Page 49 of Sire
And you have my heart, always.
And if I can ever fix this, it starts now.
It begins with her.
“My father has found me. He did it because I was arrested at nineteen for breaking into a pharmacy to get pain pills for a lady on our street who was undergoing chemo. He said it was a matter of time before I had a criminal record, and it took him eleven years to show up at my door.”
She pulls back, shocked. “Does your mom know?”
“No one knows, because he’s threatening to kill her and my brothers if I say a word.”
“So, what did he want?”
“A legitimate heir. He’s obsessed with pure bloodlines and that bullshit. My mother is descended from the Russian Czar, and my father’s organization respects her lineage. And since my brothers and I escaped him, we hate him; he has no heirs. It’s a disgrace for him.”
“So, he wants you back?”
“I’d rather kill him and die, but I don’t want my mother or brothers dead, either. So, I made a deal with him that once Imarried a woman, I’d give him our first son so he’d have an heir, and he’d let us live.”
Horror hits her beautiful face.
“I never meant it,” I rush. “I figured as long as I never married and had a kid, death would take him first.”
She’s doing it again. I can feel her looking at me and reading my soul. I find it comforting now.
“But?” she asks gently.
“But I should’ve known better than to make a deal with the Devil. I played the game too long, so once again, he set his sights on Axel.”
She sits up, her hair the sexiest, long mane of curls. “What did he do to Axel?”
“He found a Russian woman, from a noble line, to move here and secretly seduce him. To marry Axel. And then she got pregnant and left him.”
“Poor Axel.” She touches her chest. “He must hate your father so much.”
“He does, but he has no idea what he did.”
“How’s that possible?”
I sit up beside her. Scrubbing my hand down my face, I won’t stop now. I can finally take a breath of relief, confessing everything to Wren.
Bear one another’s burdens,the Bible says, and I’ve finally found a woman strong enough to bear mine.
“I have no proof this happened, only a gut instinct,” I explain. “Katya was Axel’s first wife, and when we made her our first queen, she wanted me, too. She came on to me all the time. She wanted me and Axel together. No condoms and in their bed. A permanent threesome. She begged me to breed her, too.”
Wren asks painfully, “Didyou?”
Fuck, she looks hurt.Wounded. Jealous. Even betrayed, and I want Wren to be possessive over me. I’m hers now.
“Never, I promise. I may have a dark kink, but I have control. I’d never betray my brother, and I don’t fuck people who give me evil vibes, and that was Katya—evil. Just like my father.”
“So, she married Axel, and you and your brothers made her a queen, but then she left him?”
“Yeah, with a note and a broken heart. And I suspect it was because she was finally pregnant and never told him. She went back to my father, while Axel has no idea he has a child, and that’s why I don’t deserve one.”
“When was this?”
“Over three years ago, and I repent every day. I feel sick every day.Ishould’ve sacrificed my child, not Axel.”
