A/N: Happy new years!
"Oh my god, you can't do that! It's cheating!" I snort at Finn, trying not to laugh. We were playing a game of Chess, which I'm not very good at and he happens to be excellent at. "You're such a cheater." I shake my head again, leaning back into the couch.
"I'm winning so I'm automatically cheating?" He grins, taking the pawn he'd just killed off the chess board and setting it with the numerous other pieces that had faced the same fate.
"Yes." I nod seriously.
"I let you win the last game." He tries to defend himself.
"You LET me win?!" I exclaim, "I won because I'm better than you." I try to play off. I was no where near his playing level experience. He only smirks at me, and I lean over and kiss his cheek. "You're such a good boyfriend for letting me win. Or else I might get angry from losing so many times." I chuckle. We sit in silence for a few moments, both of us just staring at the chess board. All I had left was the king and queen, and he had nearly all his pieces left.
"You should go shower and get ready to go out, I have a surprise for you tonight." He says suddenly, a smile playing across his lips.
"What kind of surprise?" I challenge.
"The kind you're going to enjoy." He tells me before patting my knee and standing up. "Wear something nice." He adds with a wink. I roll my eyes, but push myself up off the couch.
"Alright..." I respond. Sometimes I didn't like surprises, but Finn hasn't led me astray yet and if I have to dress nice it can't be all that bad.
"We're leaving in a couple hours." He informs me. It was just past 5 now.
***...***...***
"This is a very nice restaurant." I murmur to Finn as the hostess walked us to our table. It was in the back, in a private patio area.
"Thank you." He tells the hostess as she excuses herself.
"You know you don't have to take me out to places like this right?" i ask him, "Not that I don't totally appreciate it, but I am ok with burgers and fries." I say to him.
"I know." He looks amused. "I just like to show you how special you are to me." He smiles. I still can't figure out how exactly I got so lucky to find this man, or for him to find me.
"You're the best." I smile back.
"I try."
The patio over looked most of downtown Dublin, it was really pretty.
"Can I ask you something?" He wonders, glancing up at me.
"Of course." I shrug, taking a sip of the coke I'd ordered.
"Do you want to be with me forever?" Looking at me mischievously.
"You know I do." I grin at him.
"Do you want to marry me?" With the same look.
"It's definitely a bonus." I chuckle, shaking my head.
"That's kind of what I was hoping to hear." He nods his head, standing up and pulling a little black box out of his pocket. My grin gets wider as I watch him lower down onto one need in front of me. "This is how you do it right?" He smiles and I nod. "I know it's a little unorthodox, but Annabelle, will you marry me?" I can even play it down and say the diamond wasn't that big, because honestly i wasn't much of a jewelry, biggest diamond kind of girl but it was one of the biggest diamonds I'd ever seen in my life, and it was surrounded on both sides of the band with smaller rocks.
"Yes." I smile, letting him slip it over my finger.
"I was hoping you'd say that." He tells me with a breath of relief.
"You knew I was going to say yes and you were still nervous." I tease him.
"It's a little nerve racking." He admits. "Guess what?" He asks me. He'd brought back that mischevious grin again, and It only make me giggle.
"What?" I ask.
"Your father barely even hesitated when i asked him permission to marry you." He tells me, his face softening. I stared at him. He'd taken the time and had enough respect to ask my daddy for permission to marry me.
"Thank you, for asking him." I say seriously. "I love you."
"I love you." He responds. "I'm sorry if it wasn't as romantic as you'd hoped."
"It was perfect." i smile.
***...***...***
"Charlise, make sure it's executed tonight." I hear Finn tell him as I walked into the dining room of the castle. Ellena was hard at work in the kitchen, I was kind of hoping she'd have something that I'd want to eat made up.
"Yes master Balor." He nods curtly, "Afternoon Lady Annabelle." He acknowledges me politely before walking off.
"Execute what?" I question Finn, narrowing my eyes at him.
"I've sentenced Baramiere and Jordynian to life in the Dungeons." He tells me. I must have made a face because he quickly followed it up with, "There will be no torture involved. The dungeon's are only to make sure they can not escape." He assures me.
"Ok." I nod.
"Lady Annabelle. Are you hungry?" Ellena offers. "I fixed that recipe you brought to me, called Chili and there's also a chicken and rice dish here." She smiles.
"I'd love some Chili." I tell her. A couple weeks ago she'd insisted that I bring to her a few recipes that were my favorite so she could make them.
"I'll have a bowl as well, please, Ellena." Finn tells her. She quickly excuses herself back into the kitchen while Finn and I sit down. "Set your foot up here." he pats his lap.
"No..." I shake my head at him. He grins, because he knew I didn't want to show him my giant, freak sized swollen ankles. He narrows his eyes at me, "I said no." I shake my head again.
"You'd better put your foot up here." He laughs. "My love, it's perfectly normal to retain water." he assures me, which I already knew. With a sigh I swing my leg up and set it on his thigh. "Your ankles are the size of soft balls." he comments, "Does it hurt?"
"No. It's just ugly." I grumble.
"No." He shakes his head at me. "You couldn't be ugly if you tried, I'm afraid."
"You're sweet." I sigh. Ellena walks over and sets down a couple bowls in front of us, "Thank you." I smile at her. It tasted really good. It'd been a few days since I've cooked for Finn and I, lately we'd just been ordering take out and we hadn't been to the castle in a week now. An hour or so passes and we ate in a comfortable silence, every once in a while one of the men would come in and ask Finn a question or had him something.
"I don't want to get married until after the baby comes." I inform him.
"As you wish, but can I ask why?" He tilts his head at me.
"Because, I don't want to get married fat. I want to get married and look bangin' in my wedding dress." I rattle off, making him chuckle. I jump and Finn's head snaps up when Baron barrels through the double doors of the dining hall. "Baron?" I murmur, looking at him confused. He'd never step food into the castle if there wasn't something seriously wrong, and judging by the look on his face, something was wrong. He narrows his eyes at Finn, hardly even seeing me before making long forceful strides towards us. In a second Finn is up on his feet and has Baron held up against a wall. "Hey, calm down." I say softly to Finn, putting a hand on his arm.
"He has no right to storm into my castle as he's done, let along step foot on my land without permission first." Finn growls, staring Baron down.
"Stop." I tell him. I was trying to keep calm. If I get worked up, who knows what this baby inside me will do, and I didn't want to hurt anyone myself. "Baron, what's going on?" I look up at the nearly 7 foot tall, tattooed man, who was still pinned to the wall a few feet off the ground.
"A third of my pack was massacred last night." He spits at Finn, "We've done nothing to do, and I'm done sitting around doing nothing about it!" He shouts.
"What?" I ask, looking between the two.
"Annabelle, you should go home and let your boyfriend and I handle this. Just between us." Baron says in a deep voice.
"Knock it off." I snap at him. "Baron, I'm sorry about your pack and we're going to talk about this. But we're going to do it as adults and without killing each other. Finn didn't do it, he's literally been with me every moment for weeks now." I tell Baron. It was right that second that I remember walking in on Finn and Charlise earlier. He'd said to execute it today. "Oh my god..." I murmur, looking at Finn with wide eyes.
"Annabelle?" He questions with furrowed eyebrows. Then, it seemed to click with him too and his face instantly went white. "I haven't lied to you, my love." He assures me in a soft tone.
"Put Baron down." I instruct him, then look at Baron. "And you, be fucking nice or I'll throw you back up on that wall myself." I warn him. A few seconds pass before he finally nods and Finn slowly lowers him to the ground. "When did this happen?" I ask the wolf.
"It just happened." Baron rumbles. My stomach drops and I look over at Finn, who I can tell is panicked.
"I would never jeopardize our relationship like that." Finn insists. "What reason do I have to kill the mutts?" He asks me. He had no reason really, but he also never had a good reason to torture those creatures in the dungeons like he had been before.
"Who else would do this?" I ask in barely a whisper.
"I don't know, my love." He answers, "But I'm sure if we work together we can figure this out." He tells me, then glances at Baron.
"I'm not working shit out with you." Baron spits at his feet.
"Baron." I glower at him. He glares at Finn, then looks at me before shaking his head.
"I'm sorry I barged in." He tells me, never once looking up at Finn as he apologized. "I need a few days." He says to me, in a more sad tone. We both watch as Baron retreats from the castle, and I see Finn put his hand up silently telling his men not to attack him.
"You don't believe me." Finn murmurs, disappointed.
"The timing... Finn." I shake my head, looking at the floor. "And you said execute. And you've never liked Baron in the first place." I bite hard on my bottom lip.
"Annabelle, what reason do I have to be that person anymore?" He scoffs. "I love you, I've changed so many of my ways and habits for you, why would I put our relationship at risk like that?" He asks me.
"Who would do this?" I ask with big green eyes.
"I don't know, my love. I don't know." He murmurs, palming my face.
I didn't know what to believe right now.
A/N: Has demon Finn risen once more, or is he telling the truth?