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Prologue
Draven
In the fiery infernal of my soul, no voice could reach me with their sound reasonings. Their use of logic couldn’t deter my path, my conquest for revenge. No, my call for vengeance became all consuming, tormenting me to finish what agonized my putrid heart for too long. He hurt her and left me to clean up the aftermath.
Her grief-stricken cries encompassed me. Her tear-jerking despair enraged me. No longer sleeping, I could only hear the light pattering of her feet every night as she wandered the halls. She tried to tell me each morning that it was nothing, but I knew. I knew his illicit acts against her adolescent body poisoned every sweet dream she once had and turned it into a nightmare. She no longer felt safe, even in our home.
His philandering touch damned him. Now that I had him within my grasp, I knew he’d never wake to see the light of day. I wanted every pore to bleed along his body, savoring the coppery smell like he did her virgin blood. He relished in what he had done, but he forgot who the most petrifying alpha monster was in our world.
I let his dripping life force drench me as I destroyed his physical form. I let myself rage as I lashed out against his wrongs. No longer human, I manifested my higher power. The same one that my father heeded to when he handed over the keys to our kingdom. He didn’t want to face me the way I forced this man to. He didn’t want me wearing his blood like a badge of honor.
Staining my knuckles now felt rudimentary, too simple. He needed me to skin him alive and wear his pelt as a coat for others to understand is wrongs. My grip tightened around his neck as he wheezed for a breath of life to help him survive, but there’d be no surviving me. There’d be no tomorrow for him. He tarnished the body of the one woman I cared for in my life. He scorched her soul to never forget his unwanted advances, and even worse, he shared his act with others.
“Draven, please. I’m sorry!” he tried to get me to see reason, but he only mirrored the other voices echoing into my com. The only thing I could hear was the bone chilling rhythm of my merciless heart. It beat with the sole purpose of his destruction.
“You dare to ask a god for mercy after a sin so great?” I snarled lowly. He could see the predator dancing within my animalistic eyes. Gone was the businessman most knew me by. Tonight, called for a certain finesse signing a contract wouldn’t give me.
“You think you’ll be forgiven for this?” he tried to argue with a man unhinged. A stream of blood traveled out of his mouth from opening it, streaking over my hand that held his throat. The warmth allowed me to close my eyes and embrace the thirsty demon within.
Lifting him from the floor with a single hand, I held him up to cast more light on his pathetic face. The voice in my ear began shouting at me that I needed to leave, but I couldn’t let it in. Nothing would stop me from this. My freehand grabbed the knife from the back of my pants, readying to use it.
Sirens echoed in the distance, warning me of the coming problem. Yet, I couldn’t care. The only thing that mattered was her and her freedom from this monster. With him gone, she might find sleep again.
Cackling, I let this fool see how far gone I grew to be. “Oh, Alexander, I sold my soul to the devil a long time ago. I don’t seek to atone for my sins like you, a fool in the face of his own death. I welcome the idea of burning for eternity, knowing I sent you there first.”
Hooking the knife into his lower belly, I felt the blade cut through like softened butter. His abdomen wall didn’t feel like much to push through, but this man didn’t spend dedicated hours in the gym like me. He thought his wealth would always save him because he had been raised gently, unlike the rest of us. Pushing the blade upward, I went through his bone with ease because my untamed rage became the fuel of my strength. I felt the pull against the firmness, but it never stopped me until I found the blade at the tip of his throat.
Soaked in his blood completely, I let his body fall to the ground just as the cops arrived. My hands felt the cuffs being placed on me as someone puked from seeing the corpse. In my ill fate of gaining a victorious revenge, I could only smile over Alexander’s lifeless body.
Tonight, she’d sleep better. Tonight, she’d learn her attacker had been mercilessly killed for her to find peace. I did that, so damn the consequence that found me for seeking it.
one
Millie
One month later…
“Hello?” Strained, I hoped my father wouldn’t hear it through the telephone line. I tried my best to balance the never-ending grocery horde in my hands as I answered my phone, but the journey made the odds not in my favor. Not being one to make two trips, I made sure to line my arms with the bags as my left elbow juggled the non-bagged items. The heaviest had to be the cat food I purchased for my greedy kitty, but I loved him dearly with his adoring affection the second I came home.
“Is everything alright, sweetheart? Did I call you at a bad time?” he worried like always.
Gritting my teeth, my trek up two flights of wobbly stairs in order to get to my apartment on the third floor began. “Fine. I’m just bringing in groceries. Please talk for a minute so I don’t have to.”
Understanding my typical predicament, he knew exactly what kept me grunting with each step. Holding my breath, I moved hastily to make it up the first flight without stopping. My dad kept trying to mask his chuckle. Holding my core tight, I ran the steps like a serial killer chased me, but not the good kind my dark romance books depicted. If only a man could love me like a killer, I’d be set for life. My boyfriend rarely remembered I had a vagina for him to use instead of his hand.
“So my outreach program misses you, and I was hoping you could make time to come back. I have a slot for reading to the inmates that would be perfect for you.” Dr. Sreven Carmichael had the kindest heart and believed even the worst of people could turn a new leaf. My own mind developed similarly to his because of the teachings he raised me with. Reading about cruel men learning to love probably stemmed from there too. Or maybe that was just my addiction to Beauty and the Beast as a child.
His outreach program offered many avenues for the men serving their time to see the kindness in the world. Most people remotely interested in helping his programs ended up doing the pen pal method to avoid true contact with the roughest group of men in our city. I grew up in the walls of the prison where his office sat, but there were safety measures every time he took me there.
Finally getting to the landing between the staircases, I breathed in deeply before responding. “You mean everyone is too afraid of the environment they’d be placed in by being in the same room as convicts.”
Catching my breath, I readied to do the same thing on the next flight, allowing my father to talk to me as I traveled up the rickety metal that should’ve been condemned for the amount of rust replacing the screws. Social work had been my calling, and it paid well, but my income was the only thing coming in during an economic downfall. Everything got too expensive, so I rented this shabby place and hoped my life wouldn’t end trying to climb up to my flat.
“I’ll never lie to you, Millie. We’re having a harder time getting people at all right now. Ever since they brought in the prince of the underground mafia, people fear for their lives even looking in the direction of the prison. We’re down for our meet and greets, and some even stopped mailing their letters in fear the crime families will hunt them down with it.”
Reaching my level and door, I exhaled, feeling the pulsating pain in my thighs and went to put some of the bags down for my throbbing arms to have a break. Just as I did, a stupid bag ripped, spilling five soup cans down the stairs I just climbed. “Dammit!” I hissed.
“Well, I was upset too, but not that much,” my father teased.
