Page 38 of Born of Blood and Thorns

"I'm sorry, it's just…" I trailed off, not wanting to share my morning activities with the whole damn castle. Some things, including my shame, were meant to be private. Once dressed, I moved closer to her. "I was unkind. I am truly sorry. My foul mood is not of your making."

Alysha let out a long, heavy breath. "You slept with him?" She stared at me as if she'd never seen me before. Shame hit me again as I felt it course through me, and I stepped back.

"I, uh, I did. It was weird—his eyes were red and then his dragon came to me last night, and I don't know, I just… I just lost all sense of everything."

I'd lost my damn mind, more like it. It had been… it had been glorious. Everything I'd ever wanted for the first time that had never been given to me. I could still feel the pleasant throb between my legs where he had been just a mere hour earlier. The thought sent desire through me once again, and I clamped my lips tight together to keep from moaning. There was something seriously wrong with me.

Alysha studied me with a myriad of emotions flashing across her face as she inspected me. I didn't know her well enough to read her, but it looked like both relief and concern.

"You saw his dragon?" she asked, setting down the breakfast tray and sitting as if her legs gave out on her. "What did he say?"

"He did that whole alpha thing like the wolves do when they want to own a woman. He said I was his. All…” I lowered my voice to mimic Lore's dragon voice, "You're mine."

"He…" She stared at me as if I was the most baffling creature she'd ever seen. "He claimed you?"

I shrugged. "If you want to call it that. Bunch of macho misogynistic crap if you ask me."

Alysha touched her face, and then her hand went to her heart. She then lifted her arm and pinched it. "Oh, dear," she breathed, her gaze seemingly in a daze. "I should go start the roast for tonight," she said offhandedly as she rose. She departed, leaving me in the room with a tray of food. My stomach rumbled loudly, so I sighed, quelling my anger as best I could.

"You need to eat and get your strength up if you're going to get out of here," I muttered to the silence before I devoured the food, thankful for Alysha's thoughtfulness because, apparently good sex left one starved.

Now more than ever, I needed to figure out this curse and make plans to escape. I knew the ending would be Lore at the end of my blade, but now, for the first time, I felt hesitation.

That desire to survive, to fight to the very last moment, and to do anything to achieve just one more day, no matter the cost. It seemed to turn murky because how would that cost tarnish my soul forever?

Would a life in this world be worth the blood on my hands? That piece of my heart, now flickered to life, told me that perhaps I should find another. There was a tiny sliver of hope, and hope was a dangerous thing.

CHAPTER 18

Lore

My dragon had surfaced inside of my mortal body. It spoke through me, moved my body. All to be with this girl. The vampire half-breed, Isabella. Never in all my years cursed had he ever come to me in the day in my mortal form. Not since the curse had been created all those centuries ago. We were cut off from one another.

The cruelty in which the moon goddess twisted her curse. Because being cut off was like missing a part of my soul. For a short, fleeting moment, that part of my soul and a part I never knew was missing, collided, and I felt whole.

I felt content, restored, as if I'd finally found my home, my reason for being. The reason I'd suffered for so long suddenly felt as if it was worth every second, even for just a few moments. This terrified me. Terrified me in a way I couldn't put into words or even work through the conflicting emotions that twisted inside me.

She had done this to me. Bewitched me and used magic to pull my dragon out. The moon goddess must have sent her. I stormed through the castle, cursing and smashing my fist into the wall as I sought out that area of the castle I always craved. I was broken, in pain, and spiraling into darkness.

She’d asked me about the curse, and it was more evident than ever that it was closer to claiming me forever. There was no promised true love. If there was, I prayed she never came because the monster inside of me would be her ruin.

I felt my dragon’s claws unfurl within me as he scratched the edges of my mind as if he were that much closer to fully taking me over.

I made my way to my sister Lara’s room, stopping in front of the stained-glass windows that showed our kingdom’s history and shame. There was no littered furniture, only dust, ghosts, and heartache. I studied each pane, seeing the red dragon over the castle, its red scales glowing from the outside light.

A stillness came over me as my thoughts drifted back to Bella, to the passion we had found in each other’s arms that morning. It had been so long since I had been with another woman, but even in my memories, nothing had ever felt like that.

It had felt right, like I had found a piece of myself that had always been missing. This thought made me go to the door before my sister Lara’s room and see that the dust had been disturbed. My steps faltered as I looked around. Someone had been here recently, and the footprints were dainty and petite, just like a beautiful, infuriating half-vampire—the uninvited guest of my castle.

I moved to stare at the portrait of Lara. Layers of dust obscured her smiling face. She had been so vibrant, so full of hopes and dreams. Until the vampire queen stole all the light and joy from Lara’s spirit in one cruel act of betrayal.

I remembered her excitement at being invited to the court for the first time when we worked hard to unite the two kingdoms. Something Lara had indeed been the instrument of change for. Upon the first time home, she had blushed with moon eyes as if she had found a man with whom she'd fallen in love.

I’d wanted her to be happy, and there had been no reason to remind her she'd never be allowed to have more than a crush on someone in another court. So I’d dumbly let her hold onto the hope in her heart that love was possible.

The next time we had visited, when we came home, things had been different. She had been different. It was obvious her heart had been broken.

Soon, we’d found her dead, taken by her own hand. I had found evidence of the vampire queen Isabella's treachery. She'd taken my beautiful, young, naive sister and had used her, then she’d broke her heart as she used her to fuel the very war Lara had desperately tried to keep from ever happening. The shame and heartbreak had made Lara fall into despair, which had taken her from this world forever.

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