189: Sweet ride back home (part 3)

Sweet ride back home (part 3)

Having shifted her so she sat sideways on his lap once again, their bodies still pulsing with exertion, she nestled herself onto his chest and closed her eyes in the darkness. One of her hands rested on the back of his neck, while the other hand tightly clutched his shirt. His fingerless gloved hand ran through her wavy hair, while his other hand wrapped around her waist. In these nirvana-like moments, she found herself reaching a conclusion.0

Her mate had the most unconventional way of proposing, as he never actually proposed. Instead, he would either state that he would marry her or assert that she was already his wife.

"Are you truly alright?" He asked once again.

She yawned, "Yes, just feeling a little drowsy."

Tenderly, he rubbed their noses together then guided her head back to its place on his chest. "...We need to talk,"

She knew he would never relent in his questioning, and she was well enough to have a calm conversation with him. However, considering Aldric's conditions and the terrifying power she had witnessed him wield with her own eyes, she couldn't risk divulging everything that had transpired in that cursed captain's room only to regret it later.

"...Adelaide, if only for tonight, can you try to vocalize your thoughts?"

She didn't find it fair coming from someone who kept everything to himself.

He chuckled. "We can take turns answering each other's questions. You don't have to answer anything you don't feel comfortable with, and you can start."

She straightened up, unable to see his face in the darkness, and used her hand to trace his features.

"…Are you able to read my mind?"

He took her hand from his face and kissed it.

"You mean, besides the fact that your face says it all when you're not paying attention to it? Something has indeed changed in our bond. I cannot hear your thoughts, but I believe I will simply understand you better now,"

The mate bond seemed like a safe topic to anchor the entire conversation, so she decided to begin from there.

"I also felt something change a while ago..." she swallowed, feeling the weight of confession. "When I'm surrounded by a metallic surface that belongs to him... I stop feeling the bond between us." She confessed with the remorse of a criminal at trial, then buried her face in his chest.

A few long moments passed before his hand resumed freely running through her long hair.

"Just because you don't feel it doesn't mean it's not there,"

Once again tonight, he seemed to say and do exactly what she needed to hear and experience.

"Earlier in the evening, the darkest sensation overwhelmed me," he took her hand and pressed it to his chest, "I already knew you had gone somewhere far..." he trailed off, and she tensed, wondering if his scars burned too much in her absence, even though he would never explicitly say it.

"I had to find you," he continued, "On my way out, I crossed paths with Arkin. He had just returned from your father's estate, upset that you had dismissed the platoon your father had sent with you." His voice took on a darker tone. "Running here would have been faster, but Arkin doesn't know what I am so I had to open a mana portal."

As she reflected, she realized there were no horses present, and if he truly heard her when her heart called out to him, then arriving so swiftly after...

"You asked the first question, so now it's my turn," he interrupted her thoughts, both of his arms wrapping around her and pulling her closer to his chest. "What happened on that ship?"

"…I don't want to hide anything," she replied honestly.

He squeezed her tighter and nodded. "Start with what you can tell me, and we'll build on that," he encouraged.

The part where Aldric asked her to commit treason was something she couldn't disclose until she had thoroughly considered it and determined how to communicate it to her father. She couldn't help but wonder: Didn't the Archduke indirectly ask her to become an accomplice in his treachery with his request earlier that same day? Why was Aldric so insistent on making the idea of weapon production appear to be her own?

Could it be that what Aldric was doing didn't align with what the Archduke desired? She found herself questioning the true relationship between Aldric of Varinthia and Kaiser de Lanark. These thoughts compelled her to have a serious conversation with her father, but she pondered how to approach it without revealing the events that unfolded in that room.

"Adelaide," Egon's voice sounded frustrated as he took her hand by the wrist and planted a gentle kiss on the spot that was still hot and red from the pounding. "Do share what's on your mind," he urged.

She quickly decided to reveal the parts that directly concerned him.

"Back in the forest, you didn't hesitate to show him your superhuman powers."

Egon tensed. "You have a very unique way with words..." He took a deep breath, his tone becoming serious. "He is a powerful warlock... With just one look he sensed that I am not human. It wasn't a matter of trust." One of his hands released her and delicately played with a strand of her hair, bringing it close to his nose and inhaling deeply.

Feeling concerned about her own insatiable desires, she suppressed the urge to kiss him again.

"...He deduced my nature because he knows about Andreas. He's intrigued by the fact that I am different as the complete transformation details are not known to his people. He can't categorize me under a specific creature."

She had frozen upon hearing Andreas's name. Finally, she received the direct confirmation she had been seeking - Andreas truly was the mythical vampire.

"You never answered my question, Adela. I prefer not to repeat myself," he said, releasing her hair and firmly gripping her hand by the wrist, clearly inquiring about her injuries.

"...You were right." Saying the words out loud was harder than thinking them, causing her to feel embarrassed. "...I shouldn't have trusted him from the start."

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