𝓐𝓮𝓶𝓸𝓷𝓭 𝓣𝓪𝓻𝓰𝓪𝓻𝔂𝓮𝓷
Every candle in the dining hall is finely lit and placed among the many dragon statues built into the stone walls.

Patiently we all sipped at our wine the air still tense surrounding the table and though I'd assured Elaena only moments ago, I was just as scared as she was, if not more that this peace wouldn't be so easily achieved.

Aegon wanted his revenge and it wasn't at all clear how far he'd go to get it but I'd go even further to protect what I loved.

Now that Elaena had been declared heir it was she and I who sat beside my sister who had entered alone.

It was assumed Daemon had already taken flight to treat with possible allies.

With everyone seated the arrival of Lordy Corlys and Princess Rhaenys is announced and Luke and Jace stand to greet them exchanging warm hellos and pulling out Baela and Rhaena's seats.

"Lord Corlys, it brings much relief to see you hale and healthy again." Rhaenyra smiles, standing as well to greet our guests.

"I'm very sorry about your father, Princess. He was a good man..." Lord Corlys takes a look around searching for someone who isn't here.

"And where's Daemon?" He asks, disappointed.

"There were other concerns that demanded the Prince's attention..."

He doesn't seem happy with the vague reply but takes his seat next to his wife opposite Baela and Rhaena. As we all fill our plates there's no small talk, only talk of war plans and allies.

"We've heard your list of declared allies... too few to win a war for the throne."

"Well, we would also hope to have the support of Houses Arryn, Baratheon, and Stark-"

"Hope is the fool's ally."

"Both Arryan and Baratheon share blood with my house, but all of them swore oaths to me."

"As did House Hightower..." Turning his head to Aemond he continues, "If I remember,"

"As did you, Lord Corlys." Elaena snaps, my spitfire quick to remind him and come to my defense. Sitting back in my chair I rest my hand on her thigh with a possessive grip, my way of thanking her as I intended to the moment I got her alone.

The Seasnakes rough exterior crumbles staring at his granddaughter with pride. Elaena might've not been related by blood but Lord Corlys and Princess Rhaenys surely loved their grandchild like their own.

Smiling to himself he shares a look with his wife and continues, "Your father's realm was one of justice and honor. Our houses are bound by common blood and common cause. This Hightower treason cannot stand."

"You have the full support of our fleet and our house, Your Grace." Corlys bows his head in respect and Elaena's chest falls with the breath she'd been holding but I'd known all along he would bend the knee. To deny Rhaenyra he would then be denying Elaena and he would be eternally loyal to his granddaughter.

"You honor me, Lord Corlys, Princess Rhaenys. But as I said to my bannerman, I made a promise to my father to hold the realm strong and united. If war's first stroke is to fall it will not be by my hand. I wish to know who my allies are before I send them to war." My sister speaks with elegance and wisdom, earning an impressed expression from Lord Corlys who seems even further justified in his decision.

"A consequence of my near demise in the Stepstones and the bravery of your daughter and Aemond is that we now control them. A total blockade of the shipping lanes will be in place in days, if not already. The Narrow Sea is ours."

Beneath the table, Elaena reaches for my hand squeezing it as she's unable to show it on her face but I can feel it in the air as well, hope.

Perhaps we would spare ourselves the bloodshed after all. It was not only Elaena who held love in her heart for a 'Hightower'. My mother could deny it all she liked but there was a connection between her and my sister that was years older than even Elaena and I.

Though my mother had conspired to steal her crown, Rhaenyra would not seek blood only justice.

"If we further seal the Gullet we can cut off all seaborne travel and trade to Kings Landing."

"I shall take Meleys and patrol the Gullet myself," Prince Rhaenys adds, returning Rhaenyra's warm thankful smile.

"When we drain the Narrow Sea, we lay siege to the Red Keep, convince the Greens to surrender and no lives need be lost,"

"But if we are to have enough swords to surround King's Landing we must first secure the support of Winterfell, the Eyrie, and Storm's End. We'll have ravens sent out first thing,"

"We should bear those messages. Dragons can fly faster than ravens and they're more convincing. Send us." Jace speaks up for the first time all evening and at his suggestion, Luke stiffens but doesn't show any fear.

Dropping her fork Elaena shakes her head, her grip on my hand tightening and her innocent purple eyes widening in terror as she looks at me, willing me to read her mind.

"What is it?" I whisper but when the words leave my mouth it hits me.

Lord Corlys nods, agreeing with his oldest grandson, "The Prince is right, Your Grace."

Rhaenyra thinks it over for a moment but she's easily swayed by the brown Strong eyes that stared back at her. "Very well. Prince Jacaerys will fly north. First to the Erie to see my mother's cousin, and then to Winterfell to treat with Lord Cregan Stark, whom I'm sure you're familiar with. Prince Lucerys will fly south to Storms End and treat with Lord Borros Baratheon."

"No!" Elaena shouts and the entire table turns to look at us bringing a light pink blush to her cheeks. "It's too dangerous, Luke he's... he's too young!"

She grasps for any reason to cling to other than the fact that she'd already seen the death of her little brother in her dreams, they'd call her mad.

"I'd sooner expect Cregan to side with greens considering how Elaena broke their betrothal," Jace scoffs, rolling his eyes but with the mention of the Stark Lord my patience wears thin.

Speaking before Elaena has a chance I lean forward to lock eyes with Jacaerys, "If you're timid young prince I wouldn't mind taking Vhagar instead. I'd say she'd be more convincing than Vermax."

"Vhagar is old and weak! She could be easily shot from the skies with how big a target she is!"

"Oh? Why don't we see for ourselves? Mount your dragon and we can have a bit of target practice-" I smirk at him, my threats empty but nevertheless getting beneath his skin and he's not the only one who grows uncomfortable.

Elaena tosses her napkin onto the table and my smirk fades.

"Aemond, you're not helping." She spits at me under her breath but I lick my lips biting back the satisfied grin that itched at my mouth when my sweet girl puts me in my place.

"I can do it, Elaena. Everyone is doing their part I want to do mine as a Prince of the Realm. I have a duty just as you and Jacaerys,"

Little Lord Strong was showing some strength after all but he didn't understand, Elaena had seen his dragon fall from the sky.

With Luke's proclamation hot tears come to my wife's violet eyes and I act without a second thought, standing from my seat.

"I'll go with the young prince. It'll show we're united despite our past... conflicts."

"You? I'm expected to put my brother's life in your hands?!"

I expected Jace to fight me on this, but I'd kept Elaena perfectly safe despite her antics.

"Your sister's life has been in my hands time and time again, or have you so easily forgotten? There hasn't been a moment I didn't protect her with everything within me,"

If Elaena hurt, I hurt it was that simple but the poor Prince hadn't experienced love as consuming as ours how could he understand?

"My sweet innocent sister didn't take your eye! She shares your bed, after all, doing gods know what-"

"That's enough," I growled, warning him just this once as I dug my fingernails into the oak of the dining room table. Jace could aim his venom at me but I wouldn't allow it when it concerned my wife.

From the corner of my eye, Elaena hangs her head embarrassed her brother would bring up our intimate relationship at the dinner table.

I could rip him to shreds for how he was making her feel.

"I trust him." Luke's timid voice from across the table shocks all of us and my stiff shoulders sink in more confusion than relief.

Locking eyes I can sense his unease. He most certainly didn't trust me but he trusted Elaena.

"Luke? You're sure?" Rhaenyra asks but I keep my gaze locked on her son, waiting eagerly for his response still in utter disbelief.

"Lord Borros is a prideful man. He'd be honored to host two princes and their dragons. And if he harbors any doubt, I have faith that when he sees Vhagar descend on his castle he'll change his mind." Lord Corlys agrees with me earning a side eye from his wife who wouldn't so easily trust me.

"Then it's settled. Prince Lucerys and Prince Aemond will treat Lord Borros at Storms End."

With those matters settled dinner proceeds as normal but I can feel Elaena's cold shoulder from across the seven kingdoms.

She picks at her food with her fork simply pushing it around instead of eating and I know she's worried.

Sliding my palm up her thigh I reach for her hand beneath the table but she yanks it away from me sending a figurative knife through my heart. Her straight face stares ahead ignoring me only driving the knife deeper.

The conversation goes on around us and it serves to my irritation.

I'd just offered myself and my dragon to protect her little brother, the very same little brother who took my eye years ago. Was that still not enough for her?

One by one everyone retires to bed and in silence Elaena and I walk the stretch of the hallway to our chambers. Neither one of us is intent on speaking first as the tension between us thickens with each second.

Elaena reaches for the door handle but I slam my hand into the wood shutting it in front of her.

I startle her and she turns abruptly, scowling at me but I press her body into the door with my own giving her nowhere to go.

"I just solved all of our problems what could you possibly be upset with me about?" I rasped, struggling to keep quiet.

Her eyes burned with anger as she stared up at me, the spark between us ignited.

"Solved our problems?! You've only added to them! Now I have to worry about the father of my child as well as my baby brother!"

"I'm going to ensure his safety, I only offered because of what you saw in your dream!" My tone comes across as more aggressive than I mean it to be and her face contorts in anger reaching for something behind her before the door gives way beneath my hand.

All of my weight caves into the empty doorway and Elaena steps aside letting me stumble into our dark chambers.

"Seven hells Elaena!"

"Hmph serves you right," She smirks at me closing the door behind us.

Discarding my eye patch I throw it to the side and run my hands through my long hair in frustration.

"What is it you want from me?! Everything I've ever done has been for you, Elaena. Do you still not trust me?" I plead and I brace myself for her honest answer.

"That isn't the point! Of course, I trust you!" She shouts back, her fury turning her eyes a darker shade of violet as if I needed another reason to stare into them.

"What IS the point?!" I grumble as I lose my edge and back her into the dresser.

Her hands go to steady herself resting on the dresser and I take the opportunity to cage her in placing my hands on either side of her.

Elaena's well-endowed chest rose and fell with her deep breaths and I watch like the sick man I am, eager to tear the dress from her body and taste every dammed inch of her.

"I don't trust Daeron or Aegon or Lord Borros for that matter. I don't trust death will spare us forever and I can't fathom losing you both." She admits.

"You will never lose me-"

"You can't promise that! You know damn well you can't!"

Throwing my head back I crack the tense muscles in my neck but reel in my impatience reminding myself who I'm arguing with.

"Then what can I promise? Tell me what the hell you want Elaena!"

"I don't want either of you to go! If you're right about Daeron he'll be waiting for you! This is too dangerous-" Lifting her I place her on the dresser knocking some of her jewelry onto the floor.

"And if he is it won't be of any consequence. I'm stronger, I'm quicker, I'm smarter and I have everything to lose and that makes me a volatile threat. He'll go down in flames if that's his wish I'll grant it if that means I come home to you!"

Elaena stares up at me wide-eyed when I say such a thing and I know if given the choice she wouldn't make hers so easily.

"He's your little brother..." Her voice cracks when she begins to see past the man I was for her, seeing the darkness for what it was. She could never bring pain to one of her brothers, she had a heart of gold in contrast to mine and it was what had drawn me to her like a moth to a flame.

"You're my wife and the mother of my child! It doesn't matter who threatens you. They'll be torn apart limb by limb and fed to my dragon, all of them." I growl, cupping her face between my hands but she frowns.

"Aemond-"

"This is the man you married, Elaena. You're the only light in this black heart of mine and I'll do anything to protect it. Anything."

Biting at her lip Elaena rests her forehead on mine and takes a deep breath in surrender. Our lips are so close I can almost taste her and with my nerves on edge, I'm trembling in anticipation of relief.

I'm so enthralled by her I don't notice when she raises her hand to rest her palm delicately on my cheek.

Her expression softens as my tired eye flutters closed.

"I know who I married, though I suppose I needed reminding..." I can hear the slight smile in her voice and I open my eye to see the beautiful sight for myself.

"There she is," I mutter to myself, only making her smile wider. "Come here,"

Brushing her lips with mine is my way of asking for permission and once she gives it I'm a desperate man. Parting her lips my tongue slips inside her warm mouth and our breathing grows erratic, her breasts pressing against my chest over and over again threatening to break free from the dress she was quickly outgrowing.

As our tongues thrash against one another I take a handful of her hair, yanking her head back so I can trail hungry kisses down the side of her neck and mark what's mine.

Nibbling at her most sensitive points, she arches her body into me and my straining cock relishes every bit of friction she offers.

Elaena reaches behind her back to begin undoing her dress but I'm much too impatient for that.

I grip the hilt of my dagger and its steel rings through the air as I bring it up the front of her dress, cutting the fine fabric right down the middle her bare body is instantly at my fingertips but she gasps in horror.

"Aemond, this is one of the only dresses I fit in,"

"Then we no longer have a use for it, do we darling?"

"I won't be pregnant forever," She pants but I chuckle against her neck.

"At this rate, you will be,"

Claiming her lips once more she moans softly into my open mouth and I take that as a challenge to make her pleas louder.

I push the fabric off her shoulders and notice the knick I'd left at the top of her breast and cringe.

"What?" She doesn't notice it at first the cut is so small but the blood still drips down her breast and we both watch it, the only thing that could distract me from my pulsing member between my legs.

"Fuck, Elaena, I'm sorry-"

Like a craved animal I follow the thin trail with my tongue and her breathing stops as she watches me with hooded lavender eyes.

Kissing the minimal wound she hisses a bit at the sting but guides my mouth back to hers and our sloppy passionate kiss continues.

The taste of her blood lingers between our mouths and it turns me on even more that it doesn't bother her, making her just as desperate as me to seek out one another's pleasure.

Lifting her from the pile of torn fabric I crave to feel her bare skin against mine and I can already smell her dripping desire in the air.

I drop her onto the bed, admiring every inch of her growing body as I unclasped my garments but my sweet girl grows impatient, slipping her own fingers between her slick folds.

Elaena's breathy moans fill the room and I grow desperate while I watch her squirm beneath me when it wasn't me who brought her that pleasure.

Once I have my trousers off I step in between her legs, pumping my rock-hard dick so slowly it could count as torture.

"Aemond," She calls to me, her fingers slowing as I kneel, parting her legs further apart.

Arching her hips up to meet me I take hold of her waist and yank her to the end of the bed until my face is buried in her mouthwatering cunt.

Lapping my tongue over her sweet sensitive clit she bucks beneath me and immediately those hands tangle themselves in my long white blonde hair tugging me closer.

I happily oblige dipping my fingers into her as she clenches around me and I'm close to coming undone just watching her.

When her grip on my hair grows tight I know her climax is close and I want to claim it as my own.

Curling my fingers ever so slightly inside of her, she trembles around me and I grin to myself, proud I'd grown to know her body so well.

With a few more aggressive flicks of the tongue, her ecstasy was mine but I wasn't done with my sweet wife yet.

As she's still recovering from her climax I don't waste a second in wrapping her in my arms and guiding her to the top of the bed where our pillows lay perfectly placed across the headboard and I get an idea.

Assorting the pillows I lay her down on her back gently as I whisper into her ear, "I'm going to have my fill of you, my love, so much so that when I go, your pretty cunt will ache for me until I return." My voice is unrecognizable, horse with my pent-up desire and now that I'd taken care of my queen, I'd have her for myself.

Yanking a pillow free from its royal cover I rip off a long end and toss what I don't need to the side.

"No fine fabric or silk is safe from you is it, my prince?" Elaena giggles but the smile she wears won't last long.

"Not where you're considered, ñuha vāedar." I smirk to myself, a bit nervous about how she'd react but just moments ago I'd been licking her bleeding wound.
*my song

Taking both of her wrists I wrap the torn fabric around her hands and set them atop the headboard. Feeding the ends through the wood pegs I restrain both of her hands.

"To think, you've protected me all this time just to punish me now," She groans, taking her restraints with ease like the good girl she was.

"I would hardly count what I'm about to do to you as a punishment, but you will have to keep those hands to yourself." Helping her turn her head to mine I lock lips with her for one last passionate loving kiss to ease her into the hellish acts I was about to commit.

Pressing my hard arousal against her soaking-wet clit I keep our lips locked as I adjust her leg so part of her body is turned but I can still see her beautiful face.

Lifting Elaena's waist I prop the pillow beneath her giving me the perfect angle to drive inside of her. 

Making the first thrust I plunge into her deep and fast, and the satisfied groan that leaves my throat is primal.

"Fuck, Elaena... Fuck, my sweet sweet girl,"

"You're so deep, Aemond, keep- keep, please-" she begs, moving her arms to reach for me but to no avail. 

I lean down to snake my arm around her waist to help with my desperate rhythm, taking the opportunity to nibble at the curve of her neck she leans back even further seeking my lips. 

"Say it again," I demand, moving her hair aside, "Say my name again," 

Drawing out of her she gasps and I wait impatiently for her to heed my words.

She backs into me, in search of the fullness I'd taken from her as she struggles with her breathless words, "Ae-mond, Aemond Targaryen-" 

Filling her once more I can hardly restrain myself, every muscle and drop of blood in my body urging me to let go when I quicken my pace, and I do, the searing pleasure engulfing my senses. 

All I feel is the ultimate love, and adoration for my wife, my true love, my Queen. We'd always been meant for one another, two sides of the same coin, two flames meant to burn together.

Elaena goes limp in my arms, her body still recovering from the orgasm we'd shared but I didn't mind, I'd be her strength.

To make up for my roughness I leave soft kisses across her bare back as I hold her still, going to untie her.

Once her wrists are free she collapses into me trusting me to catch her and I do, turning her so she's laying more comfortably on her back. Inching myself off of her to fetch a cloth she grips my arm, pulling me back.

"Don't- Don't go," She pleads and it tears my heart in two but she keeps her eyes closed, her face hidden away from me.

Frowning to myself I reach for her, "Hey, look at me,"

Reluctantly Elaena turned her beautiful face to mine her eyes were still bloodshot with fresh tears and my first instinct was that I'd hurt her.

My violet eye goes wide as my chest lurches in fear, "Elaena, baby what is it? Was it something I di-" 

"No, No, Aemond. You could never," Tears stream down her face but she shakes her head, burying her face in my chest and I'm only further confused. 

"I'm sorry. I've gone mad... I just," She takes a deep breath after she struggles through her words but I run my fingers through her hair in an effort to calm her.

Waiting patiently for her to continue she presses a light kiss to my chest and I can feel the wetness of her tears against my skin, breaking my heart.

"I don't want you to go, and it may be weak of me-"

"It's not. You're not weak, Elaena."

My bluntness shocks her but it stops her tears.

"I'll protect Lucerys as fiercely as I protect you. We'll go to Storms End to ensure their house's support and we'll come home, I swear you this."

As I hold her delicate soft face in my hands her bottom lip quivers with what she wants to say but gives up on words, colliding herself into my chest instead.

Welcoming her into my arms I cradle her head to the crook of my neck and use the other arm to keep her body snug against mine.

"I just got you back. I don't want to push those odds again," she mumbles.

I cringe at her broken voice somehow bringing her closer.

"I know, sweet girl I know... but if we succeed there will be no more fighting. When Aelyx comes into this world it'll be a peaceful one, as it should be. I'll make it so."

Instinctively her hands go to her swelling belly. We wouldn't be able to hide it for much longer. With Elaena's small figure, it would become obvious within a week or two if people hadn't started to notice already.

"And when I return with the good news, perhaps we finally announce our wonderful news. That is if it hasn't already reached Dragonstone by the time I return,"

Though tears still streaked her face a small smile graces her lips.

There would be feasts, and celebrations and we'd never gotten such a thing as marrying in secret. Elaena deserved to be dotted over, and cherished publicly and when I returned I'd make it so.

Resting her forehead on mine she closes her eyes her small smile fading. 

"Promise me, my prince," she whispers, as vulnerable as I've ever seen her. I clasp our hands tightly together and press my words to her ear.

"I promise you, Elaena."

***

Can we talk about how much we need more medium-length Targaryen hairstyles in our life?