time, Marcus has taken every step to protect me. If, for any reason, he was not here to protect me, he has appointed those he trusts to be there as well. This is Mackenzie and Makayla.” In her fury, she threw her hand in the direction of both girls as she spoke.

"I would pity anyone who tried to get past them to attempt to harm me. Notice I said attempt because they would never allow someone to get past them. On my first day here, one guard had to learn that the hard way.” Mackenzie smirked at the mention of the incident, and Makayla stood motionless at her station.

Out of breath from her explosive defense of Marcus and the pack, she lay back into his chest. "If anything, this is one of the few places in my life that I have not been harmed. It might be the only place that I have felt safe." Looking the King in the eye, Marcia struggled not to point out that he had stopped searching for her, leaving her to the environment in which she had been raised. She did not want to take jabs at the man who was clearly distraught over not knowing that she had survived.

Dmitri was unsure of how to respond to this sudden reaction, but was thrilled at the relationship he saw between the two mates and her confidence in her pack's ability to protect her. “I am sorry for reacting that way, I just hate that you have ever felt pain when you should have grown up protected. You are the lycan princess and should have grown up that way. Have you noticed improved healing abilities recently?”

Marcus rejoined the conversation, laughing at this question. “If they were any better, she would be immortal, and I am not fully convinced that she is not. She heals faster than any I have ever seen. We have heard stories of lycan healing but never believed it until now.”

Dmitri was puzzled by his words. “Until she shifts, her healing should be about the same as a normal wolf at best. Is that not the case?”

“Hardly.” As he spoke, Marcus rubbed Marcia’s back, nuzzling her neck to comfort both of them while discussing this upsetting subject. “She heals faster than I do, much faster. She also seems immune to silver.”

The King's eyes widened as he absorbed this information. “My dear, have you noticed anything else? Are your senses changing, or strange occurrences you could not explain?”

Marcia thought for a moment before replying. “My senses have always been better than those around me. I can hear nearly any sound in the pack house. If I try to smell the cake that they are baking in the kitchen for tomorrow.” She smiles because it smells like her favorite, chocolate fudge.

Marcus looked shocked. As an Alpha, his senses were sharper than those of other wolves, but he could not smell the cake and could only hear part of the pack house because of the soundproofing he had installed. He knew that she was developing her lycan abilities, but he never expected them to be this strong.

The King's face showed awe as he looked at her. “I see now why you asked about the prophecy of the White Lycan; you are mated to her.” To the shock of every person in the room, the King stood only to go on a single knee, lowering his head in submission. “If this is true, my child, you are destined to take the crown and protect all shifters.” He stood and looked into her eyes. “But before you can become a leader, you have to make it through your shift, eat up, then rest because tonight is going to be a long night.”

Marcia looked confused at his words. “I am the White Lycan, " Selene told me when she visited me in my mind. Athena and I will be fully one once I transform next week on my birthday. But I cannot take the throne, I do not even know who I am.”

The King tried to absorb that the goddess spoke to her, but the most shocking thing about her statement was the name of her lycan. “Did you say that your lycan is named Athena? There are stories of her; she is the fiercest of all lycan warriors and is only given to the strongest members of the royal family.”

His words were spoken with great reverence, but it was what Marcia heard through her link that made her giggle. “Damn right, I am the strongest, always have been, always will be. Once we are one, you will realize what we can do together. One thing, though, ask him for your real birthday.” Athena's words were filled with arrogance as she addressed her human side.

“So Athena wants me to ask you for my real birthday, apparently I have it wrong?” There was a question in her voice as she thought about what she needed to do to prepare for the transformation.

Holding her eyes, he took a deep breath before answering the question with the last thing she expected to hear. “You were born eighteen years ago today; you will shift tonight.”