Instinctive fear ran up her spine the second his eyes connected with hers. They were cold, ruthless, despite the smile he offered her.

“Ah. Well. Mishaps happen, don’t they, little Breeder? We’ll have you tested for pregnancy, and should the mongrel’s seed have taken root… Well, there are remedies for that.” He inhaled softly, his smile tightening at the corners. “You reek of fear, sweet one. Please try not to. I don’t much enjoy the urges it brings up in me.”

Georgia stared up at him, the horror of his words filtering through her panic. Remedies. He was talking about… She hadn’t even considered the possible consequences of her wild, heat-fueled time with Kesh. Hadn’t had the presence of mind, with all that came after. But this stranger was right—she could be pregnant.

Her knees turned soft with fear, one hand finding its way to her abdomen on instinct alone.

The lord flattened his lips in an expression of overbearing annoyance. “Ah yes, my apologies. That was… indelicate of me. You are hard-wired to feel protective of any offspring, even if sired by a cretin. But worry not—if we do have to take unfortunate measures, you should be gestating again within your next cycle. Now, really. Do try to control your emotions. You’re making my skin… itch.”

“I… I don’t understand. Who are you? If you wanted to court me, why am I here? You could have come to the ceremony⁠—?”

The stranger let out a short, sharp laugh. “Oh, my dearest girl. A courting ceremony? Precious. No. I am Prince Aragalan, first in line to the throne of the rightful King of Demons. And I will not be courting you. I will be bidding on you at your auction in Rome tomorrow evening. And I intend to win.

“But my family upholds traditions, and we will allow the lords who support us to partake in the bidding for the right to your womb. They may not stand a chance against me, but it’s important they think they do to secure their continued loyalty. Keeping the lords loyal proved… difficult, once word got out that the American imposters had acquired a Pure Breeder they allowed to be courted by their supporters. But now, thanks to our friends here,” he nodded toward Jimmy, “you belong to us. And our supporters will fall nicely back in line. Within a year, I will have a son to establish my lineage, just in time to take back the Americas from the scum who thought they could splinter our rule.”

The rightful King of Demons.

Ice-cold dread slowed her racing heart as the full realization of Mallorn’s betrayal set in. She turned to look at him. “You’re selling me to the Europeans? Scheming with someone like him?” She indicated Jimmy with a weak hand gesture. “Why? You’re his Second. I don’t understand why you would do this.”

A flicker of pain crossed Mallorn’s features, quickly smothered with anger. “You are still blind to his true nature. Your heart makes you dumb. Loyalty did the same to me. I thought him my friend. He never was. He knew my deepest yearning—knew all I wanted was a mate, a child.

"And the second he got the chance, he used that knowledge. He dangled you in front of me, in front of all his men, to tighten our loyalty when all along… you were Pure. You could never have been ours. And he used you too, too.

“He made you believe he would protect you, didn’t he? Did he perhaps even let you believe he loved you? The second I told you he was waiting for you, that he chose you over his family, over power, you came with me. But the truth is, Georgia, he will never choose you. You were never anything more than a pawn in his quest to maintain power for his family. That is where his loyalty lies, and where it will remain. So I did what I had to do to protect my future. My family.”

“It is a shame the American usurpers don’t understand the value of rewarding loyalty. But, I suppose, their mistake is our gain. You will both be richly rewarded for your efforts in bringing my family a Pure Breeder. A mate for you, young warrior. And safe haven as well as my family’s royal stamp of approval to run your business out of Rome for you.” Aragalan gave Jimmy a smile devoid of warmth before he turned back to Mallorn. “Now, come along. I want the Breeder aboard my jet within the hour. We have a long flight back to Europe.”

43

Kesh

“You need to get yourself under control. Now.”

Kesh paused his pacing in the anterior room Kirigan had dragged him to after the incident with Lord Ithikan’s hand and bared his teeth at his father’s infuriatingly expressionless face. “You think I’m not? You think this… this farce would continue for so much as another second if I wasn’t?”

Kirigan’s expression stayed blank, but the weight in his gaze remained suffocating. “You look at her like she is your undoing. You show your vulnerability with every breath, every movement. You revolve around her, and it is obvious to any man not too bespelled by the promise of her to look. We cannot afford this infatuation, Kesh. Forget what would happen if our supporters realized you’ve had her—that the only reason you didn’t claim her yourself was your Second’s interruption. We’re at war, and if your focus doesn’t return to that singular fact soon, we’re going to lose. You’re distracted by this girl, by the promise of her pheromones, believing it’s love. It’s not, I promise you.”

“And what would you know about love?” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. They hung in the air between them, thick and acrid; an old wound rotting at the center.

“What would I know about love?” Kirigan’s voice was deceptively soft, but though his expression remained blank, something sick and unsteady flickered in the depths of his black eyes. “You ask me that, after what happened with your mother?”

“My mother? Love has nothing to do with what happened to her.” The wound ripped open. Three decades worth of pus spilled out. “You happened. You broke her, just like I would break everything pure and light in Georgia if I let myself do what every instinct in me screams for. You think I think this is love? I know it isn’t! I am not fucking capable of loving someone as good, as gentle, as her. Just like you were never capable of loving my mother.

“Because that’s what we do, isn’t it? We eradicate anything that feels good, anything that means something, until it’s as empty and dark and disgusting as the act that made us. You raped my mother to create me, just like your father raped whatever hapless female birthed you. That’s all we are. Generations upon generations of violations made flesh.

“I thought it was just you. Kain—Kain loves Selma. He was willing to let her go, to let her be free. But it’s not just you. It’s in me, too, this… fucking sickness!”

Snarling with the tension coiling in his chest, he punched a fist into the nearest wall, desperate for any sort of relief. None came, even as the plaster cracked and crumbled around his knuckles.

“I could have killed her! When I smelled her, I didn’t know—what if she hadn’t been Pure? I would have killed her with my need. So no, Dad. This isn’t love any more than you raping Mom until she took her life to escape you was love. It is nothing but a monster aching to ruin the only good thing it’s ever encountered!”

For a long time, Kirigan said nothing. Only Kesh’s ragged breathing filled the room. He knew he’d pushed too far, said things that should never have been voiced.

He didn’t care.

He couldn’t care about anything but the unbearable ache behind his ribs that had settled in ever since he realized what he’d done. How close he’d come to ending the creature of light who’d held him while he cried for his mother’s death. A death he’d nearly replicated with her.