Page 61 of A House of Fangs & Deceit

His lips curled. “Looks like meat is on the menu tonight.”

Chapter Fourteen

Samara

I staredat the box of my belongings that waited for me in my suite back at House Harker. We’d arrived in the late afternoon, the second leg of the trip home considerably less exciting than the one yesterday. Vail and the rangers had veered off to secure the body, and Alaric had gone along because he wanted to examine it again and had dragged Kieran with him.

My plan had been to rinse off and draft a letter to send to Roth, but halfway to my suite, a servant stopped me to let me know that a letter and package had arrived from House Laurent while I’d been gone.

I’d been alternating between pacing back and forth and staring at the letter I’d tossed onto my bed. Its words had yet to fully sink in.

But at the same time… they felt freeing.

House Laurent accepts the request to dissolve the marriage between Samara Harker and Demetri Laurent. Effective immediately.

I was officially a divorced woman.

The letter had been signed by Marvina. I thought for sure she would make more demands or draw this out just to bepetty. I also thought Demetri might send a letter, pleading for another chance to make this work,

But there was nothing from him. Nothing at all to signify our relationship had ever meant anything.

Just the simple letter from Marvina and a signed copy of the marriage dissolution we had originally sent her. The box contained all the clothes I’d brought with me from House Harker, but none of my House Laurent possessions.

The message was clear.You will get nothing from us, and we want nothing from you.

I should be relieved that it was over so easily, and I was, but I was also suspicious. It seemed out of character for Marvina to give me anything I wanted. She could have easily made this process more difficult and made demands of House Harker since I was the one requesting to dissolve the marriage.

She could have gotten some very favorable trade deals. Instead, she asked for nothing, like she was as eager to have this all done as I was.

Odd.

My finger grazed the silky grey fabric of the dress I’d worn the first day I’d arrived at House Laurent.

It was one of my more modest dresses, but the look on Marvina’s face had told me it wasn’t modest enough. I pulled out the other dresses that I’d never worn while there because they were far too scandalous. Slowly, a smile spread across my face. I could wear whatever the hell I wanted now.

I dug through the box some more until I found a dress made of the same silky material as the grey one, but this was a rich, vibrant purple. It was a halter top style, which left the entire back open. The fitted top hugged my breasts before cascading into layers of sheer fabric.

It didn’t have any high slits on the side, but the bottom half was just see-through enough to be interesting without revealing everything. It’d been years since I’d worn it.

Kieran would lose his mind when he saw me in it tomorrow.

I grinned wickedly as I gathered up all the dresses to hang them up in my closet. Once that was done, I rinsed off and tossed on a pair of comfy pants and a thin, light-weight top.

I was drying my hair when a slow, three-beat knock sounded on my door.

There was only one person who would knock on my door like that.

I swung it open, revealing Kieran leaning against the doorframe. His eyes roamed up and down, snagging on my breasts where my nipples were probably clearly visible through the thin fabric.

“Really?” I arched an eyebrow at him. “What are you, sixteen?”

He scoffed, “Please, I was much more subtle at sixteen.” He breezed into my suite, and I shut the door behind him.

“I’m busy, Kieran,” I said, continuing to towel dry my hair. “I need to write some letters updating Carmilla and requesting some assistance from someone at Drudonia.”

“Ugh,” he groaned before collapsing onto my bed. “You’re just like Alaric. It’s always work with you two.”

“Yes,” I said dryly. “Us working hard to prevent more attacks on our outposts must be a real inconvenience for you.”

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