Chapter 173: Who Dared Interrupt

Aethryx POV

The silence inside the bedchamber felt like a heavy weight pressing down on my chest.

It was a suffocating kind of quiet, broken only by the faint, rhythmic sound of breathing from the bed.

The girl lying on the mattress had not moved a single muscle in three days.

Her pale face remained completely still against the pillows.

She took slow, shallow breaths, her chest barely rising and falling.

Midnight-black hair was scattered around her shoulders, except for a little streak of pure white right at the front.

It was a stark contrast, a tiny detail that caught the eye immediately, but it meant nothing to me.

I did not know her name, and I didn’t care to know her name.

To me, she was nothing more than an unwelcome stranger, yet she was the entire reason my world had ground to a halt.

She was the reason my princess refused to step foot outside these four walls.

Because of this unconscious girl, I had been treated like a ghost in my own castle for three long days.

My gaze shifted toward the edge of the mattress, and the irritation in my chest softened into a dull, aching longing.

My mate.

She sat hunched forward, her fingers wrapped tightly around her friend’s limp hand.

She had completely thrown herself into the role of a protector, refusing to leave the bedside even for a moment.

Her own black hair tumbled forward, hiding her face from view, but I already knew the exact shape of her features.

Her hazel eyes remained locked onto the pale girl, watching for any sign of movement.

When the heavy oak doors clicked shut behind me, she did not look up. She did not even flinch.

But I knew she felt me.

The invisible bond between us was vibrating, humming like a live wire in the small space, sending waves of heat through my veins.

But she was actively fighting it.

She forced her body to remain rigid, deliberately shutting me out and pretending I was not there.

It was the same walls she always put up around me.

A sharp spike of annoyance flared deep in my gut, quickly twisting into a familiar frustration.

I was the Dragon King. Entire kingdoms trembled when my shadow passed over them.

Powerful armies dropped to their knees at the mere mention of my name.

I held the power to destroy cities, yet here I am, practically begging for a single glance from the one woman whose eyes I actually wanted to see.

I swallowed the bitter taste of my irritation and took a step forward.

I kept my movements incredibly slow, making sure my heavy boots barely made a sound against the stone floor.

I wanted to be gentle. I wanted to show her I was not a threat.

"Princess," I murmured.

The title slipped past my lips with all the quiet warmth I had kept locked away in my heart for centuries.

It was a name meant only for her, a recognition of the hold she had over me.

She stiffened instantly. Her shoulders locked up, and her spine went completely straight.

Finally, she turned her head, her hazel eyes flashing with pure annoyance as she glared right at me.

"Do not call me that," she snapped. Her voice was sharp, cutting through the heavy silence of the room like a blade.

She turned her entire body toward me, her jaw tight. "I have told you a hundred times already. I find it incredibly annoying. I am not your princess."

Instead of sparking anger, her fiery reaction only brought a small, patient smile to my lips.

My white hair fell slightly across my forehead as I tilted my head.

Even when she was hurling insults at me, even when her eyes were full of venom, she was absolutely breathtaking.

She had a fire in her that no one else dared to show in my presence.

"You are my mate," I said, keeping my voice soft and steady.

I wanted her to feel the weight of my words.

"To me, you are royalty. You are everything."

She immediately looked back down at the unconscious girl on the bed, her grip tightening on her friend’s hand until her knuckles turned white.

"Stop. Just stop with the sweet talk. It is not going to work on me."

I took another step toward her, closing the distance between us.

The air grew warmer as I approached, the magnetic pull of the bond dragging me closer and closer to her chair.

My hands twitched at my sides. I desperately wanted to reach out, to brush those dark strands of hair away from her face and pull her against my chest until she finally realized how much I truly cared about her.

But I forced my fingers to curl into fists, keeping them firmly down.

"I just want you to look at me," I said, my voice dropping to a low, rough whisper. "Just for a single moment."

She kept her eyes glued to the bed, refusing to give me what I asked for.

"Every single time I walk into this room, your eyes are on her," I continued, the raw honesty of my words making my throat tighten.

"She completely consumes your thoughts. You spend every waking second guarding a mattress, ignoring me like I do not even exist."

I stepped even closer, until I was standing right at the edge of the bed framework.

"I have waited so many years for you. So many centuries of empty silence. And now I am right here. Standing right in front of you."

Suddenly, she stood up.

She did not just rise; she threw herself directly between the bed and me, acting as a human shield to protect her unconscious friend.

Her chin lifted high, her shoulders squared, and those hazel eyes turned completely hard, like polished stones.

"And what exactly do you want me to do?" she asked, her voice dripping with ice.

"Am I supposed to clap for you?"

She crossed her arms tightly over her chest, her posture defensive and rigid.

"You dragged us here against our will," she said, bitterness coloring every single word.

"You hunted us down like animals. You destroyed our peace, hunted our home, and now you expect me to just throw myself into your arms and pretend everything is fine?"

She did not back down.

Instead, she took a defiant step toward me, advancing into my space rather than retreating.

Her breathing was fast, her chest rising and falling rapidly with anger.

"I know exactly why we are here," she said, her voice fierce and low. "I know you think she took something that belongs to you. You brought her here because you wanted to hurt her."

"I was protecting what is mine," I answered calmly, meeting her furious gaze with steady eyes.

She let out a short, humorless laugh that sounded incredibly hollow in the quiet room.

"Protecting?"

"She is a threat, Princess," I said, my voice remaining completely level.

I wanted her to see the truth in my expression.

"But I promise you here, and now, I will not harm her. Not while she is staying under my roof. Not when I know that hurting her would completely break your heart."

She narrowed her hazel eyes, her gaze scanning my face with deep suspicion.

"Yeah, well. Excuse me if I do not just buy your promises blindly."

She held her ground, refusing to flinch even though I towered over her.

"You are a dragon. You are a king," she said, her voice dropping to a quiet, intense hiss.

"You are entirely used to getting whatever you want by using absolute force. The only reason I am staying so close to this bed, the only reason I am even tolerating your presence in this room right now, is to make sure you do not finish what you started."

She looked me dead in the eye, her stare cutting right through my defenses.

"If I turn my back for even one second, how do I know you will not just rid yourself of the threat permanently?"

The complete lack of trust hit me harder than any physical blade ever could.

It sent a dull ache straight through my chest, twisting the dragon inside me with a sense of agonizing rejection.

I stepped directly into her personal space, closing the gap until there was barely any distance left between us.

I could smell the sweet, clean scent of her skin, a fragrance that instantly made the dragon beneath my skin stir and roar, begging me to claim her, to wrap my arms around her and never let her go.

"Look into my eyes," I commanded, though my voice cracked slightly under the weight of my emotion.

I reached out, my fingers trembling just a little as I gently placed the tips of my fingers under her chin.

I tilted her head upward, forcing her to look past my white hair and look directly into my grey eyes.

"Please," I pleaded, the word tasting heavy on my tongue. "Just look at me."

She did not pull away this time.

She stayed still, her breathing hitched as my touch connected with her skin, sending a jolt of electricity through the bond.

"Do you feel the bond?" I asked softly, my thumb brushing lightly against the smooth skin of her jawline. "Do you feel how my heart beats only for you?"

I held her gaze, refusing to let her look away.

"I would burn the entire world to ashes before I ever let a single tear fall from your eyes," I whispered, meaning every single syllable with my entire soul. "I do not want to hurt her. Because I know that hurting her means losing you forever."

I leaned in closer, my face hovering just inches from hers.

"I am begging you," I murmured, my voice a desperate plea. "Just give me a single chance. Let me show you who I really am beneath the crown."

For a split second, the heavy iron walls she kept around her heart completely crumbled.

I saw the sudden conflict flashing in the depths of her hazel eyes.

Her lips parted slightly, and she took a sudden, sharp intake of breath as the mate bond suddenly flared between us, thick, heavy, and completely undeniable.

The air around us felt charged with heat.

But she did not rip her chin away from my hand. She did not step back.

Instead, her gaze searched mine, wandering across my features as if she were looking for a lie, looking for any sign of deception.

For the first time since I had brought her here, she did not look at me with burning anger.

Her expression was raw.

It was vulnerable and filled with a quiet, questioning wonder.

"Do you... Do you really mean that?" she whispered.

"With everything I am," I breathed, the words vibrating in my chest.

The magnetic pull between us felt overwhelming, dragging me down toward her.

My heart hammered wildly against my ribs like a trapped bird as I prepared to lean in, to tell her absolutely everything, to finally bridge the distance between our lips...

BANG!

A massive, echoing crash exploded from somewhere deep outside the chamber walls.

The fragile spell holding us together was instantly smashed to pieces.

She flinched violently, reality slamming back into her features.

In a flash, she ripped her chin out of my hand and scrambled backward toward the bed, her eyes wide with sudden alarm.

In the blink of an eye, her protective, icy walls slammed right back up, hiding the vulnerable girl I had just seen.

I spun around toward the closed doors.

A wave of pure, unadulterated fury exploded in my chest, hot and violent.

The dragon within me roared in absolute outrage.

My grey eyes flared, the color instantly shifting into a bright, burning golden hue as fire bubbled up in the back of my throat, ready to scorch anything in its path.

Who dared to interrupt the most important moment of my life?

I turned back to look at her over my shoulder, forcing my voice to remain low and controlled despite the rage shaking my frame.

"Stay here, Princess. Wherever you are, do not leave this room."

She crossed her arms tightly over her chest, her jaw setting into that familiar stubborn line.

"What makes you think I would even leave her side?"

A dark, sharp smirk touched the corners of my lips despite the absolute anger burning through my veins.

She really was incredibly stubborn, a true match for a king.

"Good," I murmured.

I turned fully toward the heavy oak door. As I walked away from the bed, the entire expression on my face shifted.

Every single ounce of warmth I had shown her just moments ago completely drained away, leaving my features frozen.

What replaced it was a cold, terrifying mask of absolute focus.

It was the face of a destroyer, and I was going to completely destroy whoever had dared to interrupt my time with my princess.

The heavy doors swung open before me with a loud groan as I walked out into the corridor.