Page 1 of Mated

PROLOGUE

PRINCESS ELOWEN

The wedding bells chiming didn’t sound like a celebration.

They sounded like a funeral. The end of days. The end of times.

My death.

My gown was too tight around my skin, as if I were suffocating from the outside in.

I stood on the balcony that overlooked the grand hall. The room was decorated in my family colors. Red and golds that bespoke of wealth and bloodshed. The tight, gold threading bit into my ribs like a set of teeth, and I picked at the material trying to loosen it.

I could see nobles of the court whispering and sipping from jeweled goblets. My father’s men stood sentry on either side of the large, wooden doors of the room, guards to keep anyone in who thought of escaping.

I couldn’t breathe. Not with the weight of what was to come.

And then I felt him come up from behind. Prince Gavin. My betrothed.

He had this air around him of a man who’d already won at life and still wanted more.

I turned and faced him, not wanting my back to this living, breathing human monster who I’d be forced to call my husband. He was draped in his house colors of sapphire and silver. And his broad shoulders blocked out everything behind him. I couldn't help but notice the way he cracked his knuckles, his hands screaming they held enough power to break my neck as easily as if it were a twig.

Nothing about Prince Gavin was kind. He may have been handsome in the traditional sense, but the cracks in his facade revealed everything he truly was.

Pure evil.

And he was just like my father.

“You’re beautiful,” he said in an icy voice as he stepped closer. We were alone on the balcony, and it terrified me to be so isolated with this man. I’d have to get used to it, though. I’d be forced to share the same home—the same bed—with him.

His voice was like oil, all thick and slick. It felt like it was coating me in a slimy sheen.

“You’ll give me strong, beautiful heirs.”

My stomach roiled at the thought of him climbing on top and forcing me to be his childbearing vessel.I flinched as he reached for me.

“Don’t,” I said, that single word coming out of me before I could stop myself.

The anger on his face was tangible and instantaneous. He gripped my waist, his fingers digging hard into the silk of my dress as he pulled me flush against him. Instinctively, I flinched and pushed him away.

“We could skip the ceremony,” he murmured, his lips dragging along my jaw until I felt the urge to vomit rise. “No one would care if I sampled what’s already mine.”

I knew he spoke the truth. No one would care. I shoved at his chest. “I’ll never be yours.” Even if I was married to Gavin, I’d never truly be his.

He pulled back and his expression was cruel. He gripped my chin between his fingers so tightly I cried out and tried to pull away.

“You foolish, fucking girl. Youaremine,Elowen. Bought, paid for, and bartered like a prize to do with as I will. And tonight,” his squeeze on my chin hard enough tears rolled down my cheeks from the pain. “Tonight, I’ll breed you like the bitch you are.”

I slapped him. The sound cracked across the balcony like lightning, his head cocking to the side. He laughed and ground out through his teeth, “Oh, you’ll be fun to break.” And then he licked me, his wet, disgusting tongue dragging up the side of my face from my jaw to the outer corner of my eye, his saliva laying like a poison on my skin.

I trembled—not with fear but with fury. I’d spent my entire life surrounded by men like him. Men like my father who saw me as nothing but flesh and the bearer of future heirs. Not a woman. Not a person. Just a body to control.

I couldn't do it any longer. I couldn’t be a slave to any more men.

Gavin suddenly moved away from me, smoothing his hand down his wedding outfit, and said in a hard, impersonal voice, “Get your ass down there for the ceremony, Elowen. Don’t make me come back to fetch you.”

My heart beat faster, louder, until it drowned out the distant murmur of guests filling the room below.

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