Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 72056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
I squirm, move my hips in the instinctive raw undulation. I yearn for him. Yearn for the feel of his hard cock inside me.
Yearn for his lips on my nipples, sucking, chewing, biting...
My hands itch. They want to move to the chainmail, remove it from my body. A shudder races through me as I still my fingers.
No. I won’t allow this.
I’m stronger than my desires, my aching, my yearning.
My will is stronger than my body.
Until—
A conversation with my stepfather...
It’s in the edge of my mind...
No!
I will force it out.
It’s nothing.
Not a fucking thing.
But—
The memory... It clouds my mind...and it forces itself into my consciousness.
“Isn’t it interesting that you, firstborn daughter to the reigning vampire king, would find yourself mated to an Alpha wolf?”
“There’s nothing interesting about it. It’s nature. And no one can control nature.”
“Seems nature has done a good job of controlling you, though. Damning you to forsake your sister. Your mother.”
I curl my hands into fists. “I need his fucking blood!”
“Right. The blood lust. Your father’s curse. I wonder... How is it that it led you to Victor Rogan?”
“Nature,” I grit out again.
“Nature for him, maybe. Not for you. But as you say, no one can control nature. It controls you. Consider this. You’re controlled by nature. Nature has led you to Rogan. But the laws of nature also tell us that what controls us can also be controlled.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
No! I shake my head to clear it.
I can’t allow Richard Tomlinson to fuck with my head. I won’t allow it!
“Tell me,” I gasp out. “Tell me who cut out those damned hearts!”
Rogan advances on me. “Are you sure you want to know?”
“I have to know.”
“Hannah,” he says, his voice gentler than I’ve ever heard it, “you did.”
58
Clouds descend on me, and I’m swirling.
Is this a tornado? In a bunker?
What’s happening to me? A kaleidoscope of darkness. Of evil. Of vile malice.
Hannah, you did.
Hannah, you did.
Hannah, you did.
No. No. No.
No!
I would never...
I would never harm another person. Never defile a corpse.
Not ever!
I’m stronger than this. I’m stronger than this. I’m stronger than this.
I draw on the wolf blood flowing through me. I draw on my love for Rogan, my love for my mother and Larissa.
I draw on the vampire strength from my father’s genes.
And I force the invisible tornado away.
Rogan stands before me, still naked, his beautiful eyes forlorn.
“Hannah...”
“No,” I say. “You’re wrong. I would never harm anyone!”
“I know that, and so does everyone else who knows you.”
“Why? Why are you lying to me?”
“I’m not lying to you, Hannah.”
“I have no memories of any of this.”
“I understand that.”
“How do you know?”
“I know only that my mate is responsible.”
“Then you didn’t see me do it?”
“No, I did not.”
Relief sweeps through me. “Then you’re wrong. I didn’t. Someone’s trying to frame me.”
“Hannah...”
“Victor, please. You have to listen to me. We’ll figure this out, you and I. We’ll figure out who’s lying to you.”
“Baby...”
“No!” I clench my fists. “This is wrong, damn it! My father sent me here to find out who killed the vamps and cut out their hearts. He wouldn’t have sent me if he knew I was responsible.”
“He may not know.”
“But... No, it wasn’t me. It was your bite marks on those corpses, not mine.”
“You didn’t bite them, Hannah.”
Hannah. He keeps calling me Hannah.
Oh God, oh God, oh God...
He only calls me Hannah when...
Oh God, oh God, oh God...
My father. I have to speak to my father. Now.
“I’m leaving,” I say.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“This is wrong, Rogan. So wrong! I would never do such a horrible thing!”
“I know you wouldn’t,” he says. “Someone must have been controlling you.”
“No one controls me.”
Except—
“Kneel before me, Hannah.”
"Never."
I gasp as an invisible force brings me to my knees.
Richard. The fucking demon king. He was able to force me to a kneel.
But I fought it. I rose. I overcame whatever control he exerted and I broke free.
This is a lie.
I know it’s a lie.
But Rogan... Rogan believes it to be true. Sure, he thinks I was out of my mind at the time, but still, he believes he’s protecting me.
“You said the vamps threatened me, and that’s why you killed them.”
“Yes.”
“Why, then, would I take their hearts? They were already dead. The threat had been eliminated.”
“I don’t know, Hannah. I don’t believe it was you, at least not the you that I know.”
I rub at my forehead, trying to ease the axe that’s hacking into my skull.
This isn’t right.
This isn’t right.
My stomach clenches, and I double over in pain with a gasp.
“Princess!”
Rogan grips my shoulders, but I hold up a hand to keep him back. I dry heave onto the dirt. Nothing comes up. Not even Rogan’s blood.
Good.
I need the blood.
I need the strength.
Because I know what I must now do.
War may be raging, but I have my own battle. A battle for my very soul.