Disclaimer: I do not own Game of Thrones
He did not love Arianne Martell. He hadn't been opposed to the marriage. It made sense. She was beautiful. They had an understanding. He planned to be faithful to his soon to be wife. He wouldn't be like his father.
But when Aegon saw her for the first time, everything changed.
Arya Stark was beautiful, fierce, strong. She was loyal and kind to those who were deserving. She was talented and smart. She was everything a queen should be.
Arianne was furious. Not because she loved Aegon, but because she did not want the humiliation. He had suggested breaking the betrothal. It had not been made official yet, though it was general knowledge.
"A Stark will not be chosen over a Martell, not again. I am to be queen. You will not take that from me, Aegon. "
He had left it at that, but his obsession with the She-Wolf of Winterfell grew stronger.
She had made her way to Dragonstone as an ambassador to the King in the North, Jon Snow. It was simple. The North wanted to remain independent and Aegon wanted Arya. She had stayed a little over a month to continue negotiation and provide counsel. He could never get her alone. A legitimized bastard of the Usurper kept watch at her side day and night.
Aegon sent her letters and gifts that were promptly sent back, unopened.
"Do your guards not pass on my gifts?" He asks when he meets her and the Baratheon in the hall.
"I do not wish for your gifts." She replies coldly. The Baratheon glares at him. Aegon smirks.
"They are gifts from my heart."
"I want nothing of your heart." She says.
"And all I want is yours, so it seems that we are at an impasse."
Arianne thought him a fool. She was growing fond of the Stark girl. They were two strong women with bold personalities and masters of manipulation and intimidation.
Arianne used her body and Arya used her sword.
Aegon preferred Arya. She had a wild heart. She wanted more out of life than sitting on a throne. She wanted adventure and magic. She wanted to be more than one thing.
Arianne scowled when he would gaze at the little wolf.
"It's pathetic. The last time a Targaryen lusted after a Stark, they both died."
"As did the Martell." He growls at her.
For the first time, Arianne is frightened by him.
"Leave her be, Aegon. Wolves are not made for Dragons. We are both serpents, we will do well."
Aegon sips his wine as he watches the Baratheon make Arya laugh by whispering something in her ear.
"Wolves are not made for stags either."
He finally traps her while she is bathing. Her skin is flushed from the heat and steam. Her eyes are cold and sharp like ice.
"I want you." He says it like a command.
She tilts her head. "You can't have me."
"If you want the North to be free, this is my condition."
She picks up the cloth and continues to wash her legs.
"Is this the king Westeros will have? Coveting the women of its lands, treating them like common whores."
"All I ask is to have you, just once," He pleads, like a pathetic little boy pleads for a toy. "I need to feel your skin against mine. Just once."
"The only way is if you rape me." She states. "Then I will go back North to help my brother prepare for war against your armies."
"You think I would do such a thing?"
She stares at him, mocking him. "You are your father's son, are you not?"
He glares at her. "We both know that's not what happened."
He leaves, disturbed at his behavior. He ignores her for a few days but something pulls him to her room once more.
He finds her laying with the Baratheon. The man is on top of her, blocking his view of her naked form. He thanks the gods for that. The moans and whimpers she releases are torture but he would have surely gone mad seeing her naked body receive pleasure from that other man. It is when she whimpers his name, Gendry, that he thinks he feels his heart break.
He announces it during dinner.
"The North will remain a free and independent realm as it had for thousands of years."
She gives him a nod and shares an accomplished smile with the Baratheon. Aegon means his words but he does not think he can let go of Arya Stark so easily.
"One look," He whispers in her ear. She stiffens but he continues. "A look upon your body and I'll be satisfied."
She tells him to meet her in the hall and he thinks maybe he's won.
"What is wrong with you, that you think it's okay to try to make advances at me when your betrothed is sitting right there?" She growls at him.
"It's a political match." He answers.
"I am not the kind of person who takes men away from other women, even if there are no feelings involved."
"Would you like me to break it off? The Martells would get over it."
She grips the pommel of rapier sword that she carries at her hip. "I am to marry Gendry. I love Gendry. I don't know why you think you have a right to try and claim me. I have never given you any reason to think I welcomed any advances from you or anyone else but Gendry."
"Falling in love with you wasn't a choice."
"You don't love me." She snarls.
"I would give you a crown upon your head. I would have you be my queen. We would rule together. I would do anything for you. I'd make the Seven Kingdoms bow at your feet."
Her anger is subdued for a moment. She breathes a few times. The look she gives him is almost tender. "If you really loved me. You would know, that I'd want none of that." She says it as if she is speaking to a small child. A child who doesn't understand.
They stand there, silent in the hall.
Arya sighs. "Everyone wants a wolf. It's the challenge. They expect a wolf to be like a hound, so eager to bend to a master's will. So eager to please in order to gain reward, but I am a wolf."
He spends that night staring at the canopy above his bed. He wonders if he had approached her differently. If he had sent the Baratheon away or Arianne away, would it have made a difference?
It doesn't matter in the end. Aegon wakes the next morning to see sails raising, marked with a direwolf.
He runs to the docks but the ships have already raised their planks.
Arianne comes behind him.
"It's for the best." She says placing her hand on his shoulder. "Wolves belong in the wild, places like the North or the Stormlands even. She would have hated it in King's Landing and she would have hated you."
Aegon envies his father for the first time in his life. His father had found happiness towards the end of his life, though it all resulted in chaos. His father knew what it was to have a wolf's love, Aegon would not.