Chapter Twenty-Three: Awakening

A/N: So finally, another chapter! I'm not sure if this will answer any questions or just raise more...but the plot is definitely getting moving, and we will be seeing more of the Targaryens, and Melisandre. Please let me know what you think! Feedback is always helpful :)

Mella struggled into the heavy dress, trying to accommodate her ever-growing stomach. She was nearly four months pregnant, but fortunately neither Robb nor anyone else had discovered this fact. It was more out of luck than anything else – Robb had been extremely busy with the ongoing war, and had not questioned Mella's decision to simply sleep rather than make love. Yet he was no fool, and the dark-haired girl knew that eventually her husband would grow suspicious.

Mella's fingers fumbled at the laces of her dress. She was used to doing things for herself now, despite being Queen in the North. There were certainly servants, but they always seemed to be occupied. She saw no sense in waiting a half hour for a servant to be available to tighten the laces of her dress, when it was so much quicker to do it herself. Footsteps made Mella think she may be in luck, however she froze when it was not a servant who entered the tent, but her lord husband.

"Mella, we…" Robb immediately stopped when he took in the way his wife's dress was ill-fitting, how her breasts nearly spilled out of the bodice and how the small bump of her stomach was clearly visible. His eyes darted to hers, and Mella could not help but feel guilty. She was going to tell Robb eventually, but she had been putting it off. As Catelyn had said, word about her pregnancy would spread like a disease.

"I am with child," Mella stated in response to his questioning gaze, bracing herself for what he might say. She would not blame Robb if he was angry at her – it had been her choice not to say something, and although it may have its justifications, Robb was the child's father. A child with a wolf father and a stag mother. The true heir to the North and the Iron throne. An unbelievable danger.

"Why did you not say something before now?" Robb approached, but there was little hostility in his blue eyes. Instead he reached out with a careful hand, placing his palm on her rounded stomach. As if in response to the gesture, the baby within Mella's womb kicked. A delighted smile spread across Robb's face, but he still searched his wife's face with questioning eyes. "Mella?"

"You must realise what an…inconvenience this is. For our enemies." Mella sat down heavily. As much as she tried valiantly to pretend otherwise, the pregnancy was already beginning to strain her. The weight of her belly was starting to become noticeable, and the morning sickness had not yet passed, although Catelyn assured her that it would. "If our child is a boy, he will hold more power than my entire family. He will be the heir to the throne, and also rightful heir to the Iron throne. Now I think about it, Storm's End, too. Renly had no heirs."

Robb nodded slowly, his expression troubled as he processed this. Mella knew he would want to keep her out of danger – he always had. But there were things even Robb couldn't fight, and word about their child getting out was one of them. But Mella had Davos and most of Stannis's army behind her now. She had protection by her own means.

"I understand." Robb knelt down in front of her, blue eyes blazing as he took her hands in his. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead, feeling more protective than ever. He was going to be a father. That was something worth fighting for. "But I swear by the gods old and new, nothing bad is going to happen to you or our child."

Daenerys Targaryen was not quite certain how she should feel when she set foot on Westerosi soil at Storm's End, where her nephew Aegon would welcome her with open arms. She wasn't so sure about that – how would he feel about her dragons? She hoped to intimidate him, to show the fellow survivor of her house that despite her being younger, a woman and having a lesser claim, she was no less fierce. No less Targaryen.

The young man who approached Daenerys now, with his silver hair and violet eyes, was probably the most handsome she had ever seen. Taking a deep breath, Daenerys stepped forward, glancing up at the sky as Drogon wheeled overhead, casting his shadow over them. Aegon shielded his eyes from the sun and followed his aunt's gaze, and a smile spread across his lips as Drogon shrieked.

"I see the rumours are right. You really do have dragons."

"Did you expect any less?" Daenerys's voice was cold, holding no hint of familiarity. She was not suddenly going to warm to her nephew. "As you can see, Aegon, I have much to offer you. I have an army. I have dragons. But what do you have to offer me?"

"I do have an army of my own," Aegon drawled, gesturing behind him to where Jon Connington and several of his best men stood in silence. He folded his arms over his chest. There was a languid grace about him, Daenerys noted. It was something she imagined her older brother Rhaegar – Aegon's father – possessing. "But what I can offer you is the Iron throne."

"Something I am perfectly capable of taking myself," Daenerys replied coolly. In truth, she wanted to see what kind of man this nephew of hers was. Was he like Rhaegar? Or more like his grandfather Aerys? She did not want to form any kind of alliance with a madman.

"So you don't need allies." Aegon raised his eyebrows, regarding her closely. "You are perfectly capable of fighting the Lannisters on your own. And Stannis Baratheon. And the Greyjoys. And the Stark-Baratheon alliance. So why then did you seek me out, if you have no need of my help, Daenerys?"

She knew that he was right. There were far too many enemies in Westeros for her to combat alone, even with her three dragons. They were destructive, but not indestructible. She needed Aegon by her side, but she also did not want to give up the Iron throne to him. Now that she looked at it, the solution was simple.

"Then we must marry," Daenerys stated. Was that not what Targaryens had always done, married within the family to keep their bloodlines pure? She had wondered whether she would have married Aegon, had he lived – and now it turned out that he had. "We will rule as equals, King and Queen of Westeros. Are those terms you can bring yourself to accept, nephew?"

"Indeed I can," Aegon replied, and a grin spread across his handsome face as Daenerys's dragons bellowed in the sky above.

Mella read over the letter for the fourth time, trying to be absolutely certain that she had absorbed all of the information that it contained. There were two things to be very concerned about, and she sat down heavily. Her uncle Stannis had attempted to take King's Landing, however the Tyrells had betrayed him and Melisandre was nowhere to be seen. Most likely, he would be executed. She clutched tightly at the paper. At first she had thought him to have died months ago, and now it seemed he would die anyway.

But perhaps the more concerning aspect of the letter was the news that Daenerys Targaryen had landed in the south, and had apparently formed an alliance with her nephew, Aegon. Mella had heard the rumours about the girl's dragons. Everyone had. The two Targaryens together were a force to be reckoned with, and Mella was not sure even their vast army could withstand such a challenge. The Lannisters in King's Landing were beginning to appear miniscule in comparison with this new threat.

"Did you hear about this?" she questioned of Robb the moment he entered the tent. He raked a hand through his dark curls and nodded vehemently.

"How could I not have?"

Mella bit her lip. "Has Davos?"

Robb shook his head, and she knew it was her responsibility to tell her uncle's former Hand that the man he had respected was going to be put to death. She did not relish having to share the information at all. Sighing heavily, Mella rubbed at her stomach as the child within her kicked. Boy or girl, the baby was certainly very insistent.

"What now?"

"The Targaryens are our biggest threat now," Robb acknowledged, sitting down beside his wife. Mella knew that they would come after her, it was only a question of when. She was the true Baratheon heir to the throne, one of few who challenged their rightful claim. If they found out she was with child, they would more than likely want her dead. She forced back the sudden surge of panic that rose up within her. She felt like they had enemies in every corner, and that they couldn't defeat all of them.

"What do we do?" she asked of her husband. Mella was aware of politics certainly, but warfare and strategies were far out of her grasp. Robb had been an amateur at the beginning, but he was learning fast, and quickly proving himself to be an opponent to be taken seriously.

"I don't know yet," Robb admitted. That scared Mella, the fact that even her husband now wasn't certain about what their next move should be. She thought about it. Her first, wild thought was that they should ally with her family – take out the Targaryens and only afterwards move onto the issue of her legitimacy. But it was a foolish thought.

"What do we have that could possibly combat dragons?" Mella questioned. She knew that Grey Wind was a formidable direwolf, but even couldn't possibly hope to hold out against a dragon. In truth, they had very few weapons against such a destructive force of nature.

"There is only one thing that can contend with a dragon," Robb said gravely. "Another dragon."

Stannis Baratheon stared at the flickering torch on the wall opposite him, the only light in the dungeons he'd been unceremoniously thrown into. Bitterness surged through him as he rested his head against the cold stone wall, trying to ignore his throbbing headache. Twice now he had tried to take King's Landing, and twice now he had failed. Those bloody Tyrells, he never should have trusted them. He had no idea where Melisandre was, either.

The sound of a door creaking open and movement in the corridor made Stannis sit up straighter, pressing his lips together as a key was jammed into the door and then it was wrenched open. Whoever Stannis had been expecting, it wasn't Cersei. The blonde woman looked smugly over her prisoner, before she turned to the guard.

"Leave us."

Stannis clenched his jaw as the guard exited, the key grinding in the lock after him. Cersei strode over to Stannis, who struggled to push himself to his feet. His knees felt like jelly, but he would not appear to be any less than this woman who called herself Queen. Cersei watched him with contempt in her emerald green eyes.

"Everyone knows the truth." Stannis's voice came out hoarse from disuse. "About your children. How they are illegitimate – all except Mella. Trying to hide it won't do any good."

"Do you really think people actually believe the vicious rumours you and Ned Stark tried to spread?" Cersei planted her hands on her hips, lifting her chin proudly. "Tommen is the rightful King. Perhaps Mella believes such rumours, which is what gave her cause to flee her home and marry that stupid Stark boy. You have only succeeded in forcing my eldest daughter away from me, not convincing a realm."

"Why would Mella believe me and not you if what I said was untrue?" Stannis quirked an eyebrows, stepping forward and folding his arms over his chest. Perhaps he was going to be executed for his alleged crimes, but he was not dead yet. "I think you're afraid. You do think people believe what I've said. Mella is only one such person who has accepted the truth. I didn't tell her that she was the only legitimate child of my brother. Ned Stark did that."

"She will return home," Cersei snapped at him, before her eyes cast towards her hands. "She has to."

"Has to?" Stannis frowned slightly, wondering why Cersei was so eager to bring home a child who had turned her back. Perhaps it was a mother's love. But maybe there was another reason. When the supposed Queen refused to meet his eyes, a low chuckle escaped Stannis as he realised the truth. "Ah. She's with child, isn't she?"

"It means nothing to you," Cersei spat, but the alarm that flashed in her eyes was answer enough. The Lannister woman was afraid that her daughter would come to harm, and rightly so. There are many who would gladly kill Mella in cold blood simply to deny Robb Stark an heir. If the child was a boy…

"A son would threaten Tommen's rule," Stannis surmised, but Cersei's eyes flicked up to meet his.

"There is more at stake than that. Daenerys Targaryen has landed in the south, and formed an alliance with her nephew."

She was running through the wilderness with a hunger burning in her stomach. She needed meat. Blood. Hunger.

Weariness seeped into her very bones, but it was the thought of a meal that kept her going, prowling on all fours. Human or animal, it didn't matter, meat was a meal.

There was thirst too. She padded over to the water and lapped at it with a parched tongue, before drawing back in distaste. Before she could fully draw away from the vast expanse of liquid, she saw amber eyes, dark fur, rounded ears, whiskers.

A shadowcat.

Mella woke up with a gasp, hand fumbling around for her cup. When she glanced beside her, she jumped to find that Robb was already awake and watching her with concern. Pressing a hand to her chest to calm her wildly beating heart, Mella took a few deep breaths. Her husband slid his arms around her waist and held her close, nuzzling her neck.

"What's wrong?"

"Just a nightmare," Mella murmured, although it was more than that. She'd had the dreams now for a little, perhaps since the pregnancy had begun. Yet she wasn't certain what they meant. Only in this recent one had she seen the face of the creature she became within those dark dreams: a shadowcat.

"I know that look," Robb stated, rolling onto his side and observing her with a studious frown. "It's how I feel when I wake up from a nightmare where Grey Wind has been tearing into someone's flesh. What did you see?"

Grey Wind…

Mella caught her breath. No, it couldn't be. She had talked with Robb about his very realistic dreams to do with Grey Wind. A warg, they were called. Those with the ability to merge their minds with that of a beast. It made sense for the Stark children and their direwolves, which they had found as pups. But this shadowcat…no. It was a nightmare, nothing more. No prophecy. No warg.

With that last thought planted firmly in her mind, Mella forced a smile for husband and kissed his cheek. Robb had enough to be worried about, with the Targaryens becoming allies and Stannis having been arrested. So she did the unthinkable: she lied to him.

"It was just to do with Stannis. I'm not looking forward to telling Davos tomorrow."

Robb nodded, but he didn't look convinced. Mella lay down again, settling down close to him. His presence was calming, but she couldn't help but fret. There were things happening to her, things that just didn't make sense.