LOGINAdrian’s POVDerek lunged again, nearly tearing through. I locked my knees to keep from shifting right there in front of the entire council.“Why?” The word scraped out harsher than I meant. “Who’s waiting for you in that camp, Kira?”Her eyes flickered…something raw and private flashing through them before she shuttered it.“No one’s waiting,” she said quietly. “But there are people I need to see as soon as possible. People that owe me.”People.Plural.My mind supplied the worst possible translation: a man. Maybe more than one.Wait… what? Is she into stuff like that? Was she really that kind of girl? No. That didn’t make sense. She’d been tight earlier today. Pure. Still a virgin. And the realization hit me harder than it should have. I was her first. She had no idea how deeply it sank its claws into me. The thought alone had Derek bristling, horny, and excited at the very idea of being her first.Regardless, I couldn’t help but picture it too clearly…her slipping through the fenc
Adrian’s POVThe room felt like it had shrunk to the size of a coffin. Every eye was on her. On us.Kira stood there…small, fierce, chin lifted the way she had recently learnt to pose when she was daring the world to hit her harder. Her voice had been quiet, but it sliced through the heavy silence like a blade.Her question echoed throughout my body, and my heart slammed against my ribs so hard I thought the sound might echo off the blood-stained marble.Tag along?I turned fully to face her. Her eyes were steady. Not pleading. Not scared. Just… locked on mine, like she’d already made up her mind and was only waiting to see if I’d try to stop her.And that was when the real question hit me, sharp and cold.Why?Why the hell did she want to go there so badly?I already knew part of the answer. But I don’t know the reason. I caught Victoria earlier being sneaky and drilled her for answers. That was how I discovered that my mate was planning to sneak out to the human camp.Without tellin
Adrian’s POVLevi’s face was turning an ugly shade of plum, veins bulging at his temples. He clawed at my wrist, gasping. “I… don’t… know… anything!”I squeezed harder. “Try again, Levi.”“I didn’t make the rotation rosters myself!” he choked out. “It was Mother! I swear! She insisted…she said she knew the men better, that she could handle the schedules!”A low, dangerous growl tore out of my chest. Derek was right there, vibrating under my skin. “You let your mother make the rosters for warriors guarding our borders? Are you a fucking wuss, Levi? Do you have no spine at all?”I flung him backward. He hit the far wall with a sickening crack, slid down, coughing blood onto the marble.I should have listened to Thomas when he warned me…back when Levi was practically hounding me for an appointment. But no, I let sentiment cloud my judgment. I told myself he was still royalty, that the blood in his veins meant something, that it earned him patience, trust… authority. That was the only rea
Adrian’s POV“The princess or more dies?” I heard someone repeating it and my vision bled red.Not the slow simmer of anger…this was full crimson, the kind that turns everything into prey. My mate. The one person on this cursed earth I would burn kingdoms for, reduced to a bargaining chip in some rogue bastard’s sick game.My claws were already out, digging bloody crescents into my palms. My canines throbbed. Derek was clawing at the inside of my skull, howling for blood, for bone, for the sound of necks snapping.Thomas stepped in close, voice low and urgent in my ear. “Breathe, your majesty. Breathe. You lose it here and you’ll tear this room apart. You’ll kill someone…maybe someone who doesn’t deserve it. We don’t want that now… Do we?”I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. Because he was right…and I was already past the reason.The only thing tethering me to sanity was the small, warm hand still clamped around the back of my shirt. Kira hadn’t let go. Even after everything…after the head
Adrian’s POVEverything was spiraling today like someone had spent months planning the perfect ambush and I was the idiot walking straight into the trap.This meeting? It wasn’t even supposed to happen today.Levi never breathed a word about the convoys arriving early. I’d been in the study going over border reports with Thomas, still riding the high of putting Caroline and her little spectacle in their place, when one of my men burst in and said the vampire delegation had rolled up at the gates like they owned the damn place.Levi had arranged it behind my back to perhaps make me look incapable.Oh, the things I had lined up for him after this…public humiliation so creative he’d be begging for exile. But then Kira walked in wearing her own humiliation like armor, chin high, eyes blazing, and I couldn’t have been prouder if she’d walked in wearing my crown.Everything she did and said got me so excited… Until she started flirting with that smug bastard just to twist the knife in my g
Kira’s POVThe memory was Abby’s. And it came the same way it's been coming for some time now. Sudden, vivid and unwanted.This one chilled me to the bones.The memory didn’t just flash. It crashed into me like cold water dumped over my head while I was still burning from Adrian’s touch.She was in here with them. Arabella.Not at the head of the table. Not in a crop top and sneakers with a king’s hand on her thigh like she belonged to him.She was on the floor.The same grand dining hall. Same long oak table. Same vaulted ceiling that made every sound echo like judgment.Except that night she wasn’t the king’s woman. She wasn’t even a welcomed guest.She was one of the maids.They’d dressed her in the thin black uniform…too short, too tight…because Lady Margaret had decided it would be “humorous” to make the worthless princess serve the nobles. The tray had been balanced between her teeth, metal biting into her gums, while she crawled on all fours down the length of the table.Every







