Page 67 of The Depraved Prince
Action speaks louder than words when I’m with him.
“You’re mine, Millie. Don’t be afraid. You’ll never have to be afraid of me. I won’t ever hurt you.”
He lifts off my blood-stained garments, leaving me naked and bare. I’m staring back at his muscled chest. Tan, perfectly contoured like the devil took his time creating this sinfully handsome bloodlust demon. He tilts my chin upwards to meet his cold, ice-blue eyes. His dashing face is still littered with deep bruises and cuts.
“What you did…” His smooth voice seeps into my ears, making my nerves coil with desire. His voice wreaks havoc on my body. It’s soothing and deep, forcing my common sense nowhere to be found. He shakes his head disapprovingly. His dark brows pinch together like he’s disappointed, but then there’s a glimpse of happiness in those blue irises. I’ve never seen him like this before. He licks his lips and trails a slender finger up and down my neck where he marked me. The only thing I can hear is my fast breathing. The tension between us is so thick because I know what’s coming.
“I need you…Millie. I want you. And I want you now. Surrender your soul to me.Surrender every part of your body to me…”
He doesn’t have to explain in detail. I know what he means. I know he craves meentirely. I just thought…Cole would always be my first.
A tear falls from my eye, and he wipes it away with pained, narrow brows.
“Hayden…I’ve never—I?—”
“I know.”
“Please, Hayden. I just want to go home now. The war is over, isn’t it?”
He nods, his jaw flexing like he’s about to ruin me in ways that he craves.
He knows he has no reason now to keep me here. The war is over. The rebellious king of the south is dead. No one wants to break the law by killing me anymore because it’ll result in them being imprisoned for eternity or burned in the inferno. Hayden exemplified the Southern Vampires at the concert festival by putting their heads on spikes. Now? He killed a King. I’m still new to this whole vampire world, but I think if anyone tries to challenge the Dragos or the law, they’ll think twice.
“It’s over. Let me go home. I won’t tell anyone about your existence. I can forget about all of this. You can move on. I can move on,” I plead with him, desperately in a high-pitched request. I do everything I can to keep my voice from shaking, but it’s not enough to mask the pain in every syllable.
He smiles. And for a second there, I think he’s going to agree with me. But then his eyes flash to crimson, and the darkness in his soul comes alive.
“There is no moving on for meor for you. Don’t you get it? You’re the only light in my life. You think I’m going to let you go?” he growls low and sultry.
Another tear falls out of my eye.
“It’s the right thing to do. Let me go home,” I mutter.
“Why would you want to go back there?What home?” he spits out with amusement. “Why would you want to return to a place where you’re always hurting? Where you’re never seen? Where you aren’t loved the way you should be?” He leans forward, kisses my cheek, and brushes his bloody knuckles against my face, leaving streaks of black.
His question blindsides me. I stiffen and ache all over. The truth gets slapped into my face.
I glance away from him and instead close my eyes as I whisper in a broken tone, “It’s all I’ve ever known.Pain and isolation are my home. I’m used to it.”
Years and years of everything going wrong, watching my mother in an abusive relationship and always wondering where my father was, did something to me. It molded me into someone who’s addicted to pain and fear because it’s all I’ve ever known how to live with.
Maybe that’s why I understand you, Hayden. Perhaps that’s why I like you.
He smiles, but it’s cold and more rigid than steel.
“You leave me, Millie…and I will burn my own damn kingdom to the ground. You deny me, and I will make everyone around you hurt for it. I will never stop. I have fallen in love with you. Don’t run from me…don’t run fromus.”
My heart drops and shatters.
“What do you mean?” I breathe out, my tongue trembling.
“You know exactly what I mean.” His sinister threat sends every hair on my body to stand.
He’s going to hurt everyone I love if I try to escape? If I try to leave him?
He’s not giving me a choice to leave?
“I thought it was against the law in your world to marry a Valkyrie.”
