Stolen

Helena’s screams echoed throughout the passages of the castle while Victor paced up and down outside the door. He prayed to the saints that the baby survived this time. He no longer cared if it was a boy or a girl. They had already lost three offspring so far and, after his dear wife died, he took Helena as his only concubine with the promise to his late wife that he wouldn’t take another. He would be faithful to his concubine even if it was against the law for them to marry. He was the second in line to the throne after all. It wouldn’t make any difference whether he had a boy or a girl. They would never rule the kingdom.Dimitri’s sons would one day become the heirs to the throne of Ezorona. His brother had yet to find his vampire wife, but he had six concubines, which meant that one of them would probably soon be pregnant with a son. If Helena had a boy, she would not survive the birth. If it was a girl, they would both immediately be taken back to the convent where his daughter wo

Viktoria’s POVI was shocked when he burst out laughing. I was being serious and he was laughing at me!“I’m so fucking glad that you think my family dying is funny!” I screamed and stormed off. I had no idea where I was going, just as long as it was away from him, but he caught up to me, unfortunately.“I’m sorry, Viktoria.” He grabbed the sides of my arms and turned me to look at him. “You are right. I shouldn’t have laughed, but you haven’t given me a chance to explain anything. We are actually peaceful people.” I looked away. I didn’t want to look into his eyes and see that he was telling the truth. I didn’t want to believe him.“Could have fooled me.” I huffed and he sighed.“Okay, so I kidnapped you, but have I hurt you in any way?” He took my chin between his thumb and forefinger and I realized for the first time how incredibly warm his skin was. It was the complete opposite of my family. They were all cold. I shook my head as I looked into his eyes. “Well, then? Don’t you thin

Viktoria’s POVFlashback“You aren’t as clever as you think, Vicky!” Belinda shouted in class and I sighed. She knew how much I hated that nickname, and that was why she always used it! I could never understand why she hated me so much, but she hated me and she didn’t care who saw it. My mom once explained that it was because of who my father was, but I didn’t even know him! I never saw him. Belinda walked over with her arms crossed and was probably about to say something or do something really cruel when the nun walked in and cleared her throat. It always amazed me how Belinda could change from the really awful ugly girl to innocent incarnated in a split second when someone else was around and she quickly explained that she was just helping me with a math problem.I had made the mistake of telling her that she had her history facts wrong, and I knew that later at recess I would pay dearly for that. I knew by now not to cross her! Why did I even open my damn mouth? Because she was wro

Viktoria’s POVI scanned the books, and I wanted to be careful with them as they didn’t look fake old. They were really old. As I pulled one off the shelf and I felt the texture of the cover, I dropped it on the floor! A shiver ran down my spine as I looked at the book. The cover was made out of skin, not leather! It wasn’t human, and it wasn’t an animal. I couldn’t place what kind it was, but it was definitely skin! I carefully picked it up and shivered as I put it back. I would have to be more careful and was lucky that the book didn’t tear or get damaged. No longer able to slip my finger over the backs of the books for fear I might touch something else I didn’t want to know about, I tried to read some of the titles, but I could see these books had been handled a lot.I wondered where they would have been stored in the library and who would have spent so much time reading them. I found one that had to do with the history of the first beast and made sure the cover was animal before I

Viktoria’s POV Clearly, Fynn didn’t understand when I told him to take me home! I wanted to go back to the castle. To the people I knew and the truths, I was taught. Flashback “Today, your lives will change. You are no longer the children from the convent. You are now the dhampir in training.” I watched our fearless leader as she walked up and down the front of our platoon. My mother had told me so much about her that I almost felt as if I knew her myself. She wasn’t just our teacher. She was also there when our parents joined the dhampir. My mother had tears in her eyes whenever she talked about her days here, but I knew that my father chose her as his concubine, which took her out of the running to become a dhampir. Without telling me too many of the details, my mother explained that she was his only concubine and spent a month in the castle until they we