My Mate Can't be a Bird! (I swear I'm not into that kind of stuff)

15: Just Kiss the Girl! Please! Just f****** Kiss the-

And you don't know why
But you're dying to try
You wanna kiss girl

The Little Mermaid (1989)

In which Rowan fantasizes about Aelin in all sorts of situations. Now get your head out of the gutter, ya'll, I mean he wants her dead! It's allll he can think about. Really.

This chapter is especially for its muse, Mlnhiws . Here is a Rowan chapter as you wanted, my lovely reader.

Rowan

Aelin was staring at him, turquoise eyes wide with surprise. He'd had no choice but to fly out as soon as the sun rose--it was impossible when his mate was so far away in such a dangerous place.

After such a long time apart, the bond they shared felt like a sharp, incessant tug on his mind, flooding it with images he'd rather not have. It pulled Rowan's eyes to her best features--her lips, her gold-ringed Ashryver eyes, her long slender legs--and all the possibilities of said attractive features. And all of it a primitive attempt to initiate (and Rowan's eye twitched as he realized it)-- less-than-proper activities.

Rowan tried very hard to think about all the dead people right in front of them, for it would be a deep desecration on their souls if anything unseemly happened here. His aunt must certainly want offsprings with this brat. Which made sense. Maeve could stake a valid claim on Terrasen that way.

"Thanks," the Royal Brat deigned to grace him with a reply, "I tried."

Rowan carefully schooled his expression into one of complete neutrality; any flicker of lust and perhaps she could easily use it as an excuse to assault him on Maeve's orders. He didn't know the full extent of Aelin's involvement in this after all. "It took you a full day and night."

"Keeping track? I suppose you missed me."

"No," he felt anger rise within him at this disgusting implication, "I did not."

"No need to be so uptight, it's just a joke."

Rowan took a moment to calm himself, he would not be teased by mere brat. He had to focus on the most the topic at hand: assessing her performance.

It was headache inducing. She barely payed him any attention, preferring instead to stare off and occasionally jump in with rude remarks. However, assessing a recruit's performance was something he was used to, and Rowan let the familiar analytical approach calm his mind. He started with criticism, because she was no novice, and he was rather miffed at how she survived a night in these cursed lands.

(It was such a missed opportunity. In his most irritated moments when he wished to be rid of her, Rowan had been fantasizing about sending her out to the barrows, at night, so that she may die a slow, painful death. To see her survive, it crushed his hopes and dreams. Not that he had any, but it was the principle of the thing.)

Rowan sighed internally as he reached the end and began to pass judgement. He said in his best imitation of an impartial man, "I shall be generous enough to judge you fairly. Now considering everything you did:

"You passed through the barrows, while not exactly following the rules. You didn't use magic, but not weapons either. You did not use weapons although they were in your possession, therefore you will not be punished. But as you did not use magic, either, you have failed the test-"

"--Rutting hell!" Aelin cut him off with an angry screech. She then proceeded to argue with him on how he was wrong and she was right.

First, she survived the barrows, and now she proceeded to harass him like this? The brat would pay.