The Will of an Immortal King Vs. The Will of a Rebellious Newlywed

Leah really is the most amazing person I have ever known. I have the urge to drop her hands and take a photo of this scene, as we’re knelt here together in these moonlit woods, so I can do a painting of it later. Her skin is glowing, her full lips quirked in a dazzling, yet slightly mischievous smile. The way that dress perfectly extenuates her every curve... the skirt fanning out around her on the leaves… I don’t deserve her. She’s so beautiful--

Shit! I forgot to tell her: “You look…” I can’t even find the words. ‘Beautiful’ isn’t enough. She’s… indescribable. I need to paint it. Then she’d see. “Would you mind if I just took a quick photo before we get to the whole marriage thing?” I blurt out idiotically, but Leah just smiles all the broader.

“Photo? You still have your phone?”

Yep. This outfit may not have pockets, but I kept both Luc and my devices tied inside our pant legs, just in case. I pull out the cell and try to take a picture of just Leah, knelt there like the Madonna at the altar… She pulls me close and ruins my angle though, making it a selfie of the pair of us. I can’t help but go along with it, as her lips lock with mine, and I most amorously return the kiss--

“The kiss is meaningless before the rings have been exchanged,” her father’s scathing rebuke cuts through my lust, and I quickly pull away, as Leah gives a heady exhalation.

“Mmm. I know. I just needed a photo of that first. Julian was dead on with that suggestion.”

I finally look at said photo, and that’s when I notice… “Uh, you… you got Luc in the frame.”

“I know.” She beams, smiling wickedly at the image of the leathery skinned, white-haired body lying slack-jawed between an otherwise perfect photo of Leah and I locking lips. “I’m going to show it to him later. Then again. And again. Anytime he starts getting too insufferable, acting vain, we’ll remind him what an old cougar he is.”

“That is so mean!” I balk, and Leah laughs all the harder.

“And you are so very considerate. Too considerate, too sweet, and just too all around... perfect.” She kisses me again, just the quickest little peck.

I can’t bear her compliments though, eyes glued to the ground as I murmur, “I am hardly perfect. After what I… What we…” She doesn’t even know how I wrecked Gracen, showed him the actual footage of his father raping her, like a heartless, thoughtless monster. “I will never be the right guy. I’m too… I don’t deserve you, Leah.”

“You don’t,” her father sighs, before his daughter can voice a denial. “But the fact that you know that…” He puts his hand on my shoulder, and I really hate that I’m itching to sink my teeth into that wrist the second it draws within range of my mouth. Don’t look at it. Maybe he won’t notice. “Yes, Leah, I can see why you love this one. But me and the cursed one will have a good, long talk, right after he wakes.”

“Enough with the disapproving dad routine,” Leah commands. “Just give us the rings, or else we’re winding grass around our fingers and taking vows like paupers.”

Oberon fishes three silver wedding bands out of his pocket. He gives one to Leah, and one to me, and then reluctantly he slides the last one onto Luc’s parchment dry index finger. I have to keep checking he’s still breathing. He’s past the point of old now, gone straight into desiccated corpse territory. I prop him up against my chest and keep him facing Leah like that, so he can be a proper part of this ceremony regardless, as Oberon orates:

“Do you swear to love, cherish, and value my most precious, only human daughter, Leah, for all of time?”

“I--”

Shit. I spoke too soon. He wasn’t finished. “Do you further swear to respect her every whim, and serve her like gentlemen, and respect the wishes of her lord father, who is also your father and your new king from this day forth, whose word is law both in this realm and--”

“Dad!” Leah cuts him off irritably. “You know what, we’re doing our own vows. Julian, I love you. I’m going to marry you and make you one of my family. And I love Luc, so with this kiss, I do gift him that same honor. Do you consent?”

“We do,” I swear.

Leah twines her fingers through my own, touching our rings, side by side. She takes Luc’s hand with her other, then closes her eyes and leans forward to kiss him with zero hesitation. The second their lips touch, I feel him inhale sharply.

“Did it work?” Leah asks, pulling back.

Yes. I can already see the glossy black spreading out from his roots, the lines fading from his dusky, perfect skin, as the cataract clears from his eyes and they regain their sparkling, sea-green glow.

I’m going to remember this image forever. It’s like a perfect fairytale, embedded in my mind. I’m already puzzling through how to perfectly capture it with a single, still image on canvas.

“You still need to kiss the man I actually want as part of our family,” Leah’s father sullenly reminds her, cutting through my reverie.

Leah shoots him a quick, exasperated glare, before seizing the back of my head and kissing me long and deep. I feel her giggling against my mouth after a few seconds, and I stiffen myself, opening my eyes to check whose hand it was trailing up my thigh with thumb teasing inappropriately close to my crotch…

I guessed right. Pressed right between us, Luc’s kissing Leah’s neck, while preparing to dive beneath my waistband and give me a hand job. “Mmm. Lovely dream,” he breathes. “Feels more solid than usual. And why the hell are you done up in white for your wedding day, dearest?” he taunts Leah, hand squeezing at her breast. “Only virgins get to wear that color, you wicked--”

A blast of wind knocks Luc flat to the ground in an instant, a swarm of roots pinning him splayed against the earth. “I am taking his fangs first,” Oberon declares. “Then he does not get to touch you again. Not until he apologizes and proves he shall reform his lecherous ways--”

“Calm down, Obi,” Leah’s mother cuts in finally, gently rocking Baby Ben to keep him dozing. “You can’t let your daughter marry into a three-way debaucherous union with two vampires and still act a prude, you harem owning hypocrite. And Leah…” She looks to Luc, eyeing him up and down, before turning up her nose with an uncomfortable huff. “That man is unbelievably attractive. I can see why you were blinded by lust, though I am still staunchly against this entire--”

“Just focus on Ben,” Leah sighs. “And dad, could you drop the scary nature-magic already? Luc didn’t mean to...”

“Offend and enrage his new father-in-law to the point of no recovery?” Oberon fills in acidly, and Luc arches an eyebrow.

“Father-in-law? I do not have any in-laws. Even in this strangely vivid dream I am having right now, I never said any ‘I do’s’. I can't imagine myself even lyingly committing to a monogamous, single partner marriage--”

“It’s a two-partner marriage,” I assure him.

“Two to start with anyhow,” Leah distractedly notes, and her father, bizarrely, smiles at the comment.

“That’s the spirit, Leah! So your courtship with Caligus is progressing--?”

“Ew. No! I am not marrying any of your minions.”

“You have just given birth. I know you are not in any shape for such consorting yet. I apologize.” He kisses her forehead. “You take your time. Relax and recover, dear. Now, if I could just take Luc and Julian aside for a quick--”

“You are not ripping out their fangs!” Leah repeats, and Luc puts a hand to his forehead.

“I see this dream is headed into nightmare territory… Am I dead? Did I actually die?”

“You are not dead,” I assure him, squeezing at his hands. “I am right here with you, and I’ll explain it all--”

“Yes, you will have all the time in the world to explain,” Oberon cuts me off, “and I will tutor you both in how to act as proper subjects of this kingdom. Though, Julian, you are miles ahead of that--”

“We are not staying here,” Leah cuts him off coldly, and Oberon’s smile starts to strain, teeth grinding against one another. “I am taking Ben back to planet earth, where he can grow up healthy--”

“He will not grow up in such a brutal, dangerous land. Ben is my grandson, **my** heir, and you are my daughter, Leah. You will do as I say, even if it means locking your new husbands back in the dungeons and ripping that offensive, Satanic talisman right off your neck.”

“What?” She clutches her hand to the warding charm, and I step out in front of her protectively.

“Why would you do that--?”

“It just seems like the only way to get you to behave,” Oberon sighs. “*I* may not be able to make you forget that evil other world, but little Ben certainly can.”

That’s why his servants are already flooding out of the woodwork to abduct the sleeping half-breed.