Arch 1 Chapter 11

Arch 1

Chapter 11

In the morning, the sun shone strong through the spaces between the curtains, leaving bars of glory yellow across the room, and the two forms lying together in the hospital bed, the blankets around them gently rising and falling with their ever breaths.

Eira's skull was very nearly healed, and her hair-which had had to be shaved off, had already grown to about her mid back, about halfway to its original length. She groaned and turned to face Max and buried her face in his chest, as a beam of light had caught the corner of her eye just enough to cause her grief. A morning person she was not.

Max had already been up and had just stayed quiet, awaiting patiently for the moment she would awake.

"Good morning, my love." he said gently, kissing her on her forehead and brushing back her hair.

"G'mrnin'." she said sleepily, her voice muffed by his chest.

Max laughed indulgently, just holding her tight to him, breathing her in. He'd been so, so worried about her, and to wake up to her in his arms, healthy and despising the disturbance to her sleep was something of a fantasy turned flesh.

"Poor little thing." he lifted her chin and kissed her, careful to keep her out of the sunlight before she was ready to endure it.

A rhythmic knock sounded at the door.

"It's Bear. Just wanted to make sure everyone was dressed and nothing I didn't need to see was going on before I checked on my favorite patient."

"I-GAH-UNCLE BEAR! NO! For the love of-NO!"

Bear pushed the door open, his rumbling laughter nearly shaking the whole room.

"Woo, kiddo, you should see the look on your-"

"BEAR! You did it, didn't you? That thing I specifically told you not to do?" Sophie said, one eyebrow raised, an unamused cant to her lips, her hips quirked to the side, and her foot tapping.

"AH, SOPHIE, HAHAHAHA-no, of course not." He said, looking anywhere but at her.

"Bear…"

"But I was just-"

"Do NOT make me use your middle name in conjunction with your first one!"

"Sorry." Bear grumbled, looking down at his feet like Sophie had taken the newspaper to him. "I thought you were helping Stella and Markus prepare for tonight."

"Not that that should be an excuse for misbehavior, buuuuuttttt…" she looked at Eira with a smile. "I wanted to see how our newest pack member was fairing."

"I feel fine, ma'am. Thank you."

"Well, let's just give you the once over before I release you into the wild." Bear laughed. "Ok, just stand up for me, and we're gonna do just a few quick tests."

It took only a few minutes before Bear gave Eira a clean bill of health.

"You are a-ok, kiddo! Here, have a lollipop."

Eira took it, and looked perplexed, sniffing at it.

"What is this sphere on a stick?"

"Here." Bear laughed, taking off the clear wrapper for her. "You just suck on it. It's candy."

"Candy…" Eira said, popping it in her mouth, her body shaking with awe. "THIS IS GLORIOUS! Stars above what flavor of candy is this?!"

"That is grape."

"I LOVE IT!" she exclaimed. "Oh, but not as much as I love you, Max."

"Don't worry, baby, I know."

Before he could think about it, Bear reached down and ruffled Eira's hair. Nobody had touched her except Max, and it had just been a knee-jerk reaction. Eira's eyes went wide for a minute, but then she closed them with a smile, simply enjoying the fact that she was slowly and steadily learning not everyone was going to hurt her. Plus, Bear had saved her life. He'd done everything he could to help her, not hurt her.

Bear had been sweating bullets, and took an audible sigh of relief, ruffling her hair a little more.

"Well, we'd better be off to go help your mom and dad, Max. we'll see you two tonight. Say goodbye, Sophie."

"Goodbye, Sophie."

"I'm gonna get you, you beautiful smartmouth."

Sophie's light footfalls were almost entirely drowned out by Bear's heavy ones as they ran down the hallway, being chased and giving chase, their laughter echoing after them.

"They are delightful." Eira said. It was a new odd warmth she'd been feeling of late that lit her smile from the inside out. She liked it, but it was always more intense whenever she looked at Max.

Max gazed at her with that same feeling reflected in his own eyes. He scooped her up again and kissed her-making sure the lollipop was out of her mouth first-and spun her around.

"That's…um…well, there's something I actually need to talk to you about…in regards to that. But with us." he said, putting her down. "Go ahead and get dressed, and then would you take a walk with me?"

"Of course." she said amenably. Why would she not like to take a walk with him? She was happy to do literally anything with him.

Max took his leave of the room so she could get dressed in privacy-not that he guessed it really mattered when they'd seen each other naked before, but it was more the principal of the thing.

She emerged a few ticks later in clothes that Stella had picked out for her, comfortable but stylish and very Eira.

"You like those?" Max asked with a smile. "They look nice on you."

"Very much so. Your mother has a very good eye."

"Well, then if you would follow me, my love." he said, taking her out and leading her towards the vast expanse of forest towards the back of the estate.

They weren't in any particular hurry, so they just strolled and meandered on their way. The sun-the existence of which Eira now fully came to terms with after the traumatic way she was woken up-felt stronger that day. A few of the pets streaked by them in play, and one of the dogs stopped them and insisted that he got pets, as he was The Goodest Boi ™, which the pair of them was more than happy to give them. There were a few fresh shoots and flowers just coming up out of the earth the greet the changing of the seasons as birds twittered and flitted overhead. They had stayed in relative silence as they walked, but it wasn't an awkward one.

It was one where words were simply not needed, and each other's company was more than enough. It was markedly cooler when they entered the shade of the trees. Max led her to a clearing a good ways in, and a huge boulder with several smaller ones encircling it sat directly in its center. The stone was positioned so no shade from the trees would reach it when the sun, or the moon, were at their zenith. A stream came from somewhere else in the woods, circled around the edge stones, and then shot off towards what Eira realized must have been the ocean, from the sound of waves lapping at the shore she heard in the distance.

Max just stared at it quietly for a while before he spoke.

"Eira," he said, not severely, but not with the usual levity he had always addressed her with.

"Yes?" she replied.

"Tonight," he said, taking a deep breath. "After you're officially introduced to the pack as their Crowned Alphess, there…well, there's a ceremony planned."

"A ceremony? What kind of ceremony?"

His body nearly shook under the weight of what he was about to say…and ask.

"It's…going to be our wedding ceremony." he cleared his throat. "We…wolves, uh…it's a different kind of courtship than what humans do. It's, uh, like an irrevocable thing, when we find our mate. And…it all moves fairly quickly, from meeting to falling in love, to marriage. But…that's not how it typically works, outside of wolf society. I just didn't want to-spring that on you, I guess? I mean I didn't even know if that was what you wanted." he said, his voice cracking a bit on that last word. He was terrified she was going to tell him no, and then what was he supposed to do? Die of heartbreak in the most literal sense possible? This was the reason wolves only mated with other wolves-at least most of the time-to protect how deep their feelings ran, because another wolf would understand and work the same way. He took a steadying breath. "But, before any of that happened…I wanted to ask you to be mine, only mine. And I'll be yours, and yours alone. I wanted to ask you to marry me."

Eira looked up at him with her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

"I had not the slightest clue how it works with humans, but it all seems unnecessarily complicated and drawn out, from what you said. If two people wish to be together, I do not understand why there would be all this song and dance, when they could simply just be together. I want to be with you, you want to be with me, we make each other happy, so what more is there to it than that? And I was under the assumption that we already belonged to the other. I did not know asking was necessary."

He tilted his head at her in awe for a moment. He should have known. There was no notion or room for games or anything else to the like in her mind. Everything took a very linear path with her, with little to no room for deviation, from Point A to Point B, straight forward. Of course, she'd logically conclude that they were together, and that was that, without question.

He dropped down to one knee in front of her, pulling a little black velvet box out of his pocket. He opened it and inside sat a silver ring made of Tungsten steel, and nestled inside, going around the band in its entirety, were sparkling sapphire and amethyst stones, cut so that every bit of light was out to work to make them sparkle.

"I had it made as a rush order while you were in surgery. I have one to match for the ceremony tomorrow." he said with such wonder in his voice, like he couldn't believe this was really happening, his emotions starting to get the better of him. "Eira…my love…will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? Will you marry me?"

Eira, too, was feeling all kinds of new emotions. She couldn't name them all, but they felt magnificent. An absolutely jubilant smile, from ear to ear, spread across her face, like resplendent moonlight shining down after a cloud passed.

"YES! Yes, Max, I will marry you!" she said, getting a little overexcited when she went to hug him and tackled him to the ground, which he greeted with nothing but happiness, and kissed her as he slid the ring on her finger.