Falling in Love with the King of Beasts

ELIA

Elia waited a long moment. She could feel Aymora laying on the furs next to her, bracing. Readying herself to tell a story that was clearly painful for her.

She knew Aymora had lost her mate, but she'd never heard why. But now, after this separation from Reth, she had only a glimpse of the pain it must have caused Aymora. She couldn't imagine being in that place with nowhere to go. No way to ever see—to even hope to see—her mate again.

Elia shuddered.

"I do not wish to feed your fear, Elia," Aymora said quietly.

Elia shook her head and squeezed her hand.. "You won't. I was shivering for you. I can't… I can't imagine it."

Aymora sighed heavily. "I would not wish this pain on anyone, Elia, it's true. Not even the worst of my enemies."

Elia waited. Aymora shifted her head on the pillow. When she spoke her voice was soft and… happy. A lightness to it that Elia had never heard in her before. As if she were a girl again.

"My mate was beautiful," she said first, as if it were pure fact. Elia could hear the smile in her voice. She turned her head on the pillow to look at her adopted mother, to watch her profile light up with the memories. "He was big and strong and… when he walked into a cave, it was as if he brought the sun with him. My heart recognized him when I was only eighteen. I was younger than him by a few years, more than you and Reth. At first, even though my heart sang whenever he was near and his scent lifted me, I never imagined he would return my feelings. He seemed… out of reach. He was the Captain of the Guard—like Behryn—and had remained without a mate for so long, we all assumed he would not take one. He… did not hurt for female attention." She cleared her throat and something passed over her face that made Elia's heart pinch. But then she smiled and put her free hand to her chest in an unconscious gesture that made Elia's eye's sting.

"Two years before the war I became a healer. And the wise women were grooming me, coaching me for leadership. It was expected that I would join them when I was older. Until that time in my life I had been quite quiet. Reserved. Certain of my thoughts, but uncertain how I would be received by others. So I had always remained to myself. Others perceived it as aloof. I didn't know that then.

"One evening at the market I was invited to sit with the wise-women. We'd been training that day in the wisdom of words—knowing when to speak, and when to bite our tongues. Some of the security council joined our table. There was, even though, rumblings of the war that was to come. A debate arose between the wisest among us and the council members. One of them called Drhake over to add his thoughts to the conversation.

"The position he took was… untenable to me. I do not even remember now what it was. Something small and unimportant about the balance our society should maintain between soldiers and merchants, or some such. A concept. A nothing. But something that he said lit a spark in me.

"The wise women always watched the acolytes closely to see that we were taking our training and applying it. I knew their eyes were on me when I resisted his position, so I knew I had to speak boldly. So, even though I gripped my hands under the table so no one would see me shake, I did. I spoke to him. Clearly.

"He did not appreciate being set down by a younger female who was not even a wise woman yet and our debate raged, until no others at the table were engaging." Her eyes went misty then and her smile grew. "We continued to discuss and debate for hours. Until the market was closing and the others had all left to go to their families or their jobs. Eventually we found ourselves sitting alone at the table, very late at night. He was quite angry by that time, and I was quite defensive. But… something happened.

"Whoever was working that evening walked the market, blowing out the lanterns. When we both stopped talking, they apologized and we were snapped out of our little bubble. We realized we'd been alone for hours and…"

She cleared her throat. "He was watching the servant walk around the lanterns, and his eyes had gone wide. I stared at him and all of this… pure feeling rushed up within me. It was a strange moment because I was so certain, then, that I loved him. I loved his passion and his strength. I loved his humor and even the arrogance he carried. I wished… I wished to know him more. To see the other sides of him that perhaps, others did not get to see.

"He said something in my scent changed. I wasn't aware of it. I had harbored feelings for him for months, perhaps years, by then. All is know is that when he turned to me then… something happened. He stared at me with a strange expression on his face, as if he were trying to measure me with his eyes.

"I was uncomfortable. And because we had been arguing, my tone was still sharp. I demanded that he tell me what he was thinking, why he looked at me that way. And he said… he said that he looked at me as any male would whose heart was won.

"I misunderstood him at first, thinking he referred to the argument. I made some stupid, juvenile comment about being glad to see at least one male in this city was able to see sense, and then he smiled and shook his head.

"When I asked, he got up from his seat on the other side of the table and came to my side, offering his hand. I asked him what he wished for me to do, and he said he wished to take hold of me, and never let me go. I was stunned." 

*****

SOME READER FAQ ANSWERS BELOW (This note was added after the chapter was published so you aren't charged for it.) I've been getting a lot of comments with the same questions or issues lately, so I've written this note because I want to help you enjoy your experience in NovelFull. Look for the ALL CAPS headings below to see if they answer any questions or frustrations you're experiencing. Thank you for being here! I appreciate you!

WHY DO YOU ONLY PUBLISH ONE/TWO CHAPTERS A DAY?

The short answer is, because I haven't finished writing it. This is a different model of publishing called "Serialization." (It's like a long-running soap-opera, in book form, so I'm currently writing the material you're going to read next month.) On top of that, this book is under contract with WebNovel (just like it would be with a publisher that might release a book you can buy in a bookstore). Only they have the rights to publish it in any form. They pay me royalties when you read, but they are the ones who maintain the platform, advertise my stories so they will find readers, etc, etc, etc. We are in a business relationship, but the decisions about what forms to publish the story, what platforms, and about adaptations to paperback, movie, etc, are 100% their choices, not mine. My advice, if you want to see this in paperback, or as a movie/TV show (which is possible because WebNovel is owned by Tencent which are a production studio), is to email [email protected] and tell them that, as a reader, you wish this particular book was available in whatever format you're hoping for. The more readers they hear from, the more likely they are to do it!

WHY CAN'T I JUST BUY THE WHOLE BOOK? 

Two reasons: The first is that I haven't finished writing it. But also, NovelFull isn't Amazon. This is a different form of storytelling that many readers aren't yet used to. Let me explain:

This book isn't just one book. So far, KING OF BEASTS is over 650,000 words long, and it's not finished. (For perspective, a normal novel is usually 80-90,000 words, and a thick fantasy novel is usually less than 150,000 words) This "book" is the equivalent (so far) of about 4-5 thick fantasy stories. So consider that if you were buying it in paperback, those would cost probably $15+ each. The feeling many readers have that they would buy the whole story for $15-20 just isn't accurate. You wouldn't buy one book, you would buy a lengthy series of 6-7 books by the time this is all done. But, as I mentioned, it isn't yet "done."

Also for perspective: I wrote for several years in traditional publishing and only a very small audience ever bought my books, LOL. It's easy, when you're enjoying a story, to assume that it should have been available already. But the truth is, no one (not NovelFull, not me) know ahead of time if a story is going to succeed. There's no physical way I could have afforded the months it's taken to write this many words without the income along the way, so writing in this platform gives me a freedom I wouldn't have to pursue this story on a platform like Amazon.

It's very, very hard to be "discovered" by readers. The reason I accepted the invite to write for NovelFull is because they have offered me far more opportunities to find readers and to earn than any publisher I've ever worked with. (And a VERY enjoyable way to make friends with readers and hear their thoughts while they're reading--which I've never experienced anywhere else. I love it!) While I know the platform has issues, I also know that they have many, many good things that I haven't found in other forms of publishing (I've been traditionally published twice, and self-published twice prior to this.) So I really do feel for your frustration about having to wait, but at the same time just know: Without NovelFull, I never would have been able to write this story. It literally would not have existed. You can listen to my interview with Destiny Aitsuji on YouTube to hear the creative reasons why that is true...

WHY CAN'T I READ NEW CHAPTERS? "MY CHAPTERS AREN'T UPDATING":

This book updates 2x per day, EVERY day. The very first day you do not receive 2 chapters, you should either delete the book from your library, then reload it (so it will bring up all new chapters) or if that doesn't work, go into your profile (bottom right menu of the app) scroll down to "help Center", then down to "Online Support Center." Let them know the trouble you're experiencing. They can help. If they don't solve the issue for you, then comment to me and I will see if I can help you. But those two things have to be done before I can go to the staff that I have access to. 

If you got this far, thank you for reading all of this! I hope it at least helps you understand why you're experiencing some of these frustrations. And please be certain: I am so grateful for you! I know I would really struggle to only read a couple chapters a day of a book I love. So I am blown away by your willingness to be here with me. Thank you!