Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife-Chapter 298: Vulnerability

She was the first to speak. "I am sure you... you must be angry with me."

A long silence passed. Assuming that they were going to have a civilized discussion, Ave was startled when he sprang at her in two swift strides and seized her in a rough grip.

His hand tangled in her hair, and he tugged her head back, crushing his mouth over hers. The bruising kiss was not meant to give pleasure but to punish. Gasping, Ave yielded completely, opening her mouth to the aggressive thrust of his tongue, answering his angry passion with her utter surrender.

She told him with her lips and body that whatever he wanted of her, she would give without reserve, for as long as he would not say the words she dreaded to hear from him. She pleaded with him silently as she allowed him to punish her with his kiss.

Eventually, her lack of resistance seemed to soothe him, and he softened the kiss, still probing deeply, both of his hands cupping around her skull.

However, the embrace was short-lived. Lucian let go of her as abruptly as he had seized her and put a few yards of distance between them. He sent her a baffled glare, his eyes light and piercing in his flushed face.

And she guiltily looked away.

"We can’t afford to have the ba—" he began to say, but she turned to him sharply and shook her head.

"Don’t say it. Please..."

Lucian inhaled sharply as he saw the tears already glistening in her eyes. He knew she was hiding something from him all this while but never in a million years had he thought it could be pregnancy. He had been at ease and not tried to avoid it, knowing her body could not nourish his seeds. She could not have his baby, but it seemed everything the were-people believed in was not the same when it came to his wife.

She might be a powerful witch, but without awakening it, she was just a human, and while being just a human, he never wanted her to risk her precious life for anything—not even his own offspring.

But then, with the look in her eyes, he could break her if he spoke. She was pleading with him with her teary gaze. Her blue orbs sparked and glistened as her lips trembled uncontrollable.

"Please..." She cried softly.

Lucian closed and opened his mouth, and then, as if he could not trust himself to say another word, he turned away and left the room.

Watching him leave, Ave stood there for just a few minutes before she went after him. She needed to let him see that she could take the risk with his support. He might not have said the words now, but he would eventually say them.

Wiping away her tears, she gathered her dress in her arms and ran down the halls to go after him. It seemed he had moved at the speed of light because she saw no traces of him.

Ave left her quarters and went to the main one. She looked and asked around, but no one saw him. She didn’t give up looking until she went to the chamber they used to share and finally found him standing on the balcony.

Lucian’s back was turned towards her, and it stiffened as he sensed her approach. He stood with his hands shoved deep in his pockets, his head bowed.

As she came closer, his voice emerged in a quiet growl. "I want privacy to think."

Ave did not stop until she had pressed herself against his back and wrapped her arms around his midriff. Although he could have pulled away with ridiculous ease, he remained motionless in her grasp.

Ave’s heart ached with compassion as she felt him trembling all over like a huge captive wolf, panicked by his confinement.

"Darling," she said softly, "everything is going to be fine."

"You don’t know that."

"I think I do. I have a feeling I can do it." She laid her cheek on his back and tightened her arms around his lean waist while she fumbled for words that would comfort him.

"I’m not fragile nor powerless as Nadia was. It won’t happen to me. You must believe me. I am your mate."

"She was his mate as well, and he was not as strong and powerful as I am, but yet she didn’t make it. I am double his kind and have twice his power; my son or daughter will be just the same, and you..." He swallowed hard and closed his eyes. "I don’t want to risk it, Aveline. You are all I have, and I can’t afford to lose you to this." There was a ragged edge to his breathing that tugged at her heart—his vulnerability and the fear he had of losing her.

He said she was all he had, even though he now had family surrounding him, and those words almost brought her to tears again.

"Lucian, you stopped yourself from consummating our marriage because you believe I wasn’t strong enough for your kind, but yet I was. You didn’t take my blood that night when I offered it to cure you because you thought you’d kill me. Everything you think I can’t do, I end up doing, and nothing went as wrong as you believed, so why can’t you also see that I can do this just as I did all that?"

Lucian waited so long to answer that she thought he had refused her question until he forced words out between abbreviated breaths. "I know you are strong and that I should not compare you to others, but I can’t—"

"Don’t you want us to have our own family? Children from the fruit of our love? Don’t you want to see little us running around our palace, playing and laughing?"

Lucian envisioned little girls with the eyes of his wife and her smile, and he felt his heart ache. "I want that. Oh, God, I want it so bad. To have children who will look like you and a family. But I don’t want to lose you! I can’t imagine a life without you, Aveline. I won’t be me without you!" His voice cracked, and she knew that the dark thoughts were assailing him faster than he could defend himself.

"Lucian," she demanded, "turn around and face me. Please."

He seemed dazed as he complied. Immediately she wrapped her arms around him, pressing herself to his big, warm body. He seized her as if she were a lifeline, his arms clamping onto her in a desperate vise.

Ave smoothed her hands over his back and kissed his ear. His fingers clenched in her hair and her clothes, and he gripped her while his lungs moved on shuddering sighs.

Ave placed her hands on either side of his damp, hot face and urged it to hers. His thick lashes were spiked with tears, and he seemed to be staring through gates of hell. Tenderly she kissed his stiff lips.

"I will never leave you alone in this world," she promised. "We are going to live together and have many healthy children and grandchildren. I will be by your side until the very end."

He nodded, clearly trying to make himself believe her.

"Lucian," she continued, "our story will not end like Nadia and Kale. I won’t leave you to suffer my loss. It’s a promise I will keep if you promise to support me in this." She stroked his face.

He did not reply, only crushed his lips to her temple and stood holding her in a desperate grip. "I am scared," he admitted finally.

"I know. I am too, but I believe I can do it. Can you trust me on this?"

He closed his eyes and inhaled sharply before he nodded his head, clumsily stroking her hair, her neck, her back, then finally her abdomen. He spread his palm against it and rubbed it slowly, feeling the small bump.

"Oh, Lord! It’s growing already..." he gasped, unable to believe that the baby was growing and starting to show. She was pregnant... his wife was indeed pregnant. She was going to have their child. She would have to go through childbirth just like Nadia. She would... He stopped his thoughts before they overwhelmed him again.

He brushed his lips against hers while he moved his hand from her abdomen and huddled over her, and she held him with all her strength.

He sought her lips, found them, and kissed her almost angrily. She opened to him, accepting his passionate aggression. His hands roamed her body roughly, his emotions transforming into raw physical need, but he put an end to it as quickly as it began. He needed to think—to do some research himself—before he could be completely at ease with the thought of her pregnancy.

Though he had agreed to trust her, he couldn’t trust the pregnancy with her life. What if something went wrong? She wouldn’t be carrying a normal baby. The child would inherit not only from him but from her as well—Rosa and a freaking beast combined into one!

"Thank you," she whispered against his lips when she noticed his expression paling, his eyes losing focus yet again.

"For what?"

"For loving me enough to trust me."

Her words made his heart lurch beneath her palm, which rested on his chest. Holding his gaze, she saw the uncertainty and fear in his eyes. It was almost unbelievable that a man as strong as her husband could carry such vulnerability. He looked close to tears yet again, struggling to keep his gaze on her.

He trusted her, yet his fears and dark thoughts remained.

She could think of only one way to dispel his fear—to take his mind off reality, even if just for a little while.

Ave’s blue eyes were grave as she reached up her husband’s neck, her fingers working at the knot of his cravat. She concentrated on the task as if it were of momentous importance. The knot loosened, and she drew the length of dark, warm silk from his throat.

Lucian’s body was as rigid as carved marble, his thoughts in a welter. Surely she did not think that a romp in bed would take his mind off the fear overwhelming and taking over his brain. But the deliberateness of her actions seemed to make him curious about what she was up to.

She undressed him slowly, removing his coat, waistcoat, and shirt, then kneeling to unbuckle his shoes. "Aveline," he said tersely.

"Let me," she whispered.

Standing, she brushed her fingertips over his taut chest. Her palm flattened against the warm skin, and she stroked it. Her thumb found his nipples, circled delicately. Leaning closer, she flickered her tongue over the dark circles until the nipples were slick and sensitive.

Lucian could not restrain a primitive grunt as her hand slid to the stiff bulge of his erection, tracing slowly.