Page 46 of Santiago's Conquest (Four Dark Horsemen 1)

No one should ever sacrifice their life for someone else, because people are ungrateful by default. Their greedy nature wants more and more of you until nothing is left. And then they move on to another victim of their selfishness.

However, what is a daughter supposed to do when her father’s life is on the line? More importantly, will I be able to live with it if I choose wrong?

“Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock,” Santiago says, snapping his fingers. “I’m waiting, Briseis.”

I finally utter my decision, each word scratching my throat anew and bringing pain, but it’s muted by the agony burning my heart. “I’ll marry you.”

Santiago

When a monster sires a child, his emotions toward it are a little bit different than of a regular father.

They live in their delusions about their absolute power, creating a world around them with pain, agony, and deceit where everyone fears them.

Feeding on fear sustains them for only so long though before their minds swirl with other ideas, each one of them more horrific than the other.

Most of them build empires on the bones of their victims, craving to leave a legacy in this world for generations to come, and that’s when the idea of a child crosses their mind.

Someone with their pure blood running through his or her veins, according to them capable of the same deeds they spring on innocent people, uncaring about the devastation they bring.

What I do know with certainly though?

Monsters might hurt and torture and rip apart their children… but they don’t ever leave them alone or without a purpose in this world.

“Santiago, think about the future. Actions and decisions should be planned in multiple steps ahead. If you want to catch your prey, give them irresistible bait.”

The full meaning of his words hit me after I had sex with Briseis, my mind foggy from desire I’ve never known before, and that’s when realization settled.

She wasn’t only my bait—oh no.

She was his as well… to lure me toward him, or rather to do what he so desperately craves and probably has planned for decades.

A dynasty with my fucking bloodline.

He didn’t even spare his favorite people who served him, putting them in the line of fire just so they could deliver the information about his daughter to me and spark my interest.

Even tonight’s massacre served as a decoy in order for me to speed up the process; he wouldn’t have sent such idiots to do the job otherwise. Plus, he punished Howard.

Andreas made me set my eyes on Briseis to get her pregnant and finally have his perfect grandchild, who he plans to drown in the pools of blood his legacy represents.

What he didn’t count on?

For me to marry his precious little girl… and as such make her a Cortez.

Andreas loves power and greed; however, his hate for anyone holding the Cortez name trumps all other emotions and ambitions of his.

He’ll lose his mind the minute he gets the news.

The emotional hunter is no longer a hunter.

And then?

He’ll come to collect her, hoping my seed’s already rooting inside Briseis.

Chapter Ten

“Lust is a powerful weapon.

While it travels through your blood, even a saint can turn into a sinner.

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