Page 13 of Blood So Brutal

I watched as the corner of her mouth turned up. She stared into her ale mug and spun the glass absentmindedly as her mind wandered. “The taste is better, yes, but there are plenty of things I miss about home.”

“Like what?” I drank my own ale. I wasn’t going to push her, but if she was actually willing to talk to me for the first time since we arrived, I wasn’t going to stop her.

“Like…like the smell of freshly baked bread wafting from the bakery in the mornings as the sun rose in the distance. Like being able to hear laughter from three streets over. Like my best friend. I miss her the most, I think. Her and Lord.” Her breath hitched.

“The man who gave you those scars?”

Her eyes met mine. “It’s complicated, Wolf. He cares for me. He just shows it differently.”

Anger flooded my veins. I leaned forward, coming inches from her so she could feel my words as I said them. “Someone who loved you—who truly, deeply cared for you—would never do anything to hurt you. He sure as all hells wouldn’t leave those scars on your skin. Whoever Lord is, whoever he pretends to be, he isn’t your family.”

Her eyes darkened as she stared at me, nostrils flaring and chest rising. “He’s all I have, Wolf. He’s the reason I’m here, the reason?—”

“He sent you here knowing how dangerous it would be, knowing how much it would hurt you.”

She took another long drink before asking, “And what about you?Youswore you cared about me.Youswore you loved me. I guess that was my own fault for believing you, right? Lord told me not to trust a single soul out here. I should have listened.”

Goddess above, this woman. “I still love you, Huntyr.”

She sucked in a breath. “Don’t say that.”

“It’s true.”

“Juststop. I don’t believe you anymore.”

“You can believe whatever you want, but I’ll spend every day of my life protecting you from this. If I could take you out of here right now, I?—”

“What did I just say, Wolf? You can’t startsayingthings like that again and expect me to believe it! Hells, I—” She ran her hands through her curly black hair. “I believed you once and look where that got me. I can’t do that to myself again, not after this.”

She didn’t meet my gaze again as she picked up the mug and finished her ale. I lifted my hand to the barmaid, who was already staring at us, and signaled for two more. “I know you have no reason to believe me, Huntyr, but I never expected to fall in love with you. If I would have known what was going to happen, I?—”

“You would have stopped your father from kidnapping me for my blood?”

“Shhh,” I cooed as we received two more drinks. “Don’t say things like that so loudly.”

“Right. I forgot everyone is afraid to stand up to him. We’ll all just let this corruption continue. What exactly does he want with me, anyway? What does he think I’ll do for him? Rule over the vampyres on his behalf?”

I shrugged. “Pretty much.”

“Well, I’ll never give him what he wants. He can kill me before I ever step in to rule Scarlata.”

I sat back and watched her. She was finally notentirelyrepulsed by the fact that she may be the heir to the blood kingdom. Accepting who she really was would be the first step.

The rest would come later.

Her eyes dropped back down to the mug of ale that she twisted mindlessly between her palms. “Do you really believe I’m the heir?”

“I don’t doubt it for a single moment,” I answered. “I can sense the vampyre in you too. You’ll start turning soon. You’ll start craving?—”

“Blood?” Her chest heaved. “I can’t picture myself doing that. I don’t know if I can.”

“You can because you have to,” I answered. “Trust me, nobodywantsto drink blood before they’re a fully turned vampyre. Even vampyres raised in the blood kingdom were repulsed by blood until they matured.”

“What about you?” She met my gaze again. “When was your first time?”

The dark memory haunted me. I tried many, many times to forget the details of my turning. I tried to forget how disgusted I felt as soon as I woke up from the sacrifice, how hurt I was that my own father would stoop to such lows.

But I also remember the pain. The hunger. “It was unlike anything I ever felt. As soon as my father made the sacrifice, I changed. It felt like someone reached into my stomach and curled my insides in their fist.”

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