Chapter 96
Chapter 96
Azriel
It is over. After centuries of hiding my powers. Years of working under my evil sister, the Nightmare Courthas become what it was always meant to be
The Dream Court.
Not dark and gloomy.
Bright and sunny and never boring with my Eden by my side.
Just thinking about her name makes my lips curl. Everything is chaos when she is involved. Her laughter always finds its way to my soul and our mornings? Those are the best. The smell of burnt toast and human coffee has become our daily ritual and I wouldn’t change it for anything.
Then again, our nights are amazing too. Eden talks in her sleep and kicks me like she’s still fighting Logan, Paris, and her pack. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It amuses me.
“Eden,” I murmur. “My mate. My queen.”
I look down at the person in question. She is sleeping with her mouth open, drooling on her pillow.
This is the woman who has made me want to live.
I take a seat on the other side of the bed. Eden immediately crawls over to rest her head in my lap, letting me stroke her hair.
“Azriel…”
My lips curl higher. “Yes?”
She wraps her arms around my waist. “Missed you.”
“I missed you too,” I tell her. “Didn’t wanna leave you either. But I had to run some errands this morning.”
“Lonely…”
Lonely? That’s true. Axel wasn’t outside her room when I came here. That worries me. He always watches her, so where the heck did he go? He never returned to the human realm. Eden tried to tell him to leave, but he said he was never leaving her side as her Beta. He might be stronger than her now since she isn’t a nine–tailed wolf and a ‘newborn‘ fairy. But he still calls her Alpha.
I glance toward the door and frown. “Where the hell is Axel?”
Eden lifts her head and squints sleepily. “He said he was having dreams again. You know, about his mate.”
I arch a brow. “And that makes him disappear during guard duty?”
She yawns. “Don’t look at me. I tried asking him to say. He said something cryptic and broody, then wandered off like he was in a dramatic music video.”
“Weird… Maybe he knows who his mate is and he’s having trouble staying focused on the job?”
She pauses. “Right…” Her smile goes evil. “What if he’s… mated to me?”
I blink. “Excuse me?”
Her eyes twinkle, “I mean, wouldn’t that be poetic? The brooding Beta and the girl he always protected.”
I stare at her flatly. “No.”
Chapter 96
She smirks. “Jealous?”
“Eden.”
“I’m just saying that it is me he’s ignoring, and it could be possible that I have two mates-
“Say one more word and I’m telling the court that their Queen has been hoarding sweets in the linen closet again.”
Her mouth drops open. “You wouldn’t dare.”
I raise a brow.
“You’re a monster.”
“And you’re mine.”
Her grin turns soft and she presses to my erection that’s trying to burst through my jeans. I inhale sharply and run my hand through her hair, letting my fingers rest against her temple.
Don’t get horny.
Keep the moment romantic.
“I still don’t know how you did it,” I whisper.
She blinks up at me. “Did what?”
“Chose me. Came back. Fought for a world that didn’t deserve you.”
Her voice is quiet, but unshaken. “Because you deserved me. And I deserved to choose for once.”
I bury my face in her hair. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
She snorts. “Too late.”
Outside, the night sings. Inside, she’s everything. Our bed is warm, the sheets tangled around her legs, her stomach swollen with the future we made.
She’s breathtaking.
Not just pregnant. Eden is round with life, her skin glowing with warmth and promise. Her belly curves in front of her like a blessing, taut and full and impossibly beautiful. She’s all hips and softness and power now, a goddess crowned with sleep–mussed hair and the faint shimmer of sweat at her temples. I swear I felt our child kick last night.
She huffs and adjusts herself so that she is resting more of her weight in my lap. She is so tiny, but so pregnant. “Stop staring like I’m a miracle. I’m sweaty. And my ankles are the size of apples.”
“You are a miracle,” I murmur. “A very round, extremely round miracle.”
Her palm slaps my chest. “Ass,”
I grin. “Your ass, if I remember correctly.”
“I want chocolate.”
I reach over to the nightstand and grab a piece from the stash she thinks I don’t know about.
She gasps. “You knew?
now overything.”
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Chapter 96
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She munches the chocolate with a satisfied hum, then sighs when my hand drifts over the rise of her stomach again. I stroke the taut skin, feeling a smal foot nudge my palm.
So precious.
And all mine.
Eden and the child she is carrying.
Ladjust myself so that we’re both lying in the bed, and thent kiss her. Deep and worshipping. Like she is everything because she is. Eden tries to get closer to me. So close that her very pregnant belly is plastered to mine. I’m half on top of her, FFS.
“You sure the baby can’t feel any of this?” she asks, breathless between kisses.
“Pretty sure,” I say, already letting my hand slip lower.
She giggles, but there’s a flush to her cheeks. “Pretty sure isn’t very convincing.”
“Then let me convince you.”
My hand strokes the curve of her thigh, easing between her legs until she gasps against my
mouth.
“Azriel,” she breathes, voice catching.
“I love you,” I murmur. “Every version of you. But this one? Round and feisty and glowing? This one drives me ferai.”
She moans, arching into my touch, and I kiss her again–slow this time, tasting her, teasing her, letting her know exactly how much I worship the mother of my child.
And for a while, we forget the world. Forget Axel, the court, the shadows.
It’s just Eden and me.
And the life we made.
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