Page 7 of Born of Blood and Thorns

Me, I was nothing, just a bastard half-breed of noble blood. It mattered little. But him, well, they'd be interested in learning about him.

The kingship could still be claimed with him still in the land of the living. But one needed force to keep the throne in a land as viscous as its people. Over the years, we'd heard the lordships that survived were looking for him, ready to sever the line entirely and elect a new ruler. They could do neither without him.

He could do nothing without an army to support him. So we hid, I starved, and we waited. Him for a future that would never come to pass and me for freedom however it came to me. Gideon was not freedom but another prison of its own.

"Yes." I nodded reluctantly, shaking off the guilt of not being able to scrape together enough money for a decent meal. The carrots I'd found were shriveled, and the tiny rice seemed a far cry from a real meal; it was barely enough for a mouse. With the little money that remained, food was becoming a luxury, and soon, we would have nothing left at all. I had no means of providing for myself as he did.

My father frowned and pressed his lips together as if he wanted to say something before erasing all expressions of emotion and fixing his face into indifference. I stepped closer to the fireplace, trying to warm my hands, knowing that even when the moon rose high in the sky at the darkest hour of the night, they wouldn't feel any less numb. My breath appeared as a misty cloud, and I hastily added the last log to the burning fire, a spark igniting within.

"You should marry the mutt," Roderick announced after a long, impregnated silence.

He meant Gideon. He wanted to pawn me off to an alpha wolf who would eventually tear me down to shreds just to wipe his hands of me. I wasn't surprised. I was too tired to be angry anymore today.

I refused to meet his pale gray gaze when I said, "I won't marry him."

I turned my head from the fire to meet his now, once again, expanded red-rimmed black pupils. I knew my father had once cared for me, not like other fathers cared about their daughters. He cared about his things. That’s what I was to him, a thing.

He cared enough that I lived, ate occasionally, and was warm. The affection that should have been evident was stolen from him when the sorceress cursed the vampire kingdom with her heartless spell. His brother, the king, had been ripped to pieces before my eyes. He hadn’t been there.

“Isabella,” Roderick called out again firmly.

“I can’t marry him. I won’t!” I said with more force, shifting my feet closer to him. The smell of damp soil and a hint of bitterness lingered in the air around us, of darkness and deep places. He let out a tired sigh.

“You had better figure something out soon, girl. Or your only other option is to be made,” he announced like a loud bang throughout the small room.

An uncomfortable silence descended upon us. I dared not speak and very nearly dared not breathe. If there was anything I didn't want in the world, becoming a vampire was it.

"I apologize, Father. I was…daydreaming," I mumbled, shifting my feet closer to him.

He let out a tired sigh. "Try not to die through the night. I must be off."

Hunting, he meant. I shook my head, returning my gaze to the small fire, its faint light barely illuminating the small space we had called home since winter had started. A few logs remained on the dying flames, just enough for me to lay down on my bare pallet and drift off into a restless sleep.

Dreaming impossible dreams such as that, somehow, I'd find a way to escape this wretched life and be free, proving to everyone—including myself—that I was more than just a cursed half-breed.

Until then, I held onto my dreams fiercely, knowing they kept me from drowning in despair. Falling into a hungered sleep, I hoped to get lucky and not wake up this time.

I was never lucky.

CHAPTER 3

Bella

Iawoke to the arctic chill that seeped into my bones, numbing my fingers and turning my teeth to chatterboxes. Searching for warmth, I stumbled across the cold room; all I found was a fierce wind blowing through from an open door, bringing a chill far too cold for this time of year.

Squeezing my body together in an attempt to conserve heat, my eyes were drawn to the slumped figure of my father in the corner. Blood-soaked clothes clung tightly to his body and stained his chin while his mouth hung open, exposing sharp incisors that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

My father, the mighty prince of the vampire kingdom, Roderick Val' Draco, once a proud and handsome prince, had fallen so far to the bottom. We were everything he despised.

My body shivered as I shuffled closer to him, examining his motionless figure. My heart sank as I watched the stillness of his chest, not a single breath leaving his mouth while mine puffed out white clouds of vapor with each exhale. He had drunk far too much this time, leaving me alone in the cold.

I leaned closer and sniffed him, smelling the intoxicating aroma of the blood on and in him. He'd been to the ale house and the drug den. Sampling from both, letting the drugs and alcohol inhibit him as it did the warm bodies he fed from.

He awoke suddenly, his gaze emotionless and void of any humanity. He clasped his grip tightly around my neck, and I fought back with all the force I could muster. His eyes were full-blown black, piercing into me like they couldn't recognize or see me. I strained to break free, pushing and clawing at him in desperate attempts to get a single breath of air.

"Father! Wake up!" I cried out, trying to break the spell he was under. I tried to slap him across the face, hoping it would bring him back to reality, but instead, he threw me across the room. I whimpered in pain as my body struck the unforgiving wall. Despite the agony, I quickly stood and readied myself for whatever conflict was to come. All while cursing at my skirts that entangled my legs.

He lunged toward me in a flash and propelled me back with his powerful fists. With all the strength I had left in me, I retaliated, hammering my fist into his face with a deafening roar that filled the room. "Wake up, you bastard!" I snarled as his eyes slowly started to regain focus on me.

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