A word from the Author: Thank you so much for reading Enchanted by the Beast. It means so much that I am actually getting some reviews! Please comment and favorite and don't be afraid to let me know how to make my story better! Forgive me because this chapter is a bit shorter, but hopefully I'll be working towards finishing this story during the summer. Thank you!

Part V: First Night

Marak was right. The King's Wife ceremony had been very unpleasant to say the least. Cara kept her eyes open wide throughout the ceremony so the goblin King was never out of her sight. Marak had cut her and poured her blood into a basin, causing Cara to assume that she was part of a pagan ritual to summon the devil and she silently begged and pleaded with God to forgive her for any unintentional unrighteousness. It all seemed like a distant memory now as she sat in a small room with her goblin husband, shaking. Cara was staring at scars on her hands; they were wounds that her new husband had inflicted during the Ceremony. A straight line now divided each hand down the center, more scars to add to the young soccer player's collection.

"You did fairly well, all things considered," Marak was watching Cara with an amused countenance. Cara wanted to give him a sassy reply but all that resulted was a pathetic whimper. The goblin chuckled before handing his wife a goblet from a small side table. She looked at him warily before taking a gulp and coughing violently. Cara thought if magic had a taste it would taste like the drink.

"That was disgusting," Cara muttered angrily referring to the Ceremony. "When you said it was unpleasant I assumed you just meant marrying you would be unpleasant! I didn't think you would cut me open and then try to behead me!" Marak responded with a fit of laughter which only fueled his young bride's anger.

"That sword is a powerful charm to protect you. I did not attempt to kill you, sweet Cara." He took his paw and touched her shoulders and chest as if tracing something. "I cut your hands to see how long our lives will be, and I did heal them almost immediately, I might add. See?" He took hold of her left hand with his unnatural paw and traced the scar with his human hand. "It says that you will have a long life." Marak deciphered before he took hold of her other hand. "This hand says that I will also have a long life," he examined it more closely. "It has been ages since the scars have been this long. The last three generations of Kings have had much shorter reigns, hopefully things are returning to normal." Cara had decided to stop listening halfway through Marak's speech. She didn't care about how long they were going to live at the moment, she was more concerned that it was their wedding night and certain things were supposed to happen.

"Marak," Cara started, bringing the King out of his thoughts. "Are we going to have sex tonight?" Marak again burst out laughing; tears were spilling from his eyes as he attempted to regain his composure. Cara's face turned an angry hue of red. She failed to see the humor in her question.

"My, my, sweet Cara, you certainly get to the point. I like that about you." He took one of her hands and gently stroked it as Cara gave him an indignant glare. "To answer your question; most likely not, creating the Heir is harder than just having intercourse. Unlike humans, goblins take a long time to conceive and it is especially hard for the King. I have to find things about you that I admire, like your wonderful eyes or your plucky spirit, and my feelings for you will affect the Heir. The stronger my feelings for you then the stronger the Heir will be. You, of course, contribute just as much. The best Kings come from wives who settle into goblin life." Marak paused, studying the face of his young bride and stroking her cheek. Cara's expression had softened as well. Did she admire anything about her new husband? She scanned his face lost in her own thoughts. She loved his long, black hair and thought he was quite romantic looking with the satin bow tied as his shoulder, she also realized that she enjoyed his powerful laugh. "That is one of the reasons I chose you and not a silly elf."

"Wait, what?"
"Elves have an especially hard time adjusting to our lifestyles and as a result the last several Kings have been weaker." His tall, blue ears darkened. He was blushing. "I am not a very powerful King, you see, sweet Cara. My magic has a bit of a mind of its own and some of the simplest spells are hard for me to accomplish correctly because of it. That is why I chose you. I knew that you would the ideal King's Wife." Cara touched her goblin husband's hair reluctantly as though to comfort him. "Human brides can adjust better than elves and that means that our son will be a better King."

Cara absorbed the information silently before speaking up again, "You know, having sex is not only about having a baby. It's something husbands and wives do to become 'one'. Leave and cleave, right?" She didn't know why she was arguing for them sleeping together because she was very much against it. Marak was helpless with laughter yet again.

"I had assumed that you were not interested in that yet, but if you would like to then we can go to our room now." He was teasing her in between his uncontrolled chortles. The girl felt her blood go hot again. Her husband was laughing at her!

"Maybe that is what I'm saying!" She blurted angrily as she stood up and paced heatedly around the small room. Marak had stopped laughing and stared at his wife dumbfounded. He stood up to join her taking hold of both of her hands as she continued to stare at the ground.

"You must be so tired, sweet Cara," he said softly as he brushed her forehead with his lips. "I promised you could sleep after our wedding and you should do that. This is a lot for you to process and your stress seems to be getting the better of you." Cara sighed heavily as she felt her husband's hot breath against her skin. She was tired but so much had happened that she didn't think she could sleep. "Would you like to sleep with me in our bed or stay here for the night? When wives have a particularly hard time adjusting they stay in this room for a night or two." Cara bit her lip as she looked at the small room. It had a bed, an uncomfortable couch and a small table. The walls were bare from the elaborate decorations and it gave off a vibe that for some strange reason reminded Cara of a prison.

"I think I would prefer our room." She said after a moment and the King took her hand to lead her to the Royal Rooms.

When the couple had arrived at their destination several moments, and many stairs later, Cara was taken aback. The room was large and lousy with decorations and mosaics covering every inch of the walls and floors. There were two beds in the room, one was large with expensive red covers while the other was smaller and sat alone against another wall. The girl was far too weary to ask why they had two beds if they were supposed to be married. There was an opening in one of the walls that led to a large closet and a full body three-way mirror stood next to it. It was a room that was fit for a king and it now belonged to her and her ghastly husband.

"We have not had a chance to make you any new clothes yet, so you will have to settle with borrowing something of mine to sleep in tonight." Marak lead Cara to the bed as he moved into the closet and began to rummage through racks of clothes. He appeared a moment later with a simple dark blue shirt made of an expensive fabric and handed it to his wife. "You can wear that," he said as he started to unbutton his own shirt. Cara stared at the shirt in her hands and then to her red wedding dress she was wearing, and then finally to her husband. Was he expecting her to change in front of him? Of course, they were married. She eyed him warily. "Oh! I will wait in the closet then," he said as he turned away with his shirt fully unbuttoned.

Cara stood at the bed biting her lip as she watched him disappear into the connected closet. She felt like a child but appreciated her husband for being a gentleman, er, gentle-goblin. With much difficulty, she removed the red and gold wedding dress and then the wired undergarment before quickly shrugging on the shirt and buttoning it up. The young bride examined herself in the mirror across from their bed when she noticed a golden head on her chest bone. She scurried closer to the mirror and pulled back the collar of her shirt for a closer look. A golden snake was coiled around her shoulders and ended with its head between her breasts. It made sense now. She had seen the snake's head when Marak's sword swung down on her, but she assumed it was just an illusion. The snake tattoo made her look like an enchanted tribal princess.

"Marak?" she called and the goblin's head poked up of the closet. His pointed ears turned a bright shade of blue at the sight of his wife and he inched closer. "Why is there a snake around my neck?" Marak chuckled before heading to their bed.

"It is the King's Wife Charm. It is the most powerful magic that goblin society has to offer and it is all to keep you safe. The snake will deliver a swift bite to anyone who threatens you and it will paralyze them until I deliver judgment on whether they live or die." Cara pursed her lips as Marak spoke, it couldn't have been magical butterfly tattoo or at least something less conspicuous? "And, if need be, it will bite you if you do something too reckless, so please be careful." His young wife nodded with a yawn.

"Psh, being careful is overrated," she said with a weak smile before sitting on the smaller bed in the room and snuggling under the covers.

Marak quietly shook his head with a frown. He was going to have interesting stories about her to write in the King's Wife Chronicles and prayed she would grow as fond of him as he was for her. "I'll sleep on this bed," the King said as he moved over to the smaller bed and shooed his wife towards the larger, more beautiful bed. "But tomorrow night we are going to sleep in the same bed, like a real couple." Cara however didn't hear him because as soon as she lay down on the main bed she was fast asleep, temporarily escaping her reality.

Cara blinked her eyes open when she heard a quiet thunk. The room was dark and for a moment she couldn't even decipher which direction she was facing. Her head pulsated with pain as she sat up waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dim lights.

"Good morning."

Cara's heart was pounding as she quickly scanned the darkness for the source of the sound.

"Ha ha! It's me, Cara! Eleanor!" The goblin-elf girl sat on the edge of the bed and wore a happy expression. "You lost your game, huh? Oh well! Now you're down here with me! We can be best friends!" Cara's eyes started to adjust to the light and she could see Eleanor's blue eyes shining back at her. Eleanor wasn't wearing her black cloak like before and her abnormal "condition" could be clearly seen: her dress was cut low in the back and ended just before her hips to reveal large, bulky spines sticking out of her back that reminded Cara of a dinosaur.

"Oh, uh, yah?" the captured bride didn't know how to respond to the goblin's cheerfulness and trying not to stare at the deformity. "Um, have you seen my, uh, husband, Eleanor?"

"Oh, he went to court. He said when he got up you were sleeping so soundly that he didn't want to wake you, so he sent me to check on you! You've been sleeping for a long time."

"This is too much." Cara sighed and fell back against her pillows again. It was her first day as the queen of a mythical race. Her musings were interrupted by her stomach loudly growling and then by Eleanor gasping and rushing out of the room. "Strange girl," she muttered to herself. "But I think we could be friends…" Eleanor quickly reentered the room holding a large tray piled with meat and flat bread and vegetables.

"I'm so sorry; I forgot to bring in your first meal! Marak said that he wanted you to stay put until he got back, by the way. He wants to show you around your new home if you're up to it." The goblin-girl set the tray down on Cara's lap and plopped herself back onto the bed.

Cara examined the tray in the dim light. It looked very primal and slightly overcooked and the thought of eating after waking up to her reality sickened her.

"Oh please eat something," Eleanor sighed as she cuddled up next to the queen like old friends would have done, but this task was very difficult with her spine pushed her forward. "I promise it tastes better than it looks." She added with a sweet, comforting smile. Cara gave a weak chuckle before looking down at her breakfast again.

"Oh, uh, Eleanor, where is my fork?"

"Why would you use a fork? They are horribly impractical. Besides, why would you want to spear your food twice? That's just disrespectful to the poor deer." Eleanor replied as she pointed to the pieces of flat bread on the tray. "You use the cracker to put your food into your mouth, plus it tastes really good!" Cara eyed the beautiful goblin skeptically.

"Okay, so why can't you turn on any of the lights? It's so dark in here! I can barely see the food to eat it!" The new bride sighed. When she was stressed out, she had a nasty habit of complaining about things to anyone who would listen.

"Most of the goblins can't see in the daylight, so we have to keep it dim for them. You'll get used to it, most of the human brides do and if you don't, I'm sure Marak or I will cast a spell on you so you can." Cara felt her stomach begin to churn, it was all so permanent. She was going to be stuck in the depths of a cave for the rest of her life married to a blue tinted goblin king and his kooky subjects eating deer jerky and having limited visibility, and what's worst was that she would never be able to say she was sorry to her father or see any of her friends or family again. And so began the new life of Cara Carson, er, Cara the goblin bride.