Page 58 of Break Her Heart
17
Bronwen
“What do you mean you haven’t fed in over a week? You almost lost control in front of the entire great room, August!”
I paced across our chambers, the hem of my gown swishing around my ankles, my bare feet silent on the cold stone floor. The moment he overcame the animalistic part that had taken him over, we’d left.
“Do not scold me like you are my…” He exhaled, dragging a hand through his hair. “You know what? Never mind.”
“Your wife?” I snapped, spinning on him. “I am your wife, and you almost bit me in front ofeveryone. Why haven’t you fed?”
“I have been busy,” he muttered, jaw clenched.
“Too busy to feed? Too busy to do the one thing that keeps you alive? Wait.” I crossed my arms, my anger burning just beneath my skin. “What about the blood in the great room? I’ve seen you drink that.”
“That is animal blood. It is enjoyable in the moment, but it doesn’t help long term.”
“Animal blood?” I scoffed, eyebrows lifting. “What type of animals? Deer? Cows?” I gasped. “Horses?”
“You don’t want me to answer that.”
My eyes widened. “Oh my gods—you didn’t.”
August stared at me. “That bothers you more than me feeding on humans?”
I crossed my arms. “I grew up knowing vampires fed on humans, but animals? Horses? That seems unnatural.” A cold dread bloomed in my chest. I brought a hand to my mouth. “Shadow’s missing. If he was stolen in the night like you say humans are, I swear to the gods, August, I will burn this castle to the ground tonight.”
He stepped closer to me and shook his head. “There hasn’t been any deliveries in weeks.”
I exhaled in relief, but only for a second. When I looked up, August’s eyes had shifted—crimson bleeding into the brown, veins darkening beneath his skin like cracks in porcelain. My stomach dropped.
“August. You have to go feed.”
He turned his face away, jaw clenched so tight I could see the muscle ticking. For a moment, I thought he might argue. But then he closed his eyes. “We are going now,” he said quietly. “I can’t risk losing control around you again.”
August walked ahead of me through the dark streets, his guards trailing a few paces behind us. We both wore cloaks, hoods drawn low to obscure our faces from any curious eyes peering out through the cracks of shuttered windows. I had assumed he would take us below the castle, to some dim corridor where a willing servant awaited their turn. But no—he insisted he had to hunt.
Not just feed.Hunt.
There was something primal in the way he said it. Like the idea of anything less repulsed him. It unsettled me, the way his hunger twisted into something almost sacred. I kept glancing at him as we walked, wondering what kind of predator needed a performance just to survive.
His pace was brisk as he turned down another street.
“Seems like you know exactly where to go,” I said, raising an eyebrow.
He didn’t answer. Didn’t even glance back.
I sped up, falling into step beside him. “I could lead us there, considering I’ve gotten to the part of your long life where you enjoyed the company of easy women before you fed.”
That stopped him cold. He turned his head slowly, his gaze cutting sideways with razor precision. “Are you having sex dreams about me now?”
“Unwanted nightmares.”
He smirked, but his eyes shifted to my neck and he turned around.
“Why don’t you stay back with the guards? I don’t know how my hunger is going to react.”
I wanted to argue, to get under his skin a little more because I was still angry with him, but he was right. I let him get well ahead of me before walking further down the cobbled street, past shuttered shops and dimly lit inns. Wild music drifted from somewhere ahead. As we turned a corner, the street opened up into a part of town that felt alive in a very different way. Drunken laughter spilled into the air. A few bodies lay slumped against the stone walls, passed out or too far gone to care. A man sang off-key from the steps of a tavern while another danced in the mud with his coat halfway off. The scent of sweat, ale, and something more acrid clung to the breeze.
