Page 105 of Cruelly Bitten
My vision darkened.
Something hard hit my back.Another wall.A palm met my face. Michael’s lips were at my ear again, his words cruel as he commented on my fragility.
“He’ll never turn you,” he told me. “And not just because he can’t remember you. A millennium is a long time to keep a mortal pet. He obviously never wanted an equal. He just wanted a toy.”
You don’t know anything about who we were to each other,I wanted to say. But I didn’t have the energy to try.
A small part of me also softly admitted,If Cam had turned me, I wouldn’t be in this situation right now.
He’d kept me human because of our bond. He hadn’t wanted to change it. And neither had I.
But now that uncertain voice in my head wondered if I hadn’t wanted to change because of Cam. If I’d been appeasing him instead of myself.
The world shifted again as we continued down the stairs for an inconceivable number of flights. I couldn’t focus beyond the pain, my skull pounding from his manhandling.
“He’s been down here for hours, too preoccupied to even notice you were missing.”
The insinuation in his statement wasn’t lost on me.
And the cause for it became evident as he pulled me into a room with half a dozen naked women in it.
I wasn’t even sure when we’d left the stairwell or how I’d ended up in this sterile space so quickly, but one minute, I was focused on hating his words, and the next, I was staring at the cause of them.
Blood virgins.
They were too perfect to be any other type of human. And too meek to be vampires or lycans.
Their heads were bowed, their hands loose at their sides.
Michael shoved me to the ground before them, forcing me to kneel. “Ismerelda. Meet your replace?—”
“What the fuck are you doing?” Cam’s tone echoed throughout the space, his voice sending a chill down my spine.
He was here. With them. Doing… doing…
I couldn’t finish the thought, my stomach twisted in knots.
“I found her in your family crypt,” Michael said, wasting no time in informing Cam of my actions.
“So you brought her here?” Cam’s shoes appeared in my line of vision, making me realize that I’d been staring at the floor. But I didn’t want to see whatever state of dress he was in, or lack thereof.
Although, it’s a good sign he has on his shoes, right?
“She demanded to see you, my liege,” Michael replied.
My eyes widened. “I?—”
“Silence.” Cam’s demand cut through me like a knife, rendering me speechless.
This is too much.
Too… too… hard.
I swallowed, my throat tight from Michael’s ministrations. Or maybe it was due to the emotions threatening to choke the life out of me.
I failed.
Michael caught me.
