All Chapters of After My Vampire Fiancé Chose My Stepsister, I Married the Monster Everyone Feared: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Elena's POVI had been looking forward to this engagement party for years.After my mother died, my stepmother used the instability of my half-blood lineage as an excuse to confine me to the house. Ten full years without a single public appearance, without a single glimpse of Adrian. I told myself today would finally be different. Today I would leave that cold, suffocating attic and stand before my fiancé again.But the moment I stepped into the banquet hall, I understood: tonight's celebration was not about me.Adrian stood at the center of the room, his black evening coat sharpening the severe lines of his face. His crimson eyes, the natural mark of vampire nobility, carried a pressure that was almost physical. Sophia stood at his side with her hand tucked into the crook of his arm. Her pale gold gown glowing glimmered, and she looked like a princess blessed by the spotlights. They spoke softly together, and Adrian occasionally glanced down at her with a patience he rarely showed any

Elena's POVI was not sure how I made it back to the attic.The cuts on my knees were still seeping, and my palms burned. After years of small wounds and larger ones, even my half-blood resilience wasn't much to speak of. My healing had been slower than any ordinary vampire's for a long time, and the silver bullet wounds in my arm had never fully sealed, aching with a low, constant dullness. But none of that came close to the way Adrian had looked at me in that hall: cold, contemptuous, barely bothering to hide his irritation, as though every memory we'd shared was a lie. Everything I had kept myself alive on, these past years, collapsed at once.The attic door creaked open and the smell of damp and neglect hit me first. This was where I had lived for years: narrow, cold, half the windows nailed shut.They hadn't been entirely wrong. My half-blood power was genuinely difficult to control when I was young; when my emotions ran high I couldn't always contain it. I would grip my own ar

Elena's POVMy heart sank sharply."No.""No." Adrian looked at his guards. "Take her."I spun and ran, but they caught me before I made it two steps. My wounds were still raw, and the moment they grabbed my arm the pain blazed white and I nearly buckled. If I hadn't already been weakened from shielding Adrian from those hunters, none of them would have been able to hold me.Sophia stood in the doorway with her satisfaction well-hidden behind soft, frightened eyes. I couldn't stop myself. "Sophia. You'll face what's coming for this." She didn't answer. She only shrank behind Adrian, as though the very thought of me frightened her.They dragged me out of the attic, down through the house and back into the banquet hall. Some of the guests hadn't left yet, and everyone watched as I was hauled in. My father stood at the front of the room with a thunderous expression, berating me for shaming the entire family. My stepmother had her arm around Sophia with a cold satisfaction on her fa

Elena's POVHe was Lucien — and he was nothing like the stories.He looked down at me. His gaze moved from the child in my arms to my torn sleeve, then to my face. "You have no bloodline power left," he said, "and you still ran in front of a gun?" His voice was quiet and unhurried, even tinged with a hint of gentleness, without a word of blame in it. I opened my mouth and couldn't find anything to say. The little girl was still shaking against me, and I put a hand on her back."She's young," I said. "I couldn't watch her die."Lucien looked at me for a moment, and something moved in his expression: brief and interested. "Remarkable. My future wife."Across the hall, Adrian had gone still. I could see it registering — the way I'd thrown myself in front of that girl, the instinct of it, the lack of hesitation. It must have reminded him of that day: I had done the same thing then, half-terrified with no guarantee it would work, and still put myself between him and the bullets.He spun

Adrian's POVI released Sophia and walked toward the door. She called after me, crying. "Where are you going? Adrian, we just got betrothed. You promised you'd marry me." I stopped. "That was before I knew you'd been lying to me." The crying stopped. I didn't look back.My guard fell into step beside me. "Where to, sir?" "Elena's room."When I reached the Valerie family's old manor, Elena's father and stepmother had already heard we were coming. Her father met me at the entrance, visibly unsettled. "Adrian, sir — Sophia was just frightened tonight, she has nothing but loyalty for you—" "And Elena?" I said. He went stiff. Her stepmother moved in quickly with a strained smile, saying Elena had never been easy to manage, that after everything tonight I shouldn't let her behavior reflect poorly on the family. I left them talking and went upstairs.The higher I climbed, the heavier the smell of damp became. The corridor narrowed, the windows were half-blocked with boards, and almo