Sigyn POV
I awake twisted in sweaty covers, alone. An empty pillow is not what I wanted to see this morning.
I dress and walk into the audience chamber. Loki is eating breakfast alone. "I was about to wake you, it's quite late. Your parents are off any minute", he says.
He stands up and I follow him as we walk out to the landing platform. The last of my parents' things are being loaded on the ship.
"Darling, I thought you would miss us!", my mother calls. "He didn't want to wake you." She hugs me tightly.
"This was a circus, and a shame on Odin's house", my father says to Loki. "But I have a feeling you're going to run a tighter, ship, Son."
"Oh that you can count on", Loki smirks.
My father embraces me. "Farewell, Mrs. Odinson, write us as you can."
"Mrs. Laufeyson", Loki corrects, and he's lost me as well.
"Lauf...what?", my father asks,
"It's my understanding that the bride takes the groom's name when they marry", Loki says, and I know what he has up his sleeve. I just don't know why.
"Odinson. You're the younger son of Odin", my father points out.
"It would seem that way, wouldn't it? But no. My father is Farbauti, a jotunn. King of Jotenheim. My mother is a frost giantess, Laufey. Jotenheim gives children the matronym, not the patronym, you understand. I am Loki Laufeyson, son of Laufey, and your daughter is now Sigyn Laufeyson."
My mother's mouth is hanging open while my father screams, "WHAT?" He takes a deep breath. "That's one hell of prank to pull on your new father in law."
"You see should see me when I'm there", Loki continues, "or another frigid location. But you don't really need to as you're likely to have a grandchild who turns blue as well."
Father is convinced. He draws his sword. "Father, no!", I scream.
"I don't see what you're upset about. The deal was that your daughter would marry the next King of Asgard, and that is me. You got what you wanted. I am Odin's adopted son, and I promise you I am now his legal heir. What else matters?", my husband asks.
"But you're, you're...", my mother begins.
"A subhuman? Yes, offspring of Yddrasill scum. Too little for Jotenheim, you see they don't think much of their deformed offspring there. My destiny was to have my neck snapped by my own father the day I was born. Odin took me to into his household to cement the treaty between Jotenheim and Asgard. But I think it speaks well of me, shows just how far you can go when you're really determined", he adds.
"Loki why are you doing this?", I ask him.
"Oops didn't want mommy and daddy to know? You didn't seem to care last night", he says bitterly, and I realize I didn't marry the man I thought I did. He's out of control, he's angry, furious, and bitter. He mellowed so quickly in my arms last night.
"I don't care if they know", I say.
"You knew about this?", my father howls at me.
"Yes, I did, and I'm not a discriminator, Father, you know this! I don't care that he's different from us. I don't think you're Yddrasill scum", I say directly to him.
He grabs my chin and twists. I yell and get out of his grip. "Let that be the last lie you tell me", he hisses.
"Never touch me like that again, or you will lose me!", I scream back to him.
"Lose you?", he laughs, "Surely mommy and daddy are taking you back with them now?"
"Of course we are! To think our daughter, a Princess of Vanaheim, was going to mix our blood with that of vermin...and that's what you are. Jotunns fight, rape, attack, kill, and if they run out of other people to kill, they start killing each other! The other eight realms would be better off if the entire planet was destroyed", Father lashes out.
"Can't disagree with you", Loki shrugs his shoulders.
"Get on board, darling", my mother says softly.
"I'm not going anywhere."
Three heads turn toward me. "WHAT?!"
"I'm not going anywhere. I am married now. I took a vow. Mom, Dad, he's my husband now, and there's nothing that can change it. Loki, you took a vow to me as well. There's nothing else to say", I answer them.
Loki's mouth is hanging open. "I can make sure you regret that decision", he hisses at me.
"You want to make your wife regret being true to you? Wow, your brother was right about everything, wasn't he?", I ask, and Loki hisses again.
"Get on your ship and don't come back!", he yells at my parents.
"Darling, come with us", my mother pleads again.
"Go", I say, as armed Asgardian guards push them onto their ship.
"This will be war", my father yells.
"I welcome it", Loki says with a bow, then yanks my arm, hard.
"Get on a ship, and return to Vanaheim. You got me what I wanted, and I have no further use for you", he says.
"You got me", I say, "That what you got." He drags me down the hall and tosses me on his – our—bed.
"My life will change very little, but yours will change a great deal. I don't intend to stop any of my habits, including visiting my various mistresses in Nine Realms. You however, will have no lover but me, and I shall take you any way I like", he brags. "You will obey me."
"I obey no one. You see what just happened with my father? You should know a girl better before you marry her", I answer back and he actually looks nervous for a moment. "Besides, the only person I HAVE to obey is the king."
He smirks. "Exactly."
I raise a thick eyebrow at him. "I am King", he announces. "You are sworn to obey me." The idea seems appealing to him in more ways than one.
Panic. "Where is Odin?"
He shrugs.
""Loki? What did you do?", I ask slowly.
"Nothing he wouldn't have done to me the first chance I got. I'm just faster", he responds.
"Did you kill your own father?!", I gasp.
"A time-honored tradition among royalty", he responds.
"You didn't kill him." He's too calm.
"Nonetheless, he will no longer be a problem to us." Us.
"And Thor?", I ask. It was the wrong thing to say.
"You seem awfully interested in that man's welfare today", he booms with jealous. "He's in Midgard, with a woman who is not you."
"If I'd wanted him, I'd have married him", I respond.
"He wouldn't have you", he says.
"You think?", I ask, winking at him. He's speechless. Finally, he pounds his fist into the wall and the dry wall begins to crumble.
"I can see there's only one way to convince you how miserable you will be as Queen here. My first stop will be the darkest forests right here in Asgard. Mathilde, my darling witch, with her dragon eyes of brown and red, will be thrilled to see me. Perhaps a hop to Nidavelir for my tiny tattooed rune selling dwarf, then to Alfheim for a pretty little elven princess like you, and maybe even to Nilfheim for acts with the dead so unspeakable, you would fly to Vanaheim without wings if you heard them", he gushes.
My confidence is failing. Is he truly this much of a monster? Why didn't I listen to Thor?
"Farewell, wife. I may or may not be back at nightfall", he says, and blinks out, gone.
I fall onto the bed, sobbing. I made a vow.
Loki POV
In wolf form, I run fast between the black twisted trees, the damp forest floor, fresh and cold beneath my paws. The forest smells of decay.
I keep running past little huts, distracted people, and confused wolves. "Hawk would have been faster" I'm fussing as I come among her little hut made of twisted brown branches. Smoke from a fire rises out of a hole at the top.
I transform back into myself. "Mathilde!", I call, "Miss your king?"
I hear noises, and few clunks of pots, and out she walks. Tall, pale, black hair, and brown eyes with a red ring around them.
"My prince", she says, smirking at me, then bowing.
"Your king", I correct, yanking her to me.
"Your Majesty", she corrects.
"Better", I say, and yank her into my arms. Her serpent-long tongue twists into my mouth and dances with my own.
"Since when?", she asks, smiling at me seductively.
"This morning", I offer.
"I see." She falls to knees. "Let me show fealty to my king in the best way I know how." She pulls down my leather pants.
I'm quite familiar with the best way she knows how to do things. Scary as Mathilde might be, even to me sometimes, she knows how to play a man's body like a Stradivarius. She's very very...good, at what she does.
I throw my head back and smile as she takes me into her mouth, sucking gently at first, then harder and harder. I rub the top of her head, smiling.
"Mmmm." I glance down at her. The pale skin and black hair that seem mesmerizing in the dark are overkill in the light in the light of day. The bright blush on her cheeks and her huge coral lips seem garish. Are those...pock marks on her face? And what's on her dress? I knew she didn't service only me, but still...what are those spots?
I feel myself...deflating.
Confused, she lets go and looks up at me. "My Lord?"
"The excitement over becoming king", I answer, "Another time."
"But Your Majesty, come inside! I have just made a hearty soup, I could tell the tales you so enjoy, and I'm sure it will be no time before you want me", she says, trying to help, but that makes it worse.
Instead, I change back into wolf form and run.
"Loki!", she calls after me.
Fuck. That was embarrassing. I spy the nearest ash tree, and run toward it, looking like I'm about to collide with the trunk, I close my eyes and I'm on the busy city streets of Nidvalier.
Loud music, tall buildings, graffiti, it looks like the most rundown neighborhood in a Midgard urban landscape.
I duck into a dark tattoo shop. One of the dwarves gives me a dirty look. I know Hadir well.
"Want another necklace? Heard you got married", he says to me.
"Finish with 'Your Majesty'. I'm king now", I spit back at him.
"Oh fuck, perfect", he says, rolling his eyes.
"Where is Hauseffin?", I ask.
He rolls his eyes. "On break. She'll be back in a minute. Why don't you just leave her alone?"
"So, life is just too boring for you, huh?", and I ask, and he immediately falls silent.
She returns with a broad smile on her red lips. I don't waste time going back to her apartment. We go in the back in a private stock area, and I pull my little dwarf on top of me.
"Heard you're a king now", she says, shuffling out her clothes.
"Yep", I confirm, removing my leather pants.
"Your Majesty...allow me", she smirks, grins, and straddles me.
Everything is good, the rhythm is good, her rocking hips are good, it's all good, but... nothing.
"Something's wrong", she says.
"Just give me a damn minute, I mean maybe if you...", I start, but it's entirely my fault and no one knows it better than I do.
I don't want her. I didn't want Mathilde. I don't want anyone...but HER. Every woman I look at, I see her face. Damn the minx, she will not control me this way!
"Keep it up, keep it up, that's good", I motivate.
"I'm getting chafed", she says ten minutes later and rolls off me. "Gotta get back to work."
"Hauseffin...I got married. What the hell is wrong with me?", I ask her.
She winks. "You're in the wrong woman's bed."
I go back to Asgard, I refuse to be embarrassed a third time. Working on paperwork all day, I take dinner in private, and return to our bedroom after nightfall.
Sigyn POV
I hear him walk in the room, and feel him settle in bed next to me. My pillows are soaked with tears, and I haven't been able to sleep at all. Where has he been the ENTIRE day?
But...he doesn't smell like sex. He doesn't smell like another woman, not her body odor, and not a drop of perfume. Nor does he smell like a shower. He smells like himself, but muskier. Sweaty, and like the forest floor as if he was running off stress as a wolf. My husband has been celibate all day long.
I cover my mouth to keep from laughing out loud.