start a war
Azriel x Archeron!Mate!Reader
ACOTAR x Reader Masterlist | AO3 Link
Summary: based on this ask - title from Jennie's 'start a war'. Azriel is very protective of you, but you've never been bothered by it. So when your sons are protective of you as well? You're nothing but grateful for their support.
Warnings: some bullying/misogynistic shit from the Illyrians, mentions of wing clipping, I don't think there's anything else
Words: ~2.3k
Author's Note: @romantasyreader28 I'm so happy to finally have this request done for you!! Writing protective Az was sooo fun, I really hope you like it! ☺️🫶
18+ only pls
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Being the second-eldest daughter of the Archeron family, and twin to Nesta, had been tough.
But nothing had been so difficult as being mated to the Shadowsinger of the Night Court, Azriel.
Not that you didn’t love and cherish the male with all of your heart, that wasn’t what was difficult about it.
It was being a former-human-turned-high-fae that was difficult, at least when you were in Illyria with your mate. Which happened to be nearly all the time, now that you lived here with Azriel and your soon-to-be-born twin boys.
As much as Azriel detested the ways of his people, he couldn’t bear to see his children outcast by them entirely. So when he had asked you if you would be comfortable moving here, ready for you to reject the notion entirely? You had said yes, even knowing how difficult it could be.
But your Archeron upbringing had trained you well for it, right?
Wrong.
While Nesta had occasionally been cold to you, your father distant, and your mother downright abusive, your upbringing had been nothing to the scorn and hatred shown to you by the Illyrian people, for having dared to be mated to one of them.
Azriel had flown you to the mountains when you had been only three months pregnant, to have the two of you find a suitable plot of land to build your house - well, for Azriel to build your new home. He had fussed over you the whole way, his shadows wrapped around you everywhere that he wasn’t touching, making sure there was no chance that you could be dropped or having any sort of harm befall you on your journey.
You had merely giggled at his overprotective behavior, which had been present since your courting and mateship, but now that you were pregnant? He had gone overboard with it, sending at least five shadows with you everywhere you went that he didn’t, an increase from the usual two. You found it cute, how he just wanted to keep you safe at all times.
The entire time you were in Windhaven, no Illyrians approached the two of you, instead staying a safe distance away, their scornful eyes watching the pair of you closely. You had hardly noticed it at the time, but four months later, when Azriel had finished the cabin and the two of you had moved in?
It was all you could notice.
You were eight months pregnant when you moved in, and from what you had heard of Azriel’s young adulthood, pregnancy was a blessing to be celebrated by the entire war camp.
But no one came to visit with well wishes, not that you’d expected them to, and yet… You had hoped you might be accepted by your new neighbors, at least on a surface level.
You and Azriel made do with your situation, celebrating the birth of your twin boys with the company of your family, one of the happiest days of your life.
When you looked at Azriel, and then to the twin boys sleeping in your arms, you knew that whatever hardships that may come would be worth every second of joy you would have.
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Fifteen. Your twins, Kai and Keiran, were fifteen years of age now, and had already been training in the rings with the older males for five years, giving you plenty to use you cauldron-gifted powers on.
You hadn’t been given much in the way of sheer power by the mythical force, but what you had been gifted was healing magic, which was more than enough for you.
Initially, you had hoped that your ability to heal wounds would have you accepted by the camp, but it actually had the opposite effect. Your sons, and any that you healed, were seen as weak for needing their injuries mended beyond stopping death’s cold hands from taking them.
Still, you healed the younger females in secret, knowing that even with Rhys attempting to change the thinking of the Illyrian people, their lives were hard enough as it was without having scraped hands and knees.
At the current moment, you were washing laundry in the slow paced stream on the edge of the camp, a few paces away from the other mothers and daughters of the camp. They had been staring at you scornfully the entire time you’d been crouched on the bank, scrubbing at the endless pile of Illyrian leathers that your sons went through over the last week.
It wasn’t until you saw the shadow of a pair of wings covering you that you turned around, coming face to face with Devlon.
“Can I help you, Lord?” You asked politely as you set down the leathers, staring up at the male that only came around to make your life difficult.
“Perhaps,” He said coolly, staring down at you with disdain. “It appears that one of the young girls who had her wings clipped last night also seems to have had them healed soon after, leaving her able to fly. Do you happen to know anything about that?”
You blinked up at him, forcing yourself to look confused. “No, I don’t know anything about that, Lord. Perhaps your warriors weren’t able to cut the tendons properly? Also… Isn’t wing clipping forbidden under the High Lord?”
Devlon seethed down at you, raising a hand in the air as if he would strike you.
“Is there a problem here, Lord?”
Kai appeared at your side not a moment later, one wing curling protectively around your back.
“It would be awfully rude of you to strike our mother when you have no proof of wrongdoing,” Keiran said as he stood at your other side, copying his twin’s pose, arms crossed over his puffed out chest.
“Especially if High Lord Rhysand were to find out about the supposed wing clipping that you just asked her about,” Kai added cheerily.
Devlon let out a hiss of annoyance and stormed away from the three of you, and you let out a sigh of relief. You may not be as afraid of him as you once were, but you were still well aware of the threat that the male posed to you.
“Thank you, boys,” you said, giving them each a kiss on the cheek when you finally stood. “What ever would I do without you?” You asked sweetly as you looked at them, carbon copies of their father.
“You’d threaten him all the same, momma,” Kai remarked as he gave you a quick hug. “We should probably get back…”
Keiran leaned in to give you a longer squeeze, pressing your cheeks together as he had since he was a babe. “We’ll see you for dinner, yeah?”
“I’d better,” you warned as they began walking away, wings fluttering lightly in the breeze. “You boys be good!” You yelled after them when they started running back towards the training rings, shaking your head at them.
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Eight months later, Winter Solstice was upon you. This year, your sisters and their mates came to stay in Rhys’s cabin, just a short winnow away from Windhaven. That meant all of you would be attending the festivities in Windhaven, something Rhys had been attempting to do every other year since your boys were born, in hopes of improving relations between the Dreamers and the Illyrians.
Early in the afternoon, though, Azriel was called away to the Hewn City, Keir had caused a scene when Rhys had offered only a short visit from him and Feyre tonight.
You spent the time before your sisters and their mates showed up preparing your boys, dressing them up nicely in fine leathers that you and Azriel had spent the last few months making in secret.
After all, this was the first year that your boys had crushes! You wanted them to look their best for Solstice!
And this morning while you were getting ready, Azriel had surprised you with a gorgeous fur gown that he had made for you in secret as well, perfect for keeping you warm in the snowy Illyrian mountains. He had lowered the gown over your head, then shoulders carefully before guiding your arms through the sleeves, his touch so gentle it brought tears to your eyes. It was only after he had gotten the dress in place that you pulled him in for a kiss, full of all the love you felt for your sweet, dedicated mate.
“Do you like it?” He had asked lowly when you pulled away, his lovely hazel eyes searching yours.
“Azzie, I love it! How long were you working on it?” You’d asked, marveling at the perfect stitching, the white fur trim lining the edges of the tan dress, and of course the sleeves that were fitted to the elbow before billowing out past the edge of your fingers.
“Oh, a few minutes here, a few minutes there,” Azriel had said softly, smiling at your laugh before pulling you in for another kiss, this one more heated.
It was then that Kai and Keiran had burst through your door in search of their outfits, ‘ewing’ when they saw the two of you break away from each other.
That had been eight hours ago, just before Azriel had been called away, and there was still no sign of them. The festivities had already begun, the bonfire already lit - your favorite moment to share with Azriel.
You sighed and poured yourself a glass of wine before wandering over to a bench, not wanting to disturb your sisters at the moment, who were busy canoodling with their own mates. How you wished yours would return at this moment, bringing happiness and warm to this otherwise frigid nights.
Already, you could see the disapproving stares of those around you, your family excluded. It was only a matter of time before the whispers started…
In your fifteen years in Windhaven, you had only been to one Illyrian celebration without Azriel by your side, a harvest festival that your boys had begged to go to, even though their father had been away on the Continent that week. After that, well… You always made sure that Azriel or your boys were with you, if you went to any festivities.
Tonight though, you would deal with the whispers, the stares, the leering males who took the opportunity while Azriel wasn’t around to threaten them over it.
“She looks so pathetic over there, her mate can’t even bother to spend Solstice with her,” one female whispered loudly, smiling at you when you made eye contact with her.
“I bet he’s off fucking someone else,” the person next to her tittered.
“I know I wouldn’t be able to stand touching her,” one of the men nearby said.
“I don’t know, I feel like she’s got to be a freak to keep that bastard entertained,” one of the males chortled, his eyes greedily looking over you.
You were just about to give up and go home, having stood from your spot on the bench, when a pair of strong arms wrapped around you, wings curling around your body next.
You looked up and back, a grin breaking over your face when you saw Azriel’s gorgeous face hovering over yours. “Hi,” you whispered.
“Hello, my love,” Azriel murmured before placing a gentle kiss on your lips. After parting from you, he spun you in his arms, his eyes taking on a more serious look. “How has your Solstice been?”
“Oh… You know…” You trailed off, not truly wanting to discuss the cruel words that had been whispered in your presence.
“Who do I need to take care of?” Azriel growled as he pulled you closer, eyes looking over his wings to see who might have hurt you.
You buried your face in his chest, taking in a deep breath of night chilled mist and cedar before you said the name, directly into his leathers.
“I’m sorry, love, I didn’t quite hear that.”
You sighed, and pulled back from his chest to look in his eyes. “Torin, straight in front of you. And… Everyone he’s standing with.”
Azriel growled again, his eyes locked on the male for a minute before turning back to you. “Are you alright? Do you want to go home?”
“I’m alright, now that you’re here,” you replied with a smile.
Az nodded. “Good. Do you mind if I go talk some sense into them?”
Your smile only grew. “No, go right ahead my love.”
He unfurled his wings from around you, and squeezed you one last time before you stepped to the side, turning to watch as he stomped furiously through the snow over to the group, for once grateful that he hadn’t taken the time to remove his knife belts.
Maybe they would finally learn to stop shit talking you, at least within earshot of you.
In a moment, Azriel had the male pinned to the floor by his neck, one of his boots holding a wing to the ground, painfully if the male’s whimpers had anything to say about the situation.
“The next time I hear that you’ve talking about my wife, I will take you into the ring for your last time, am I understood?” He asked, tightening his hold when Torin didn’t answer. “Am I understood?!”
Torin tapped on Azriel’s arm, nodding as much as he could in his hold. “Yes, yes,” he croaked out once Az let him go, straightening out and leveling the rest of his group with a glare.
“That goes for the rest of you, do you understand?”
The group nodded, wide eyed as they murmured yes, none of them daring to help Torin stand from where he was still laying on the ground, clutching at his throat.
“Good! Now, my sweet mate, would you join me for a dance?” Azriel asked after he turned from the group, his hazel eyes soft and caring once again.
“I’d love nothing more, mate,” you replied, letting Azriel lead you over to the bonfire, where you could see your sisters and mates dancing among the others.
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