1.4

With all formalities completed and the sun finally set, the nobles finally began to shed their pretenses with the influx of alcohol and merriment. The dance floor was never empty, and the evening buffet was served.

Irini was actually having fun at a banquet for the first time and hadn't sulked off to drink with the beasts.

The sun had set for a while now and she felt more and more eyes looking at her and her groom, likely questioning why the rumoured lovebirds hadn't escaped to the bedchamber yet.

Only after forcing her brother to dance with a very shy but adorable-looking Anise, did she agree to finally leave and enter her bedroom, which had been decorated as the bridal suite.

Inside, the giggling maids ran away when she glared at them. Finding her secret stash of wine, she selected two bottles of a fruity merlot and went to bathe in the bath they'd run for her. Under the modest and altered snow-white dress of her mother, her skin felt laced with an itchy layer of sweat

Carefully, she took it off. By tradition, it should be kept safe for her to pass to her firstborn daughter who would also alter it to wear at her wedding.

She felt she was suddenly expected to have a daughter. To live a long, happy life and create a family.

However, that would require sleeping with a dragon.

"Fuck my life," she groaned aggressively, yet her hands still treated the lace fabric like it was fine china.

Sinking into the large deep porcelain tub, she drank directly from the wine bottle, forgoing all pretences of nobility now alone.

"Yi, Yi, tell me, what to do?" She wept bitterly finding the second bottle empty. She wanted to get blackout drunk due to feeling embarrased, yet her tolerance to wine backfired and she was still conscious. Too comfortable she was also unwilling to leave the hot bath she kept refilling. 

The door opened. As she went to shoo away the pestering maid, she found her groom standing in only a black silk robe.

She suddenly learned that the scar trailing from his forehead to the high cheekbone on his face was not the only one. On his exposed neck and torso, she saw a plethora of them.

This was the Empire's strongest dragon, the sight of him instilled fear in everyone outside of their Empire as well as most of those living within. His battle prowess was, in her opinion, the very reason that for the last decade, only the Faen Empire North dared to push their luck due to their longstanding feud.

Upon thinking she understood both man and plot, she sighed, leaning against the edge of the bath. Letting go of the empty bottle, she drearily watched it roll along the tile floor.

"You've worked too hard," she mumbled, trying to understand just what on Earth happened in the plot to make him snap and turn on his Empire, on his brother.

The dragon she knew was such a loyal, reliable companion. Always putting himself in harm's way to protect even the commoners fighting at the frontlines. However it turned out that this Dragon was in fact a high and mighty prince, with vast lands full of rich mines of metals and gems. He did not need to do this, he shouldn't do this to himself. 

Used to the girl's random praise as a dragon, he felt a bit strange hearing her praise him as a man. Somehow he even felt like she was complaining...

"You've been in here for three hours," he cleared his throat, averting his eyes from her pruned fingers dangling over the edge of the tub.

"Just a little longer," she sleepily waved her hands at him dismissively.

Seti took a large inhale, trying to sober himself up from both the alcohol and desire for her naked state.

He was no stranger to her body. She'd shamelessly bathe in front of him after battles, during which, he would guard her every time. He was too scared if he left the ignorant girl to bathe innthe wilderness alone she would one day be rudely awakened from her brazenness by a bad guy.

Still, now it was all different. He was finally appearing in front of her as a man and he suddenly felt like the bad guy.

His lands were in the South, his brother in the capital, but for the last six years he had spent more time up here in the North than anywhere else, barely in his human form just to be around her.

He had indeed worked hard just to keep this ignorant fearless girl from killing herself either accidentally or on purpose.

"If you cannot get out by yourself, I can assist you?"

She jerked awake at his words and shook her head, "I'm coming, I'm coming."

He turned his back and clenched his fists as he heard the water ripple with her movements. He found her so hard to read compared to other normal humans, he only knew that regardless of what she did or said he simply loved her.

Her small soft figure brushed past him in a bathrobe, to sway and collapse face-first on the bed.

Rubbing his aching temples in frustration, he pulled the drunken bum to sleep on the bed properly. After tucking her in and coaxing her hair dry with his heated hands, he climbed on top of the duvet to sit cross-legged opposite, watching her sleep like a log.

He'd already made a bloodstain alongside a few other embarrassing stains on the bed in the palace.

Luckily he wouldn't have to cut the poor girls thigh again or humiliate himself like that night. He had to trick the few staff with noses better than beasts of nobody would believe that she was his and he'd lose her.

The world was a much darker place than the ignorant girl knew. 

Those sharing in her ignorance feared the beasts of the desert, forests, and sea. He, the most revered beast of all, feared the beasts like himself, able to dress people's clothing, the most.

Worried that there may be a few such people within the Duchy also, he reluctantly decided he should leave few convincing marks for the maids to see.

After all, he was acting the role of an enamored young prince stealing a bride…

Irini felt the rough tongue on her neck, then her collarbone, and moaned half asleep.

"Yi, don't," she grabbed his head to push it away. "I won't, I won't."

His eyes narrowed as he lifted his head from her chest, long black hair dropped to tickle her face.

Giggling she pushed his hair aside and itched her nose that threatened to sneeze.

"Won't what?" A fire was burning in his chest. The dumb girl had already told the dragon her woes. He knew who Yi was, and who Lily was, he even knew fascinating tales of a whole other world that felt like mere fantasy to him.

Though he was not certain he assumed she was blessed to witness another life by the God of Death, whom she worshipped so much. Actively he listened every time, growing more bitter with every word she said. The God of Death was as cruel as her life to not let her forget.

"That time, that time when we... it was a mistake, we can't do it again," she blushed rolling to hide her red face into the pillow.

The dragon who had just been told his mate had slept with another man struggled to maintain his form. It was another life. In this life she was his. It wasn't the sex that bothered him but the emotions and hormones he felt from her as she talked about it. All he cared for was wanting to be the last person to make her feel that way.

She is supposed to feel that way for him. The Demon God does not lie when a mate bond is formed. Otherwise, how could they have ended a century-long war with just a marriage? His sister-in-law miraculously turned out to be his brother's mate. The two only found out when they were at each other's throats as beasts...

He on the other hand found her scent and knew in his heart she was his mate when the little teenager snuck into the campsite of the front lines.

At first, since she used an artifact to change her appearance, he thought she was just a simple squire and debated abducting her to raise in luxury at home.

After he told his brother he found his little mate, that bastard looked into her identity and gloatingly told him the next day he would have to court her properly or face the North's wrath.

So he had, he knew initially she seemed to resent men without an obvious cause, so he kept himself as a dragon at her side. Unfortunately he learned the reason after she started using him as a priest to confess to and became more determined to hide he was a man.

Dutifully he protected her whilst continuing to learn all he could about what kind of man could sway her heart. She was only a kid he trusted shed grow up and puberty would changed her mind.

Only she grew up and never wanted to fall in love, instead she wanted to die and leave him all behind.

His nails gripping the bedsheet turned as black as the Onyx ring he put on her finger. 

Taking a deep breath to ground himself, he accidentally let out a snort of steam to caress her twitching nose. He was losing his mind, he had not even recalled how he had moved across the bed to her and his fangs wanted to mark her again. As if his beast wanted to ensure she was his, all his.

"Onyx, Onyx, let me sleep, just a little longer, be a good boy," she pushed away the flaming hot skin of his face to realize it was skin and not scales.

"Oh, oh," her hazy eyes looked up at the man caging her between two broad arms, "that, we have to do that now."

She closed her eyes and submissively lay there, anticipating him to do with her as he willed. Just like a lifeless doll. Not a mate who should love him. Not like how she had blushed full of feelings and emotions for Yi, who did not even exist here.

Angry at being the only one who seemed to care, he cursed the Demon God and pushed himself off the bed. Unable to bear facing her dull, lifeless eyes any longer, he directly jumped off the fourth-floor balcony to the snow below. After making sure the Wyvern he whistled over nestled protectively by the balcony, he escaped into the vast forests surrounding the estate.

The steam from the long bath combined with the excessive wine, made Irini feel drunker than usual. Her tongue had kept moving before her brain.

She chased away her groom without knowing why she'd upset him so much.

Gazing at the open balcony doors, she gave up, rolled her eyes, and went to sleep.

A few hours later, a figure finally reappeared at the balcony door, naked and covered in blood.

Upon seeing her peacefully sleeping in blissful ignorance, he let out a sigh of relief, then let out a gratified growl at the Wyvern nestled on the roof above.

There were twenty-three Asim assassins this time.

Why did the Asim Empire, a whole sea away, want to murder her, an inconsequential young lady knight of the North? Most importantly, why was she willing to kill herself in return instead of asking for help? He'd watched her suicide note and almost tore down the capital searching for her scent. If he hadn't found a horse with her scent and bullied it to lead him to her he dreaded to think how he would live without her.

Did she miss her life as Lily that much? So much, that she would abandon the lands she worked so hard to protect, the animals she nurtured dotingly, or the brother who was willing to fight a dragon on her behalf? Did none of this matter to her at all? Did he really not matter?

Wearily, he moved to vigorously scrub away the blood that was not his own.

He had to kill in his smaller, more silent human form, for fear of attracting attention. The other nobles in the guest rooms must not know that the Asim Empire was making moves until he and his brother could figure out if it was the Asim Emperor's intentions or if the Emperor was being used by someone within their Empire.

Groaning in frustration, he sat fully dressed on the armchair beside the patio doors and drifted into a resting but still conscious state, his hand resting on his saber's hilt.