Mated Male Behavior (Maasverse Spoilers)
We have seen several mated males across the entire Maasverse (and many we can infer also count).
Mated males, upon meeting their mate, stop being interested in anyone else. It is usually instant or close to it (at least drawn to their mate instantly) and then they stop being interested in anyone else.
Mates Males:
Rhys - forced to be with Amarantha but not actually interested in anyone after meeting Feyre
Cassian - nobody but Nesta for 2 years waiting for her to come around
Lucien - instantly identifies Elain as his mate, blinks off to give her space & is loving with Jurian & Vassa but to our knowledge, the only one he wants at this point is Elain (aside from memories of his former love)
Rowan - only Aelin (aside from memories of his former love he was tricked into believing was his mate)
Ruhn - only Lidia once he meets Dayn despite being a frat boy playboy before
Baxian - only Danika (counts because he's a shifter, not just an Angel where mates are in name only)
Aidas - still misses Theia 15k years later
Connor (believes Bryce is his mate) - devoted to her/waited 5 years for that date
Mated females after meeting their mates:
Feyre - still with Tamlin for awhile, jokes about other males in front of Rhys
Nesta - sleeps with a bunch of guys who are not Cassian in an effort to keep him at arm's length during her depression
Elain - mourns the loss of Graysen and is interested in Azriel while keeping Lucien at arm's length/believing him to be responsible for her new life
Aelin - questions where she left things with Chaol before letting go & letting Rowan in
Lidia - forced to be with Pollux
Danika - stopped dating/sleeping around (likely clicked fast due to being a wolf mate)
Bryce - agrees to date with Connor but fools around with someone else at the club; starts something with Hunt & flirts with Tharion, insists on an injured Ithan sleeping in her bed (kicking Hunt out for the night!) etc.
Likely Mated Males:
Lorcan - only Elide, ties life to her
Aedion - only Lysandra, will wait however long for her
Note: Angels are mates in name only but Baxian is also a shifter. And Aidas is a POH but fits the pattern (so far as we know) but one of these things is not like the others....
Angel mate
Hunt - chosen/angel mates (name only/marriage albeit without a ceremony, just declared) but still attracted to other females after meeting Bryce, is away from her for almost 2 years & is then upset having to work with her until much later, insulting to her etc.
He does EVENTUALLY get feral (to the extreme) BEFORE they seal the deal, and more like Tamlin with his anger management issues, but then also...doesn't react at times? Tharion KISSED BRYCE when she was learning to teleport and he LAUGHED?! But he is prepared to fry Ruhn, Flynn and Tharion (people who matter to Bryce) without a thought because he's in feral mate mode protecting Bryce from danger from - checks notes - the Hind who did NOT follow them onto the Depth Charger & everyone's being nice rescuing them. And again, they hadn't skept together yet. (So which is it?)
(Yes Rhys threatens Nesta but he always calms down/someone runs interference, and when he was in feral mate mode initially he had Cassian help him take the edge off. Hunt stayed psychotic when Bryce was no longer in danger until she BROKE THEIR BARGAIN and appeased him with sex...like Feyre/Tamlin when it was the only thing holding them together but less toxic in other ways at least? OK at times but not RIGHT?
Note: I do like Hunt, i just don't love them together and think it likely that she IS his endgame but he is NOT hers (& definitely not her mate)! I'll probably even be a bit sad watching it fall apart as they did have moments & it'll probably be tragic, but they're not mates & deserve better. They're just not on the same page no matter how badly they want to be & they KEEO QUESTIONING IT for a reason.
Accepting the bond (AKA food):
We don't see these moments across everyone but we have seen it a few times, most notably:
Rhys & Feyre - Rhys explains how the female accepts the bond and Feyre makes him soup, can read thoughts
Cassian & Nesta - discuss what Cassian would like to have to show that she accepts the bond (a biscuit or a big party)
Rowan & Aelin - Rowan freaks out when Aelin brings him soup when he still believes himself to have been mated & feels guilty about it. (Unclesr if same rules apply in Erilea but basing it on Rowan's reaction), seem to be able tonread thoughts
Hunt & Bryce ? - an entire scene of her cooking food for him while they open up to each other (a la Rhys & Feyre) and then...nothing. They eat and that's it. No frenzy post-accepting the bond a la Rhys & Feyre. In fact, they have a bargain to wait for severally months, are living together, and are not intimate in that way for awhile, definitely CANNOT read thoughts.
Azriel after meeting his potential love interests
Mor - has a thing for her for 500 years but frequented pleasure halls (discreetly) & had his fair share of lovers
Elain - still has a thing for Mor for awhile before changing to his attraction to Elain (who ALREADY HAS A MATE)
Gwyn - he saved her 2 years ago & didn't see her again until recently, but still has a thing for Elain een after spending time with Gwyn
**6 months later (?) - HOFAS**
Bryce - **holds her hand 8 times/**can't stop reaching for her (uncharacteristic of him given his scars vs the one time with Elain & feeling unworthy of touching Elain or Mor), watches her sleep, can hear her thoughts, knows where her injuries are, risks his wings to protect her, mated weapons, prophecy, protects & gets to know her parents, etc., and she differentiates between types of mates - wolf (Connor), angel (Hunt - in name only, more like a marriage), and fae (cough cough Azriel).
Wings
Several of our "mated" males risk their wings for someone:
Rhys gets shot, Cassian is injured in battle, Hunt dives out of a helicopter, and Azriel gets injured multiple times for various people because he's protective.
HUNT'S WINGS GROW BACK. AZRIEL'S DO NOT!
Azriel is a "good male"
Azriel is protective of females in general. This seems to stem from how his mother was treated and pops up at odd times but he also champions them, trains them, and encourages / answers to them. This isn't a mate thing. He's just a good male. (Like Rhys setting up the library, Cassian fighting for improvements for Illyrian females etc.)
But let's look at the things he's done that usually are mistaken as mate behavior.
- Getting injured by Hybern (Mor; it's Lucien that lunges for Elain when she's thrown in the Cauldron)
- Going to rescue Elain along with Feyre (saving his High Lady, her sister, and Briar)
- Snapping at Eris for how he treats Mor
- Starting the fight at the High Lord's meeting (FEYRE - aka not a mate thing)
- Gwyn & the priestesses at Sangravah (destroys everyone who took part in what they did at the temple)
- Elain at dinner (she's in a similar situation to his mother & it triggers memories for him)
(Obviously he's not connected to Feyre but has strong reactions, but as shown above, he didn't immediately stop reacting to any of the others until he met Bryce. To be fair we haven't seen his behavior AFTER meeting Bryce yet, but meeting Elain didn't erase Mor, meeting Gwyn didn't erase Elainn etc. He's just a good male & champion of women he respects.)
Mated Males & Gifts
Rhys - sends Feyre music to keep her from breaking (Rhys gives a gazillion gifts but that's an important one)
Cassian - 2nd gift for Nesta where he recorded music for her since she loves it (1st gift was thoughtful but Nesta never even saw it as she wasn't ready to accept it yet).
Lucien - his 1st gift to Elain is similar to Cassian's 1st for Nesta (something related to her hobby but rejected for the time being); still in limbo but fits part of the pattern so far so throwing it in since he did focus on her hobby. To be fairn Tamlin did the same for Feyre but it was for HUMAN Feyre & actually showed that he DIDNT know her anymore, where as Nesta still loves reading & Elain loves gardening, so it's more similar to Nesta than Feyre and the future remains unknown.
Azriel & Elain - their gifts to each other are thoughtful & amusing. She even makes him laugh. But specifically his gifts (TT & the necklace) are BOTH returned and neither is MUSIC. And then the necklace is given to someone else (Gwyn) but TT itself is connected to BRYCE.
Music has always been important with SJM. She even said thst if someone doesn't like music they're "probably evil."
Sam gives Celaena sheet music, Rowan plans to help her build a better workd including a theater that helped her through hard times as a kid, Rhys sends Feyre music when she's breaking in her cell, and Cassian records all Nesta's favorites from not only the event they attended but also the tavern music when Nesta hit rock bottom post-ACOWAR.
When Hunt is working out with Bryce, he's listening to a memoir and calls her music "sadssck" - the duo she loves to listen to who have gotten her through all the ups & downs of her life and helped her when she was broken.
Then in the bonus chapter of HOFAS, Bryce bonds with Nesta & Az by sharing her music. She knows the phone battery is dying and she's about to be cutoff from home and continues to share that with them anyway. She shares her favorite - the duo who got her through the roughest of times.
And when the phone dies and she is truly cutoff from everything and everyone in Midgard, including her "mate," Azriel continues humming her favorite song for her in the tunnels.
We also know that he frequents "pleasure halls" and she loves thr club/dancing so they'd have fun & he could loosen up/stop hiding out. Cassian learned to dance because Nesta loves it. Az loves clubbing like Bryce does (who also loves to dance). Win-win!
Azriel's Shadows
We admittedly have a lot to learn about shadowsingers and this is conjecture/pointing out the patterns we do have.
Elain - shadows hide (often attributed to her being "light" but could be anything including cause for concern
Gwyn - his shadows dance when she sings (she is thought to be a lightsinger and her voice has an affect on others as seen by Nesta's reaction and accidental scrying as well), and when she asks him if he sings, he says yes but doesn't demonstrate
Bryce - his shadows sit up & pay attention, and he goes "rigid" (just like Rhys did UTM in shock)
Ultimately we don't know much about his shadows. Is it better for them to go away or are they part of him that need to be accepted? If it's a good thing for them to disappear with the light, Bryce is more light than Elain is and we have more Light & Dark connections between Bryce & Az as well. She was lit up multiple times and the shadows just went into puppy mode tilting their heads trying to figure her out. Neon sign for Az that she's different so pay attention!
Azriel's behavior:
Azriel's behavior around Bryce is very different than how he is with the others. While there HAVE BEEN moments with the others that COULD have signaled mates at that point in time, they have since been discounted by the continued interactions with others. Whether you count Gwyn or not (he hasn't really encouraged it & has been friendly - she's the one with the crush), the fact remains that his interactions with BRYCE do not match the pattern of a male who is already mated.
They take place several months after HOFAS and he states he's single. Are Elain fans actually OK with him being unable to stop holding Bryce's hands every 5 seconds and humming for her, watching her sleep, reading her thoughts etc??
Same goes for Gwyn - why want him with someone else if he's acting this way with someone he just met?? Holding hands 8 TIMES and watching her sleep? Begging her not to go?
Have they just not read CC? I admit it's easy to miss at first and I wasn't sold on it either. I actually thought after ACOSF it would be zgwyn and that was that. A lot of the dialogue is easy to twist or sounds more threatening than romantic and I didn't dream the crossover would be this big or that there would be THIS MANY subtle moments that are SUPEE QUESTIONABLE when you spell it out and then have to try to defend his behavior of he's going to be pursuing someone else who is hopefully his mate! (Even if she's not shebdeserves better than this behavior! Cassian's weirdness around Mor once Nesta entered the picture was bad enough but uktimately just awkward new dynamics, not romantic & nothing compared to how Hunt treats Bryce or how Azriel is behaving around Bryce if he's still hoping to be with someone else!)
But if bonus chapters count (they do!) then the MOST RECENT ONES have Azriel humming Bryce,'s favorite song (that Hunt made fun of), and meeting & protecting her parents (& winning them over!). We're told how well Bryce thinks he'd fit in in her world and get along with her brother (one of the MOST important people to her) and his friends (no mention of fitting in with her "MATE" but picturing him hanging out in Midgard?! Also no mention of their scents being similar - reveal for another day? You'd think she wouldhave noticed...) and we already know he's down for going to the club with her!
Nesta's eyes were bugging out observing him with Bryce. If she thought he was mated to her SISTER or one of her BEST FRIENDS do you think she'd be encouraging this / returning the favor of playing chaperone/teasing him watching these interactions??
Bryce is in her Celaena era - still hung up on Chaol & unsure what to think with Rowan while unwilling to step up and accept her birthright. Really a combination of that and a Feyre who went through with the wedding to the non-mate (but at least Hunt begrudgingly steps up/is mostly supportive.)
Hunt/Bryce question their mate status constantly (mates are not a question!!) just like Aelin asked questions about Chaol & Feyre about Tamlin) & at this point seem miserable/not on the same page a lot of the time. Aside from the ominous foreshadowing in general, they also call each other friends a LOT (another point in the Chaol column) once they stop hating each other early on in their relationship. And when first asked about them SJM said they were mates (they are, just angel mates) & endgame "if they both survive" & proceeds with foreshadowing for Orion/showing they aren't on the same page. (And then the wild body language on CHD after reminding us that she's had to pretend before with other couples to not apply things and that sometimes she thinks it'll go one way and then someone walks on the page (cue crossover & cosmic intergalactic travel paralleling another mated pair)!
In Conclusion:
One of these things is not like the others...
In my opinion, Azriel's behavior with Bryce negates any of his other options for love interests because it doesn't fit the pattern of a mated male. While the other options HAD their moments, every time I circle back to the crossover, I just can't reconcile his behavior around Bryce with the idea of him being with anyone else.
(And frankly, I can't see the guy who said "Be careful how you speak about my High Lady"/attacking Eris for talking about how Mor dresses - comments that Hunt says about his OWN "mate" - DISRESPECTING his actual mate by behaving the way he does with Bryce if he's already found her! He wants a mate so badly and yes, lusts after Elain for a bit, but he's also kind, respectful, polite, and protective. There's just no way! Mated males attach first & stop wanting anyone else, even if they respectfully back off/feel rejected for awhile. They just don't persue anyone else. I'd be just as upset with him as I cringe with Hunt at times if it turns out it was supposed to be someone else at this point!)
Reminder: we have yet to see Az's inner thoughts on any of what went down in HOFAS. We don't know what the IC was saying to each other. We don't know what he thinks in those moments. We don't even know what the his first words really were.
What we DO know is their blades are a mates pair, she landed right in front of him a la Theia/Aidas, he can hear her thoughts, he watched her sleep, she worried about WHO DID THIS TO HIM? (when she saw his scarred hands that affected her), he couldn't STOP holding her hands or reaching for them (which is a big deal for him!) and he liked what he saw when she went into the FREEZING COLD WATER in a white shirt and called it out!!
And that he is a spymaster & she was his prisoner but he was kind and gentle and had her out on the blindfold because he had to take her somewhere so she could be interrogated. And held her hand / worried about her injuries. Typical soymaster behavior towards a prisoner right?? I didnt see Nesta holding her hands through the caves when Az was in the shadows...
But sure. He's TOTALLY MATED to someone else that he's already met despite this being several years/months of being around Elain & Gwyn at this point. (And if he's still trying to get with one of them, saying things like that/acting like that in front of the ONE PERSON connected to both who woukd totally say something and is watching him like a hawk makes total sense...)
I don't know how HOFAS wasn't at least a little bit concerning to the other ships based on the above unless they're basing it on CC not existing but it does and is the most recent information we have so...
TL;DR (Sorry it's so long!) I compared fae, wolf, shifter-angel & POH mated males with her angel "mate" & I think it eliminates any other contenders for Az aside from Bryce based on his behavior.