Pregnant by the Prince of Lust(BL)

Seraphel

There was dead silence in the inner chamber of Luceriel’s pavilion, where a round table stood at its center, a green orb suspended just above its surface, casting faint light across the room and projecting the images of brothers too far scattered across their realms to arrive in time.

All seven sat around it now, some in body, some only in light.

Raizel, Prince of Greed, sat wrapped in a shining golden robe, a dark fan raised to cover half his face. Lumiel looked as though he’d been dragged straight out of a sandstorm mid-battle, his sword hanging loose in one hand, the edge of it still faintly smoking. Taizel had a drink already in hand, swirling it lazily, the very picture of someone unbothered by anything short of an empty goblet.

The last to appear was Sariel. He arrived covered in blood, his amber-gold eyes flashing sharp with anger as he settled into his seat and faced the rest of us, and it was he who finally broke the silence.

"We have gone centuries without needing meetings called every other day," he said, brow arched. "So why in the world am I being summoned now, in the middle of something rather important?"

Lumiel shifted in his seat, sword tapping idly against the floor. "Tell me, dear brothers, what exactly is going on? As far as I am aware, Elysium has gone silent for months. Why call this meeting now, and why should any of us care?"

"That’s exactly why Luceriel summoned you all," Azriel answered, shifting beside me. "First, I—" He glanced at me, as though seeking permission, and I nodded, urging him on. "Castiel is Seraphel’s father."

The reaction was immediate. Sariel spoke first, his tone flat and clinical, as though he were solving a puzzle rather than addressing a person. "That would explain why he carries Castiel’s light, and why he survived his ruts without dying the way most omegas do." He tilted his head. "But why is he not corrupted, born of sin, the way the rest of us were?"

"Castiel said he had already fallen as a god before he met my other father," I said. "He was human by then."

Sariel cast me a long, searching look, and I knew at once he was using the power of his sight on me. "I see you’ve broken through your first stage," he said. "I confess, I’m a little impressed, even though I shouldn’t be."

"Thank—"

"It’s not a compliment," he added, before I could finish.

I rolled my eyes at him, knowing full well he would never change.

"So Castiel revealed himself to you?" Lumiel asked, yawning and stretching, his sword swinging idly in one hand.

Azriel nodded.

"Is that truly why we’re here?" Raizel asked. "I had planned to sail the seven seas for a relic I’ve been hunting for months, and—" He paused, lowering the fan from his face as Uriel stepped into the room, Tobias trailing a step behind him. "Oh, goodness. Is that Uriel? Hello, little brother!"

Uriel waved, yawning, and dropped into a seat beside Sariel’s projection, while Tobias attempted to take the seat nearest to Taizel, who only glared at him for it.

"What is he doing here at all?" Taizel demanded. "I confess I’m curious why Azriel hasn’t already killed him, after everything he caused in Katula."

’’i Snapped his neck once, i wish i could do it again.’’

Uriel let out a low growl at the mention of killing Tobias, and I recognized the sound at once, the sharp, protective edge of a mating bond reacting to a direct threat. I found myself wondering, watching him, whether the two of them had already completed their bond fully, and I glanced between the brothers seated around the table, half expecting Taizel to somehow appear in the room and make good on what his voice implied.

"Do not you dare growl at me," Taizel said, lowering his goblet, jaw tight. "He is from Elysium. You know precisely what he is capable of, and how Seraphel nearly died because of him. There’s no need to pretend what he did was justified, when we all know the only reason he’s still breathing is because you’re his mate."

"Tobias is no longer with Elysium," Uriel fired back. "He fought against his own realm just to be here, with me."

Sariel scoffed, shifting in his seat. He looked entirely clean of blood now, not a trace of it left on him anywhere, and I found myself oddly impressed that he’d managed the change without a single person in the room noticing it happen.

"Every last one of them is the same," Sariel said, voice hard. "None of them are good, whether they happen to be someone’s mate or not. Do not forget what they did to us. How they treated us, for centuries."

"And yet you keep Zephyrus locked away," Uriel shot back, yawning as he stretched his arms behind his back, "hiding the fact that he’s your fated mate?"

Gasps broke out around the table, but I only shifted where I sat, one hand resting over the swell of my stomach. I had already known, since the siege of Katula, and had simply chosen not to say anything.

It was Sariel’s story to tell, not mine.

"Zephyrus is your mate?" Azriel demanded, fists clenching hard against the table. "Is that why you hid the truth from the rest of us? Because you wanted to protect him, and yet you told us you intended to torture him for information on Elysium? Is that truly it?"

Sariel shrugged. "I owe you no answer to that. But I will say this much, dear brother. You would have done precisely the same, were he your mate."

"He still tried to kill my mate. He destroyed my kingdom."

"And he is suffering for it," Sariel fired back.

"I’m not convinced he’s suffering nearly enough," Azriel said, his voice dropping soft and even, though I could feel the fury simmering beneath it through the bond regardless. "Not until his limbs are mounted on the walls of Mecianda."

There was something unsettling in the calm of his tone, something that didn’t sit right, and a faint, dark aura began curling around him at the edges, the unmistakable pull of his demon blood rising close to the surface.

I reached out at once and laid my hand gently over his where it rested on the table.

He turned to look at me as I rubbed slow circles over his knuckles. His crimson eyes widened slightly, and then, after a moment, he lowered his head and let out a long breath.

"It’s all right," I told him gently. "I already knew Sariel was fated to Zephyrus. We should let them be, Azriel. He’s his mate, whatever the rest of us think of it, and there’s nothing any of us can do to change that except accept it." I thought of how Sariel had stepped in to protect me more than once, without ever once asking for anything in return, and I saw no reason for any of them to keep tearing each other apart over something none of them could undo.

A heavy silence settled over the table the moment I finished speaking. No one argued further. No one so much as looked at one another, each of them simply sitting with the weight of it instead.

Then laughter broke the silence, and every eye in the room turned toward Pazuzu, still bound to his chair, green vines wound tightly around him.

"And who, exactly, is this? Why does his aura feel so absurdly powerful?" Raizel demanded, fanning himself briskly.

Luceriel opened his mouth to make the introduction himself, but Pazuzu beat him to it, violet eyes fluttering open at last.

"Hello, brother-in-laws. Am I terribly late to the meeting?"