MAWBF 4

Chapter 4

***

A chill wind seemed to sweep between them. His piercingly blue eyes narrowed as he looked at her.

Her eyes, meeting his up close for the first time in so long, trembled involuntarily. Yet Reina never once looked away.

He suddenly muttered.

"You won’t go back."

"Please let me. I'll live quietly."

"You say you will?"

"Yes, I will."

"...Well. I wonder if your greedy father feels the same."

"If that's the concern, you needn't worry. I have yet to bear Your Majesty a prince. The justification is ample; the duke will have no choice but to accept."

Her voice trembled with tension as she spoke, yet showed no hesitation. It was clear she had long harbored thoughts of abdication.

Immediately after, his lips closed heavily.

Frustrated, Reina licked her dry lips and called out to him.

"Elijah."

How long had it been since she last spoke his name? Reina paused, startled by how unfamiliar her own voice sounded when she spoke his name, how desperately urgent it seemed.

He must have sensed something similar, for his eyebrows flicked into a brief frown.

Without thinking, Reina turned her head away. His gaze did not waver.

For some time now, whenever she faced him, Reina felt her breath catch. In that split second, her eyes darted instinctively, searching for an escape.

He spoke softly.

"This is the place you chose."

The moment Reina reflexively turned back to him, he strode forward.

In an instant, they were close enough their toes might touch. She flinched, trying to step back.

But Elijah’s brutal hand seized her jaw faster.

"Did you think you could so easily relinquish a position you gained by shedding so much blood?"

Elijah was the bastard son born to the late King Bailion and an unnamed dancer.

He should never have become king, yet he did.

Because the daughter of Duke Dazbel, the man called the King Above Kings, had chosen him.

Leonard wanted his daughter to be Queen. So the Duke resolved to place the king's bastard son, whom no one had noticed, upon the throne.

Countless lives were lost in the process, and the boy who dreamed of knighthood sat upon a throne drenched in blood.

"How dreadful."

"......"

Terrible. Come to think of it, Elijah had said the same thing five years ago.

Reina had fallen for him at first sight and counted down the days until their wedding, yet when they reunited a year later, he was a completely different person.

Elijah, now wearing the crown, spoke with a pained, twisted expression.

"I find you utterly repulsive..."

Reina, whose hopes had been so high, foolishly realized only then that something was terribly wrong.

He had never wanted the throne.

He hadn't wanted the deaths of his half-brothers and their bloodlines, nor the countless followers who had stood by him.

Of course, Reina hadn't anticipated such an outcome either. What she had wanted was simply….

The words circling her mouth were faintly swallowed by his cold gaze. Spilling them out would only make his resentment toward her grow. She desperately wanted to end it.

Reina spat it out as if vomiting.

"...So just cast me out now."

And Elijah’s expression froze, terrifyingly rigid.

Facing the clear fury lurking behind his lowered gaze, Reina finally thought the end had come and closed her eyes.

But the next moment, Elijah grabbed the cloak she wore with a brutal, rough hand.

"Wh-what…?"

Reina's eyes snapped open.

The shock didn't end there. He ripped the cloak off as if tearing it to shreds, threw it roughly onto the floor, and then began stripping off every other garment she wore.

With the sound of tough silk tearing under his relentless hands, her snow-white breasts bounced out, swaying.

Startled, Reina covered her chest with one hand while pushing his shoulder with the other. But the man, seemingly twice her size, didn't budge an inch. Instead, she stumbled backward, momentarily losing her balance.

As if he'd been waiting for that exact moment, Elijah knocked Reina backward and climbed on top of her without hesitation.

Reina, who had tightly closed her eyes expecting the impact, slowly lifted her eyelids again at the feel of his large hands supporting her head and waist, followed by the soft touch of the blanket beneath her.

Elijah tossed aside the loose shirt he had been wearing. Instantly half-naked, he immediately bent down toward her.

As his shadow descended upon her, Reina gaped in disbelief.

"What... what are you doing?"

But he seemed in no mood for answers. Without hesitation, his warm hand kneaded one breast while his head lowered to take the other into his mouth.

"Ah..."

As the wet mouth enveloped her pink peak, a shiver of something cold ran down her spine. The sensation, felt for far too long a time, left Reina momentarily speechless.

Only the damp, cold, and wet sounds echoed loudly in the silent room.

'Why…'

Reina blinked blankly, unable to believe the man suddenly covering her.

The man, who had opened his mouth wide like a child and practically swallowed one breast whole, lifted his gaze. It flickered with anger rather than lust.

The moment Reina flinched in vague fear, he lowered the hand that had been kneading her breast and lifted the hem of her skirt.

She didn't even have time to draw her legs together. A rough hand dug deep between her legs, roughly pushing her underwear aside before covering her dry pussy.

A finger probed the slit, viscously rubbing the tightly closed entrance as if it had never been opened before. This brought Reina back to her senses with a jolt.

She could no longer deny it. She didn't know why, but he intended to take her right then.

There had been a time when she sat alone on the overly wide bed, waiting for his embrace. But not anymore.

Whatever he was thinking, she no longer wanted to be with him.

She feared she might foolishly hope again.

She was sick to death of that now.

"Stop. Stop it."

Reina gasped urgently, daring to grab the king's hair.

Despite her audacious act, the king seemed unconcerned. Far from stopping, he sucked her delicate skin painfully until his cheeks hollowed, as if daring her to make him stop.

"Ugh, ah..."

A moan escaped her involuntarily. Twisting reflexively, Reina bit her lip hard. His sharp eyes watched her reaction as he finally released the breast he'd been tormenting. A vivid red mark remained on her breast, glistening with saliva.

And his hot breath, which she thought had receded, immediately touched the nape of her neck. Chuup. He sucked hard on her violently pulsing neck. When his sharp teeth touched her skin, she instinctively curled up like facing a predator.

Meanwhile, his lips swiftly passed over her neatly defined collarbone and the hollow of her lower abdomen, heading further down.

"Ah, stop…."

Realizing what he intended, Reina struggled relentlessly, flailing her limbs. Her skirt flipped up over her navel in the struggle, her breast, already bitten and sucked, lay fully exposed.

Elijah grabbed her knees as she thrashed, spreading her legs wide and pinning her down with ease.

His lightly stubbled chin brushed against her.

No.

Reina gasped, her chin lifted in shock.

Perhaps it was because she had lived so long as a commoner, but their lovemaking was far from what she had been taught. She knew nothing of perfumed oils.

Her hand gripping his hair trembled violently.

Elijah, who had been thrusting wildly, paused briefly and scanned between her legs.

His voice, surprisingly dry compared to his fervent pressing against her, tapped her exposed pussy.

"You're wet, Reina."

Her face twisted in shame as she bit her lip to stifle a moan. He hoisted her legs onto his shoulders and buried his face deep between her thighs.

His thick tongue licked widely across her wetness. The moist flesh parted, slippery and yielding.

"Ugh... Ah, stop..."

Hot breath and the movement of digging deep, peeling back layer upon layer of flesh. And then the sensation of something flowing out from deep inside.

"Ah, Eli... Stop, please..."

A plea flowed out involuntarily at the sensation she had completely forgotten, and her whole body tensed up.

"No..."

It was the moment she instinctively tried to push his head away. Just as he had sucked at her chest, he had been voraciously sucking at her pussy, but suddenly he pulled his lips away.

"Close your mouth, Reina."

At his ominous voice, Reina's movements froze. She closed her mouth without thinking, then suddenly shifted her eyes to look at him.