The Sultan's Obsession with His Chosen Bride
Aleerah lowered her eyes, “You are the Sultan. My place is to serve you, not to distract you with my presence.”
“Distract me? Aleerah, you are the only presence I crave. Do you not see? The affairs of the state bore me, the council tires me, but you-” he took in a sharp breath “you make the air itself burn.”
Aleerah hesitantly said, “If I burn, my Sultan, then I wish to burn quietly, far from your throne. My father warned me: serve the Sultan, never disturb him. So I keep silent. I give what is asked, nothing more.”
Azmir Khalid retorted, “Silence? Is that what you think I want? A silent wife? A docile shadow? No! I chose you because you were different.”
“Different? I was only desperate. My father was desperate. Perhaps you mistook desperation for fire.”
Azmir Khalid with eyes narrowing, voice trembling with restrained fury, said “Do not reduce yourself to that. Do not reduce what I feel to mere desperation. I could have chosen a dozen noble daughters, each bred to obey me without question. Yet it is you I cannot stop thinking of.”
Aleerah took a step back as she said; “And that is why I stay away, my Sultan. Your eyes… they consume. I fear if I meet them too often, I will have nothing left of myself.”
Azmir Khalid moved forward, closing the distance between them, “Then let yourself be consumed.”
Aleerah startled, “Sultan–”
“Do not call me Sultan when we are alone. I am your husband. Say my name.”
Aleerah is hesitant, and barely audible as she said; “…Azmir.”
“Again.”
“Azmir.”
Azmir's eyes shut close savoring the call ; “Every time you say my name, I feel you belong to me. Yet every time I reach for you, I feel you slipping away. Why do you torment me so, Aleerah?”
Aleerah replied with a false calm; “I do not torment you. I only obey. I serve. That is all.”
Azmir Khalid snapped; “That is not all! Obedience without a soul is an insult. I do not want your obedience, I want your fire, your defiance, your heart beating against mine as though the world itself could not separate us!”
Aleerah quietly replied; “And if I cannot give that, my Sultan?”
Azmir Khalid paused, with jaw tightening, “…Then I will make you.”
---
She was never meant to be his bride.
She was given to the Sultan to save her family.
He was meant to choose a noble bride, yet he chose her; A commoner's daughter.
Now Aleerah lives in a palace of whispers, where one wrong step could ruin her father, disgrace her name, and cost her life.
But Sultan Azmir Khalid is obsessed. Every glance she avoids, every silence she gives, only fuels his hunger. In a world where power crushes the weak, Aleerah must decide:
submit to his dangerous desire...or risk everything she loves.