Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 130048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
That pitiful sum changed my entire life.
It bought my entire life.
A measly ten thousand dollars, given to my boyfriend by a monster to fuck me.
He took it.
The monster took me.
And I never saw freedom again.”
I’m the bastard son of a monster.
My other half-blooded siblings have their own demons…but me?
I truly have the devil inside.
I try to be good.
To do my best to ignore the deep, dark, despicable urges.
But every day it gets harder.
I thought family could help.
I reached out to my infamous half-brother, Q begging for his secrets to stay tamed.
Instead, he gave me an ultimatum to prove I’m not like our father.
Infiltrate The Jewelry Box: a trafficking ring of poor unfortunate souls, kill the Master Jeweler, free the Jewels, and don’t lose my rotten soul while trying.
Only problem is…my initiation into this exclusive club is earning a Jewel all of my own.
She sparkles like diamonds, bleeds like rubies, and bruises as deep as emeralds.
She’s mine to break.
I can’t refuse.
If I want to prove to my half-brother that I’m not like our sire, I have to sink into urges I’ve always fought, plunge into madness, and lose myself so deeply into sin that the only one who will be breaking is me.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
………………….
If you haven’t grabbed the FREE prequel THE MERCER CURSE and would like to either listen or download the ebook, both are free on my SHOP. It’s short and spicy and introduces you to Henri as he seeks out his half-brother. You don’t have to read/listen (it has no affect on this book or series) but thought I’d mention that it’s available.
THE MERCER CURSE FREE EBOOK (also available on all platforms)
THE MERCER CURSE FREE AUDIO (also available on most platforms)
………………….
Ily
TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS.
That pitiful sum changed my entire life.
It bought my entire life.
A measly ten thousand dollars, given to my boyfriend by a monster to fuck me.
He took it.
The monster took me.
And I never saw freedom again.
Chapter One
………………….
Henri
WHO THE FUCK WAS I kidding?
I can’t do this.
I didn’t have the morals, the self-control, the strength.
Even suggesting I try to do this was like dumping an oblivious goat into a T-Rex paddock. The goat thought he’d scored a good spot—a nice place for a snack and a snooze, only to end up decapitated and spat all over the foliage.
I honestly didn’t know if I was the T-Rex or the goat in this scenario.
Honestly, I was both.
It took all my fucking willpower to restrain myself. To smother the parts of me that were rotten and monstrous all while doing my best to be good. To be a genuinely nice guy who didn’t crave such debasement.
To be like him.
My half-brother who’d fought such urges and won. Who’d not only survived with the inherited compulsion to cause tears and get hard on pain but to also find a wife capable of leashing him.
Fuck, I wanted that.
I wanted the freedom to be me, all while too shit terrified to even approach a girl these days.
Not after what I’d done.
Not after what I’d wanted to keep doing.
The familiar black hunger clawed its way through me, and every despicable part of me came out to play. My hearing seemed to sharpen, my nose became more acute to the scents of writhing, sweaty bodies dancing in the club around me; even my teeth ached as if they could lengthen, ready to puncture sweet flesh and lap up the hot essence inside—
Christ, stop it.
Do you hear yourself, Ri?!
My fist spasmed around my glass of whiskey.
The cheap imitation crystal fractured, cracked, then exploded into shards, tearing through the meat of my palm and drenching my newly purchased suit in liquor.
“Merde, you okay, Ward?”
Ward.
The name on my falsified birth certificate but not my true name.
My true name I’d only just found out, and under no circumstances could it be uttered around this scum.
Cursing under my breath, I glanced at the man beside me.
The man I’d painstakingly stalked, befriended, and done whatever it took to gain his trust. Six months it’d taken. Six months to slime my way into his inner circle when I should’ve run in the opposite direction.
He was the type of human I did my utmost to avoid because he represented who I truly was at my core. Each time I hung out with him—slowly evolving from shared drinks with acquaintances to watching dark-web porn in his den—I came face to face with the monster inside me.
It clawed and snarled. It thirsted for things not normal. It howled for things not sane. My dreams were full of despicable deeds, and my body hardened at the foulest images. The first time I’d been invited to his house to watch some sick shit he subscribed to, I’d had to run to the bathroom to throw up.
Just because I had urges didn’t mean I would ever, fucking ever, give in.
I’d walked away when I’d wanted to keep going. I still had a shred of decency…unlike the animals in those movies.
But, little by little, video clip by video clip, I shut down the parts of me that I’d clung to all my life. I turned my back on the last embers of light and embraced the disturbing darkness within me.
That choice had gotten me this far.
But at what cost?
My fucking soul, that’s what.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I muttered, snatching a serviette from the holder on the bar, watching with morbid satisfaction as the pristine white soaked a vibrant red with my blood.
I shuddered as I imagined someone else’s blood. A nameless woman with her eyes wet and legs spread—
Fuck.
Clenching my teeth, I scrubbed at the wound.
I was so fucking twisted.
I should’ve just killed myself when I had the chance—done myself a favour instead of being weak and reaching out to my half-brother. A sibling I hadn’t even known existed until my mother told me on her deathbed four months ago. I’d thought my father was a deadbeat who’d knocked her up, then left her with nothing and no one.
Turned out, my origins were far, far worse.
“Looks deep, man.” Roland grabbed my wrist and inspected my wound. My skin crawled where he touched me, but I kept a perfectly schooled grimace on my face. It would not help my case if he learned how many murdering fantasies I’d had since entering this nightclub with him.