Chapter 62: 062

Draven’s POV

We both ran into the cave hand in hand, but I felt something strange about her. She looked dignified, and her eyes held a strange emotion that I couldn't figure out.

“Your Majesty…” she rasped, wrapping her arms around me, disrupting my thoughts as my face landed against her chest.

My wolf was thrilled that we were with his mate, and he was hopping with excitement as Aveline touched my face gently, holding a warmth laced with guilt.

Guilt? Why would she feel that? I brushed off the feeling as I pressed my body against hers, burying my head in the crook of her neck.

She smelled like wildflowers crushed beneath rain, a scent that always unraveled me. My fingers brushed her cheek before sliding to her jaw, tilting her head so she couldn’t look anywhere but at me.

“Aveline, you have trapped me in your web. Is there a way I can ever escape?” I howled softly, running my thumb over her thin lips. She shuddered at the touch.

“Really? But do you want to escape, Your Majesty?” she asked, and I chuckled. She had become witty.

“No. Never. Because you are mine, and I will spend tonight showing you that,” I said, forgetting all of our worries.

Tonight, we sealed our love. Tomorrow, we would think about how to survive.

I kissed her hard, a claiming kiss, one that left her breathless. Her lips parted beneath mine, letting me deepen it, letting me take. Her hands slid up my chest, and stars ignited behind my eyes. The cave felt too small to contain the sound she made when my mouth moved to her throat.

Her fingers curled into my shirt, tugging me closer, and that single, needy pull dragged a deep growl from my chest. My wolf surged demanding, claiming. I leaned over her until her body molded beneath mine, until she had no choice but to feel all of me.

“I can feel you tremble,” I whispered against her skin, letting my teeth graze lightly, possessively. “And the more you tremble… the more I want you.”

“Then you should take me. What are you waiting for?” she breathed, and that was the last thing I heard before I lost the last shred of my self-control.

She arched into me, surrendering so sweetly my wolf practically purred. I pinned her hips gently with my body, making sure she knew exactly who was in control tonight. Her breath caught again half gasp, half invitation.

I kissed down the curve of her neck, slow but edged with hunger, savoring every shiver I coaxed from her. The fire crackled low, but the heat between us burned hotter.

“Mhm…” she moaned as I thrusted into her, and I picked up the pace, my wolf taking control. Aveline’s muffled moans filled the cave as she dug her nails into my back, releasing her pleasure as I released the heat in me into her.

My eyes darkened with desire at the sight of her beautiful face contorting with pleasure as she lay pinned beneath me.

“Don’t hold it in, Aveline. Let me hear you,” I groaned as I moved inside her, and her little cries resonated through the cave as she rolled her hips with my movements.

“Urggg… Your Majesty…” Her voice blurred as the night grew heavy and we both indulged in the moment of pleasure.

“Mhm…” We panted as we collapsed beside each other after spending most of the night cozy in each other’s arms. My heart was full having her beside me with no care in the world.

The cave was quiet except for the fading echo of our breaths. Her lips were still swollen from how desperately I had taken them, and my hands…

Gods, my hands still shook.

Not from desire this time.

From everything I was feeling now that the fire between us had quieted into something deeper something that terrified me more than any enemy I had ever faced.

Her wolf.

What I saw today didn’t look like a fake myth I once read about. She was real. To see how that monster panic in terror because of her… I would have perished if I had faced her. But how could I face her when she was the same person as the one I loved?

“Your Majesty…” I heard her tiny hoarse voice, jolting me out of my reverie. I looked down at her, at her flushed face smiling softly.

“Yes, my Aveline,” I murmured, pecking her forehead. But my wolf grunted in anger. He wanted more than simple touch, he wanted to mark her, to claim her, but that would be our destruction.

“Why do you always have your mask on? You don’t need that with me,” she mumbled, and only then did I remember I still had it on.

“I apologize. I forgot… I’m used to it..” I began, but she reached for my face.

“Since I’m not hiding myself from you, you don’t need to hide yourself from me,” she whispered, running her hand over the scar. Her small whimper at the touch, the ache in her eyes, full of love as always overwhelmed me, and I decided to tell her its story.

“Do you want to hear how I got that hideous scar?” I asked.

“It’s not hideous… but I would like to hear it,” she said, snuggling deeper into my embrace, her head tilted up as she gazed at me.

“I got it when I was a child,” I began. She said nothing, so I continued. “I woke after a terrible nightmare of having another entity in my body. At first, I thought the dream referred to my wolf, but when I saw the thin scar on my face, I knew the dream wasn’t ordinary.”

“Do you mean…this wasn’t because you fell and..but the rumors.” she whispered.

I smiled faintly.

Those rumors spread outside the palace walls were orchestrated by my father, who feared his son might be judged or outcast if people discovered what truly happened. But that didn’t change anything. There weren’t many who wouldn’t be disgusted if they learned the truth.

“People believed those rumors… until disaster struck,” I said, and my mind drifted back to the years before.

The year I became a monster.

A hideous monster.