Drayce was showing impatience as he moved to dominate her sweet mouth, showing through this kiss both his passion and concern, as if Seren would disappear from his arms if he were to loosen his hold on his wife for a bit.
Ever since he learned of her abduction, though he appeared calm on the surface, the truth was he had been anxious about losing her. He could not even let himself think of her being hurt. That scene where Aureus brought back to the Crystal Palace an unconscious Seren was such a shock to him he could not erase it in his head.
The pain of losing someone was something he was deeply familiar with. He had lost his mother, and with her gone, had also lost a loving father. He could not afford to lose another beloved.
Drayce didn't know when it began, but his wife had become so precious to him that he did not even want to think of losing her. She had become everything to him, and somewhere inside him, he had this strange feeling that Seren was the reason for his existence.
'Mine...'
He harshly sucked and nibbled on her lips, immersed in enjoying her soft moans, as one of his hands moved to cradle her head and kiss her better while the other held her hand and entangled her fingers with his.
Seren tried to keep up with him, but he was simply too dominating that for a moment she wondered if his other side showed up.
"Dray...?" she tried to call him but Drayce sealed her lips once more and slid his tongue inside her cavern, not letting her say a word..
Seren gave in to temptation and kissed him back just as passionately. She didn't care if it was Drayce or his other side--to her, he was her one and only husband. She responded with intensity to his kiss, her hands that were holding onto his shoulders moving to circle around his neck.
Soft moans continued to leave her throat as his alcoholic breath mixed with her sweet one. Seren didn't know why, but she liked it instead of feeling reluctant with the change. The dominance he's showing in the way he savored her, she liked every bit of it.
Those needy groans from his throat were like tempting music to her ears. It reminded her once again how much he wanted her, leaving her breathless.
When their lips parted away, she felt his head fall on the side of her neck.
Panting to catch her own breath, her hand moved to caress his head. The strands of his long black hair felt nice in between her fingers.
Hidden by the darkness of the chamber, with his head turned away from her, there was something Seren wasn't able to see-- that other than his desire for her, her husband's eyes held something else.
The fear of losing her.
"Dray?" she called for him when the silence between them extended longer than she expected.
He pulled his head back from her neck and pulled away from her, deciding to lay on his side with his eyes closed. He caressed her cheek with his thumb, enjoying this rare moment where he could touch her without her veil.
"Seren..."
"Hmm?" She could feel he had something to say.
"Will you be scared if I change suddenly when I am like this with you?" he asked.
She wondered why he was saying this out of the blue. "Did something happen?" she asked.
Drayce didn't know how to tell her that he had made a deal with his dark side, about how he would let her be his mate and he would not meddle once he showed up but...it was a hard decision, a compromise, that he had to do in order to save her.
What if his other side hurt her? Was saving her meant putting her in another dangerous situation?
Drayce sighed. "What if, what if I change like on our wedding night and won't return even if you call for me?"
As she pondered on her reply, the silence within the dark chamber felt especially nerve-wracking to Drayce. And then when she spoke--
"But Dray, isn't that you as well?"
Drayce shivered upon hearing the confidence and trust in those words. He didn't know how to respond. It was him, but at the same time, wasn't. He wondered if Seren could say the same thing once she completely understood his other side.
"In a sense," he started, "but that me is worse and can hurt you."
"You call him a side of you--that means he's still you. Since he is you, I believe he won't hurt me. I know you will never hurt me," she said, admitting her complete trust in him.
"I cannot assure you he won't," Drayce said.
"How would you know? Isn't it too early to make a conclusion unless I get to see your other side properly."
Her words puzzled him, and it made him wonder if she even knew what she's saying. "You want to see my other side?" Drayce asked, but somewhere, he felt unsure as he didn't wish her to know the darkness inside him.
Drayce commented, "He is my darkness. I worry that--"
"Dray," Seren called out to interrupt him, "shouldn't I meet him if he is a part of you?"
It took him several seconds to respond.
"Do you mean it?"
She grabbed one of his hands and squeezed it, her voice sounding confident as she responded, "I mean it. I want to meet him. That night, though he was going to hurt me, I felt like he gave up on his own and let me call you. I felt like he was just angry but he didn't really want to hurt me."
"Is that true?"
He could feel her nodding. "Maybe, I can try to get familiar with him."
"Are you...interested to know more about him?"
"That sounds wonderful," she said, and it was as if he could imagine her smiling in the darkness.
"There's a single soul inside my body," Drayce informed her, "And from that, two consciousnesses are born--me, the human side and other, we call him Erebus."
"Erebus," she repeated. "What does it mean?"
"It means 'darkness' in the runic language. My mother was the one to name him," Drayce said.
"Darkness..." she muttered. She had many questions in mind about this so-called dark side of her husband, and just as she wondered which one to voice out first, she felt Drayce tighten his hold on her body.
His lowered voice sounded tempting as he asked, "Shall we continue if you are sure you won't be scared?"
Seren shivered, and it was as if all of her confused thoughts were wiped away the moment she felt his lips trace the shape of her ear. Her heart started to race and she let out an affirmative sound.
Her reaction brought a smile on his lips. "I see my Queen getting excited at the thought of being intimate with me."
He remembered how she immediately said she was not sleepy when he asked her earlier and how her gaze looked at him with anticipation.
"Should I not?" she asked and raised her head to kiss him. For some reason, Drayce felt her impatience through that kiss, like she could not wait anymore.
Drayce kissed her back and the two continued where they had stopped previously.
Leaving her gasping for breath after another round of passionate kisses, Drayce then moved his attention down to her slender neck. He could not wait to have a taste of his wife. It felt like an eternity since he had done it. As he sucked and licked the delicate skin of her neck, sweet moans escaped her mouth with her hands grasping the back of his head.
Responding to her moans, Drayce's hand untied the knot of her nightwear and the robe opened to expose her delicate curves under the thin fabric of her sleeping gown. He simply could not wait to get rid of it. He trailed the kiss on her exposed shoulders and moved the straps of her sleeping gown down, leaving her chest exposed to him.
Her sultry moans were getting louder as she enjoyed the pleasure of his touch. As she focused on each and every of his touch, she didn't even realize that her clothes had been removed from her body and she was lying naked under her husband. Her senses only returned when he momentarily pulled away to sit in between her legs.
Her body felt very hot as she waited in anticipation under the curtain of darkness. However, several seconds passed by without any movement from her husband. Something felt off to her.
"Dray?" she called for him. She could not see him due to the pitch black darkness, but she could feel him staying abnormally still like a statue..
He still didn't respond, but the next moment, she heard the sound of clothes ripping. Those were not her clothes as she was not wearing any, but the clothes of the one sitting between her parted legs. Going by the sounds, she could sense that Drayce had torn his shirt and thrown it away down the bed.