I need people to stop comparing Azriel’s desire for Elain to Lucien’s. When Lucien was thinking about how much he wanted to claim her it was because she is his mate. And he suppresses this instinct almost completely. He does the best he can to stay away from her even though his body is screaming at him to be near her. The mating bond is that powerful. It is so powerful that it pulls people together who aren’t even compatible, like Rhys’ parents. Lucien has no choice in this. He does not like or know Elain anymore than she him.

The kind of thoughts Azriel is having, we have only ever seen in mates. We accept these kinds of thoughts from MMCs because we understand that the compulsion of the mating bond is so strong that it overwrites their composure. Fated mates are a compelling trope because it gives the reader a good reason to believe that this kind of sexualisation of the FMC is not only hot but a good thing. That it isn’t harmful. That it is an expression of devotion. Azriel is not Elain’s mate. Again: Azriel is not Elain’s mate.

Azriel is having these thoughts in the way that a regular man has such thoughts about a woman. His physical attraction is not accompanied by equal emotional tenderness. He does not think about her being his, or him being hers (an important aspect of the bond: it goes both ways! Lucien feels this, Azriel thinks no such thing!). There is no higher power at play. Without a mating bond, Azriel’s feelings read as much more shallow.

Now, is it possible that through some wild retcon Azriel and Elain turn out to also be mates? Sure, but if that were the case then where does that leave Elain’s character arc which is supposedly centred around the meaning of freedom of choice in the mating bond? It doesn’t work thematically. An Elain and Azriel romance arc relies on the rejection of the mating bond as assertion of her free will, an act of love more true than a mating bond.