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You didn’t know that this would ever happen. You didn’t know that a simple one night stand would get you here.
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Really was it your fault that you had too many drinks and followed a handsome man to a hotel? Well your sober self certainly did think so. You were horrified when you woke up and found yourself sleeping next to an unfamiliar man while the both of you were naked. Not to mention the soreness your body felt and the side of your neck sting. You already knew something happened between you and him.
Fuck.
You curse under your breath as you look at yourself in the mirror. The bite mark would surely stay there for a while considering that it.. broke through skin. Damn you’re not going to sleep with a wolf man again if they all bite this hard. It must’ve hurt when it happened but luckily you were drunk and didn’t remember it. Now it was just the aftermath.
You quickly found your clothes among the ones scattered on the floor and dressed yourself before leaving a pouch of mora with a note on the desk to apologize for last night. You left as soon as you could before the man awoke because honestly you don’t think you can talk to someone after having an accidental one night stand.
The following days were normal. You patched up that area of your neck and covered it with turtlenecks or scarves. You avoided both the tavern and hotel where it happened and just continued with your life as usual.
Well… That is until one day two men dressed in uniforms approached you and told you to go with them to the Fortress of Meropide regarding something that happened a few nights ago. What have you done honestly? You couldn't have committed a crime too while you were drunk right? Fuck.
“I don’t know what happened but I assure you it wasn’t me. I haven’t done anything illegal I swear”
“We don’t know the full details. We were only told by the Duke to bring you there for a discussion. If you could cooperate it’ll be best for everyone”
Discussion of what? How long will your sentence be? But you can’t exactly refuse them since they were official gardes. If you do then you’ll get resisting arrest added to your ‘crimes’ right? Yeah you’ll just follow them and when you get there you can explain that whatever happened was just an accident.
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You really weren’t expecting this when you were told to sit in the Duke’s office. Turns out that the man you had slept with a few nights ago was the Duke of Meropide. Just your luck huh? But what’s more shocking was the paper he slid across the table towards you.
“This is…”
“Well I thought it’s better to make it official sooner than later. Don’t want those officials coming to any of our doors demanding us to state what we are in legal papers”
You place the paper down and look towards him. He seems so nonchalant for someone who had just handed you marriage papers.
“I can’t marry you”
“Well you don’t have to. But unfortunately for the both of us we’re already mated which means in the eyes of the law we’re effectively already married”
You stood up and slammed your hands on the table.
“It was a drunken mistake! You can’t do this to me!”
“Well that makes the two of us but the law wouldn’t care about it since we both already marked each other”
You looked confused for a few seconds until he grabbed his collar and lowered it to show a ring of teeth marks on the spot between his left shoulder and his neck. Is that..? No that can’t be yours. You’re not strong enough to make the bite mark stay this long even after days.
“That’s not mine. It can’t be mine. I don’t have a strong enough jaw for-”
“It’s definitely yours. Come here”
He pulled you closer by leaning over the desk to get you to meet him in the middle. He grabbed your jaw and forced it open before pushing you to his shoulder. The mark lines up perfectly with your teeth…
“See? Yours. And I’m betting mine is still present on your person too”
He pulled away the scarf you were wearing and pulled down the collar of your shirt to reveal the bite mark that still persistently wouldn’t go away. Your breath hitches as you feel his fingers softly tracing it.
“This is definitely mine alright”
He finally let go of you and you took the opportunity to scoot as far away from him as possible. You glared at him as you wiped a stray drool with your sleeve.
“And what? This doesn’t mean anything! Just because we slept together once doesn’t mean I have to marry you!”
He let out an exasperated sigh as he shook his head.
“You humans… It wasn’t the fact that we slept together that dictates we should marry. It was the bite marks . I literally just told you. If we had slept but not marked each other we wouldn't have to sign this thing or have this conversation”
“What’s the big deal about them? It’s not like it won’t go away in a few days- maybe weeks but it surely would go away eventually”
He stared at you for a while before suddenly he realized something.
You must have not known about claiming marks.
He groaned as he dragged a hand down his face slowly.
“Archons what did I do to get a mate like this?”
It seems that the two of you will spend quite some time in his office as he try to explain the concept from the very beginning.
Though he refused to admit it a small part of Wriothesley hoped that you wouldn’t outright reject him. He would really like to know you better. Even if it started as an accident he was actually quite curious to know how a human mate might act. This might be an interesting journey for the both of you.