Chapter 3

The doorknob turned.

A clan guard pushed the door open, his burly frame filling the doorway.

“Prince Owen wants you in the master suite,” he said gruffly.

“Why?” I asked.

“He didn’t say. Now.”

“My arm is bleeding. I need a blood bag.”

“I said, now.”

I didn’t argue.

I stood up from the bare floor.

I needed my mother’s blood-amber pendant. It was the only reason I hadn’t burned this castle to the ground yet.

I walked past the guard and down the long, carpeted hall.

The master suite was at the very end. The heavy oak door was ajar.

“Fuck, Owen, yes,” Lilith moaned loudly.

Her voice echoed down the hall. I pushed the door open.

They were on the massive four-poster bed.

Lilith’s legs were wrapped tight around his waist, her bare breasts bouncing as Owen drove into her.

“Deeper, Owen,” Lilith begged, her nails digging into his sweaty back. “Take me harder. Don’t stop.”

“You like that, Lilith?” Owen grunted, slamming his hips forward.

“Mark me, Owen,” she cried out. “Fill me.”

I stood in the doorway. My pulse didn’t quicken.

My hands hung still at my sides.

Owen caught my scent.

He froze.

He stopped, chest heaving, and turned to look at me.

“You didn’t knock,” Owen said.

“You didn’t close the door,” I replied.

He stared at me. He was waiting for the explosion.

Five years ago, I would have bared my fangs.

I would have shredded these silk sheets and painted the walls with their blood.

I just looked at a crack in the floorboards.

“Get dressed,” I said. “I want my mother’s pendant.”

Owen’s brow furrowed.

His jaw clenched, then slowly relaxed as he grabbed a pair of silk trousers from the floor and pulled them over his narrow hips.

“Is that all you have to say?” Owen asked, stepping toward me.

“Yes.”

He stopped three feet away. A flash of disappointment crossed his dark eyes.

He wanted the crazed, jealous mate.

He wanted me to scream so he could justify locking me in the dark for five years.

“Look at her,” Lilith sneered.

She sat up, pulling a black sheet to her chest. “Standing there like a begging blood-thrall. You smell like dirt and rot, Mallory.”

Owen didn’t defend me.

He just crossed his arms and stared at my face.

“Five years in the dark really broke you,” Lilith continued.

“It did,” I agreed.

Owen flinched. “Why are you acting like this?”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Like you don’t care,” he snapped. “You walk in on me with another woman. You used to tear this castle apart if I even looked at someone else.”

“I was young then.”

“You’re my bonded mate, Mallory. Act like it.”

“I’m your prisoner,” I corrected him, my voice flat. “I want the blood-amber pendant.”

Lilith slid off the mattress.

She slipped on a lace robe, tying the sash at her waist.

She walked to the vanity and picked up a small ebony box.

“You have no rights here,” Lilith said, snapping the box open. “You’re nothing.”

“I know.”

“You look like a walking corpse,” she taunted, pulling the pendant from its velvet cushion.

“I feel like one.”

Lilith frowned.

My lack of resistance was infuriating her.

She dangled the pendant from her forefinger.

An amber teardrop holding a single drop of heart’s blood caught the light.

My chest tightened. I crushed the feeling.

“You want this?” Lilith asked.

“Give it to me.”

“Why should I?” Lilith taunted. “It’s beautiful. Maybe I’ll wear it to the blood feast.”

“It’s an elder’s relic,” I said. “You’re the queen now. It’s beneath you.”

Lilith’s eyes narrowed. “Are you mocking me?”

“I’m stating a fact.”

“You always thought you were so much smarter than me,” Lilith spat. “Even when we were children. Always so superior.”

“Not anymore.”

“Prove it.”

“How?”

“Admit it,” Lilith smiled, stepping closer. “Say it out loud.”

“Say what?”

“Say I am the true Queen of this clan,” she ordered. “And that you are nothing but a filthy lesser blood.”

Owen shifted. “Lilith, just give her the pendant.”

“No,” Lilith insisted, her eyes locked on mine. “I want to hear her say it. I want her to know her place.”

I stared at the blood-amber.

Five years in the cage had taught me many things.

I learned how to survive on raw animal blood.

I learned how to sleep on cold stone without shivering.

I learned that pride and dignity were useless things that only got you killed.

I no longer feared humiliation. I felt nothing at all.

“You are the one true queen of the Crimson Moon clan,” I said clearly. “I am a filthy lesser blood.”

Lilith blinked.

Her triumphant smile vanished, her lips pressing into a thin line.

She hadn’t expected me to yield so easily.

“Say it again,” she commanded, her voice rising.

“You are the one true queen. I am a lesser blood. Now give me the pendant.”

Owen stepped forward, his face dark. “Stop it, Mallory. You’re being pathetic.”

“I’m just following orders,” I said, holding my open palm out to Lilith. “The pendant.”

Lilith’s face fell. She hated that she couldn’t break me. She raised her hand, ready to drop the necklace into my palm.

“Don’t give it to her!” a voice yelled.

Cain stormed into the room from the hall.

He shoved me aside, his shoulder slamming into my injured arm.

A bolt of agony shot through me, but I clenched my jaw.

Before Lilith could let go of the jewelry, Cain snatched the pendant from her fingers.

“Cain, what are you doing?” Owen asked.

“She doesn’t deserve this,” Cain spat, glaring at me with absolute hatred.

“That belonged to my mother,” I said softly.

“Your mother was a traitor,” Cain yelled. “And you are a kin-slayer!”

He raised his fist and slammed the pendant down onto the hardwood floor.

Then, he brought his booted foot down and stomped. Hard.

Crack.

The chain shattered. The blood-amber exploded into a dozen jagged pieces.

I stared at the fragments on the floor.

“Clean it up,” Cain ordered.