“I apologize that he had hurt you,” Drayce said.
“He didn’t hurt me…Umm…” She licked the hurt part of her lip. “It’s fine.”
Drayce caressed her cheeks gently and fixed her hair. “I will try to keep him in check next time and won’t allow him to hurt you again.”
Seren felt even more guilty about the kiss. How was she going to explain to her husband that she enjoyed the kiss, that she liked the rough and wild passion that Erebus embodied? Though Drayce was pretending to be calm, she had known him enough at this point to understand that he was unhappy about the situation and decided to talk about it later. If she sided with Erebus now, saying she wanted it as well, it might cause him to become upset.
‘We can talk about it when the time is right.’
She had only one way to resolve the situation as she knew no word could work and she was afraid to say anything wrong at this moment. After all, Drayce was the one she cared for the most and she would never wish to hurt him in any way.
Seren moved to hug Drayce, circling her arms around his waist with her head resting against his solid chest.
As expected, her move worked on him and he immediately wrapped his arms around her to hug her back. Her small body was a perfect fit in his arms, assuring him that she was his and only his.
After a moment of comfortable silence, Seren looked up at him and Drayce looked down at her.
“Can I ask you something?” Seren asked.
“Hmm?”
“Is Erebus aware that no one is allowed to see my face? Does he know you have made a promise that you won’t look at my appearance either?”
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“That means he knows everything we do,” Seren said as embarrassment took over her.
Drayce did not deny it.
“Before you came into our lives, there was no need for me to keep anything from him and I never stopped him. But it seems like now I have to start doing it,” Drayce answered as he thought, ‘No wonder he could not stop himself whenever I was intimate with Seren. How could I neglect such an important thing? He obviously sensed what I was doing. I have to find a way to keep things from him going forward.’
“You said he follows every promise you made, but before, he tried to break the promise you made with the King of Abetha,” Seren countered as she recalled how on their wedding night Erebus had almost broken that promise by consummating the marriage.
Drayce answered honestly, “He was just agitated thinking I was going to do it so he wanted to be the first one.”
However, Seren was not convinced. “You say he could see through you and knows what you are up to, but you didn’t plan to consummate the marriage that night, right? So why was he agitated?”
Drayce froze for a moment as she asked something which he didn’t wish to admit to himself.
Seeing him suddenly go quiet with his body stiff, she probed, “What happened?”
A tinge of guilt appeared in Drayce’s eyes as he gazed into her purple ones. “Will you be upset if I say I was tempted to break that promise and consummate our marriage that night?”
What he said shocked Seren as she never thought Drayce had such a thought in his mind. She recalled how he reminded her again and again that they could not consummate the marriage and she had to stop him if he did.
“I am not upset,” she responded after a while. “I…I guess I am a little surprised to hear this coming from you.”
Drayce continued to move his hand along her back as he replied, “It’s just that I wanted to at that time and that urge was very strong though I knew I should not do it. Erebus had sensed it at that time and before I could, he wished to claim you.”
“I still believe you would have stopped even if you wanted to do it. I know you value your words. Moreover, you care for me. Even if it wasn’t for that promise, even if I were of age when we married, you would not have done it without my consent, right?”
Seeing her trust in him, he felt a little guilty. Fortunately, he was determined to keep the promise he had made to the King of Abetha.
“Can you see through him just like he can see through you? Can you see what’s in Erebus’ mind?” Seren was curious to know. Whenever he appeared in front of her, he never spoke and he was always expressionless. She could never even begin to understand him.
Drayce shook his head. “I cannot. He has always hidden himself from the world and later started to hide from me as well. He learned to keep his mind isolated from me to stop me from looking into him. Maybe it was my fault as I was adamant on isolating my dark side, and he simply let me be since we both didn’t wish to needlessly interact with each other.”
Seren didn’t know whether she should feel sad about it. But she was now curious about Erebus. She wished him to open up and not hide himself at least from her, from his wife…his mate. Maybe there would come a day when Drayce and Erebus would accept each other and the three of them would live peacefully and in harmony.
“Do you want to go down from here?” Drayce asked, pertaining to the crow’s nest. The evening breeze was starting to blow stronger, and he was worried that she was getting cold.
But Seren shook her head. “Just for a while more, let’s stay here.” She pulled his hand and made him stand next to her as she wrapped her hands around his one arm. “I want to enjoy this beautiful view with you.”
“Aren’t you cold?”
“I have you to shield me from the wind,” she said in a playful manner.
Drayce stood by her side quietly as he could clearly see Seren’s attempt to make him feel better. She was turning into a more free-spoken person with each passing day, and she had even learned to tease people. She was not that same naive, quiet Seren who didn’t know how to express herself and he was growing to like his wife more and more.
Her purple eyes gazed at the moon.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she asked as she leaned her head against his shoulder.
“It is,” Drayce answered calmly, his eyes on her.
