Page 54 of Battle King (Princes of Devil's Creek 4)

DAMIAN

Nine years later…

Ascream woke me from a dreamless sleep. I patted the space beside me and remembered Alex was with Luca tonight. Another panicked, high-pitched scream came from across the hall.

Sofia.

I rushed out of my bedroom and opened Sofia’s door. A nightlight bathed the room in a golden glow of stars that floated across the ceiling. The Swan Lake mural Marcello had painted of Odette was on the opposite wall, right in front of Sofia’s toys. She was so spoiled. My baby girl had everything she could ever want.

She sat in the middle of her bed. “Daddy,” she choked out with tears in her eyes, relief washing over her face.

I sat on the bed and cradled her head against my chest. “Did you have another bad dream, princess?”

She bobbed her head, still crying. “The monsters came back again.”

I ran my fingers through her long, sweaty black hair, down her back, which was also slick with sweat, her pajamas clinging to her tiny body. “It’s okay now. Daddy’s here. The monsters are afraid of me.”

She didn’t know how true that was, but she believed it. Because she thought her dad was invincible.

I wasn’t.

Just a crazy motherfucker who would kill anyone or anything that tried to fuck with my family. And with Sofia, I was even more of a savage.

Sofia was ten, not much older than me when I started having nightmares.

“Daddy, will you tell me a story?” Sofia peeked up at me with her mother’s big blue eyes.

She looked like my mom when she was a child, but with just enough of Alex, you could see the similarities. Even if we didn’t take a paternity test, I would have known Sofia was mine.

I tucked her sweaty hair behind her ears and smiled. “Lie back down. I’ll get in with you.”

She did as I asked and curled up on her side, staring at me as I got in the bed with her. I always stayed with her until after she fell asleep on the nights she had bad dreams. Some nights, I even passed out beside her.

The day she was born, I felt even more possessive than I had felt with Alex. Of course, I would have died for my wife, done anything to protect her. But there was something different about my bond with Sofia. It was unlike anything I had with Alex or my brothers. She wasn’t just my family.

She was my blood.

Mine.

I’d had nothing to call my own until she came into this world. Alex gave me a gift I never thought I was worthy to receive. And now that I had Sofia, I would do anything for her. Be anything she needed. Her dad, her best friend, whatever she wanted me to be.

She placed her tiny hand on top of mine and closed her eyes. There was so much darkness inside me it tainted my heart black.

This precious little girl saved me.

I still wasn’t entirely sane, and occasionally, I had to kill to protect my family, but I no longer felt the bloodlust. I imagined what Sofia would think if she knew I almost killed her mother by accident.

“Once upon a time,” I said in a hushed tone, “there was a princess named Sofia.”

“Daddy.” She giggled. “Why do all the princesses have the same name as me?”

“Because all princesses are called Sofia.”

“No, they’re not!” She laughed again. “You’re so silly, Daddy.”

I brushed her cheek with the pad of my thumb. “Do you want to hear the story or not?”

“Yes.” She smiled up at me like I hung the moon. “I want dragons in this story.”

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