Chapter one

Ashlyn's POV

Outside in the cold air, through the window, I watched Lucifer engage in a battle with one of the members of his pack as the rest of the pack spectated.

Since the day I'd been brought in here, I've realized it was to show how strong the alpha was and how well fitted he could easily defeat his enemies.

The battle did not take long, as Lucifer had his opponent thrown to the ground and paralyzed. The rest of the spectators cheered him and carried him up and chanted his nickname.

"Lucifer! The hell dog!" They kept chanting.

I pulled away from the window and sighed. I hoped and prayed he would forget me tonight. I hoped his victory would occupy the thoughts of his mind, but I was wrong.

A few minutes later, the very image of my thought strolled casually into my room.

"Turn around," Lucifer commanded me in his alpha male voice and without much resistance, I obeyed, heading to the bed, my face away from his. Lucifer Saunron is the alpha male of the Lycans and the owner of me.

He had ordered me to turn around to satisfy his sexual desires and then be done with me. It was a life of his that I was getting used to.

He did not dally in ravaging me and bringing himself to pleasure.

He roughly kissed me as I felt him release inside of me.

With two more strokes, he pulled out of me and pushed me off. I almost hit my head on the bedstand.

I did not bother to look up at him. I already knew the expression he would have on his face. A disgusting one. He was always disgusted with me after sex. Sex was the only time he was less hostile. What am I saying? Even in bed, he was a brute! I was nothing but his sex slave. His whore and this was not who I was before, but, I've come to terms with the fact that this was my new life.

I curled up on the bed with my hair covering my face and then I heard the slamming of the door. He was gone.

I tucked away the hair around my face and for the first time since this onslaught began, I did not shed a single tear tonight.

I pulled away from the bed and went for a wash in the bathroom, letting the water run through my skin. No matter how I tried, his touch was forever embedded in my skin.

A few minutes later, I walked out of the bathroom and donned a simple nightgown on. I picked up the one he had earlier discarded and kept it away. Then, I heard thunder rumbling in the sky as the wind blew in through the curtains. I walked closer to the window, getting lost in the darkness as the rain dropped.

The thunder that rumbled in the sky gave me goosebumps and I shuddered from a bit of fear. Still, I did not move from the window. I kept peering through the curtain and watched huge droplets of rain cascade down the windowpane.

This same night reminded me of the night I felt betrayed by my family. Mostly my father, whom I felt would do anything to get rid of me.

This same night, I had what I thought was the most brutal fate of my life. A fate I would have done anything to change in the past. A fate I would have preferred to be hanged than to live with.

Darkness has always seemed to be where I find comfort and soothing. I'll spend nights reminiscing in the dark and crying my eyes out most times. He consoled me all the time. I've come to love darkness more than even light. Maybe this was one of the perks of being a vampire. But, I doubted it. I was beginning to think I found darkness exuberant when my fate decided to change.

I smiled. Hello, darkness my old friend, I've come to have a conversation with you again. The silent cold wind that blew past me as always whenever I wanted to pour out myself assured me that he was listening.

Where would I start? I've always started with my name. I sometimes feel he forgets and I need to remind him or maybe remind myself who I was.

Darkness, my friend, I'm Ashlyn Ambrosia and this is my story.

•

I'm not your typical kind of girl. I am a vampire, born as one into a family of master vampires who can control anyone connected to them or even through a blood oath. Vampires do not procreate, but I was a whole different breed. I am an hybrid. My father was a part vampire and a part werewolf.

My mother was human until he turned her after the birth of my kid brother.

In a town where vampires rule, it was easy to live and be free to reveal the monsters in us. Hunting grounds were usually not that far from our home, but I was not one to hunt. All my life I've been scared to snap life out of people. I was the only weak one in my family and my siblings took it as an opportunity to make a mockery out of it. I was the clown in the family that was made jest of most times.

It was not a nice thing for me because I always ended up in tears, which made them mock me the more. I tried my best one time during a hunting spree, but I could not. Even the sight of blood or smell could not intoxicate me as it did with them. Not even the racing pulses or heartbeats moved me.

That was just one of my experiences. Once again, a human already bitten was brought to me with blood spilling out of her neck. My eyes grew red, the canines grew longer. The beast in me threatened to surface and I expected her to, but she cowered.

I could not devour her like every other person was doing with their meal. Instead, I ran away unable to carry out the task before me and since then, my brothers would not let me be. My parents sometimes partook in their jests and sometimes scold them.

Father would always say, "Vampires have no fear to kill, and neither do wolves." And everyone would agree with him including my mother.

Sometimes, I wonder if she was actually human before. Her eagerness to feed on other humans got me thinking otherwise. She lacked a great deal of compassion when devouring or draining them of life.

Let me make something clear. I am a vampire and I do not feed on humans. It does not mean I do not drink blood. I do. I'm a vampire after all and there's this raw hunger inside of us that we need to quench. I needed to sustain myself. But, for a while, I abstained from blood and I do not know why.

Bags of blood are usually stored away during times when it is hard to feed and that is where I get my blood from. Father always gets them from the hospitals and I never knew how until much later.

A shop had even been set up in the town where blood was sold and it was never out of supply. It was a weird town for travelers, but a normal town for us.

Most vampires in this town are not related. Most of the children were not conceived by their parents. The ones who could conceive and could procreate were the ones whose father had sired. All still, vampires and hybrids were all under the command and total control of father.

My father, Khalid Ambrosia, was the king of our town. Whatever he says goes and he must not be refused. How a man as brutal as him met my mother and fell in love was a mystery I've never come to know. As an egocentric vampire king, he had many enemies and few connections.

His greatest enemy is the lycanthropes. Let me rephrase that. Our greatest enemy was the lycanthropes. Ever since we vampires moved and settled in the land, it has been one threat letter to another. They claimed the land belonged to them and that father never sought-after their permission before settling down here. He needed to perform certain rites before he could finally claim the land as his.

But father, as a proud and stubborn vampire, did not pay heed. For many years the letters kept coming and then it changed. They did not want my father to seek their permission anymore or even perform any rites. They wanted father and all the vampires in town to evacuate the land. This particular letter was sent as a warning to father, but he called their bluff.

The next letter came and father still refused. He did not believe the lycanthropes would carry out their threats. If they could send threat letters for a decade without doing anything, then they were empty barrels making lots of noise. That was his thought.

I, for a fact, never knew the battle coming was going to change my life and course of destiny forever.