After Orax had retired to her room for the night Euphoria was left in her huge chambers, she had stayed awake frustratingly waiting for Avien to show up but judging by the time on the clock it seemed he wasn't going to, she stretched herself on one side of the king-sized bed like a pancake in a pan and lulled herself to a light slumber.
The door to Avien and Euphoria's chamber creaked open as a figure slipped in and shut the door, immediately the door had shut closed Euphoria's eyes fluttered open and her neck snapped to the side, who would sneak into the chamber by this auspicious time of the night if not to commit one atrocity or the other, she could hear how silent the guards had gone.
At this point Euphoria figured that she had two options, it was either she screamed and got assassinated on the spot or she would try attacking the person and maybe.....just maybe live to tell the story.
Euphoria was about to jump off her bed and plunge her fist into the attackers face when a familiar figure lowered himself onto the bed.
Avien thought Euphoria was fast asleep as he tried to slip himself into the blankets as quietly as possible without waking her, but his body went stiff as he was met face to face with a pair of eyes hovering over him.
"Is this the part where you hurriedly fall asleep to avoid my questions, the part where you ignore me or the part where you choose to not give me any explanation for your actions?"
Euphoria tried to hide how upset she was with the smile on her face but Avien could see right through it.
"Would you prefer we talk about that right now Princess or tomorrow when you must've gotten a sound sleep"
Euphoria snickered and lay back on her bed but turned to face him still keeping a huge distance between them.
"Your actions spiked my curiosity, I thought we had an agreement of peace between us going smoothly, but if you're going to have mood changes and ignore me all through, be my guest"
Euphoria turned her back to Avien as the sadness slowly creeped in, showing her emotions and feeling vulnerable wasn't her type of person but who could blame her right now, three days ago she would have been in her room by now doing all sorts of fun shenanigans but right now she was....here.
Avien knew she had every right to be upset, it wasn't his intention to shoo her off at the lake but he had to, now explaining the situation without scaring her or seeming like a pervert was going to be the problem, he sat up leaning against the headboard as he yanked Euphoria's dress sleeve making her turn towards him.
"I still hold our agreement in high regard Euphoria, it wasn't my intention to ignore you, at that point I just had to avoid you"
Euphoria arched her eyebrow on hearing his last sentence, if this was his attempt on trying to make her better then he would need to be smacked on the head with a frying pan because it wasn't working.
"I'm not quite following, why did you just have to avoid me?"
Avien took in a deep breath, trying to remind himself that he was a man who had conquered many battlefields so explaining things like what he was about to shouldn't make him feel shy....right?.
Avien stretched his palm towards her wiggling the finger that his wedding ring was being placed on top.
"If I remember correctly our wedding ring were green jade rings, how come yours is the same design but the colour is now a faint golden-redish"
Avien's admired the fact that she paid attention to little details.
"Take a look at your own ring princess"
Euphoria's eyes snapped to her ring finger as she noticed that her own ring had turned the same colour as Avien's, infact his and hers were oddly identical, she was very confused because she couldn't remember swapping her rings or anything.
"I didn't change my ring so what is happening?"
"The rings are going to be that colour for a while, they turned that colour to signify that they are rooting for the mark to take over and after the mark takes over they are taken off"
Euphoria's mouth turned an 'o' with that piece of information, she never knew rings could change colour but then again she was in Venthral was she not.
"Shocking but it's alright, still that doesn't satisfy my explanation for the lake incident, Avien"
"I just experienced my first lust awakening at the lake while you were present"
Euphoria couldn't understand the meaning behind the terminology of the word "lust awakening", she could understand the meaning of lust and awakening differently but together she couldn't place it.
"The ring signifies that our mind has welcomed us as couples, the moment you said yes to my peace agreement treaty between us your emotions towards me did a U-turn and it was then that you accepted the fact that we had been married, that made the ring to tighten around your finger and change colour because all it was waiting for was for you to accept me"
Euphoria was taking in all this new information stunned by the fact that this ring was very different from the normal human ring when she thought it was just a normal one.
"Is this the same with every supernatural creature or vampires of your kind?"
"No, of course all other creatures like witches, vampires, wolf shifters, hybrids, dijins, orcs, cross humans etc can use different rings or no rings at all for their marks but royal dragon bloods use these, it's sort of a tradition"
"Okay.....go on"
"After the mind recognizes that we have accepted one another as spouses and the ring turns another colour, the body likely follows and that is where the mark comes in, because you're human you won't experience your lust awakening but I feel the urge once in a while to claim you"
Euphoria tried to keep a straight face but she was getting as red as a tomato...at this rate she might as well turn into one.
Avien chuckled making Euphoria's neck snap to him with a killer glare, the blush on her cheeks kept growing as he noticed how timid she had become.
"Stappppp laughing at me this instant"
Avien bit his bottom lip trying to hold it in, Euphoria contemplated jumping on him and smacking the laugh out of him but as soon as her eyes landed on his abdominal muscles she envisioned jumping on him for a different reason, god was what happening.
"Princess I shooed you out from the lake because I knew you weren't ready for me to claim you, I'll fight the urge as much as possible so you don't need to be embarrassed or worried about anything"
Euphoria's lips curved up with an appreciative expression.
"I'm sorry I felt like skinning your bones flesh to flesh, crippling your cartilages and blocking your arteries, I didn't know you had a good reason to shoo me off"
A smirk played at the left corner of Avien's lips, atleast he clarified the situation so she wouldn't stab him in his sleep, she almost triggered his urge again when he noticed her staring at his abs but to make her comfortable he was going to pretend he didn't see a thing.
"I sent one of my guards to check on you since you left the lake in a justified fit, then he ease dropped on your conversation and heard your earlier complains about me with Orax who did a wonderful job of keeping you company, that's why I choose to sneak in at night when I thought you were asleep so you wouldn't be waiting for me with a sack of darts or daggers in your hand"
Euphoria erupted into a loud laughter as she used to upper teeth to clamp down on her lower teeth in an attempt to stifle the laughter.
"How long will you be able to suppress the claiming urge for?"
Euphoria asked him with a serious face.
"It depends on the level of attraction between us I guess"
Euphoria lay back on the bed and slipped herself into the covers as Avien did the same.
She was definitely physically attracted to him but there was no way in Sheldon's name that she was going to admit it out loud, for him she couldn't be sure if he was or not, neither was she going to take the chances of asking him about it, Euphoria's eyelids started becoming heavy as sleep started to creep in, she had fought sleep for a long time but at this point she couldn't deny her mortal body what it needed.
"Goodnight Euphoria, go to sleep now"
Euphoria's eyelids closed instantly as she snuggled herself into the blanket leaving Avien staring at his betrothed, he closed his eyes as he let her scent waft through his nostrils.