AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Or partially alive.
It’ll be the link I need to Daithi as an O’Neely blood relative.
Royce is going to see me bloodied, bitten, and disheveled. Then Kor will help him put two and two together.
As I lift the edge of my tattered dress, I’m both embarrassed and glad by the convincing touches that Zy added. He’s gone to make sure Jas’s part of the plan stays on track and will act as a decoy if needed. Because Jas is supposed to make sure Zane arrives when the shouting starts to get all the blame and hopefully spark a fight between the two of them.
It’s a sound plan. Zane and Royce engaged in a competition of who could hunt me down, so they’re already pitted against one another. Royce thinks I’m his property because he’s a patriarch-in-training and next in line. I’m his “reward” that Daithi will bless him with. If Zane ruins me, it should royally piss him off.
But when Kor walks in, I sense something has gone horribly wrong.
Especially when Zane enters right behind him.
Zane is grinning at me as if he’s pleased by my ruined appearance. “Oh, aren’t you beautiful covered in blood? That dress suits you too, little witch.”
“You’re going to have to share,” Kor says, but his voice sounds off. He licks his lengthening fangs. “That smell is incredible. Is it always like this?”
Share? Smell? Is this some tactic to turn him against Royce because we’ve mixed up the order?
I’m lying on the sofa, leaning against the armrest with my hand shading my gaze. I squint through the curtain of my eyelashes at them, not sure if I should break character.
I have suffered blood loss and fatigue pulls at me. It’s not entirely an act, but adrenaline pumps through my rapidly beating heart.
Zy? Jas?I venture, hoping to reach out to my mates for information about what’s going on.
I don’t hear anything from either of them. Instead, the screams of the dead only seem to get louder as Kor and Zane approach.
My suspicions that something is horribly wrong are confirmed when Kor places his hand on my arm.
And the screams of the dead don’t go silent. Theyheighten.
Zy! Jas!I shout in my head at my mates, but I can’t get through.
“Kor?” I say when he wraps his fingers around my wrist and pulls me into his lap. I lean in and whisper. “My collar?”
“Is going to stay on,” he says with a cruel grin. “Can’t have you killing your new mates.” He licks his lips when my eyes widen.
This isn’t Kor.
I don’t know how it’s possible, but—
“Royce?” I hiss as I try to lurch away, but he has Kor’s strength. I can’t twist out of his grip.
“Aw,” he murmurs, sounding disappointed. “I was hoping you wouldn’t figure that out until I was already inside of you. Your vampires are nothing but body bags for the patriarchs. Don’t you know that by now?”
Zane rolls his eyes. “You’re no patriarch.”
Kor—no,Royce—scoffs. “I believe I qualify for a promotion after dying for the cause. And the spell on Kornelius wouldn’t have worked if I wasn’t powerful enough to take over his body. So I’ll take the title of patriarch now.”
“Did you push out his spirit, too?” Zane presses.
Royce doesn’t answer right away. “It doesn’t matter. If he refuses to leave, he can stay as a prisoner in this body while he watches what I do to his witch.”
While Royce’s words terrify me, there’s hope that flutters inside my chest.
Kor’s still in there somewhere.
“And I’ll be taking my prize, too.” He growls as he presses his nose against my bruised throat. “Veins already opened for me, hmm? I do love the little act you were trying to pull—pitting Zane and me against each other. So cute to think we’d fall for that or that we don’t have the penthouse bugged.”
