Chapter 11: Advantage Turned into Disadvantage

Lazarus looked at his raging erection and clenched his teeth. He tuned on his belly and grabbed a pillow to put it on his head. How could he sleep like this?

Ever since Emma had come to the palace, Lazarus had been mentally disturbed. As if his earlier tensions weren't enough. He needed to seize the crown. His father was trying his best to remove him. His brothers and sisters were— Well, he killed two of them already because of her and he was sure to hear from his father soon. Even though he had his explanations ready— His thought returned to her.

"Emma. Emma. Emma!" his hissed. Everything was about her.

After Emma had fainted, he was so worried about her health that it was impossible for him to sleep. He convinced himself that it wasn't because she was his mate, but it was because she was important for his betrothed. He had sat down on a chair beside her bed for the whole day and then the night waiting for her to come out of her unconsciousness. He couldn't wink an eye, his chest tightening at her situation. But he knew that it was a normal feeling because she was his mate.

Lazarus was tired as hell. He wanted to sleep, but his erection wasn't letting him sleep. He wanted to grind himself in the mattress or maybe take his cock in his hand and help himself, but his imagination was going wilder than his body.

He had made sure that she would be in the next room as his. Mind that, only to keep a close eye on her.

But this was proving to be detrimental for his mental health. Now all his wanted was to go back to her. He knew that she had taken a bath and was fresh. She had also eaten her food. He had traced to her room when she was taking a bath, unable to keep himself away.

He had leaned against the door of the bathroom, listening to the sound of water and her taking a bath. Her scent of violets was mixed with that of lavender and it was creating the most intoxicating effect on him. He wanted to rip the door and enter the bathtub and bury his cock and fangs so deep in her, that he wouldn't know where she ended or where he began.

But the moment, she finished taking her bath, he traced back to his room and now he was suffering from this raging erection because of a little mortal in that room who was oblivious of his torture.

He grabbed the pillow and threw it on the door that led to her room through the closet out of frustration. "I will not go beneath my stature for that little human! I am only going to have sex with my wife. The goddess who I deserve!" He was going to wait for the soul casting ritual, he promised himself. But what were Maeve's thoughts on this? She was refusing him from day one.

He tossed and turned on his bed, trying to think of things that would make him sleep. He thought of getting up and making a large drink for himself but he had already had a lot and none of it was working. Finally he got up to rest on the headboard and clasped his head. He wondered where Maeve was at this hour of the day.

Unable to tolerate this torture any further, he traced to the room of his youngest brother, Magnus, and to his utter horror, he found him over the naked bodies of several female vampires. "Fuck you, Magnus!" he grunted and then traced back to his room, leaving a very flustered Magnus.

It was then when he heard the faint breathing of Emma. She was sitting on the other side of the door and listening to him. Very slowly, he padded his way to the door and now he could hear her heartbeat as well. He was so exhausted, yet when he came next to the door, her scent of violets, now mixed with that of warm honey with a bit of lemons, filled the air around him, making her the most enticing creature in the whole Lore, her body beckoning him to claim it. His earlier rage, soothed.

As if drugged by the scent of his mate, he came to stand very near to the door. His eyes were hooded. Was he feeling happy that she was snooping on him? He took a ragged breath as he waited for her. His hand went to his cock and he rubbed it. A groan escaped his mouth as his cock swelled painfully in his pants. And as soon as he groaned, he heard her getting up and rushing away, leaving him in the same state that he started with.

A few minutes later, he heard the soft steps of the mortal in front of his room. Now her scent of candied violets was mixed with that of roses. As if she was his magnet, he walked to the main door of his room and leaned his frame over it, hearing every step, every rustle of her fabric. Had it been night, he would have opened the door and gone to her, but it was day time and if he stepped in the sunlight, his skin would burn like a leather strop rubbing slowly on it.

She was humming a tune as she walked past his room. Bloody sexy little mortal. She was trying to entice him like a siren. He clenched his fists and resolved that he was going to teach her a lesson by confining her in her room from tonight. Gritting his teeth, he walked back to his bed and plopped on it. "How am I going to survive this one month?" he said aloud. He needed to focus on his strategy to combat his siblings and ascend to the throne with Maeve rather than on Emma.

And he could strategize with only three people whom he trusted in Wilyra—Maeve, Magnus and his close friend, Yul, whom he had thought of making his General when he ascended to the throne. He thought that adding Emma to the equation was going to be an added advantage, but she turned out to be a disadvantage. She was too… distracting. No. He was going to reign in his body's needs and focus his mind.

But he wasn't prepared for what happened next.