Chapter 8

DRAVEN

"She is a human, Ariel,"

"Right," he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck as a sheepish look crossed his face. "I forgot. Humans don't have heats."

"Exactly," I said, turning my gaze back to the window. "She doesn't have cycles driven by ancient magic. To her, this is just a forced marriage to a monster she has been raised to fear all her life. She probably feels the pull but has no idea what it actually is."

I clenched my fists, watching the clouds gather over the mountains. "Her humanity is the only thing keeping us safe right now," I murmured. "As long as she stays ignorant, and as long as I keep my distance, she stays alive."

Ariel released a frustrated sigh, running a hand through his hair again. "Draven, you're missing the point," He insisted, stopping to look at me. "I know she’s human. But the Creator made the mate bond for a reason. What if the bond changes things? What if it makes it impossible for your aura to kill her?"

"Why would I test a theory when the price of failure is her life?" I countered, my voice deadpan.

I had survived wars, assassinations, and a curse that made me a monster to my own people. I relied on cold facts, not fairy tales about love and destiny.

"Look at her, Ariel," I said coldly, my white eyes flashing red. "She is a human. A fragile little thing from the valleys. She can barely handle the winter air of Volkar without shivering, let alone the power of a cursed dragon. She is weak."

I walked around the desk, my boots clicking against the floor. "A fated bond does not magically change her anatomy. If I lose control for even a second, Karl could crush her. She stays in that wing. End of discussion."

Ariel went quiet briefly, before saying, “You know Karl will not allow this.”

At the mention of my beast, he paced my mind violently. 'Mine.' He growled but I ignored him.

Ariel watched me. “He already wants her." His possessiveness inside me surged again at the words. My fist clenched so hard that frost spread across the desk.

He exhaled loudly. “You know how powerful he is, Draven. If you suppress Karl for long, he'll force control…it will be catastrophic.”

I knew that already, better than anyone. Karl is not like other dragons. He is stronger, more violent and far less stable which was exactly why women died around me.

I finally turned to Ariel “That...is exactly why I will stay away from her.”

His brows pulled together. “You think distance will solve this?”

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

“As long as necessary.”

He stared at me in disbelief. “That is not how fated bonds work.”

“I do not care.”

I have no time for fairy tales, true mates and meaningless things like that. I have the lives of hundreds of thousands of warriors and millions of people depending on me.

Ariel sat back in the chair before shaking his head. “I genuinely wonder what the Creator was thinking.”

I frowned at that.

He looked at me with disbelief. “Of all people…the Creator gives you a mate?” His lips twitched. “A human mate, at that.”

I looked away again towards the storm outside and despite every logical reason to stay away from her, Karl still growled the same thing endlessly inside my head. 'Mine'

“I do not care,” I muttered. “If the bond demands proximity, I will simply sever it. I will reject her.”

If a fated mate was a vulnerability, then I would cut it out of my chest myself.

Ariel slammed both of his palms on the desk, his eyes wide with fury as I turned to him.

“Absolutely not! Hare you completely lost your mind, Draven?” He shouted, his voice echoing in the room. “You cannot reject a True Moon bond! You think you're just turning away a bride? You break that bond, and you trigger a death sentence.”

I didn't flinch. “I stopped fearing pain long ago, Ariel.”

“This is difficult! You won't survive it!” He hissed, walking closer until he was inches from my face.

“Think about her biology, you stubborn b*st*rd. She is a mortal. She is a fragile human girl. The backwash of a royal dragon rejecting a fated bond will shatter her mind and stop her heart within seconds. She will die first, right here in your castle.”

I looked away towards the storm again.

“You know exactly what happens next,” He continued, his voice dropping into a breathless whisper. “You think Karl will just let you walk away after you murder his mate? The agony of her death, combined with the agonizing torment of the ruptured bond, will rip your soul apart from the inside out. You will choke on your own blood, Draven. You will die from the pain of the rejection and her death.”

The silence that followed his words was heavy enough to crush a lesser man.

Karl released a roar of horror and fury at the mere mention of the word rejection. His possessive instinct flared so aggressively that my vision blurred.

Ariel watched me, his chest heaving as he slowly took a cautious step back, realizing he had pushed me to the edge of my control, but his gaze remained fierce.

“You are the Commander, but you cannot command destiny. You cannot touch her because your aura will crush her. You cannot reject her because the bond will kill you both. You are trapped, Draven. We are looking at a living nightmare.”

I closed my eyes, forcing Karl’s furious roars into a corner of my mind.

We've heard stories of dragons tearing themselves apart because they could not survive the loss. True mates were rare precisely because the bond was merciless. It gave everything or destroyed everything.

“Then she stays ignorant. I stay away and pray to the Creator that the world never finds out what she is to me.”