Trigger Warning: The chapter contains scenes of violence and sexual abuse.
The vampire leader carried me to a car and put me in the trunk. He duct taped my mouth before closing me in.
Once I am alone in the dark, I let the tears fall. I have no idea what I’m going to do, but I know no one is coming to help me. My parents, my heart aches as I think them, Alessia howling mournfully in my head. My parents are dead. The only person that knows about me is Jude, and if my previous pack finds my parents, they will assume that I am dead as well.
I have no idea why this lead vampire thinks the prince of vampires would want me. It’s well known that vampires do not like the taste of werewolf blood, generally keeping us safe from them, unless we stumble into their territory. But when that vampire tasted my blood, he didn’t seem repulsed. Just the opposite. And I don’t know what it was that he said, but the way he said it gave me goose bumps. Whatever it is, it can’t be good for me.
I don’t know how long we drive before we stop. When the trunk opens, I’m ready to jump out, not that I’ll get far with my arms and legs bound, but I have to try. However, the vampire anticipates me and snatches me out of mid-air.
“Not so fast, my tasty treat. I have big plans for you. And if you play your cards right, perhaps Prince Keenan will keep you alive as a blood bag.” A blood bag? Death would be preferable.
He carries me over his shoulder again. We walk toward a building that you would expect to be owned by vampires. It’s dark, gloomy, and gothic looking. Gargoyles at the corners of what looks like an old castle. The only lights that I can see from inside look red and cruel, like what I’d expect in a low-class brothel.
When we walk in, the screams that are coming from somewhere in front of me make my blood run cold. It’s the sound of pain and fear and death. Along with that sound is the sickening sound of lustful grunting, slurping and flesh being ripped apart presumably by sharp teeth.
I don’t know what to expect, but when I’m put on my feet, I’m in a room filled with vampires and humans. The smell of blood and death is nearly overwhelming to my sensitive nose. The fear is so palpable that it feels like you could cut it with a knife.
I’m turned to face a vampire on a throne. Again, it feels so cliché that if I wasn’t disgusted by what is going on around me, I’d laugh. The throne is metal the color of pewter covered in a blood red cushioning across the back, seat and arm rests. I can’t tell how tall the vampire is, I’m assuming he’s the prince, but the chair back sits about six inches higher than his head.
It takes the vampire prince a moment to acknowledge us. His eyes are closed and he is sucking on the wrist of a young man who is going pale and having trouble standing while a female, I can’t tell her age, is being forced to go down on him. He has a grip on her head and is shoving himself into her mouth at a brutal pace. I can see her fists punching against his legs as I watch his body tense up and he holds her there until she stops fighting. Once he’s finished, he pulls her off and she drops to the floor, dead. I realize he just suffocated her while he orgasmed in her mouth.
His eyes track to mine as he continues to suck on the wrist of the man that is now on his knees, his eyes going dim as the vampire drains him of his blood. He pulls his lips off the man’s wrist, his mouth making a sickening suction sound. The man also falls to the floor, dead.
The vampire prince takes a linen napkin and wipes his mouth as if he just finished dining in a fine restaurant. He looks at the leader behind me.
“Sebastian, what have you brought me?”
“Sire.” He kneels, dragging me to the floor with him. He looks up at the prince. “I have found one.”
The prince’s eyes dart back to me, going wild with lust. “Are you sure?” he asks, his voice covetous.
Sebastian grabs my arm, holding it out to the prince. “Taste her for yourself. I only had enough to ensure I was right about her. She took out four of our coven before I was able to stop her. That’s how I knew.”
Without taking his eyes off me, the prince stalks over, grabbing my arm and running his nose across my wrist. His eyes close but not before I see the hunger in them. His fangs come out and almost gently, he slides them into my wrist.
The moment he tastes my blood, his eyes go red and his grip on my arm tightens painfully. He begins to groan lewdly while sucking my blood. He finally tears himself away.
“She is untouched, pure.” His vulgar purr has bile rising in my throat. He raises his voice over the cacophony in the room. “No one touches her but me.”
He looks back at Sebastian. “We have a new batch coming in tomorrow. You may have first choice of the feeders. For now,” He runs a finger down my cheek. I attempt to pull away but Sebastian holds my head in place. “I will take you to your room. I want to keep you close.”
He grabs my arm and pulls me to my feet. He looks at Sebastian. “You did well, go find something to eat and take your pleasure. Find me when you are done.”
Sebastian nods and as I’m pulled away, I see him to go to a cage I hadn’t noticed before. There are humans cowering and whimpering inside. He opens the door and finds a boy, he can’t be older than 5, pulling him out. The boy screams as Sebastian sinks his fangs into his neck, practically ripping his head off before throwing him aside and grabbing an adult woman this time.
The prince takes me to a room that is beautifully decorated. It’s so different than the rest of the dark and gloomy castle. This room is white and airy. “This will be your room from now on. Do not try to leave. The walls are lined with silver.” He walks up to me, sliding his hand down my hair, pulling the duct tape off my mouth. “You will be treated well here. I will not allow others to feed on you, I will not allow anyone to defile you. I want your delicious blood to remain untainted as it is today, just for me.”
He gestures around the room. “While you are in this room, you may do as you like. If you want books, you need only to ask. You will be provided three meals a day, heavy on the iron as I will require your blood daily. You will have everything you want or need within reason.”
“And if I refuse?” I ask him. Does he think that this is some great honor for me?
He turns to look at me. “I am putting you here in recognition of your status as a Guardian. The elite of the werewolf and in some ways, even more elite than other supernaturals. But do not think that I will not take all of this away and keep you in the cells with the other blood bags if you offend me. Your life can be much worse than it will be. Cross me and maybe I grow tired of you and give you to my coven to allow them to feed on you. I promise, they will not be as gentlemanly as I am.”
With that, he tosses me a key to my restraints and walks out the door, locking me in my well decorated prison.
The trauma of the day and the mental echos of the screams from the feeding room have exhausted me and I fall onto the bed. The horrible sounds and things I have witnessed today will haunt me for the rest of my life.
One month ago Five months. Five months I’d been searching for Eli Gunnar and I finally have him cornered. He’s wily, I’ll give him that, but he won’t get away from me this time. I’m sitting outside a seedy hotel off of Interstate-10 in fucking No Where’s Ville Texas. I’m ready to snag this asshole and finally get him back home. We have the place surrounded. We’ve laid eyes on him and we’ve made up a story to the 15 year old human idiot running the front desk about us being US Marshalls and this guy being on the run. Whatever. That’s just so the cops aren’t called giving him a chance to sneak away like he did the last time. As I watch, he comes out his door, looking around before closing it behind him. He has his bag over his shoulder. Looks like he’s about to move again. We caught up to him just in time. My guys move in and surround him. He throws his bag to the ground and prepares to fight, but they shoot several darts of wolfsbane and it only takes a minute for him to drop. I ge
Current Day I’ve lost track of how many years I have been in this hell. The feeding room, aptly named on my first night, is where I am taken every night. Every night the humans are brought in to feed on. Every missing person that is never found, every runaway child, even many of the individuals that are trafficked are captured and killed by vampires. The night after I arrived, Sebastian chose his feeder. Surprisingly, he didn’t kill her. She has been here as long as I have. Unfortunately for her, he has no problem raping her while he’s feeding. She stopped crying a long time ago. Most of the humans don’t survive the first night. If they do, they never survive the second. I’ve been forced to watch every day as men, women, children, elderly, it doesn’t matter, they are brought in, used, fed on and in some instances when the vampires become overcome with bloodlust, ripped apart. The sounds of screaming, crying, pleading, and dying have become the music that I am forced to listen to da
I carry my mate to the alpha floor. I’ve been the only person living on this floor since my mother died when I was 6 years old. My father wouldn’t set foot up here again after her death and moved into a dwelling away from the packhouse. He gave me the choice and I stayed here, preferring to live in familiar surroundings to living with my grieving father. I’ve mind linked the pack doctor to meet me here and I make my way to the room across the hall from mine. I don’t know if she will recognize me as her mate, so I want her to have her own space until she is healed and we can talk. I lay her down on the bed as Dr. Phillips knocks. “Alpha?” “Dr. Phillips, come in.” She comes over to the bed and takes in the state of my mate. She immediately begins setting up her medical supplies. “Alpha, can you take off her jacket and any other clothes she’s wearing while I get set up?” I see Dustin hovering in the doorway and I growl at him. “No males on this floor until I say so.” He backs away an
I’m back in hell. The screams, the fear, the blood, it surrounds me. How did I end up back here? I thought I had escaped. I thought I was free. I try to remember what happened, but I can’t. My senses are overwhelmed by the sounds and smell of the feeding room.The panic I feel only intensifies as I look around and I don’t see my friend. Sarah. How do I know her name? I can’t remember, but she’s not here. It’s only me and all of the dying humans. Maybe I’m dead. This isn’t where I expected to end up. I thought I’d be with my parents, someplace safe.Almost as if the Moon Goddess heard me, I catch the scent of the forest. The scent that I loved so long ago when mother and I would walk around, gathering plants and herbs. The scent gets stronger when suddenly, it surrounds me and I am no longer in the vampire’s den, but I’m back in the woods.I’m still alone, but it feels safe here. It reminds me a better time, when things were good in my life. I begin walking around, not really knowing w
When I walk back into the room and see my mate awake, Cyran immediately starts purring in my head. The sound is so unexpected that it takes me a second to respond. ‘The fuck Cyran?’‘What? She’s our mate. She’s beautiful, perfect.’Great, my wolf is already head over heals for this tiny girl. I’m not there yet. I have a lot of questions.I don’t know how much she remembers, but I figure an introduction and quick update would be helpful. I’m annoyed when I see that she’s pulled out the IV. I’m desperately trying to keep her alive and the first thing she does when she wakes up is try to undo what I’ve been working so hard to do.I’m even more pissed at her response to me wanting to heal her. I know I shouldn’t be. She’s been in a vampire coven for who knows how long. It’s a question I intend to get the answer to today. Her scars make it seem like it’s been a long time, or maybe the whole fucking coven was feeding on her at once, who knows.I can’t help but smile when she tells me her na
Seven years? I lived in hell for seven years? Those horrible vampires took so much from me. If I ever find them...‘I will kill them.’ Alessia finishes my thought.I don’t know how I feel about more violence. I feel like I’ve lived a lifetime of violence and I’m only 23.I didn’t realize Liam was holding my hand until he gently squeezed it. I want to pull it away, but it feels comforting to have him holding it.“I know this is hard. Can you eat any more? You need to get your strength back. We can talk about something else while you eat.” Liam says to me.I look down at the food when there’s another knock at the door. I smell Dustin this time and know it’s him. I hope he has clothes for me.“Come in Dustin.” Liam responds, not releasing my hand.Dustin comes in carrying a second tray and a bag, presumably with clothes. He hands the tray to Liam who puts it on his lap, still not releasing my hand. Dustin notices but doesn’t comment, turning to me.“I wasn’t sure about your size. You’re
Seven years? No wonder I’ve never found her. My mate has been a blood bag since I came of age. If she hadn’t escaped when she did, I still wouldn’t know she exists. And because of how much time had passed, I was willing to take a chosen mate. My hatred for the vampires is overwhelming. They have kept my mate from me and they will pay for it.When Dustin returns, he flirty interactions with Angel piss me off. I know he’s doing it intentionally, and I know a Beta should care for and respect his Luna, but he’s pushing my buttons.It bothers me that Angel thinks I would give her back to the leech. I can tell she doesn’t recognize the mate bond, but she has a very skewed idea of that an Alpha’s role is in a pack. She may not be one of my pack members yet, but I would never send her back to the hell she must have come from. No self-respecting Alpha would. Which makes me wonder what exactly her ideas are of Alphas. Knowing that her parents left their pack, it had to be because of the Alpha.
When the doctor first walked in and spoke to me, I recognized the voice as the one from when I was unconscious. She had been talking to Liam while I was out. I was surprised when Alessia pushed forward, ready to snarl at her. I quickly pulled her back. I can’t have her give us away. I noticed Liam looking at me, but he didn’t say anything.When the doctor tells me she wants to hook me back up, I’m afraid I’m going to have another panic attack. I don’t want to be tethered anywhere. I’m surprised but thankful when Liam asks if there is another way. I’ll do just about anything to not be tied up again. I’ve had enough of that in the last seven years.When the doctor leaves, I relax until Liam asks about me taking a bath. If I’m honest, nothing sounds better right now than a long soak in a tub with hot water. Showers in the coven were cold because the vampires don’t feel the cold. So, I would get in and get out as fast as I could. I haven’t had a warm bath or shower since my family and I l