Page 76 of Clash of Kingdoms

“King Rolfe requests Aurelias join him in his study.” It was one of the guards from the castle, the kind that were positioned at the doors and windows at all times in case someone ever tried to storm it.

“Looks like we’ll have to finish this later.” I got to my feet.

We already know how that will end.

“Asshole,” I said under my breath as I walked out.

I walked ahead and ignored the guard who remained behind me. He seemed to keep his distance on purpose, as if he wanted to avoid my company because I was a vampire with razor-sharp teeth.

I entered the castle then found his study on the third floor, a floor higher than the great room and Harlow’s bedchambers. I’d never stepped foot on this floor at all, let alone been inside his study, which was decorated in dark mahogany with maroon rugs and curtains. The fire in the stone hearth was lit, and he sat behind his desk, arms on the armrests, and his stare was hostile. Once I entered the room, I felt it…his anger.

I slowed my step as I approached the armchair that faced him. Perhaps his anger had nothing to do with me. Perhaps he and his wife had had an argument about something. But more than likely, Harlow had told him what I’d done when he returned to HeartHolme, and now he wanted to scream at me for hurting his daughter.

I dropped into the chair, rested my ankle on the opposite knee, and waited for his wrath.

He was silent.

I stared.

We were back in time, to when he kept me locked up in the cell in the dungeon and he refused to speak first…because I was beneath him.

A solid minute passed.

I abandoned my pride and went first. “I can’t feed on Harlow, so I had no other choice. I didn’t tell her because I knew she wouldn’t understand.” I spared him the details of when she’d begged me, when she’d exposed her neck to me and tempted my resolve. It would infuriate him to know that his daughter stupidly tried to lure a vampire into feeding. “But I couldn’t fight those demons and win if I was in a weakened state. I’m sorry that I hurt her, but there was no other option.”

He stared me down and didn’t blink.

“Whether we’re together or not, I love her, and I’ll fight for her until the job is done.”

Huntley was still as angry as when I’d walked in the door.

There was nothing else for me to say. “What do you want from me, Huntley?”

He fired off immediately. “I want you to take back what you said.”

My eyebrows arched up my face.

“You don’t love my daughter.”

It was like a punch to the face, the kind that broke your jaw. “Excuse me?”

“You heard what I said, Aurelias,” he said coldly.

“I fed from the woman,” I snapped. “I didn’t fuck her?—”

“That’s not what I speak of.”

I sank back into the chair, having no idea what he referred to.

His eyes flashed in anger, like he wanted to draw his sword and stab it through my stomach. “You could be with my daughter forever, but you’ve chosen to return to your lands and continue your life of drinking and fucking.” He didn’t raise his voice, but the anger in his tone was as sharp as my dagger. “When I was a young man, there was a different woman in my bed most nights of the week. I fucked whores and women who fucked me for free. I never grew tired of it, would have continued to do that even now. But then I met Ivory…and that shit stopped dead in its tracks. It stopped because I met the one woman I couldn’t live without. From that moment, there was no sacrifice I wouldn’t make for her. None.”

I wore a steely gaze to buffer his anger.

“You could have my daughter, but she’s not worth it to you.”

“It’s not that she’s not worth it?—”

“You would rather live forever fucking other women than live one life with her. Period.”

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