Dark Caress | Azriel

𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 | Cooking

When I awoke the next morning, regret coursed through me at the feeling of Azriel's arms wrapped around my waist. 

"Morning." His morning voice was deep and rough, nothing short of bliss to my ears and there was nothing I wanted more than to stay next to my mate. But I pushed through that, sitting up and running my hand through my hair.

Cold air brushed against my exposed skin, leaving little goose bumps in it's wake and I could feel Azriel's dark eyes burning into my skin.

"Princess. What is it?"

"We shouldn't have done this."

"Done what?" I turned to send him an unamused glare. The Illyrian raised a cocky eyebrow, waiting for me to admit it. "Done what, Princess?"

"Slept together." I shook my head. "Do you want me to spell it out or does your small brain understand that?"

"Understood loud and clear."

"That's what I thought." I sighed, pulling my hair up and out of my face. "Regardless, this was a mistake."

Azriel groaned, before sitting up and looking at me.

"When are you going to admit that we are mates? This 'mistake' was not a mistake." Azriel looked the most annoyed that I'd ever seen on him, his eyebrows furrowed and his jaw set. 

"If anyone finds out about this, Azriel, they will kill you." I replied. "Everything I did was to make sure that you didn't die, but if my father finds out about this he will try and kill you."

"He married an Illyrian, why can't his daughter?"

"Because I'm his daughter." I shook my head. "You wouldn't understand."

"Then spell it out for me." Azriel shrugged. "Because all I'm getting from this is either your scared or about to reject the fact that we're mates."

"It's not that." I managed to get out through gritted teeth, already growing annoyed with him. "My father wants to marry me off for a political gain, especially before the war. If he does that, then he'll have more power and that's what he wants, regardless of my protest. Because he's just decided that Mendax is going to be my betrothed, I'm going to be set to marry him which includes keeping my 'innocence' intact."

"Well, it's a little late for that."

"Precisely. Now what do you think they're going to do to the man that took my 'innocence'?" The whole concept of innocence was something that I hated greatly, but unfortunately there wasn't anything that I could do to protest this. Not at the moment at least.

"Duly noted." Azriel scrunched his nose and I fought the urge to kiss him, the mating bond between us growing stronger. The last bit of my heart wanted to be his mate, more than anything, but the pragmatic side of me knew that it wouldn't be good.