Chapter 398: Rymora’s Child
This annoyed Aira, who glared intensely at him before turning back to face the wall. She hated how the silence that had once filled the cell was now replaced with something heavier—thick with tension. It almost felt as though he was simply waiting for the moment she would finally give in to the thirst clawing at her.
And it was getting worse than she had thought possible.
That alone felt impossible, considering she had only just fed from Zyren before he had brought her down into the dungeon.
Time passed faster than she would have liked as her hunger sharpened. Eventually, she turned around to look at him.
Zyren hadn’t once averted his gaze from her.
"I don’t love you anymore! Just accept it! The harder you try to hold on to me, the more I’ll just try to run away!" she told him directly, her eyes burning with heat and defiance.
But instead of reacting, Zyren simply continued to stare at her.
The only satisfaction Aira got was the brief flicker of rage that rose in his eyes—gone almost instantly as he forced it down.
Silence returned.
So did her hunger.
She was painfully aware that the longer she dragged this out, the worse it would be when she finally gave in and drank from him.
With anger still simmering in her chest, she scrambled off the bed and walked toward him, stopping directly in front of where he sat.
"Please... I need to feed," she said, her voice tight. She knew that if she waited any longer, she would end up begging. Her fangs had already begun to peek out, a clear sign of how desperate she was becoming.
But the moment the words left her mouth, it was her turn to stare in shock.
"No," Zyren said calmly.
Her eyes widened.
"I’d rather wait a bit more," he added.
At that point, Aira could no longer hold back.
"Sex will not make me—"
"—make you love me?" he finished for her, shaking his head with a faint smile.
"You love me. And for the rest of your life... you will love me, whether or not you want to."
He spoke it like a fact. Like something inevitable. As though he understood that love wasn’t always a choice—and sometimes, despite anger, pain, and resistance, it simply remained.
"I love you. And that isn’t going to change, no matter how angry you are at me," he continued.
Aira only glared at him, her hatred sharp and unyielding.
"...If I could choose again," he said more quietly, "I would still make the same decision. I would still choose you."
He understood that she was grieving a child he felt nothing for. He was willing to give her space for that grief.
What he would not allow... was for her to push him away completely.
Aira stared at him for a long moment before turning sharply and heading back toward the bed.
But she had barely taken a few steps when a firm hand wrapped around her waist, pulling her back against a hard, muscled chest.
"You can feed now," Zyren murmured.
He shrugged off the robe he had been wearing, the fabric torn in several places from where her claws had caught it earlier.
Aira didn’t hesitate.
She sank her fangs into his neck—and almost hated how, after only a single swallow, pleasure spread through her like a warm, intoxicating wave.
Zyren’s hands moved immediately, lifting her as though she weighed nothing and carrying her toward the bed. He let her feed as long as she needed, holding her close as the tension between them broke into something intense and consuming.
Her breathing grew uneven as sensation flooded her system, the bond between feeding and desire impossible to separate. She clung to him as the hunger eased, her body responding even as her mind resisted.
By the time the wave of need and relief had passed, they collapsed onto the bed together, both breathing heavily, their scents mingling in the close space.
Zyren didn’t move away.
Aira didn’t ask him to.
The exhaustion that followed came quickly. The heaviness behind her eyes felt deeper than ordinary sleep, and she realized dimly that it was likely daytime. Unlike Zyren, who was more than a century old, newly turned vampires still slept through the daylight hours.
Just as she was drifting off, his voice reached her ear.
"I love you."
A frown threatened to form on her face as darkness finally pulled her under.
—
When Aira woke again, her fangs itched.
The first thing she became aware of was Zyren’s presence beside her.
And even though every instinct told her to put distance between them, she knew she couldn’t.
It was then that she realized something important.
The only way she was going to convince Zyren that she was stable enough to be left alone... was if she acted like she was.
Without hesitation, she leaned forward and kissed him.
Passionately. Willingly.
She gave him exactly what he wanted—closeness, heat, responsiveness—until the lines between them blurred and time lost meaning.
They remained like that for what felt like far too long, much to Aira’s growing frustration, because Zyren still refused to let them leave.
Instead, he stayed with her in the cell.
"I want to leave," she whined at last, sliding closer to him, her tone soft and pleading.
"I was wrong. It was stupid. I know better now," she assured him.
Zyren watched her silently, his expression unreadable.
He had just opened his mouth to respond when the heavy cell door rattled.
A guard stood outside, already on his knees.
"You ordered that I inform you," the guard said quickly. "Lady Rymora has given birth. The child... it has red eyes."
The words had barely left his mouth when Aira scrambled off the bed, her expression wild.
She looked from the guard to Zyren, shock flooding her features.
"What... what do you mean? It would still take about two months for Rymora to—"
Her voice trailed off as Zyren slowly shook his head.
"You were supposed to wake up earlier," he said.
A haunted look settled into his eyes.
"But for some reason... you didn’t."
