Page 1 of Claim Me
Prologue
Damian
“I love you,” my mother whispered as we ran through the woods from another coven. I didn’t know why this time. We never stayed for long. I had a feeling it was because of all the men my mother would try to stay with. But they always ended up violent, eventually. Sometimes it had to do with my own father and who he was. Other times it was because my mother made them angry. This time, the entire coven was after us. We were getting close to another. I could feel the magic thrumming through my blood. We were so close.
She gripped the side of the tree as she whipped her head around. Her black hair arced around her face as her eyes searched wildly through the thick brush. “I have always loved you. I will always love you, but sometimes we have to do things that we don’t want to do.” She gripped my hands in hers. Pain shot through my fingers as she squeezed them together. “You will be powerful and the only way to ensure your safety is for you to get to that next coven. Do whatever you must to survive. Never mention my name and never mention your last name, do you understand?”
I nodded my head in fear. I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t want to continue on without her. She planned to leave me behind or she was going to fight the coven coming after us. In the distance, I could hear their shouting and barely make out the fiery torches. They wouldn’t let us live through the night. I was young but I knew that much. My hand was clammy inside of my mother’s as she brushed my hair from my forehead with her other hand. “Make me proud.”
She pulled away from me abruptly as the shouts grew closer. The knife she had strapped to her leg came free and before I could stop her, she was pulling it across her throat. Her body toppled to my feet and her eyes stared at nothing in the sky. She died with a smile on her face and took the goodness that was inside of me.
I awoke with a start. I clicked the lamp on beside the bed and threw the blankets from my legs. It had been a long time since I had dreamt of the night my mother took her life to save mine. On that night, I had inherited her magic and had to leave her behind, bleeding in the snow. I would never forget the red against white. I came to hate the snow and as it fell from the sky outside my window my lips turned up in a sneer. The winter was my least favorite. Everything died in the cold. I sighed as I tied a robe around my naked body.
“You should come back to bed,” Silvia said from beneath the thin sheets. I ignored her as I pressed my palm to the cold glass. I could see her reflection as she crawled across the bed toward me. Her blonde hair was tangled around her shoulders and her pale skin was still marked from our rough night working out our frustrations on each other. Her lips were still swollen and her eyes looked tired. Her perky breasts begged to be touched.
She didn’t tempt me like she had the night before. She had passed me in the hallway and there was something about the way she dressed that reminded me of someone else. I cursed myself internally for being so weak. I should have stayed away from her. The last thing I wanted to do was sire a child. A baby would do nothing but complicate things. Especially in the middle of a war I was going to win.
Silvia rolled from her knees onto her back and spread herself out for me seductively. “You know you still need it,” I was considering it but she kept speaking. “I could help wipe that nasty nightmare from your thoughts.”
“Get out,” My voice was soft but filled with power. It cracked though the room.
She jerked upright. Her hair fell over her shoulders and covered the breasts I had enjoyed so much just a few hours previous. “You would do better to have some respect for me. I control all the witches here.”
She yanked a shirt over her head and I turned back to her slowly. “I have given you everything you could ever want. You would do better to listen to my commands instead of staying around when I’m in a sour mood.”
“If you want the witches and their covens to follow you, you will stop being rude to me.” She slammed the door on the way out.
I doubted I would miss her. The only thing I would miss was her resemblance to the person I actually wanted. The one person I couldn’t have…yet.
