Page 1 of Exiled Prince

PROLOGUE

Bane

Twelve Years Old

“With father dead, does that mean you are king now?” Xan, my younger half brother, asks me. My mother died when I was four, and my father, King Renford, soon remarried afterward.

“I don’t know,” I reply, rubbing my tired eyes. “I’m only young. I’m not ready to be king yet.”

Xan’s red eyes look down at his feet. “Mother says I should be king now.”

“What?” I ask, my brow furrowing.

I’m the heir, and my father raised me as the next future king. I’ve been training since before I could walk, preparing to lead The Circle.

Xan’s mother steps up behind him, placing her hands on his shoulders, her long red nails pointed at the tips. “Your father changed his mind, Bane. He wants Xan as his heir. And like I just heard you say, you aren’t ready to be king.”

I’m not.

But at only seven, neither is Xan.

“Father said—”

“Your father is dead. And you aren’t welcome here anymore. You’ve been exiled. Xan is now the true heir of the Demon Kingdom.”

I stand still, unsure of what to do. I feel angry and confused. Thunder rumbles from above me. She looks up at the sky. “You are unstable, Bane, and not what this kingdom needs. If you come back here, you will be executed. Guards! Please escort the prince out. He will be leaving.”

She turns and leaves, and Xan pokes out his tongue at mebefore he follows her.

And me?

I get kicked out of the only home I’ve ever known.

The home I was meant to rule as king.

CHAPTER ONE

Saylor

Present

“You told me you were taking me out drinking and dancing.” I frown, crossing my arms over my chest and glancing around the battlefield with a scowl. “Was drinking code word for gate crashing a battlefield?”

Is that a fucking undead army?

My eyes roam over the crowd of warriors, landing on a familiar, handsome face.

Rave.

If I didn’t recognize his imposing build and ice-blue stare, the shadows surrounding him would still easily give him away. I’d call him a cocky bastard, but I know intimately that the Shadow King, as they now call him, can back it up.

Just fucking great. What every woman wants—to run into the male who took her virginity and never contacted her again.

Wonderful.

Oh, and there’s his fated mate next to him, one I heard can make people explode from the inside out.

Shit, she has a strong shield too.

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