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Chapter 1
Thalia
“Isaw you fucking someone last night.”
The three men walking ahead of me tense, their muscles rigid beneath their Armani suits. They don’t stop their determined strides toward the G-Wagon parked in the circular drive at the front of my house. Although it’s not my house any longer. Not now that I’m being used to clear my brother’s debts.
“Get in the car, little lamb,” the older one growls, his voice dark and filled with so much authority I almost comply without thinking. Almost.
“Why fuck someone else if you’re forcing me to come with you? Be yours? Isn’t that what you bought me for? To be your whore?” My words sound braver than I feel, but I owe it to myself. Drystan, the one who ordered me to get in the car, slams his hand down against the roof, his muscles flexing. I know little about him, any of them, but I know he’s the leader. The one in charge. Making a fist, he moves away from the driver’s door and stalks toward me on the other side.
My bravado failing in the wake of his dark, baleful glare, I take a step back, eyes rounding as his muscular form approaches. He’s an intimidating man, powerful and tall, wearing all black, while the sun casts a menacing hue over his amber eyes. They were lighter before, but now the hue looks almost red, making him appear even more dangerous than last night when he was drowning in the reverie of booze and women.
There’s a wall of muscle at my back, preventing my retreat. I hadn’t heard them move.
I stiffen, trapped.
“I will not repeat myself.” Shivers of fear scrape down my spine at his narrowed eyes. They’re savage, vicious, but I hold my ground. This will probably be the last chance I have to fight back before they take me to god knows where. Maybe I can get them to change their minds. If I’m too difficult to control, it’s possible they won’t want me.
“Well, I am repeating myself. What do you want with me? You can have anyone you want. Last night proved that.”
He’s standing toe to toe with me, towering over my smaller frame like a giant. Something inside me stirs when he licks his lips, his unnatural eyes locked directly on me.
“We did fuck someone else last night. You should thank us for it.” I swallow past the lump in my throat, wanting to move away from the strange power emanating off him in waves, but I’m trapped. Drystan’s hands snag my upper arms on both sides, his grip strong and firm, but not bruising like my brother’s. They haven’t told me why they want me. Not one word uttered as to their plans for me.
Is it to fuck me? Hold me as collateral until my brother pays his debts to them? Or will they— My throat bobs as my mind wanders down a dark path. I’ve heard rumors about what happens to young women who venture into a vampire’s den. They’re turned into blood slaves. Never to be seen again. And if they are, they’re nothing but a shell of the person they were before.
“Thank you for it?” My voice sounds small, even to my ears. More vulnerable. He grins and bows his head closer to mine until our noses are almost touching. He smells of whiskey and bergamot, but something lingers beneath them. Something bitter, like iron.
“Yes, little lamb, you should. Because it could have been you we were fucking last night. And if it had been, you wouldn’t have liked it. Trust me. We were in no mood to consider your innocence. So yes, you should be thanking us.”
My breath hitches, cheeks heating at his obvious jab to my supposed virginity. His grin widens at my discomfort. I shift on my feet as his gaze drifts lower before resettling on my face.
He smirks. “That’s what I thought.” Drystan releases me slowly, taking a step back, his eyes holding mine, a clear warning in them. It’s almost as if he wants me to test them, to defy them. He seems more than willing to force me to do anything he wants. He knows I’m weighing my chances of running away. It’s uncanny how easily he can read me, though I’ve barely been in his presence in the last twenty-four hours, and when I was, he mainly ignored me.
“I’m not a virgin,” I blurt out, one last ditch effort to keep them from taking me. Did my brother promise them I was? If so, this could be my ticket out. I mean, not that I’m experienced. I’ve only had sex once, but still, they might want someone pure as the driven snow. Not sullied by a one-night romp in the sack with one of my father’s soldiers, followed by a few weeks of quick blowies in the empty corridors. I did it to keep the one bargaining chip my father had over my head out of his reach.
The three of them laugh like I’ve told some kind of joke.
“Oh, we know, lamb,” one of them behind me chuckles. Asher, I believe. The dark-skinned vampire has a soft French Orleans accent. “Virgins smell sweeter.”
Swallowing back the terror seizing my throat, I take a deep breath to center myself as they abandon me to load our bags into the trunk. I know there is no turning back. A deal was struck, and my brother’s life depends on it. On me doing as I’m told, listening to these monsters. I stay rooted to the spot when Asher opens the back passenger door and gestures for me to get in.
“Get in the car, Thalia,” Drystan orders me. This time I obey, walking slowly toward my doom. Asher smiles down at me as I slide inside, but it looks more like he’s snarling, his white teeth on display like a shark ready to devour its prey.
“Take a good long look at the house, little one,” Weylen, the quiet one of the group, murmurs from his place on my left. “This is the last time you will see it. You will not return.”
Asher chuckles from the front seat. “Not as innocent as you are today, that is.”
A flush of heat creeps up my neck. I may not be a virgin, but I have no doubt they can sense how inexperienced I am. A weapon for them to use against me. Weylen scoots in beside me, his large body taking up more space than it ought to thanks to his muscular thighs and shoulders. I scoot toward the door, away from him, but his hand grips the back of my neck, dragging me to the middle.
“Don’t touch me,” I grit, pushing at him fruitlessly. It’s no use. The man’s a fucking tank. Something dark flashes in his eyes. His hand comes up to my face, gripping my cheeks in his large, grizzly palm, forcing me to look at him.
“I like the fire in your eyes.” He licks his lips and watches me with a hungry gaze. “It mixes so well with your fear.” He chuckles as I struggle to get free. “I cannot wait to find out all there is about you. To break you in every way.” His words cause me to freeze, my body locking up tightly as dread spills down my spine.
Another lick of his lips. The sick fuck is enjoying this.
Satisfied with the terror he’s caused, he lets me go with a dark smile and then leans over to buckle my seat belt, effectively trapping me next to him.
