Giggles and titters from around the table greet this, and Amer laughs. “Oh, Yávi?, I do like him. It’s a shame he’s human.”
I smile. “I have found him to be quite to my taste. I’ll take him for however long he lasts.”
Amer nods, “Guard that furious heart of yours just a bit, eh? I’d hate to see you among the unmated. Does he know about mates?”
I shake my head.
This is something he should know, but hearing it from someone else is probably better. Amer explains the bites and the mating bond fairly succinctly. Kenric takes all this in. “I don't think I'd like to see her among the unmated either. It seems sad and lonely. That's not something I would wish for her.”
Amer nods. “None of us would want that for our darling Yávi?.”
Kenric shrugs, “I think it's time to go back. We have to finish negotiating for silks.”
I smile at Amer, “Come and find me when the negotiations are over. We're planning to go dancing, and I know you know the best places.”
He grins and claps his hands. “Darling Yávi?, I would be delighted. I’ll bring some of the others who have missed you. I think it will be a joyous reunion.”
We return to the negotiations, and they close the loophole around the delivery timelines. The king gives me a look, but I’m just sitting in the corner, making notes and studiously ignoring him. The negotiations end for the day, and the king dismisses everyone but my glorious male and me. He keeps his spot at the conference table and makes me sit next to Kenric. “Come sit here and tell me how you are so recovered in just a couple of days. You’ve been stuck for months.”
I frown, and my anger comes rushing back. “No, I’ve been stuck for over six hundred years, while I was fighting that war.”
I am seething and don’t really trust myself to speak. My beautiful male picks up the conversation and explains that, since the abilities were needed to keep us alive and to sense what we were fighting, we shifted and never once shifted back. I see understanding start to dawn in the king’s face. “You dumped us back into the cities, where everyone fears us. The fear smell is triggering for us because if one of us was afraid, the rest of us become more alert, more watchful, since it usually meant something was about to attack us.”
Ellisar has the grace to look mortified, at least. “Oh, gods! No wonder you’re all stuck.”
I nod. “The longer we served, the more likely we are to be stuck, and you did nothing to help any of us. You just sent us home. My own mother is terrified of me. She can’t even bring herself to get close enough to hug me because her fear overcomes her. You have no idea how painful that is. It broke her heart and mine. Many of us have gone into the forest because it’s just too painful.”
The king nods. “I’ve heard about that.”
My anger boils, and I try to regain control. “Yet you refuse to act. You didn’t even ask us. You just sent us home. Now we face scorn and ridicule. We can’t escape the smell of fear. He’s been one of the few who haven’t been afraid of me. I even made you need a change of clothing.”
The king looks at me. “I thought you were going to challenge me.”
I snort. “I probably ought to. You’re not very good at it, but I don’t really want the job of managing all the court politics.”
The king frowns and starts to get angry, but this is a private meeting, so I lay out all the ways he’s failed us badly during the war and with his disapproval of my actions. When I’m finished, the king sits there, staring at the tabletop. There’s a storm of rage roiling inside me, and I walk away from the table to try to calm down. I just can’t look at that man right now. I hear Kenric tell the king he should probably come to me, and I overhear the king say something I never thought I’d hear. “Go. She’s not wrong.”
Suddenly, I’m surrounded by the smell of the Old Forest. His fingers work through my hair, over my scalp, and I begin to calm a little. I still want to kill him. Everything in me is screaming for me to challenge him, but if I do, I’ll end up in the garden or with my head on pike.
“I have some things that I need to discuss with your king.”
He scoops me up and carries me back to the table, careful to keep my face pressed to his chest. “Just sit there and breathe. Be calm. Not a word.”
I shift slightly so I can see out of one eye. He looks at the king. “She was so angry, she was starting to shift back. Now, please add some clauses to this trade agreement. One, we are getting married. Two, if I can keep her from being feral, I’ll take her home with me. If not, we’ll stay here. Three, I lead men into battle. If the worst happens, negate the trade deal unless my king returns her to you. It’s a few decades of her life, but I’ll make sure that they’re good ones.”
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The king nods. “Perhaps being away from all of this, from all the reminders, for a while will be good for her. She’ll outlive you by a lot, you know.”
Kenric nods. “We’ve discussed it. That’s why I want to be sure the king has to send her back here, or the trade deal is canceled. It’s lucrative enough that even if his son is on the throne when it happens, it will be handled. I don’t want her to be trapped, far from home, with no way to get back.”
The king nods again. “Tell me how you got her unstuck. We've been searching for a solution to this problem for a while. If you know something, you should share it.”
I can feel the rumble of his chuckle. “I marked every last inch of her.”
There is a raw, thick, husky quality to his voice when he speaks next, and I flush with arousal to hear his words. “I want every last inch of her, so I marked every last inch of her. I claimed every shred of her, whether she deems them broken or not. When I was done marking her so thoroughly that every male for miles knows she’s mine and I’m hers, she wasn’t quite so feral anymore.”
The king laughs. “I’d heard rumors of things like this, but seeing it… I can’t deny the results.”
Kenric shrugs. "You can ask her parents. She was quite feral before we went into the forest yesterday, and much the same as this when we came back."
The king sighs, “I can smell just how thoroughly both of you are marked. I know she doesn’t think so, but she is precious to many of us, including me. We don’t always get along, but I know I can trust her to tell me when things are going wrong. Sometimes, I have to do things for reasons I can’t always explain to her. It makes things difficult between us at times."
Kenric nods. “You should give her name back. Taking it makes it seem like you approve of those she dueled against, and you know what they were doing as well as why she was killing them.”
The king sighs heavily. “Now we’re back to things I can’t explain to either of you. I will add one more thing to the items you’ve requested as part of this trade deal. If she marries you and acquits herself honorably as your wife, she’ll have her name back.”
Kenric nods again. “You might try explaining some of those things to her, sometimes. She thinks you hate her and torment her.”
The king shakes his head, and I hear sadness in his voice and smell it on him. “I don’t hate her. I’ve never hated her. I don’t set out to torment her, but all too often, it ends up like this. She has a way of stumbling into things before I can deal with them more subtly. Not everything has to be solved with the end of a sword. I can see where she thinks that I torment her.”
Kenric nods. “When the only tool you have is a sword….”
The king gives a rueful laugh. “That business with my steward. I gave him too much latitude and too much trust. He abused that, horribly.”
Kenric is a bit angry. I can smell it on him. “They dumped her out with the trash the last time she came to petition you. Your whole court knew about it, knew how she’d been shamed, and yet you still took her name. I think it’s safe to say that if I’m new and human and I know about it, everyone here already knows about it.”
The king pinches his nose. “I knew that there had been a bit of a kerfuffle and she’d been asked to leave. I didn’t know it had gone that far.”
Kenric isn’t willing to let this go. “You know her. Can you imagine her doing anything worthy of being dumped out with the trash? I haven’t known her that long, and I can’t see her doing something like that.”
Sighing, the king agrees. “No, you’re right about that.”
Kenric continues. “I think her issues with it stem more from the fact that you never bothered to look into it, to ask questions, to find out why she was trying to petition you or deal with your steward sooner. I think if you were to start doing those things now, you might find that the two of you get on better in the future.”
The king begins to speak, but Kenric waves him off. "Please hear me out. She’ll have to live here someday, without me. I’d like her to be happy here when that time comes. I’d like to see the two of you resolve whatever this thing is between you. You don’t have to become best friends, just maybe not this whatsoever in all the hells this is that the two of you have going on now. That business of railing at her in front of everyone... As a military commander, I never dress down my troops in public. Maybe think on that a bit.
The king sighs heavily. “You seem to care for her truly.”
Kenric laughs, and I do adore that sound. “Her soul speaks to mine. I care for her more than I’d have thought possible in a few days. I will do my best to be a balm for her wounded spirit, as she has been for mine.”
The king gestures at his clothing, “She certainly thinks highly of you. She’s dressed you like a noble. It certainly seems to suit you. As her husband, she could dress you like a prince, and no one would bat an eye. She’s practically a goddess among parts of my kingdom. Why do you let those lesser males lord over you?”
This is a question I’ve wanted to ask myself.
Kenric shrugs before explaining, “Our rules for things are a bit different. Titles are inherited by blood. Their birth is higher than mine, so their rank is higher than mine among my people. Even if they were to be removed, their titles would fall to someone of their blood.”
My king frowns. “Perhaps we should keep you here instead. You seem to take to our ways well enough. You’d rank well here, in your own right, even without her. You’d certainly live longer. Think about it.”
With that, my king gets up and leaves the room. Kenric looks at me and brushes a few strands of hair away from my face. “Are you calmer now? Ready to meet your friends and go dancing?”
He smirks for a moment. “Ready for me to freshen up your marks?”
My flush of arousal hits his nose, and he laughs. “I'll take that as a yes. Why don't you think about it, and then you can tell me how exactly you'd like me to do that? You'll need to be detailed and specific. If it's not explicitly stated, it's not valid.”
He’s purring now. “I suppose if I took care of that little detail, right now, on the king’s conference table, that might be a problem.”
Horrified, I shake my head. “Gods, no! Don’t do that! He'd smell it, and he'd be furious. Things actually ended pretty well today. Better than I thought they were going to. You handled him better than I ever did. All he and I ever do is argue.”
He laughs. “Dancing with your friends, it is then. Where should we go to meet them?”
Chapter 13 is an emotional detonation wrapped in sensual tension, political honesty, and the kind of Fey bonding that would make a lesser man fall to pieces.
Let’s unpack this chapter, Ashenleaf-style:
Right out of the gate, Kenric drops a wolfish grin and promises to “keep the marks fresh.”
A statement so loaded with suggestion that Amer immediately starts cackling and half the table swoons.
Kenric is:
- proud
- possessive
- reverent
- smug in the best way
Víl? is:
- glowing
- dangerous
- delighted
- feral enough to make gods blush
Their chemistry? off the charts...
Amer gives the talk: bites, bonds, life partners, unmated despair... the whole Fey mating theology.
Kenric listens without flinching.
He doesn’t joke.
He doesn’t panic.
He simply says he doesn’t want Víl? to be lonely.
The silk negotiations wrap up with the delivery loophole fixed (thanks entirely to Víl?’s competence).
The king shoots her looks.
She ignores him.
A power move so flawless it should be carved into the stone of the palace entry gate.
But then…
Oh. Oh NO.
We get the confrontation.
This is the emotional spine of the chapter.
Víl? finally tells Ellisar the truth:
- about the war
- about the trauma
- about the feral state
- about being feared
- about her mother’s heartbreak
- about the abandonment
- about being thrown out with the trash
- about his failure to help ANY of the soldiers he sent to the front
The king listens.
He breaks.
He regrets.
And Víl? nearly shifts from fury because her trauma is real and centuries deep.
Kenric picks her up, LITERALLY, and keeps her face hidden so she doesn’t lose control, sits her down, and negotiates with a KING on her behalf.
He demands:
- A marriage clause
- A clause protecting her future
- A return clause to keep her safe if he dies
- That Ellisar fix what he broke
Kenric handles Ellisar the way Ellisar normally handles everyone else.
It is beautiful.
(Everyone Reading This: screams into a pillow)**
The king asks:
“How did you get her unstuck?”
Kenric answers:
“I marked every last inch of her.”
The king: visibly recalculating every rumor he’s ever heard
Víl?: aroused to the point of spontaneous combustion
The reader: deceased
He:
- admits he cares
- admits he failed
- admits he didn’t know
- attempts to mend things
- offers her name back
This is… huge.
It’s also the most emotionally intelligent moment he’s ever had.
The tension ends with smirks, teasing, and Kenric asking if she wants her marks “freshened.”
On the KING’S TABLE.
She refuses.
Barely.
Because even in victory, Víl? has some survival instincts.
Ashenleaf’s Final Thoughts
Chapter 13 is a heavy hitter—a perfect blend of:
- romance
- trauma
- healing
- politics
- loyalty
- ferocity
- and emotional catharsis
Kenric shines.
Víl? ascends.
Ellisar is stunned into becoming a real person for five minutes.