Chapter 3: Her King

I wake up to the sounds of a conversation going on in the living room. A smell hits my nostrils and wraps around my mind. It was too much for me to ignore. 

I blink, roll to my side and look at the time. It's only two in the morning. I roll out of bed. My mouth is dry anyways, so it's an excuse to see who's here. I don't have the ability to just know that kind of stuff yet. I don't have super powers.

The smell only seems to get stronger as I get closer to the two speaking. I know Dad’s voice from anywhere. I rub my eyes, and finally get to the living room to see who the other person was.

I've never seen this man in my life. He has jet black hair, and a beautiful shade of sunset eyes with specs of gold. It's not an amber but a reddish orange. His eyes are on me, and they break from my eyes and take me in fully. I'm quiet and take in a deep breath. I can finally make out what that smell really smelt like. 

Musk, oranges and peppermint.

His eyes break away from mine, and he turns back to Dad. I see that as a time to go get my water and go back to bed. I'm still curious about who this man is, but I'm also exhausted from today. I swivel around the two and get into the kitchen where I fill a glass with water and down it rather quickly.

"I'm taking her home with me tomorrow." The man mutters as I head back to my room. 

Dad sounds a little bit more than angry at that. I wonder what's happening. It can most likely wait until morning, though. I climb the stairs back to my room and crawl back into bed. As soon as my head hits the pillow my eyes go heavy. It's always been so easy for me to fall asleep. Sleep welcomes me in like a warm hug in a matter of minutes, and I'm out like a light that had been switched off for the day.

When I wake up only a few hours later at eight, I'm greeted by the smell of bacon frying. It smells delicious. I think my mouth might have even been watering in my sleep, but I don't remember. Bacon has always been one of my top five favourite foods, especially if it's home made. The Queens process and made them with natural ingredients. We barely ran to the groceries because most of our food was hunted or grown in our land. 

"Good morning, mom." I grin when I get downstairs. Mom smiles and rests her chin in her hands while sitting on the barstool. "Morning Dad.”

“Morning Princess,” Dad greeted me. 

I take a seat next to Dad who is intently watching Mom cooking. He never seems to have a filter on what he says in front of me about her. Sometimes it's disgusting to hear that from your Dad. 

A smell hits me. It's better than the smell of bacon, which is hard to beat.

The man from last night walks into the kitchen he glances at me and grins. I smile back, because I was raised to be polite and because I had a strange pull to do it back to him. I turn back to Dad and wonder what they were talking about last night.

"Hi." I chirp. The man smiles, and doesn't take his eyes off of me. 

"Hi," he replies. His voice has a hint of a German accent in it. Suddenly I feel a shiver down my spine. I notice that his hair is wet.

"What's your name?" I wonder. 

I need to at least know this stranger's name. Since my mother or Dad has yet to tell me who this is and why he had stayed the night. I feel like he's a warrior but not a lion but I also feel that there's a higher ranking than that. I can also sense a seriousness just by the depth of his voice. He looks at my family and furrows his eyebrows.

"It's Xerxes." His lips curl into a smile when I think further about the name. I don't think I've ever heard someone named that, other than the man who makes underwear for a living.

"I'm Zehra." I introduced myself. Dad sits a plate full of bacon down on the counter and my attention momentarily turns to him.

"I know," Xerxes says, bringing my attention back to him. 

"Do you know who I am?" He asks a question that I don't know the answer to. 

I've never seen this man in my lifetime. 

"Xerxes?" I guess. I don't know what other kind of answer there was that would be scientifically correct. He rolls his eyes and looks toward my mother.

"Why doesn't she know?" His voice isn't as soft as it was when he was talking to me. I furrow my eyebrows and give him a deadly look because of the tone he has used with my mother.

"Sorry we didn’t tell her. It’s a lioness thing. And she has never seen your face before," Mom explains.

I chew on my bottom lip. He looks at me and adverts his eyes quickly. I don't understand why, but I silently turn back towards the plate of fresh bacon and I snatch a piece up. The crunch is more than satisfying and once I'm done with one piece I go for another. Mom slaps my hand away and scowls.

"Save some for when breakfast is ready." She mumbles. I blink. Usually she didn't care if that happens. It's most likely her hormones and the fact that there's a guest in the house.

"I'm going to take a shower." I say, standing to my feet at stretching my arms over my head. My shirt raises a little and I tug it down before walking back up to my bedroom.

I hum while I shower. It's something that I've always done since I started showering by myself and didn't need my mom's help. Even then, back when I was eight I still sang. I don't have a nice singing voice so humming is the next best thing. 

When I'm finished, I climb out of the shower and dress in a pair of light colored jeans and a red hoodie. Since it wasn't warm outside the outfit was something I preferred all the time. I cannot stand the winter time. I don't understand how some girls can wear crop tops and short skirts at this time of year. Maybe it was because we are natural summer animals.

I throw my light brown hair into a ponytail. Its natural colour is blond, but I grew tired of all the jokes and dyed it a light brown color the smale as my fur.

"Zehra, after breakfast I need you to pack your bags," Mom says softly. 

I furrow my eyebrows at her request. 

"Why?" I wonder out loud.

"The Alpha decided that he wanted you to come home with him. I mean it's only reasonable, he is your partner after all. You can start your own pride with him" Mom says softly.

I purse my lips. Alpha? Xerxes is a wolf?

"But I can’t pair with a werewolf, Mom. I can’t possible built a pride with him. Our offspring would be hybrid. Wolf and Lion? Impossible." I say, in almost complete shock. 

“It is impossible, Zehra. We’re not animals. We’re shifters. You’re going to leave the pride anyway.”

How do I react to something like that? I mean, I've dreamed of finding my King but I didn't expect him to be a wolf. There has never been a pairing between Lions and Wolves. And he’s an Alpha. No wonder he held so much power in his voice.

“We need to give something back for sparing us this land, Zehra. I hope you understand,” Dad said. There was sadness in his eyes. 

"Are you okay with that?" I ask my mom. 

She's taken back by my question. 

"Am I okay with it? Yes, Zehra. I knew you wanted a strong king and Zerxes is the best candidate for you to start a pride." She replies.

"Okay." I say. If she trusts Xerxes then I can too. "What about the baby?" I ask. Mom blinks.

"I'm his mother, Zehra. You're too cute." She laughs a little. I always act like the baby is mine and sometimes I think it is. Just like I did a moment ago.

I fill a plate with scrambled eggs and bacon, and take a seat at the kitchen table. I didn't mean to sit next to Xerxes, it was just the only free chair open that wasn't next to Dad. My mom comes in moments after and takes her seat. I take in a deep breath and dig into my food. I really hope Xerxes can cook as good as Dad, or even better. I can't cook to save my life.

I always hunt.