Heart Of A Lycan King
Chapter 93

NATASHA.

“Listen, you need that black dress, Natasha. I swear by Nyala that my cousin won’t survive a minute without ripping it off,” Lacie insisted, pushing the flimsy – too flimsy! – black dress she was holding against my body as we stood in the mall’s dressing room.

“I agree 100%!” Tiffany joined, clapping her hands with a squeal.

“You ladies want me to put this on in public for him? That is torture!” I scrunched up my nose.

“You didn’t think of that when you bought that two piece you wore to his match!” Ivyane giggled.

Okay. Yeah, I didn’t. Because I wanted to punish him. But this is different and he has been a good boy since then. I can’t torture him with this dress on our date after the mating ceremony. It’ll be too cruel.

It’s now two days to the ceremony, and after I’m done shopping with the girls, Mama has called me over for dinner between ‘the women only’ as she calls it. While I know Mama loves me, I can’t help but think something was amiss. And I was already ten times more nervous by the hour than I already was.

“That was different. I kinda wore that to punish him. But this is a bit more exposed than the last one I wore. I will buy it, but I won’t be wearing it outside.”

“Ugh! You’re such a party pooper!” Lacie grumbled.

“I don’t understand why you are hellbent on having her wear that. If she doesn’t want to, isn’t it better to let her be?” Sherneil said in a soft voice.

She mostly tags along when we go shopping together, but never buys anything or indulge in helping us make a decision on what to wear. She just stares, or plugs her headphones and sets a grim face.

Today, however, she was saying something, and I was reminded that I still hadn’t asked Aiden why Sherneil is this way. I’m not saying she’s awkward or not normal, it’s just that it is hard to understand her and what would make her comfortable around us. Unless of course, we are talking about research or football. That is when you’ll see a gleam in her eyes.

She did, however, give a playlist before I left for the match and told me there were some songs that may help the atmosphere. And they did help! Like the one I sent Aiden via the text.

“Stop encouraging her not to tease him with this, Sherneil. I know Aiden is your friend and you care about his sanity, but this is about friends too! Like the bro code, the sister code. You get what I’m saying?”

She shook her head and Lacie g*****d.

“It is hopeless trying to make Sherneil understand something.” She whispered to Ivayne and they both nodded.

She squinted her eyes at them and huffed, then turned to leave the dressing room.

I followed her quickly, shoving the dress in Tiff’s hand. “We’ll take the dress,” I called as I pulled the door and followed Sherneil outside.

“Hey,” I called, taking long strides towards her.

She eyed me for a moment, her lips pursed before she spoke. “Do you need something?”

“Oh, no,” I laughed nervously. With each passing day as the ceremony gets closer, I get more and more nervous. Wishing that everything would be okay.

It has to be.

“They just wanted me to wear the dress to tease Aiden,” I replied. We were walking slowly across the large racks of clothes arranged.

“Would you be teasing him by wearing a dress?” She asked, her brows pulled in.

Wow! “Yeah. If I wear a dress like that in public with him, it is like showing him what I have but he won’t have it. You know, like when you show a kid or a chocolate lover a chocolate by wiggling it but without leaving a room for that person to ask for a bite. Like, knowingly pulling one’s leg knowing they want something you have.”

She paused in her tracks, her eyes studying me like I was something she was finally seeing.

“Oh my, Nyala!” She suddenly said, her hand flying to her mouth while the side of her eyes crinkled to show her struggling to hold back a laughter. When she couldn’t, she dropped her hand and laughed. It was strange. The very first time I was hearing the sound of her laughter. “That is cruel!” She added, throwing her head back and laughing even more.

I joined her, because it felt like the right thing to do. And we laughed our hearts out. In that moment, my mind chose to drift towards what Aiden’s reaction would be when he sees me in the dress, and for some reason, my cheeks heated up.

“Do it. I would like to see his reaction,” she suddenly said after the laughter died down. But her eyes still had the glint tucked in somewhere. “And you have to record his reaction. I have to see it.”

“See! She’s on board too! You have to wear that dress anytime you go on a date!” Lacie clapped her hands from behind, causing Sherneil’s demeanor to automatically change. Both Tiffany and Ivyane were trailing behind her.

Okay. This is weird. But I understand her reaction, and I’d have acted the same way she did if I had watched people gossip about me.

‘I’m tired,’ Erin grumbled.

‘Excuse me, what?’ I asked, surprised.

‘We’ve been shopping since morning and you haven’t done your hair yet. It is already past 2pm and I’m tired, Nat.’ Erin whined as she plopped onto her back.

I laughed. ‘Just listen to yourself! I’m doing all the work here while you’re hovering in my mind and you’re saying you’re tired? Erin, you’ve got to be kidding me and…’

‘Something smells yummy. Something like my mate,’ she cuts me off, her tongue already hanging.

And she was right, Aiden was here!

“Nala?” The sound of his voice from behind me made the hair on my skin raise. I turned towards where the sound came, swallowing fast and hard.

Yeah. After almost seven months of being with this man, I still react this way every time we spend a few hours apart and meet afterwards.

Slowly, smoothly, he closed most of the distance between us, stopping when there was half a foot of space between us. His gaze slided down the slope of my cheekbone, landing on my mouth. It dawdled there, heated, traced down to the hollow of my throat, leaving electrified skin in its wake.

“Four hours without you. No phone call and no text messages,” he released an explosion of breath. “I missed you. And I desperately want to k**s you. Right here. Right now.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked, ignoring his request for a k**s. I mean, we’re in public, with my friends and other people around shopping. I’m still not very comfortable with PDA, and the few times I dared myself to, it was because the situation called for it. Now, it was different.

“For the same reason you came here. To shop,” he threw his hand around as though to show the obvious. Behind him stood Mav and Kane, and I smiled, waving my hand to them.

“In the ladies section?” I said, tilting my head to the side while giving me a questioning look.

“Okay, fine. You caught me. I felt you around and I swear it, Nala, I’m not kidding. My mouth watered at the thought of pinning you to one of those racks behind you and kissing you till I lick off that pink l*p balm on your lips. And I just had to come here.”

Oh boy. How am I supposed to keep from collapsing into a puddle of melted ice, let alone continue to keep myself sane? “We’re in a store,” I whispered lamely.

“Yeah. In a store.” A line snaps in his cheeks, thought churning behind his eyes. Then his voice dropped so low before he resumed speaking. “I don’t remember caring that we were in public when you lapped me clean in a pack, or when Kane was driving or when…”

The tug and ripple in my belly went highway. It’s organic. Not bred of anything but love.

“Sorry, what?” My airways shrink to the size of a cinnamon stick. “What do you want me to do?”

“K**s me,” Aiden said, taking a step forward and I’m now tipping my head just a little to meet his eyes, the rich scent of him fuzzing up my brainwaves. “Or just a peck. Okay, that wouldn’t suffice because it’ll make me want to take you…” he dragged his full bottom l*p through his teeth, a low sound kindling his throat. “…home to bed.”

Bed.

Home.

It would be amazing.

And in a matter of seconds, the big sumptuous bed will creak at our wildness.

Goodness! What am I doing? I was in a damn store, surrounded by my friends, my brother and my Mate’s beta. And what was I thinking about? Our bed. And what we would do in it once we get back home.

‘Can’t and won’t blame you. He looks delicious in those ash slacks and white long sleeved shirt,’ Erin sighed in a dreamy voice.

Definitely. He does look yummy! Especially with his braids packed into a bun, reminding me of the ones he made me yesterday.

“Nala, what are you thinking of?” He asked, a hint of a smile in his voice.

He knew, dammit! He knew the images he had successfully planted in my brain!

Even as I glared at him, I couldn’t be anything but impressed. He caught me, and knew the right buttons to press.

“Well played, Rabin Rai,” I placed my hands on his chest with every intention of pushing him away because now, I’m going to buy that dress and wear it on a date. Payback plan is a go! But then his pecs flexed at the contact, as though starving for my touch as his eyelids drooped, his nostrils flaring, and I couldn’t remove my touch for the life of me.

Somehow, I liked knowing I was already paying him back for flirting with me in public! So, I stood my ground, feeling up my man, scrubbing my hands lightly up and over his hard slabs of muscles, then back down, watching him enjoy the treatment openly. Eagerly. The world seemed to fade behind us, and I could only see Aiden and I alone.

“Fine, you caught me, okay?” I tried to swallow the choppiness in my voice. The arousal. “It was impossible not to picture that when you openly said so.”

“About the bed. And us in it,” he clarifies, studying. “We could totally dump this whole shopping idea and go home.”

Despite the warning signals from the back of my mind, knowing he was just pushing me more, I hum in affirmation and he grinned. So gorgeous and bright.

He leaned down and kissed my forehead, tucking a loose wisp of curl from the braid he made behind my ear. Then his eyes took one last lap around my face as he took my hand, and guided me back into the dressing room. He stepped back a little after closing the door behind us and leaned against the door, one leg propped on the door and the other straightened, while he had his arms crossed over his chest.

“How are you?”

“Dangerously hanging by a thread of want after your dirty tricks of getting me into the mood and then…”

“Nala…” he interrupted with a smile in his voice. “I mean, how are you managing shopping and plans to meet Mama?”

My face must look like squashed tomatoes. “Oh. That.” I ducked my head under the guise of fixing my wristwatch. “A combination of nervous and …more nervous. Mostly. I’m scared I’ll mess this up. I know it is something I constantly say and feel, but old habits die hard. I can’t help the way I feel,” I murmured. When I looked back up, his l*p was curled into a small smile. “I’m also trying to find the perfect accessories and dress for the ceremony. I have a sore lower back to prove it.”

He made a sympathetic noise, circling around the back of me. Before I could guess his intention, he slipped his hand around and ran a firm thumb up the center of my lower spine. My shameless m**n is echoing off the walls of the dressing room. “I could do better,” his thumb digs in, circling my sore muscles. It feels so good my vision doubles, my neck falling back on my shoulders. “If we were home, this would’ve worked out differently. Want to hear how?” From behind, he rested his mouth on my ear, his hand settling on my waist very briefly, squeezing.

“How?” I asked quickly, not a least bit embarrassed.

Aiden moved around me slowly, stopping when we faced one another. The hand on my waist had been dragged low, along the small of my back and that’s where it remained now, burning me through my clothes. “Once I work my magic on that strain in your back,” he leaned in and pressed his mouth on my ear. “We’ll work on making the right angles of you nice and sore.”

“Rabin Rai…” I breathed, completely lost. Aiden hardly talks this way, but every time he does, I lose it. Completely!

He took that moment to cover my mouth in his, and a low growl vibrated from his chest. Pressed against him in a firm hold, his mouth molding against mine in perfect sync as we sucked and bit, the fear and nervousness slipped away, replaced by the knowledge of this man with me.

Oh, how I love this man and everything he carries.

We came up for a breath, and I realized in the heated moment, I had loosened his bun and both of my hands were in his hair.

I laughed.

“See. I know how to get that out of you,” he smiled, then pecked my swollen lips. “I’ve also successfully wiped the l*p balm on your lips. Mission accomplished.”

I laughed again, the corner of his mouth has a smudge of my pink l*p balm and I’m not about to tell him. “Thanks for coming. I didn’t know I needed to see you.”

“I did,” he said smugly. “I felt it in my guts,” he added.

I smiled as he clasped my hand in his and pulled back into the mall. Lacie, Ivyane, and Tiffany stood on one side, while Mav and Kane stood beside them. They were all talking but Sherneil was nowhere around.

Before I could ask though, Mav and Kane burst into laughter while the girls covered their mouths and laughed, all while looking at Aiden. I shook my head at them, indicating that they shouldn’t let him know about the smudge and the laughter instantly died.

“Well, what was the laughter for?”

“Just us taking lessons on how to treat our mates when we find them,” Kane replied.

“He already found his. He just needs to stop being a grump and introduce us to her,” Aiden scoffed.

Yes! Mav’s mate! It has to be one of them! But just like he’s closed off about this, whoever the mate is, is also closed off about it. But why?

“You two make the idea of having a mate look fun. But it is disastrous and causes too much pain. I’ll rather avoid it,” Ivayne mumbled, looking anywhere but at us or Mav and Kane.

Okay, something is off. And I need to find out!

“Too bad you feel that way,” Tiffany smiled. “I feel like the mate bond is beautiful,” she added.

“It is,” Aiden replied, kissing my forehead before unclasping our hands. “I’ll go now. See you tonight. I’ll come pick you up when you’re done with Mama.”

“Take care,” I called, trying to hold back my laughter.

Mav waved at me, laughter in his eyes before he followed Aiden.

“That’s cruel but I love it!” Lacie laughed.

“It’s payback!” I laughed. “Where’s Sherneil?”

“Bathroom,” Ivayne answered.

“Okay, let’s go finish this. I have an hour and half left before I am going to meet Mama,” I said.

---

“What I’m about to give you is a family heirloom,” Mama said as we walked down the winding corridor.

We had eaten dinner already, and it was still early evening, around 7pm. When I arrived around 5pm, Mama had already prepared eba (a staple made from granulated cassava, which is normally referred to as garri), and egusi soup. I devoured a lot of it. And now, she was leading me into a room to show me something.

“It’s been in my family for years. My grandmother gave it to me before I married Dakarai. As the eldest twin, I got the heirloom, and I had a dream of giving it to my daughter some day.”

I swallowed a lump. These people always treat me like I was truly one of them. We stopped before a room, and Mama pushed the door open.

We stepped into the dark room, before Mama turned the lights on from her side. My eyes widened as I took in the room. It was empty, save for a long ankara dress with its alkyabba hanging on a single rack. Beside the rack, was a small table, with a pair of white shoes placed on it, and a display of accessories.

“Come, sit with me,” Mama tapped on the single two settee sofa available in the room, which was close to the rack of clothes and the table with the accessories.

I sat beside her, with my hands folded in front of me.

“Ruling is not an easy task, especially in a male dominated world like ours. My father was the Alpha of the Mandalians, but I still faced challenges when I got to the capital as the Queen. I was deemed unfit to rule alongside a powerful Lycan, despite being a ranked wolf. I’m telling you this because I care, and because I want you to prepare for this. As an Omega, with no special abilities, you’re going to face lots of difficulties in the council. Sometimes, those difficulties come from your fellow gender.

“Being in a powerful position like the queen means you’re going to attract lots of danger. Some may hurt you to get to your mate, some may do that to break you, especially when you stick to the right ways and follow the truth. It is never an easy task, Natasha. You have to be prepared,” Mama shared. “To tell you the truth, my first year as a queen, I remember packing up a few clothes of mine with the plan of running away, because I couldn’t deal with the pressures. The side looks. The murmurs. I was never prepared for this life, so it was hard to fit in at first. I was a chicken,” she laughed, and I couldn’t help laughing along with her.

“But I had a kind man beside me, and without forcing the process, it was easy to fit in,” she continued after a beat had passed. “So while it may not have been easy, I knew I had him supporting me and it was all I needed. By the time I eased into the system, I made sure everyone knew not to mess with a woman. It may have worked for me, because like I said, my Baba was an Alpha.

“This is going to be a whole lot different for you. Being an Omega in a system like this, means you’re bared to everyone. People will use that to jab at you, or tell you how undeserving you are of the position because according to them, being an Omega makes you unfit for the title. But that is where they are wrong. You are who you are for who you are not because of the rank your wolf has. I believe in you, Natasha, the same way my Maa believed in me years back. I’ll be one of the shoulders you lean on, because I know both the boys and Dakarai will cheer on you.

“Don’t hate Dakarai. He’s a good man. He just has his demons to deal with but I’ll make sure he doesn’t treat Mav that way anymore and I’ll make sure you don’t witness a scene like that again. Anyways, as I was saying, if you ever need anyone to talk to about the burden of being a queen, do not hesitate to come to me.” She finished.

I couldn’t, even if I tried, there was no way I could stop the tears from rolling down my cheeks. If my Ummi was here today, I’m sure she’d have told me the same thing. Mama was accepting me as a daughter, not a daughter in law.

“Mama…” I trailed off, choking on my tears.

“Oh no. Not the tears, please,” Mama whispered, using her thumb to wipe my tears before she stood up.

“This was the dress I wore at my mating ceremony. I had it altered and fit just for your size with Lacie’s help. And I wore these shoes,” Mama said, touching the ankara dress with its alkyabba and the shoes. They were high heeled, but not too high to cause any discomfort. “And I want you to wear them too,” she added.

My head was spinning, with nothing but profound gratitude. There was a rise of pressure under my breastbone that I didn’t know how to handle. Hot moisture pushing again to the backs of my eyes, threatening to come out again.

“And this necklace is the family heirloom I was talking about. I want you to have it,” Mama picked the gold necklace on the platter and handed it to me.

My hands were shaking as I took it. “You said you wanted your daughter…”

“You are my daughter, Natasha. And I want you to wear it at your mating ceremony.”

Before I could stop myself, I threw my hands around her and broke into tears.

They were happy tears.