chapter seven

─── bad ideas

          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. It was knotty, tangled in his shadows and fingers.

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. When I turned to him, he was looking at my face, eyes wide with reverence and guilt rushed through me as I watched him.

"Princess. What is it?" His fingers were tracing shapes into my sides.

"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, untangling the knots as best I could. "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, rolling my shoulders back in the process. My hair covered my back, and I turned to him. "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. His shadows flicked back and forth, seemingly waking up as he did. 

"If anyone finds out about this, Azriel, they will kill you." I replied, trying to make him understand the position we were in. "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, the covers slipping down to reveal his chest and I could see bite marks that I had left. Embarrassment coursed through me. "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. When I finally kicked my father's henchmen out of Hewn, I would be making a lot of changing, starting with the marriage system they had in place.

"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 a good idea. I would not be good for him. 

Azriel seemed to have noticed that I was thinking, as a shadow came up to wrap itself around my body, tugging me back until my head hit the pillow.

"But, we don't have to tell anyone." He muttered, wrapping a strong arm around my waist and tugging me closer to him. "It could just be our little secret."

He began to press butterfly kisses up and down my neck, distracting me from my thoughts. I hummed, before taking a deep breath and trying to keep my mind on track and away from Azriel. He was making things very difficult.

"How long do you think that is going to last?" He pressed another kiss just under my jaw as I unconsciously tilted my neck to give him more access. "You're not going to be able to keep your hands off me."

"Nor you me." Azriel pointed out, as I noticed one of my hands had drifted to his dark hair, threading through the surprisingly soft curls. I scowled, causing Azriel to chuckle as he pulled me beneath him. "We could work it out. I'm sure we could."

He leant down to press a long kiss to my lips as the electricity coursed up and down my spine. Kissing him just felt so right, like he fit with me and he was all mine. 

"You're the commander of the Darkbringers and I'm a spymaster." He muttered as I drew back for air. "We make a formidable pair."

"If my father-"

"If your father finds out, he still won't be able to kill me." Azriel muttered, trailing a hand up and down my waist, leaving a trail of goose bumps wherever he went. "I'm a better fighter and your brother likes me."

"Are you trying to persuade me to agree to the mating bond?"

"Why? Is it working?" Azriel shot me a cocky smirk, causing a scowl to form on my face. His wings blocked the light from the window, his shadows curling around my body as I allowed myself briefly to admire him. Reaching up, I rested my hand on his cheek, as he leant into it, taking in the soft curve of his lip, the raised scars that littered his body and the soft eyes that were the complete opposite of my own. "Princess. You-We deserve happiness. I don't want to lose you, not when I have my one chance at a mate, at the person who is best suited for me and I for you."

"I don't want you to get hurt." I muttered again as he pressed his forehead to mine.

"I'm more worried about you." He pressed another soft kiss to my lips, before pulling away to smile. "You're my mate, Princess."

"Maiya."

"What?" I took a deep breath, swallowing my fear and allowed my heart to take over.

"You are my mate. You can call me Maiya." He began to smile, a beautiful one that made my cold heart beat like a drum. "Promise me that we will keep this a secret. Promise me because if you get hurt, then I don't know what I'm going to do. I cannot be the reason for your harm."

"Maiya." I don't think my name had ever sounded so perfect coming from someone's mouth, and it shut all of my negative thoughts down. "My mate. All mine."

He tugged me closer, clutching me to his body as he pressed another kiss to my lips.

"Az-" I was cut off by another kiss, one that I was more than happy to reciprocate. "This means all those possessive feelings have got to be repressed because we won't be able to show that we're mates. That means the Frenzy-"

"I know. I know." Azriel smiled as he pulled back. "We can sort out the semantics of it all later, just let me have this moment to admire the fact that I somehow have a mate. The most perfect mate that I could have ever dreamed for."

I chuckled slightly at his words, before settling back into his arms as my brain whirred. I needed to think, to work out how we were going to do this. Because if something went wrong, then I didn't know what we would do. An idea came to mind, causing me to nod to myself as Azriel wrapped his wings around me.

Poking the warm leather of his wing, I waited for him to hum before leaning back to talk to him.

"I supposedly still need to complete some strategy meetings in the Hewn City and the Illyrian War Camps. If I said that I'd need to be gone for a few weeks, then we could go to Velaris and then-"

"Maiya, Maiya, Maiya..." Azriel pressed a hand to my mouth causing me to glare and flick his wing. "Ow! I just said that I didn't want to talk about the semantics, so would you just relax and let us just enjoy the time we have together. We can discuss it at a later date."

"Planning is important otherwise..." He kissed me again, causing me to glare at him. Every time I opened my mouth to speak, he pressed another kiss to my lips, causing me to sigh and flop back onto my pillow.

He chuckled, one that drew an unfortunate smile to my face. 

"You're smiling."

"I hate you."

"No. You don't." Azriel chuckled, before leaning back against the pillow and letting his eyes fall shut. We remained in silence, drifting in and out of sleep well into the late morning, until a loud banging on my door caused both of us to sit upright.

"What?" I yelled, frustrated at being disturbed. Azriel's hand traced up and down my back gently. "What do you want?"

"Princess, your father wishes to speak with you."

"Fine." I growled, before reluctantly pulling myself out of Azriel's embrace and padding over to grab a dress from my wardrobe. I scowled as I saw just how many hickeys covered my neck, turning around to glare at Azriel. "Could you not have done this?"

"No." Azriel shook his head, smiling as I glared.

"Over possessive bat." I spat back, glaring at him as Azriel chuckled quietly and pulled his breeches back on. Finally, I managed to find a high collared dress, pulling it on and doing it up in a record time. Smoothing it out, I tilted my head left and right, before brushing through my hair and carefully arranging it. 

By the time I looked back, Azriel was doing the buckles of his armour up. I watched him, finding the urge to just tug him back to bed, but the thought of my father stopped me.

"Remember, they can't know." I warned.

"I'm offended you do not trust me." Azriel placed a hand on my waist, tugging me into his chest so that he could press another kiss to my lips. "I'll have you know that I'm very self controlled."

"I know but this is a mating bond and-"

"You worry too much." Azriel's eyes met mine as I sighed. "Maiya, we can do this. It will work out. Now, go on. You've got that meeting with your father and I have information to go and collect."

I made a non-committal sound, before tugging him down into one last kiss.

"I'll see you tonight?"

"Yes you will."

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

So, Maiya is generally very pessimistic and Azriel really isn't but these two are complete sweethearts. I do really love them and them insulting each other and all of that. 

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx