The Prince of Dorne: Part 10- Modern!Oberyn AU

Part 10: Leave it to me.

| Series Masterlist|

| Part One | Part two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six.1 | Part 6.2 | Part Seven | Part Eight | Part Nine|

Oberyn struggles to piece together memories from the days leading up to that moment. All he can remember is the shape of her eyes, turned downwards at the corners and creasing against her cheeks and her furrowed brow as she shivered. The look of fear and confusion trembled on her lip, that was split, and congealed with blackened blood.

“Dove-”

He grabbed her with urgency and pulled her inside his apartment. As though pulling a child away from a busy road. As if someone was chasing her. He slammed the door behind her with one hand, whilst his other clasped gently at the angle of her jaw.

“What happened- who did this to you?”

She’d heard his voice under strain before. In anger. In frustration. Under the gentle thumb of tiredness. Or, wrapped around the finger of desire or orgasm. But, never like this.

It trembled. Controlled only by the urgent rush of emotions consuming him at the sight of her.

“I don’t know-” she whispered meekly “I- some men, they-”

“Who.” He pressed her.

She shakes her head lightly from side to side in response, her mouth open but no words allowing themselves to escape.

A sheet of red flickers behind Oberyn’s vision, his eyelids twitch open and closed as he slams his flat palm against the wood of the door behind her.

“WHO.” He snaps.

Her body instantly becomes smaller, widened eyes finding him and nostrils twitching in shock and fright. She spends only a few moments suspended in that expression before her face screws up, tears threatening to fall from her already glassy eyes.

“No-” he takes back his previous outburst by offering a gentler tone “No, Dove. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-”

He immediately pulls her into his chest, arms wrapped around her tightly in an earnest effort to breathe her in.

“I’m sorry Dove, I would never hurt you. You know that. I—”

His heart breaks at the sound of her muffled sob against the silk of his shirt.

“I would never hurt you.” He repeats “No one will ever hurt you again, do you hear me? No one… Look at me.”

His palms caress the sides of her face as he beckons her eyes to meet his.

“Whoever they are, I will find them.” He tells her, brushing a tear from her right cheek with his thumb “We’re going to get you some water. I’m going to take a look at that lip. Then you’re going to tell me everything, alright? So I can fix it.”

She nods lightly and the hand she has at his collar grips tighter for comfort.

“I will fix it, Dove.” He reassures her “If it’s the last thing I do.”

The next few hours had been a blur to him. Head ringing with the descriptions of the men who had attacked her - he knew exactly who they were, and he was going to put a stop to them, to all of them.

He was tired.

Tired of it all.

All the tiptoeing and underhand dealing. All the blackmail. All the threats. He’d been letting them treat him like a beaten down dog for years. Well now, he was feral, tired of his leash, and ready to rip a chunk out of a leg or two - maybe even a face.

It was all well and good when it was only him it was affecting, only his life and his livelihood. But this?

He’d seen it all before with his sister. He’d tried to push Dove away, to no avail. Told himself he was being ridiculous, that he was just being paranoid - he’d tell himself anything just so that he’d be able to justify crawling into her bed with her again.

And when a man cannot even have something so simple as a girlfriend without them making an attempt to rip her away from him, then-

Girlfriend.

Did he really just tell himself that?

Yes,yes he did.

Once satisfied that she was sound asleep, tucked deeply beneath the fresh white cotton of his bedsheets, Oberyn finally pulls out his phone.

His chest heaves in anger as he waits for an answer.

“Hello?”

“I need to talk to you - now.”

***

“You knew this would happen. I warned you.”

Oberyn tries desperately not to raise his voice in response, Dove still sound asleep in the next room.

“Yes, well it’s too late for that now isn’t it.” He hisses on his breath.

“Why don’t you just buy her a plane ticket. It’s really that simple. Send her somewhere with lots of sun.”

“Ellaria.” Oberyn’s voice warns “This is serious.”

“I know full well it’s serious.” She responds, leaning back against the kitchen counter and crossing her arms “It was ’serious’ with all the others too, and you didn’t bat an eye when you sent them away.”

Oberyn rolls his eyes as he turns away from her, jaw clenching as he pinches his nose between two fingers.

“No-” Ellaria continues with a wistful tone “-but this one’s special, isn’t she? Hmm? I know because otherwise you would have asked me to join the two of you.”

Oberyn doesn’t respond.

“But you want her all to yourself.” She uncrosses her arms and slinks towards him with steady steps “Sneaking her up here like none of us notice. Like we can’t hear her screaming your name out, over and over, at 2 o'clock in the morning, even over the sound of the music.” She prods him playfully on the shoulder with her index finger. “It’s very rude that you keep her all to yourself, you know? So greedy.”

“That’s enough.” Oberyn tells her, although his tone is not assertive or full of venom - it’s instead, defeated.

Ellaria studies him for a moment; the sloped angle of his shoulders, the cloudiness in his eyes. The way his lip seems to twitch as if he’s fighting against it, preventing it from pouting.

“I need to protect her.” He whispers finally.

“Then I will help you.” Ellaria responds, mimicking his tone.

His head turns to face her, studying the genuine intention he can see glistening in her eyes.

“But-” she says, causing Oberyn’s heart to falter just a little “-you must answer me one question.”

“What question?”

“Ah-ah.” She stops him “You are not allowed to know the question until I ask it. Answer it, and truthfully, and I will help you - Deal?”

Oberyn’s eyes turn to the floor for a short moment before he looks back at Ellaria, offering her a quick nod in agreement.

Ellaria smiles earnestly,

“Do you love her?”

The silence that precedes her question is enough to offer Ellaria her answer - yet she waits patiently to see if he will offer any words.

Oberyn’s lashes flutter as he loses himself somewhere. Not in conflict, not in thought, not even in the question. Just, for a moment, he is gone - retreated to a place in his mind that not even he knows the location of.

“Yes.” He answers “Yes I do.”

Ellaria approaches him in one step, and takes his chin between her thumb and forefinger. Oberyn’s head turns slightly, guided by her touch. She meets his eyes with a wicked grin,

“Then, leave it to me.”

A/N: A switch to 3rd person because YOLO. I’ve missed these two