Summary: Yuuri's arrival and slap saved Wolfram from a secret arranged marriage to a despotic Mazoku noble. Lord von Hanreid has plotted and maneuvered to get this marriage for decades and he has no intention of giving up on his plans or his prize.

Rating: M

AN: This story expands on the plot begun in The Maoh's Last Command. It can be read on its own but TLMC will give you extra insights. Thanks so much for your patience in waiting for this story to get started. Later chapters have been evolving along lines I wasn't expecting so I've had to rewrite the first chapter and I think it makes for a better tale.

What Belongs to Me was born after I finished the first draft of The Maoh's Last Command. I asked myself a question: would a man like Gregor von Hanreid give up easily when it came to getting what he wanted? I didn't think so.

Rated M for dark themes, spooky stuff, and adult situations (nonconsensual sex and mpreg – nothing graphic and with warnings at the start of the affected chapters). This is not meant for young readers. Please do not read if that describes you or if this sort of thing is offensive to you. Everyone else, enjoy and please review. Thanks!

I do not own Kyo Kara Maoh or its characters. This is written for fun, not for profit.

What Belongs to Me

Chapter 1: Whispers from the Shadows

Fifty Years Earlier

Wolfram dodged through the forest of legs that were the people packing bags and boxes and shifting luggage and doing all of the tasks that meant they were finally leaving this place and going home. Everyone was too busy to notice him, which frankly he didn't mind. He was sick of being stared at and told to do the Maoh proud or stand up straight – even though he wasn't slouching – or be on your best behavior so you don't embarrass the Maoh. He was tired of being what everyone else wanted him to be.

What he wanted was a place where he could be himself until it was time to go.

But every room he peeked into had busy people in it. Frustration had built to the point of an explosion when he at last found a sanctuary.

Mouth round with awe, Wolfram walked into what must have been Lord von Hanreid's library. The room had eight sides and seven of the walls were shelves from floor to ceiling, and each shelf was stuffed with books and scrolls. The wall right across from the door was a stone fireplace almost as big as the one in the main hall of Blood Pledge Castle. The mantle was held up by silently roaring stone dragons with great big fangs. A nice warm fire burned on the hearth and cast dancing shadows of the two winged chairs in front of it onto the big woven rug that covered the dark hardwood floors.

Best of all, it was empty.

Wolfram pushed the door shut behind him and ran over to the right hand dragon. It looked so real! He had to stand on tiptoe to put his hand in the beast's mouth. He giggled at the thought of doing that to an actual dragon. Gunter would have a fit and Mother would lock him in his room for a year if he ever tried something like that. He didn't want to think about the reactions of Big Brother or Little Big Brother.

He traced the intricate scale pattern carved in the dragon's chest. Wolfram really liked dragons. Maybe he'd ask Mother if he might have dragons carved into the fireplace in his bedroom.

Stepping back, he started exploring. The books he was able to reach were all thick with gold leaf words on the spine, most of them long and unfamiliar to him. He tried spelling them out and sounding them out the way Gunter had taught him to do with new words, but it didn't help. He snorted in disappointment. He ought to have known old Hanreid had a boring library.

Wolfram didn't like him at all and was glad his mother wasn't showing any signs of pursuing him as a possible new father for him. He was handsome enough and always smiled at him and treated him nicely and gave him treats and all. But the smile never reached his eyes. One summer Wolfram got into the gardens before the attendants where he found a squirrel fallen from a tree. When he picked it up to take to Julia for healing, he realized that the poor thing had died. The heat of the sun had made the body deceptively warm, but the eyes betrayed its true state. When Wolfram looked at Lord von Hanreid, he thought of that dead squirrel.

And that wasn't the only creepy thing about him. If he wasn't in a meeting with his mother and Uncle Stoffel, he always seemed to be watching him. At dinner or walking in the garden or in a hallway, the hair on the back of his neck would stand up and he'd turn around to find von Hanreid watching him with a smile on his face. Lots of people stared at him. Mother said that it was because he was beautiful and that he'd be a catch when he grew up, whatever that meant. Only Lord von Hanreid's empty-eyed stare made him feel bad.

Wolfram was so glad they were going home.

He trailed his finger along the spines of books as he circled the room. With a happy "Hah!" he found a botany book. He might not know all the words but at least it had illustrations. Wolfram pulled the heavy tome from its place and carried it over to one of the wing chairs. Settling in, he began flipping through the pages, ticking off on his hand the plants he recognized.

"Wolfram."

Wolfram looked up, expecting to see one of the servants come to fetch him for his mother. But the room was still empty.

"Wolfram."

The voice wasn't coming from anywhere, he realized. It was inside his head. Curious, Wolfram closed the book, wedged it up against the chair arm so it didn't fall on the floor and got to his feet.

"Hello?"

"Over here."

He spun around, trying to figure out where "here" was. A very faint whooshing noise drew his eye to the fireplace and he watched amazed as one of the dragons turned on one edge to reveal a secret passage.

"Wow!"

Inside the dark passage revealed, Wolfram made out the pale grinning face of a boy about his age with freckles and red hair. He was the first child Wolfram had seen in all the time they'd been here.

"Hi! What are you doing in there?"

"We're playing. Come play with us!"

Wolfram hesitated. It was one thing to hide in an unoccupied room, quite another to hide in the walls.

The other boy winked at him with a gap-toothed grin. "It's more fun when there are lots of us." His gaze darted to the closed door and he added, "Hurry before He gets here!"

Wolfram had a pretty good idea who "He" was and with a shrug darted into the wall just before the dragon door closed and the library door opened.

-o0O0o-

Lord Gregor von Hanreid walked quietly down the hall, his steps soft as a cat stalking a mouse. Word had reached him that the young prince had taken refuge in his library from the inevitable chaos involved in preparing the Maoh's party to move on to its next stop. One of the few rooms in his manor that had only one entrance, it was perfect for their accidental encounter.

For the three days of the visit, he had found and created every possible opportunity to be in the boy's presence without raising his mother's suspicions. Hanreid had been enchanted by young Wolfram the first time his eyes beheld perfection as Wolfram entered the ballroom during his older brother's coming of age celebration.

Most of the party guests came only as an obligation to the Maoh and showed no more than courteous interest in the middle son. Even if Conrart Weller had been full Mazoku, little Wolfram would have upstaged him. He drew everyone's attention, even has he obviously tried to stay in the background for his brother's sake. Hanreid had introduced himself to the child, who ducked away from him to cling to his mother's skirts and hide his face.

Celi Heika had gushed over how unusually shy her baby was being, how normally her "Wolvie" was the life of any gathering. He had assured her that he took no offense and moved on to share pointless conversation with someone he barely knew.

But that was the moment: when prey recognized predator.

When his goal shifted from making himself Celi's next consort to claiming her son as his own.

His plans solidified when the first credible rumors of human unrest reached him via his spies in the human lands. Hanreid ordered the immediate stockpiling of grain, beans, canvas, everything a mobilized army might need. He made contracts for the exclusive service of mercenaries, and built up his own personal troop roster. All he did from that moment had been to position him for this day.

So when Stoffel met privately with him, Hanreid had been the power in their bargaining. He patted his chest where an inner pocket held his copy of the marriage contract. Certainly he'd have to wait for the boy to reach his majority, but the best part of a feast was the anticipation. And, he smiled to himself as he gently turned the knob on the library door and slipped inside, the taste snuck behind the cook's back. He locked it behind him and bore carefully down on the sitting area.

A slow rage burned in his chest when he realized the boy had already gone, leaving one of his books discarded in his chair.

-o0O0o-

The wagons and carriages were packed, everyone ready to go, but the caravan was going nowhere.

No one had seen Wolfram all morning and Celi began to worry when half an hour of searching didn't turn up with any word. Although he insisted that he was old enough to take care of himself, Wolfram was her baby, very likely the last child she would ever have. With both Gwendal and Conrart taking up adult duties, sometimes far from home, it eased some of her anxiety to have her youngest son close and safe.

She gazed up at von Hanreid's manor house, a cheerfully bright structure with flowering vines climbing the white stone walls. The staff did a good job maintaining it and, so far from human territories and rumors of war, the people here still lived normal lives. She hadn't stayed in so peaceful a place in years.

Still, something about the place sent dread shuddering through her. After only the first day, the stories and gossip whispered at court about von Hanreid and his haunted manor held more credence, at least for her. No one else though seemed to notice anything amiss. Perhaps her unease was just a reaction to her negative response to von Hanreid himself. Celi didn't like the man, plain and simple. The longer she spent in his company, the louder the alarm her instincts sounded.

The minute they found Wolfram and set off for home was days late as far as she was concerned.

Her brother, standing nervously with von Hanreid on the entry steps grumbled, "Really, sister, he proves himself more your son every day." Stoffel turned his patently false smile on von Hanreid. "Celi too has never met a clock."

Their host laughed politely while Celi seethed inside. This was no time for banter. What if Wolfram was hurt or worse?

Lord von Hanreid patted her shoulder in reassurance. Celi barely controlled her flinch. "Fear not, Heika. My home is perfectly safe. And there is much to catch a young one's attention. I'm sure your brother's right, he's likely enjoying one of my distractions and lost track of time."

Gunter's arrival saved her from coming up with the expected lie that she believed him. Ignoring protocol, Celi rushed to him, hands outstretched. "Have you found him?"

"Yes, Heika," the tall swordsman gave her a real smile of assurance as he caught and gently squeezed her fingers. "We think young Wolfram went to the stable with apples for his horse, got too comfortable, and fell asleep. He's with my daughter now."

"Gisela?" The young healer that Gunter had adopted had been added to their party at Lady Julia's suggestion, so the girl had her first practical experience as a healer under kinder circumstances than the coming war would provide. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing serious, Your Majesty," he told her, "just a bit of fever. Gisela says he'll be fine and making a nuisance of himself again this time tomorrow."

Relief swept through her like a tidal wave. "Thank you, Gunter." Releasing him, she turned back to her brother and von Hanreid. "I thank you for your gracious hospitality these last days, Lord von Hanreid. I hope someday to return the favor." Not likely.

Hanreid gave her a deep, graceful bow. "I shall look forward to that day."

Celi strode quickly down the courtyard to the center of their caravan where the healer's wagon had been positioned. She sent distracted smiles to the soldiers and servants who saluted and bowed as she passed. A footman waited to hand her up. Inside, Gisela sat on the padded bench with Wolfram resting against her chest as she helped him drink from a glass of water. The fever had put a deep flush in his cheeks and sweat darkened his gold-bright hair.

"How is he?"

The green-haired girl set her mind at ease. "Better. I worried when the groomsman said they couldn't wake him when they discovered him curled up in the straw of an empty stall. His maryoku is very low. I can't explain it, but it's why he's so tired now. With rest, he'll be fine."

Celi caught up her son's limp hand, massaging the palm with her thumb. "He certainly didn't call his fire in the stables, we'd have heard about that pretty quickly."

"… wasn't in stable…"

Wolfram's sleepy mutter took her the rest of the way to relieved. "It's alright, baby. Go back to sleep. We'll be leaving here soon."

"Good. Don't like him … other children … don't either…."

"Children?"

He nodded as she and Gisela stretched him out on the wagon bench and tucked the blanket around him. "The boy came to the library. We went through the dragon and played in the walls. Then," he yawned wide and wiggled until he was comfortable, "the sad lady came … and I was … here."

With that he fell deeply into sleep.

Celi arched an eyebrow at the young healer. "Went through the dragon?"

Gisela chuckled, "Fever dreams can be very vivid but quickly forgotten. He likely won't remember a thing when he wakes up."

She took up her place on the floor beside her son, heedless of her finery. "I never saw any children around von Hanreid's manor. Did he have them sequestered during our visit?"

"I asked one of the maids. There aren't any here," Gisela told her as she secured her supplies for the journey. "It seems Lord von Hanreid considers children too noisy and fussy. Only single people and childless couples serve on his staff."

"How sad. A home is happiest with children."

Wolfram slept the entire trip back to Blood Pledge Castle. Celi stayed at his side in the healer's wagon refusing to move him to the comfort of the royal carriage as Stoffel kept insisting until the last rest stop before home. By then, Wolfram's fever had broken and he was snoring softly. Celi knew then moving him wouldn't disturb his slumber. They rode the rest of the way in silence, Wolfram wrapped in a blanket and cradled on her lap and Stoffel across from her looking distracted and darting glances at Wolfram's sleeping face.

Celi pressed the back of her hand to Wolfram's cheek to find it noticeably cooler. As Gisela promised, the long sleep was all he needed. By the time they reached home, she felt sure he'd be over the worst of the fever and no doubt wake as spry and curious as ever in the morning.

Still unease shadowed her heart. Something strange hung over the von Hanreid estate and her intuition told her it had touched her little boy. As the footman approached to help her down from the carriage, Celi promised herself this was the first and last time she or any of her family ever visited Hanreid and its disturbing lord.

-o0O0o-

Hanreid watched through the magicked glass as the boy explored his room with awed amazement. The child had been living here in what for him must be heaven for three days now with only he and his sorcerer aware of his presence. An orphaned beggar his agents brought to him from the human territories, he had never seen anything so fine in his short life and likely didn't have the imagination to even conceive of the possibility of such riches. The wonder in his bright eyes added to his appeal.

Blue eyes. A frown marred Hanreid's handsome face briefly. He'd asked for green eyes.

"Can you fix the eye color?"

Beside him, his sorcerer nodded inside the hood of his dark purple cloak, "But it wastes magic better used elsewhere."

"How so?"

"The boy has no magic of his own that I can use to fuel the spell. Without it, I must use a large amount of my own houryoku to construct a façade that will fail rather quickly, certainly before you can be satisfied. However, I can cast a spell on you to let you see what you want to see."

'Nice try, magic man,' he thought with satisfaction. They never stopped playing this game, each seeking to gain leverage over the other. 'Too bad for you I am master of my vices, not the other way around.'

"I'll make do. Tell my agents there's a substantial bonus for green eyes."

"Yes, My Lord."

Did he imagine the frustration in the cultured voice? "You'd best prepare. I'll wait fifteen minutes."

The taller man bowed again, "I'll be ready," and turned to leave.

"Oh, before you go, I want plans made to prepare a special suite for my husband when I bring him home. My wolf cub has formidable powers and will have military as well as magical training by then." Hanreid jabbed a finger at the secret room holding the human boy. "This magic cage of yours won't hold him as easily as it has the others we've brought here."

The spellcaster kept his head down but Hanreid sensed the adrenaline surge that the man always experienced when he challenged him to find new ways to use his twisted magic.

"I'm sure I can come up with something that will serve, my lord." Through the hood-cast shadows, Hanreid saw the eyes brighten and the lips warp into an unaccustomed smile. "I will need subjects to experiment on, both human and Mazoku, preferably with elemental contracts."

"Do whatever it takes. Once I have him, I must be able to keep him."

"As you command." The sorcerer departed, his passage making no sound.

Hanreid turned back to his one-way mirror to watch the boy ease into the private bath, watching him luxuriate in the bubbles until enough time had gone by to allow the sorcerer to reach his position before slipping through the secret entrance to extract from their prey the first payment for his new life of luxury.

-o0O0o-

Twenty-Five Years Earlier

Marissa Linden sat before her mirror while her maid brushed out her chestnut hair for the last time. The older woman shed the tears she was not allowed.

"How can your father have agreed to marry you off to that man? They don't call him the Shadow Groom for nothing."

"Father has his reasons, Heidi."

And such reasons. Her brother's warped vices had finally brought the disaster her late mother, and she herself, had warned her father about for years. But Lars was their father's darling boy who did no wrong, despite the evidence. Well this time there was plenty of evidence that included a bloody body and a powerful witness who wanted something they had.

What worried her was that she didn't know exactly what her new husband wanted. Oh, she was pretty enough and considered a catch in her own circles, but Lord Gregor von Hanreid traveled in realms far above her station. She had contracted with fire but her gift wasn't enough to gain her notice let alone the kind of acclaim that caught the eyes of the nobility. Her family was well off – a producing iron mine and some of the best farmland in the region – but nowhere near as rich as any of von Hanreid's previous spouses had been, nor did they have the highest status in the merchant class.

What she knew of nobles told her they did nothing without some kind of gain in mind, often on multiple levels.

All too soon they were done. Heidi tied off her braid and carefully placed the forest green hat adorned with peacock feathers and a fishnet veil at a fashionable angle. Marissa pulled the veil down over her face and stood.

"It's time to go."

The woman who raised her from her sixty-seventh year hugged her tight, "If only I were going with you!"

Marissa returned it with equal fervor. "My Lord Husband assures me he has plenty of servants to tend to my every need. I'll write as often as I can. You do the same."

"Even if I can only send once in a while, I'll write every day and send the letters in lots. I'll miss you, my angel."

"Take care of yourself. I'll come and visit as soon as I can."

Marissa picked up her personal satchel, straightened her spine, and left her room for the last time to begin married life, blissfully unaware that she would never see her family again.

-o0O0o-

Four Years Earlier

He knew his sorcerer had come to his office and stood in the doorway waiting for permission to enter. Hanreid finished reading Marissa's latest attempt to contact the outside world before he looked up to acknowledge his presence.

"Well?"

"Your lady wife delivered a healthy baby girl," he reported without a hint of emotion in his face. "The mother is weary but healthy."

Excellent! "Then we are ready."

"Yes, My Lord. The imprisoning spell and conception potions are in balance. They can hold him and allow the healthy birth of your son when the time comes."

"Finally. I was beginning to wonder if you knew what you were doing."

The sorcerer stiffened at the insult. Hanreid smiled at him.

"What we are attempting has never been done before. You must expect delays, failures. The road to success is rarely short or without obstacles."

"Be grateful this breeding worked." His voice had gone hard. "I have no more time to catch another spouse for you to play with. Which reminds me," Hanreid tapped the sheet of paper he'd been reading. "You need to do a better job of screening our new staff. Marissa managed to get a note to one of the cleaning women asking that it be delivered to her old nursemaid. Want to hear what my precious wife has to say?"

Whether he wanted to or not, he was going to hear every word.

Dearest Heidi: I pray that this reaches you. The young maiden I have entrusted with this letter is new and not yet aware of all the rules my so-called husband uses to imprison me. The letters you have gotten from me were dictated by my husband in his attempts to keep the truth hidden. All my attempts to send you letters from my own hand he has intercepted, and his wrath at what he calls my defiance of him is terrible to behold. Please give her sanctuary and do not allow her to return here. Her fate if she returns is not to be thought about.

Life here at Hanreid was pleasant enough at first. He gave me my own majestically accoutered suite, but from the first night I knew something was wrong. I sleep but do not wake rested. Shadows and echoing voices fill my dreams. I cannot understand what they say but I sense the fear. I share it.

When word reached us of the attack and Father and Lars' deaths, the look on his face, oh Heidi, I knew in that moment I had been bound to a monster. From that day my suite has been my prison where I only see him and his pet sorcerer when they tend me with one goal.

I have never loved Gregor but somehow he has managed to seed a child in me. From the day that sorcerer of his confirmed I was pregnant, I have been treated like a precious treasure and isolated me from even the staff here. From what I have managed to overhear, he has spread the lie that I am ill and bedridden. Gregor is determined that I bear his child living into this world and in secret. I am terrified for us both. I think this is why he married me, to see if he could get a child on someone who didn't love him. Once he accomplishes that, what use does he have for me or my baby?

Please, please send word to my kin. If they will not come to my aid, go to the Maoh's court to plead my case. Do not delay, there is so little time. My only hope lies with you.

All my love.

Marissa.

"She told the girl that she'd been estranged from her family because of our marriage, that I refused to forgive their slight, but she wanted to mend the relationship. Being a romantic, she took to the plot like a duck to water."

"Did you kill the maid?"

"And waste a death? No. My wife was smart enough to seal the letter and maid honest enough not to read it. She has no idea that Marissa is pregnant so is no threat to our plans. I just told her my poor wife's long illness had made her delirious and she had forgotten that the mother she loved died three years ago. Boo hoo. The girl happily gave the letter to me, grateful that I let her keep the gold ring Marissa gave her in payment."

Hanreid slammed the letter down on his desk, watching the spellcaster's involuntary start with satisfaction. "What if the girl had managed to get off the grounds and delivered this letter? We have chance to thank that I intercepted her in the stable before she asked the groomsman if she might ride along on the supply run into town. I don't like it when random factors undermine my control. You know that."

"Yes, My Lord. It won't happen again."

"Good." He tossed the letter onto the fire and watched the paper darken to brown then black as the flames consumed the evidence. The sorcerer remained standing on his imported rug.

"Why are you still here?"

"Your wife and child, how long do you wish to keep them?"

Hanreid thought a moment, considering possible uses for them and discarding them all. "You can have them. So long as I am decently widowed when Celi ceases to be the Maoh and can no longer obstruct my marriage to Wolfram."

-o0O0o-

Rage and hate.

They were all she knew, all she was now. Everything else had drained away over the days that followed her travail. Marissa knew the moment her baby gave her first cry and saw the twisted grin on the sorcerer's face as he cleaned up the after birth that their days were numbered. The poor babe died of the wasting only days after she was born, never named because as far as the rest of the world was concerned she never existed. She'd given a name to her little daughter in her heart but the wasting stole that from her, as it had taken the rest of her selfhood.

Rage and hate.

For the brother and father who sold her into the hell her life had become in order to save their own lives, only to die at the hands of the humans they despised. Her own death waited on the other side of a ragged breath. Marissa finally accepted that her last desperate attempt to save herself had failed, that there was no hope for a just-in-time rescue.

Rage and hate.

Whenever Gregor and his spellcaster came to measure the progress of their last experiment, Marissa stared at them, engraving on her soul every detail her failing eyes took in. Determined that whatever else she lost, she would keep the knowledge of those two men and what they had done to her. Her husband stood over her now, wanting to witness everything, a cold and empty smile beneath equally cold and empty eyes. Feeding on her misery like some kind of human leech.

Rage and hate.

The voices had left her dreams and surrounded Marissa though her tormentors never seemed to notice. They were her only company in the darkness, poor lost souls, as lost as she soon would be.

Rage and hate.

As her heart began to fail, their words became clearer. When she closed her eyes, they ghosted in the after images behind the lids. When Marissa forced them open again, she often saw them drifting about at some game she didn't know how to play as they waited for her. Helpless tears streamed from her eyes to soak the pillow beneath her head. It hurt. To breath, to struggle, to hold on.

The game stopped and the unseen shadows gathered around her bed, whispering. Marissa tried to concentrate, to make out the rhythmic pulse of their words.

As she dragged in her last breath, Marissa finally understood what they had been saying, the same words over and over, possibly for years, maybe even forever.

Gregor bent closer, his smug expression morphing into a frown.

Darkness swallowed his face and her life, and the words remained.

Rage. Hate.

"Why are you smiling?"

Vengeance.

-o0O0o-

AN: Thank you for reading! Please review!

In the next chapter, Yuuri has gone back to Earth, everyone thinks never to return. While only a few weeks passed for Yuuri, more than a year has gone by in the Demon Kingdom. His engagement to Wolfram no longer stands in Hanreid's way. Be here for Chapter 2: Miracle Lost.