The Devil's Cursed Witch

Ember wanted to stand, but her legs refused to cooperate and she could only sit awkwardly near the edge of the pool. The water reached just below her shoulders, making her look like a blooming water lily as her dress's long skirt pooled around her over the water surface. On the other hand, the King also remained seated in the central part of the pool. The water covered the middle of Draven's chest where one could see the head of a dragon tattoo over his heart.

Two startled people wordlessly faced each other, but this strange standoff didn't last long.

Draven's red eyes were incomparably chilly, filled with annoyance at the awkward situation--no, this unimaginably absurd situation. Seeing her dripping wet appearance together with those huge bewildered eyes was a dangerous combination when he's already struggling to maintain resistance against the pull he was feeling towards her.

Ember tried to get up. "Your Majesty, I apologize. I didn't mean to disturb---aah!"

Splash!

She fell back into the water as she was unable to maintain balance. Her ankle was hurt and twisted after falling from the edge of the pool because of heeled footwear.

Once again, water was splashed on Draven, reaching even his face, and he closed his eyes in brief annoyance. Afterwards, he opened them to glare at her.

Ember struggled in the water for a while due to the weight of her clothes dragging her down. After a while, she managed to sit back up again, only to receive the terrifying sight of a pair of red eyes openly glaring at her. With this second fall, she was closer to him than before, putting her in a position where she was receiving the full brunt of his anger.

"A-Apologies...I...I followed the bird..." she tried to excuse herself in panic. She looked around the chamber but the small white bird was already nowhere in sight.

Her mind was in chaos. 'He's angry. I made him angry. Will I be punished? I shouldn't have followed the bird. It was rude for me to enter his chamber without permission...'

When she moved her gaze back to Draven, she felt her heart leap and wanted to move back like she was escaping from a predator, but she didn't get far. Soon, she felt a hard wall behind her. She had reached the edge of the pool.

Startled, she looked at him, only to realize his face was close to hers. She was being cornered by him.

"You sure like to be in trouble, don't you?" His breath turned heavy as he observed her closely.

Draven could no longer see anything else but her--her pale skin in her almost see-through form-fitting dress, the wet strands of hair framing her face, her beautiful eyes along with her thick eyelashes that seemed to be graced with dew.

'This is crazy,' he could not help but think.

Even that tiny nose trying to breathe as quietly as it could and her moist trembling lips that failed to complete a sentence were things about her that mesmerized him.

'This crazy bond--'

His heated gaze followed the water droplets flowing along her skin, from her cheeks to her neck, to her thin collarbones and further down. This sight by itself was already dangerous to his rationality, but the most dangerous part of her was her seductive scent that assaulted his senses, asking him to do dangerous things to her.

As he moved to corner her, Draven noticed something. 'Her reaction is different from mine.'

While he was fighting off his urges, his little mate appeared to be more terrified of the fact that she barged into his chamber.

'Is my scent not affecting her the same way it affects me?' he wondered. 'How can she not be troubled when I am going crazy by her scent? Is it because she's human?'

The more he observed her, the more Draven felt convinced by his guess.

'How fortunate,' he sighed inwardly, his thoughts sarcastic. 'She is to be able to live normally despite having her mate this close to her!'

However, her next words made him change his mind.

"...this scent?" she mumbled.

The look in her eyes changed as she took a deep breath. Her eyes were starting to go out of focus while looking at his neck and shoulders.

"This scent is so..."  she murmured in a daze, and he saw her slowly moving towards him as if she had lost her mind.

Draven's eyes widened when he realized what she was doing. With mere inches of space left between their bodies, he felt his body stiffen like a statue. He barely gulped upon feeling her heavy breaths on the side of his neck.

He was wrong to think she could not smell his scent. It was just that her senses were not as sharp as his due to the physical limitations of the human race.

Still, the fact that they're mates didn't change. His scent affected her the same way and it would also make her act on instinct to complete the bond.

However, Ember had no idea about these.

She was enchanted by this unique fragrance that seemed to be embracing all her senses. It was a familiar smell, a deeply masculine scent of the forest tickled with the freshness of peppermint. She remembered smelling this fragrance in the King's chamber and his study.

That scent felt comforting to her, but she didn't know the source of it was Draven. Now she could smell it directly from the man himself, she felt her heart beating faster. She didn't understand what she was doing and instinctively moved closer to him to smell this unique scent better---

This closeness!

Draven moved back a little, wanting to scold this unruly little thing, but he could not say a word to her in this state. Her pretty eyes which were full of shock a while ago now looked dazed, as if she was half-asleep and didn't know what she was doing.

He clenched his fists underwater and tightened his jaw, trying his damndest to resist her and the temptation of the bond.

====

Bonus chapter dedicated to reader "RMehrotra" for gifting Dragon to the novel. Thank you for the gift. <3<3