Page 8 of The Darkest Prince

Alex stops before me, taking in my face as if trying to imprint the image into her mind. “Have you ever let anyone paint you?”

I’m so startled by her question that I stare.

Blink.

“Well?” Alex prompts. “Have you?”

I shake my head.

I can’t talk to her because I’m afraid of fucking this up for my brothers… and because Bastian will reward me later for following Luca’s orders. This meeting has to go exactly as planned for me to get what I want.

“Your face is perfectly symmetrical,” she says with a sweet smile. “I would love to paint you.”

Most people take one look at my eyes and run away. Even Bash says there’s something about my stare that’s terrifying. A dead look that screams,No one is home. The smart ones know when they’re staring at a predator.

But she’s…

Different.

Alex storms off and joins her family. She flicks her blonde curls over her shoulder and sighs. “They’re so mean,” she says in a hushed tone to her grandfather, but her voice carries in the quiet room. “I tried to be nice, Pops. What did I do wrong?”

Nothing.

She’s perfect.

Flawless.

But she’ll never understand our motives until she discovers why her grandfather even agreed to this arranged marriage. Our anger and hatred won’t make sense until then.

All in due time.

“Fuck them,” Aiden says with disdain in his tone, his eyes aimed at us. “They need you more than you need them, Lexie.”

He calls his twin Lexie, but the name doesn’t match. You know when you meet someone and think,She doesn’t look like a Mary?Well, that’s how I feel about Aiden calling her Lexie.

“You will marry one of the Salvatore boys,” Carl Wellington snaps, his tone stern and cold, devoid of emotion, “and it’s not up for debate. I saved you from a life of poverty and abuse. Just remember, you owe me, Alexandrea.”

“Of course.” She lowers her head like a servant instead of the heir to billions. “I’m grateful for everything you have done for us. I won’t let you down.”

ChapterFour

I like watching her squirm.Even when she doesn’t know I’m looking, I watchher. Alex has become my new obsession, and since Luca wants her to feel every ounce of his pain, it’s my job to inflict it.

To make her bleed.

When I’m done with her, she’ll wish her grandfather never brought her to Devil’s Creek. It only took one night to drain the life from her beautiful face. She had so much hope in her eyes when she introduced herself to us. Poor girl thought she would find friends here.

Not a fucking chance.

As she walks the hallways at school, alone and scared, she has no idea I’m following her.

Watching her.

Waiting.

A few days ago, her grandfather adopted Alex and her twin brother, taking them away from their abusive parents. I bet they expected a new life. A better life. But Carl Wellington only saved them from one version of Hell and threw them headfirst into another.

She doesn’t belong here.

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