Disclaimer: Surprise! I don't own anything.

Pairings: Thranduil/OC

A/N: I'm updating the rating of this chapter to M. It contains sexual content. If that's not something you want to read, then skip ahead to Chapter 10.

Summary: Thranduil and Brinya start their trial marriage with a bang.

Chapter 9: The Wedding Night

Thranduil held her gaze, "Is this what your heart desires most, my lady? Do you want to be my queen?"

Brinya felt like her world was spinning. Of course she wanted to be queen. Of course she wanted him. She could hardly wrap her mind around the fact that this was really happening. Human marriage was all about ritual. There was the ceremony in the church, the reception afterward for friends and family, and then the wedding night. Apparently elves skipped right to the wedding night part. There were no witnesses and no vows. A blush kept creeping into her cheeks. She had never been alone with a man who wasn't related to her. What would her father and stepmother say when they found out what she had done? Would they be proud of her for taking initiative and finding her place in the world or would they be ashamed of her for not waiting for their consent?

He took her hand, "You're trembling," he murmured softly as he pulled her toward the water. "Your sense of propriety will not keep you warm on cold nights. What you feel for me and what I feel for you is not wrong. It is the closest to right I have felt for a long time. If this is what we both want then there is no shame in it. You will be mine and I will be yours until the next Beltane when we will make our final decision."

She shivered and stepped closer to him. She had never seen anyone so lovely and she knew that she would never have another chance like this. She stood on her tip toes and for once she was glad she was tall. She pressed her lips to his, gently at first. Soon the kiss grew hungry and he ran his tongue over her lips. She let him lead her through the waterfall and into the lake. This was the point of no return.

Soon there were no thoughts, only sensations. For once he radiated heat and she pressed herself into him. Thranduil trailed hot kisses down her jaw, stopping to pay particular attention to her neck. She ran her hands over the taut muscles of his back as she flicked her tongue over pointed end of his ears. She heard him gasp in pleasure. She desperately wanted to please him. She wanted him to remember this night like she always would, like a dream that was meant for someone else. Things like this didn't happen to her. They happened to ladies with lands and titles and birthrights.

She wanted to touch as much of him as possible at once. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pressed her entire upper body against his. He groaned. He wanted her so much and not just for tonight. He wanted her to bear his children. If he had been thinking he would have realized how odd it was. He had brought her here on this night because he didn't want to frighten her away with a lifetime commitment, but here he was wishing he could trap her into being his forever. Did that make him a monster? He didn't have much time to dwell on the philosophical. She was slowly stroking him with her hand. Thranduil fought the urge to come on her hand like a schoolboy. He wanted to make their time together last. Gently, he uncurled her legs from his waist and led her behind the waterfall. There was a shallow cave that he had carefully laid with candles and blankets.

"You really planned this out, didn't you?"

"A king should always be prepared."

"What if I had said no? Would you have brought someone else here?"

He laughed loudly from his gut. "Edain are such jealous creatures and you have good reasons to be. The infidelity of your race is legendary. No, if you had refused I would have brought these here unnecessarily."

He laid her down gently on her back and began to trail his hot mouth down her belly, but she grabbed a fist full of his luscious hair and pulled his mouth back up to hers. "You're too far away," she panted, "I want to feel every inch of your skin on mine." She guided him to her slick entrance. He pushed the tip of his shaft inside her and she cried out. He was well endowed. In another stroke he was fully inside her and she moaned in ecstasy and breathed in his scent. Being this close to him was almost unbearable. Here he was in all his perfection and he wanted her. He chose her. The rhythm was slow at first and he withdrew completely before filling her again with his full girth. Her insides stretched to accommodate him and she was vaguely aware for a moment that she would be sore in the morning. She lost herself in the sensation. When she felt ready to crash over the edge she pulled him close to her lips and whispered, "Come with me." It sent him over the edge as he erratically ground his hips against hers and pounded into her with all his strength. He spilled his seed inside her, babbling in his own language, "Tonight will be the first of many. You will be my true bride." She thought it sounded beautiful even though she had no idea what the words meant.

The next morning she woke with the sun streaming in. The candles were long extinguished and Thranduil was gone. She wasn't sure how she felt about waking up alone. If she was honest with herself she mostly felt relieved. She was sure that he woke up looking just as perfect as ever and she was equally sure that looked like a mess. She felt around for her nightgown and headed out of the forest. He could come back and get the candles if he wanted. She was a little worried that someone would wonder why she was out of her room in a nightgown, but no one offered her a second glance. This is the upside of being plain, she thought. This is the reason I'm glad not to be beautiful. If no one notices you, you can mostly do as you like. If I was Anoria, at least four people would have asked me why I'm not dressed. She fought back a grin the rest of the way back to her chamber. She put on a tunic with leggings and riding boots. She'd gotten used to occupying herself by helping out with chores around the palace. She could empty chamber pots to perfection and scrub floors with the best of them, but today she wanted to do something different. She wanted to do something more useful. She found her way to the courtyard starting practicing her knife throwing. Most of guards were men, but Captain Tauriel was a woman and Brinya was glad she hadn't been barred from continuing training because of her gender.

She could never hope to achieve the grace of an elf. They moved like dancers with deadly choreography. The best she could hope for was efficiency. She was proficient with a bow and she could fight with a sword if she had to, but she was best with a throwing dagger. She liked the idea that even if she failed to impale her target, she would most likely cut them with the blade.

Thranduil watched her from the balcony of his study. She was clumsy compared to his kind, but he could not take his eyes from her form. She captivated him utterly. He watched as she threw the dagger again and again at the stuffed effigy. She corrected her aim by increments when she missed until she hit the target perfectly again. Sometimes he admired the determination of the Edain. Their lives were so short and pointless and many of them lived in poverty and disease, but they got up every day and went about their business. They did not let the futility of their existence keep them from their daily tasks. Sometimes he felt his long life stretch out before him like road that melted into the horizon. Immortality was a burden, but he could not imagine the fear that must come part and parcel with a mortal life.

He had been at a loss for how to proceed this morning. In the end in had simply slipped away. He thought that perhaps she would prefer to be left with her thoughts and come and find him at her leisure. Even after all his years, he still had little insight into the feelings of women. Would she have relished waking up with him at her side? Would she have regretted her actions last night? He had been trying to be considerate, but he saw now that she might take his absence as a sign that he didn't truly care for her. Damn it. Why did this have to be so complicated?

He was even less sure of the best way to inform her companions of their union. He knew that trial marriages were an Eldar custom they were likely unfamiliar with. Would they be angry? Would they feel that he had cheated them by spiriting their beloved away? He had, of course. He could have asked her to meet him in the middle of the day and to bring her sister and her friends. He had chosen to meet in secret under the cover of darkness. He felt a little guilty because he knew that some part of her judgment had been clouded by lust, but only a very little. The thought of her desire for him made him shiver. The night before had been the most exquisite he had known in many centuries. Elven women were usually relatively docile during sex. It was their nature. Elves tried hard to raise their children in peace and tranquility from the point of conception. He had heard that humans were different and last night had confirmed the rumors. He ran his fingers through his long tresses as he thought about the way she had pulled his hair and raked her nails over his back. She had practically driven him mad with her encouragement not to be gentle. His life had not always been entirely free from passion, but he had long ago accepted that his coldness was part of his personality. It had gotten worse over time and he could no longer remember the exact moment when he realized that he could not, rather than would not, feel anything. Nevertheless, he soldiered on. He did not belong to the race of men, after all. Elves feel many emotions, but they are not ruled by them. His dispassion seemed to serve him well as a ruler. He made decision based on reason and calculation. His enemies knew it made him dangerous.

Eventually Brinya finished her training for the day and went back to her chambers to change. She decided she would feel more comfortable looking for Thranduil when she smelled less like a sweaty hog. He was surprised at how empty the courtyard felt without her. He thought back to their passion the night before and remembered what he had whispered afterward. He wasn't sure what had possessed him to say it and he was confident she hadn't understood.

The custom of the true bride was an old one and it hadn't been enacted for longer than even Thranduil could remember. It was rare for the Eldar to marry outside their race, but when they did it inevitable ended in heartbreak. Eldar live forever. Other races don't. According to legend, the ceremony of the true bride arose out of one elf's grief for his lost Edain wife. He declared that no one else needed to suffer as he did because there was a way to accept moral beings into the immortal fold. The ceremony was relatively simple. If an elf and a mortal spouse felt that they belonged together for eternity, then their souls were joined. The mortal's soul effectively became bound to the immortal's soul and one could not die without the other. These unions did not always end happily. After thousands of years, Thranduil could understand how someone could come to long for death. Elves usually sailed to Valinor when they felt thus, but a mortal would have no kin in the eternal lands. A mortal who had lived far longer than a natural life might long to be reunited with long dead friends and family in their own afterlife. When this was the case, someone had to make a sacrifice. Either the Eldar had to forsake the eternal lands to go with mortal souls to wherever they went, Thranduil didn't know much about such things, or the mortal's soul had to come to Valinor and accept that they would never be reunited with those from their mortal life. Sometimes the cure was worse than the disease.

Thranduil was certain that he wanted Brinya for his true bride. He wanted her by his side forever. Now all he had to do was convince her.