Page 32 of Our Sins in Blood (Coven of Sin 1)

And if I didn’t, there would be a straight-on cockfight for me.

Bloody hell.

“This is fucking bullshit,” Vincent snarled, his tone dripping with lethal malice. He stepped forward so that he was right before the thrones. He looked each and every one of them in the eye. “By vampire law, it’s Sterling’s right to the throne. Since he’s declined that right passes to me.”

If Sharpe was intimidated by the violent energy rolling off of Vincent in suffocating waves, he didn’t show it. “In four months, a king and queen will be crowned. If you want the throne so desperately, Mr. Feral, you’ll need to take it up with Ms. Baxter.”

“Why does she fucking get to choose?” Vincent continued to snarl. “If you’re going to force her to be here when she doesn’t want to be, she needs a mate to protect her from the others. Can’t you scent how strong her blood is? Deathwish will tear her to pieces the first chance he gets. Are you really going to allow that psycho a chance to be king?”

Dr. Sharpe narrowed his eyes on Vincent, a jump of a vein in his temple finally betraying some kind of readable emotion. He didn’t like Vincent—he didn’t like him at all.

“The Elders have already made their decision, Feral. If Eros truly desires to take the throne, he’ll take care to treat the princess with respect, as it is she who will be doing the choosing.” His death-cold gaze shifted to me. “Provided she does so in the allotted time frame.”

A chill shot through me.

Vincent looked to his brother, his expression desperate. Sterling couldn’t see him, but Vincent’s tone perfectly mirrored his plea. “Sterling…”

The silver-haired vampire just gave a small shake of his head, his frown tugging at the corners of his eyes. He didn’t need to say anything for the rest of us to understand.

There would be no changing the council’s mind.

“I want to go home. You can’t keep me here.” I swallowed thickly, pushing back angry tears. I wouldn’t cry in front of Dr. Sharpe. I wouldn’t cry in front of any of them. But it was hard not to break down. The long night was catching up to me, and a moment later, I realized I no longer had a home to go to. Not a friend in the world, except for maybe Corry. But if he was forced to compete with his brothers, that brief friendship was pretty much all over.

“This is your home now, Ms. Baxter,” Sharpe’s unfeeling voice rang out, sealing my fate. “You will spend the next four months getting to know the ways of our kind and our coven. The princes will be personally responsible for teaching you how to feed, how to protect yourself, and how to navigate the human world discreetly. You are not to leave the grounds until you have gained control of your bloodlust.”

I could barely hear what the doctor was saying anymore. I felt like I was a world away as his words came at me through an echo, bouncing off walls and making my head rattle.

Vincent hadn’t freed me at all. He’d rescued me from my room in Quincy just to bring me to another prison. That’s what this was. Just another prison.

I’d been so stupid to believe Corry when he’d bought me the phone, assuring me I wasn’t a prisoner any longer. He was a fucking liar.

The word “queen” had thrown me off. Queen’s got to make their own decisions—they were the ones in charge. The head bitch. But I wasn’t queen yet. I’d have to choose one of my father’s progeny before I would be queen. Then what? He’d make all the decisions for me?

Fuck that.

Fuck this place.

Fuck everything.

I had to get out of here.

I had to battle every fiber in my body that screamed at me to run. If I ran now, I wouldn’t get out of the mansion before someone caught me. Hell, I probably wouldn’t even get out the door of this room. My gaze flickered to the moon that now dipped behind the horizon. Dawn was coming, and if I had one advantage over these jerks, It was that I could walk in daylight. I’d make my breakout then. Because there was no way I was playing this fucked-up version ofThe Bachelorette.

Sure, maybe I’d be into it if I had

to stick around. But if there was one thing more important to me than having the fun and adventure I’d dreamed of, it was freedom.

And no one was going to take that from me ever again.

I stepped out of the steaming shower of my new suite, pulled a fluffy white towel from the rack, and wrapped it around my frame. If I wasn’t so freaked out by the fact that this room was basically just another prison cell, I might have been more taken with how fancy it was. The bedroom, bathroom suite was at least three times the size of the one I’d grown up in back in Quincy, so at least there was that. And no pink walls, thank fuck for that.

The bedroom felt old with its creaky wooden flooring that groaned with every step. The wallpaper was black, with a pretty floral pattern etched in silver. The bed was giant, with four carved posts and a velvety black canopy draped overhead. The furniture was old, just as old as the home it seemed, but the bathroom was brand new. Complete with marble floors and stainless steel fixtures.

The water pressure was also better here, and nobody was screaming at me from downstairs to be careful not to run the water bill up.

Stepping out of the steamy bathroom, I approached the window beside the bed. The first time I noticed the window, my attention went immediately to the huge steel shutters mounted on either side. For a second, I had an unpleasant flashback, but I quickly regained composure when I realized there was no lock on the shutters. The shutters weren’t meant to keep me in. They were meant to keep out the sunlight. This is a vampire coven, after all. All the rooms were probably outfitted with the same exact device.

I moved to the door and turned the handle.

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