"She's going to make a wonderful queen," a cheery voice praises.

"Be quiet, you're going to wake her," another voice hisses out.

Still groggy, I shift and groan when I open my eyes slightly to the light. The voices stop, someone shuffles around before I hear the sound of a door closing. Did they leave? I lie still for a few more moments, pretending to be asleep, in case someone was still in here with me.

"Elouise, I know you're not sleeping," I squeak caught off guard by the sound of Asher's voice.

"Crabs," I whisper under my breath, opening my eyes and adjusting to the light, I blink a few times being zoning in on him standing by the edge of the bed I was sleeping in.

"Crabs?" Asher questions.

"Oh for God's sake, piss off Asher! I didn't ask to be here, did I? Now, stop questioning my choice of words." I huff, irritated, sitting up.

"Ok, I'm sorry. Crabs are perfectly fine," he apologises. "And, please, call me Ash."

"I'm sorry too... Ash," I say, reluctant to call him Ash, "you can call me Elle, Elouise is a mouthful."

"Alright Elle," he smiles then stares at me with big eyes, for a moment in some sort of trance, before snapping out it, "oh, you must be hungry, do you want something to eat?"

"No, it's fine, I've got this," I use my magic to conjure up a sandwich. Ash looks at the tuna sandwich in disgust, he must not like fish.

"Want some," I say putting the sandwich close to his face, purposely trying to annoy him. Grimacing, he pushes my hands away gently, "no thanks, I'm good." He says still pulling a face.

Taking a big bite, "suit yourself," I say with my full of tuna and bread. When a question dawns on me, I place my sandwich to one side and look up at Ash.

"Where's Eli?"

He points to the couch in the corner, where once again lay a sleeping Eli. I really don't pay attention.

"We aren't going to play another game, are we?" I ask warily.

Ash begins to chuckle, "no, don't worry beautiful," he says. He called me beautiful, I gush at the compliment, feeling my heartbeat harder and a flush rise up my neck. I think I have feelings for Ash.

"Really!?" Ash says suddenly snapping me out of my thoughts.

"What? Did I say something?" I say embarrassed, wait, he read my mind! Oh god, he knows that I like him.

"So you do like me," he confirms wiggling his eyebrows. "I knew my dashing good looks were too hard to resist," he teases.

My cheeks grow redder, I hide my face in my hands, "oh god," I mumble, I blow out a breath before speaking, "sure it was your good looks," I retort, "definitely not the mate bond between us."

"Sooner or later the mate bond would have kicked in..." he elaborates.

"I really would've preferred later," I mumble.

"...but this great," he continues.

"Explain to me how this is great."

"Because I need you, and I love you," he rushes out, I blink at him, "this is just another step in the right direction."

He loves me?! I practically melt at the thought. Elle! What he's not that bad, my psyche disputes.

"I know I'm not." Ash butts in.

"Could you not read my thoughts, please. It's an invasion of my privacy," I groan at him.

"It's only fair, I know as a demon you can have psychic abilities and can read my thoughts too," he counters. It's true, I read Eli's mind but I have yet to read Ash's.

"Sorry that I know how to respect other's privacy and excuse me for not wanting to be exposed to that," I say pointing at his head.

"You won't know what I think until you actually look, and anyway since we both have the ability I see it fair that we both use it." He argues a valid point.

"Whatever," I mumble. I remember something, "I have another question," I say looking at him.

"You have a lot of those," he smiles. I give him a look, "what's your question?"

"Earlier, you broke my spell and stopped me from using some of my magic, how?"

"As your mate, your magic is weaker on me since to some extent we aren't allowed to harm each other. And the other thing, well, I can't tell you. If I did you, I'd lose my upper hand." He explains with a grin.

"Okay, nice to know. So can I leave?" I ask.

His face drops, his smile replaced by a frown, "Elle I don't want you to leave. You are my mate, I want to be with you, I want you to be my queen. To be the next queen, I can't rule without you. Please stay, I don't want to force you." He begs, taking my hand.

Call me crazy but maybe I should stay, there are other people at Thistle, James has got it under control and no one really needs me there. Plus what's the point in running he'll just find me and by being queen I could make a real difference, stop vampires from killing and find an alternative. The fates put us together for a reason.

I sit silently sorting through my thoughts, I blow out a breath, "screw it, I'll stay. I've got nothing to lose," I shrug.

Ash looks at me in disbelief, his mouth opens slightly, "you may need to pinch me because I must be dreaming. This can't be real," he rubs his eyes.

I laugh, hitting his arm lightly "this isn't a dream, dummy. I'm staying, I'll be your Queen and mate."

"You won't leave me, you'll stay," he confirms to which I nod my head.

"I'll stay by your side as your equal."

"You're staying?!" A voice cries out.

——————————————————

Woah, there's a plot twist. Elle's staying by Ash's side with no means of leaving. How sweet.

But I guess not everything's going to go her way. Oh well.

Update out next week.

Enami out ;-)