Ileus' lips curled up again and those fangs appeared. His golden eyes burned from under those thick eyelashes. "Will you marry me, Anastasia?" he asked again. 

She was flabbergasted! "M— marry?" Her heart accelerated. She had never thought she would ever get into a union after what happened with her at Vilinski, but now… The man who had helped her escape because of a certain mission, was now sitting in front of her, holding her hands in his calloused ones. 

And he was waiting for her answer with a baited breath. 

Anastasia— she was blown away. A few days back she was about to get wedded in her royal palace in the most lavish manner. A ball was held in the honor of her wedding. Kings, queens, princes, princesses and other nobility were invited for it. But she had escaped it all. She had never imagined that she would be proposed to by him—the dark wizard—in a room of an inn. This was the most outrageous proposal she had seen. 

She looked at him intensely and the world disappeared in the background. He was her mate, her lover. Her heart beat fast like a humming bird's wings. This was all happening too fast. She wanted to know more about him… she wanted to know him.

"There is a huge gap between us, Ileus," she said finally when she found her voice. 

"No, there isn't any gap between us. The gap that you are mentioning is between our kingdoms," he replied quickly. 

"Is this your effort to keep me safe?" 

His lips curled as his eyes flickered a brighter gold. "I will keep you safe till the end of the earth and till the last day I live, but that has nothing to do with what I want. Marrying you is my choice. You are my mate and even if you don't marry me, it wouldn't be an issue because now that my wolf has marked you as his mate, there is no way I am going to leave you. I will find you across the lengths of time and depths of hell." 

Anastasia thought her heart had stopped. 

He continued, "I won't deny that with our marriage, there would be a political fracture that will affect various kingdoms, and the one that would be most affected will be Vilinski. Yes, there are going to be repercussions in my kingdom too, but I am willing to face them. After all, we both are royalty, and our union cannot be without consequences. But who cares." 

Anastasia's lips parted as she looked at his perfect bow-shaped ones. She had fallen in love with the man who had kidnapped her and whose intentions she was totally unaware of… initially. "You wicked, wicked vokudlak!" she rasped. 

He chuckled. "I ask again, my love. Will you marry me?" His warm eyes flickered with anxiety. "You better say yes to me as soon as possible because I am a very wanted man in the Lore… by women." 

She cracked up. When she stopped laughing, her gaze lifted from his lips to his eyes and she knew that was looking at the only man she trusted with her life… Al. Marriage was a deep connection and loving friendship—one she had seen in her parents. It was a relationship in which the part where the couple loved each other was so strong that they sacrificed for each other. Throw in sex to it—it was mind blowing. With Ileus it was a blast. She knew that the only way to have a lovely marriage was to start with friendship and hers started with it. Ileus had become her friend, her lover and now he wanted to be her husband. How would it sound to be called Anastasia Volkov? Her heart fluttered. 

That moment Anastasia realized that their marriage was written in their eyes the day they ever saw each other. The universe had conspired to bring them together, bring the two souls together. 

Though she had always thought of expensive gowns, dresses, jewelry and crazy celebrations for her marriage, sitting in this small room, in front of him, she didn't feel the need for those things. 

"Say something Ana," he said in anticipation. 

The nickname never sounded so sweet from his mouth. 

"Are you sure you want to marry me, Ileus?" she asked again as if wondering if she was dreaming. 

"Yes, never been this sure. Are you befuddled? I can totally understand that because I am one of the most eligible bachelors of the Lore. But don't worry, I am available and right now I can't think of a more suitable candidate other than you who would fill in the position of my queen. So you better grab the offer, before I revoke it." 

Anastasia pulled her hands away and crossed her arms across her chest. "You may revoke, Prince Ileus," she said with a tease in her voice. 

"You wouldn't like it, Ana," he replied as his golden flames watched her intently. 

"Not that I would mind it." 

"That is different from not liking it." 

She shrugged. "It's fine. I give you one chance to withdraw it," she dared. Energy thrummed in her chest and she was ready to convert him into a toad if he—

"I do believe that you are getting confused, Ana." 

"Not at all, Al." 

"You are so annoying," he rasped. Then he curled his hand around her nape and pulled her closer to his face. "I know you can't deny marriage to me. I challenge you." He became silent and that silence stretched like eternity between them.

She murmured, "I haven't seen a worse proposal between a prince and a princess." 

"I am not really experienced in this kind of thing," he replied in a hoarse, strained voice. 

"What about your initial plans?" 

"They evaporated the moment I saw you," he said, silencing her. "And now they are simply irrelevant to talk about." 

She suppressed a smile by biting her lip. Gods, she loved to tease him. 

"Are you playing hard to get, Ana?" he said as a muscle feathered in his jaw. His entire body stiffened and a vein in his left temple visibly throbbed. 

"I am a princess, Dark Prince. You don't get princesses that easily." She resisted his force with which he was pulling her towards him. Now they were barely an inch apart, their warm breaths fanning their skin. His eyes darted between hers and she could see tendrils of shadows caressing his body. 

Ileus stopped speaking as he continued to watch her, drink her features. A rumble was beginning to form in his chest. 

She should have felt afraid of him. But… "I will marry you, Ileus," she suddenly said and Ileus froze. He was speechless. It was then Anastasia realized that he had held his breath. He pulled her towards him and made her sit on his thighs on the floor. When she straddled him, holding her waist with one hand and her nape with the other, he leaned in it and grazed her lips with his fangs. She cried as her stomach twisted and coiled with pleasure. He licked the seam of her lips and she parted them for him. In a fraction of a second, his tongue was inside her mouth. 

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