The Devil's Betrothed novel Chapter 172

Chapter 172: That Dragon Is Not Me

"This can’t be. You know I can’t have a mate...I’m human..."

"Do you still consider yourself as one?" Drayce asked. "You cannot ignore his existence. How long are you going to run away from reality? Even if you deny him, your life is proof of his existence."

"That vile creature is not me."

Drayce continued, "Do not repeat the mistake I made. Whatever I try, in the end, I have no other option but to give in. There is no other way for beings like us but to accept them."

"It’s different in your case, Dray. Your other side, Erebus, he is no one but you. He is the other part of your soul that you created because you hated the darkness inside you. But it’s not the same for me.

"Unlike you, who is a child born from a witch and the Devil, I am born from human parents. I am human. That thing living inside me is not me nor a part of my soul, but an unfortunate consequence of my mother trying to save her stillborn child.

"He is not me, Dray. He is another soul living inside my body—a parasite trying to take over my consciousness every single chance he gets. We are in a constant battle for dominance over my body. _{frёeweɓηovel.coɱ}

"And now you are telling me that because of this vile creature, I will become mates with this peasant girl? That I have to give in to his nature, that I surrender to his urges even though that is not what I want?

"This body is mine! My life is mine to control! Not that Dragon, not that girl, but me—"

Drayce put his hand on Arlan’s shoulder to calm him, but Arlan shrugged his comfort away. The prince’s handsome face showed frigid anger, but it was directed inwardly.

"It would have been better if my mother did not let me be born."

"Your mother loved you so much, all she wanted was to give her child a chance at life."

His pale-white knuckles shook as Arlan attempted to calm his rising anger.

"Even if the soul inside her child’s body will eventually be replaced by another?" The prince let out a bitter laugh. "I know. We have had this discussion many times before. Everything comes with a price. This vile creature inside me is the cost I paid for living. Just that... it’s exhausting, you know?

"I want to live my life without being troubled or affected by that thing. I have no plans to involve myself with women, but due to a peasant girl, due to some magical connection she has with this beast inside me, I must give up resisting? How ridiculous!"

"Mother used to tell me that for supernatural beings like us, there is no such thing as coincidence in this world," Drayce remarked after a while. "I am sure it must have a purpose to fulfill. If a Dragon has chosen her, then that girl cannot be someone ordinary," Drayce said.

"Not ordinary? Sure. She must be the illegitimate daughter of trouble. She lands herself in all sorts of problems wherever she goes."

Drayce sensed something else in Arlan’s sarcastic response. "You never felt anything special about her? Something strange?"

The blue-eyed man shook his head. "Aside from her penchant for living disguised as a man, she is just an ordinary girl, albeit a cheeky and fearless little thing. If she was anything special, I would have sensed it. Did you sense something?"

Drayce realized Arlan was still not aware that his aide was a witch, one aligned with the darkness attribute, and that she was the one he found hiding black nightshade with her.

’He could not sense her essence?’