Page 90 of Blood So Brutal

My face fell. "Right."

Jessiah pushed the door open and peeked his head inside. "Brother?" he asked. "You're needed in the throne room."

Wolf glanced at his brother and nodded before returning his gaze to me. The soft smile that lingered before vanished, replaced by a stiff tenseness. He lookednervous.

"Everything alright?" I asked.

Jessiah left, closing the door behind him. "As good as it could get on a day like this," Wolf replied through gritted teeth. "I'll be fine. Try to relax a little while you get ready for the equinox. If we had a single female servant I trusted working here, I would send them your way, but?—"

"I'll be okay. I’ll be fine on my own. I'll see you at the ceremony."

Wolf's face tightened as he took a step back. "Right," he said. "Good luck, Huntress. It’ll all be over soon."

He turned and walked out the door without saying another word.

It wasn't just the look on his face or the tenseness in his shoulders. The deep, growing pit in my stomach also told me something wasn't right.

But I was marrying Wolf under Asmodeus's hand. Of course something wasn't right.

Wolf had a plan. I could trust him, right? After everything, I could trust this. I could trust that he hated his father just as much as I did, that he was willing to do what it took to protect these people.

I walked back into the bathroom and let the hot water fill the porcelain tub.

It felt so fucking foolish, getting ready for an event I was forced to attend.

What was Asmodeus going to do to me, anyway? Wolf was just trying to make me feel better about the whole thing. This was not going to be a nice, quaint wedding between two lovers.

This was a damn war ritual, and I was the prized possession.

I stripped my clothes off and left them in a pile on the floor while I stepped into the water. I used Wolf's soap, letting the pine scent wash over me and infiltrate my senses.

This was all happening so we could free the citizens of The Golden City and protect the vampyres from Asmodeus's rule.

Where was he going to stop? Someone like him wouldn't halt until he had the entire kingdom under his fist, ready to do anything he said.

This was for them. For the people of Midgrave who were too weak to fight for themselves. For the ones slaughtered by the fae who feared them too much.

This was so they had a chance to fight too.

After scrubbing my body until my skin felt raw, I started on my hair. I dunked the thick black curls into the soapywater, running my fingers through it until it felt somewhat manageable.

I wasn't even sure why I cared. I could show up covered in dirt and wrapped in chains, and it wouldn't make any difference.

This wedding wasn't for me or Wolf. It was for him. Asmodeus.

I waited until the steam of the hot water dissipated, until it cooled to too light of a temperature, and I finally pulled myself out.

Next was that damn dress.

You've got to be fucking kidding me.Asmodeus was a sick, sick man.

I tried not to think about all the other brides who could have worn this before me. It wasn't new, that much was obvious by the tattered hem and the softened fabric.

I dried myself off before stepping into the dress, pulling it up over my hips and securing it across my breasts.

That was the extent of it. The dress had no straps, which felt neither practical or necessary, and it fell all the way to the ground. A tall slit exposed the skin of my left leg all the way to my mid-thigh.

The fabric itself was a bright, cherry red, but it was so thin, it left very little to the imagination. Every inch of my body was draped in red and on full display.

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