Dove
Sterling, my mom, and Rowan’s mother are waiting with me in the chapel by the main church. The same church Rowan brought me to two nights ago to do something I can’t tellanyoneabout. My cheeks flush at the memory, and I know part of why he did it was to remember it as I walk down the aisle. We fucked this morning too, before I put on my wedding dress. His cum is soaking my panties, just like he wanted, so I can walk down the aisle knowing he already owns me. I still feel the heat of his touch, and I can’t wait until we’re alone again.
“He’ll be here, honey,” my mom says from her wheelchair. “Stop pacing like that. You’re making me nauseous.”
I sigh. “Sorry. It’s just… He’s always on time.”
He wouldn’t be late in general, much less to our own wedding. But it’s been twenty minutes past the time we were supposed to start, and he’s nowhere in sight. Something is wrong. It has to be.
Sterling sneaks over next to me. “You think something happened?” she asks quietly.
We both look outside through the window, at the sunny park surrounding the chapel.
“I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being paranoid. Maybe—”
Cam bursts through the door, her face pale as death. My knees buckle under the weight of her words before she even speaks.
“Dove,” she says, swallowing. “I’m so sorry. But you need to come with me.”
Instantly my heart drops, and I know today is about to turn into the worst day of my life. With Cam’s and the Secret Service’s help, I figured out what Rowan was up to, what he didn’t tell any of us he was planning to do. Rowan may be paying attention to everything about me, but I pay attention to him, too. I know when he’s keeping things from me, and my suspicions turned out to be true.
I now know exactly what he did to save me. That the reason I’ve been feeling better isn’t because of the IV drips, but because of the cure the doctor administered to me silently.
Panic coats my hands in a light sheet of sweat. Panic… and the rage that’s screaming at him in my head.
How could you do this? How could you let them take you from me?
Rowan
I lie on the cold concrete, spitting blood from my broken lip as I welcome another kick in the liver. Although sudden and blinding, I laugh through the pain, because at this point, it’s euphoric. This isn’t meant to break me, not yet. But they fucking love seeing me move closer to death right here at their feet.
Images of my perfect little angel wearing her wedding dress flash through my mind. I haven’t seen her in it—not once. But my mind conjures it up, and every time it does she looks likethe most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I wish I could tell her, but I’ll probably never get the chance. Even if I make it out alive after ending Salister’s reign, I’m pretty sure she’d never wear a wedding dress for me again.
She’ll never forgive me for walking away to save her life. My only consolation is her being healthy and having all the money she needs to live the life she wants—the life she deserves. And even though I was desperate,desperateto tamper with her birth control and breed her during any of the past nights, I couldn’t bring myself to leave her with a baby in her care. A baby she’d have to look at and hate for the rest of her life—because it would remind her of what I’d done.
I push my side and hip into the concrete, lifting myself up to my knees with a groan. They took my knife and phone and cuffed my hands behind my back. Blood drips down my face, making my hair stick together and hang above my eyes. I kneel in the middle of a large, abandoned warehouse, struggling to push air in and out of my lungs.
A pair of black polished shoes enters my visual field. I don’t lift my head to see who it is. I don’t give a fuck. “Rowan King… on his knees. For me. Now this is a sight to see. Look at me, boy.”
A hand fists my hair and pulls my head up from behind. I grunt, fighting it with my upper body, but my vision blurs as I dip in and out of life, the last drops of my adrenaline running out. A face I know too well pokes through my consciousness.
Ash-green eyes.
A smile that doesn’t reach the smirk on his face.
And not nearly enough lines on his face to justify his old age.
“There you are,” Salister says, his eyebrows raising in question at the sound of my muttered words. “Speak louder. I’m an old man, Commander. Let me hear you.”
“I said…” I spit out my blood to the side when the hand in my hair retracts. “I kneel for no one. And especially not for the man who tortured my wife.”
He barks out a sharp laugh. “What noisy vermin you are.” He walks somewhere to my right, and I still don’t care enough to look at what he’s doing. He returns, crouching in front of me with his red robe pooling around him. “And an arrogant one. This is my victory, whether or not you’re man enough to admit it to yourself. Just like it was my victory when I took Dove. And Cole. And thousands of other soldiers I’ve recruited over the years.”
My eyes snap to his. Cold metal touches my skin when someone else wraps something around my neck. I grunt and thrash, but a loud click tells me it’s now set in place and I won’t be able to take it off.
“We own you now.” He smiles broadly, sweetly, then nods at the men behind me. It takes everything in me to lash out at him with my teeth, but he moves away just in time. “The big, bad wolf of this country. All mine.”
“It’s gonna take…” I inhale, my breath ragged when I let it out. “…a lot more than a fucking collar around my neck to break me.” I straighten up, grinning, tasting the metal on my teeth. “Now who’s being arrogant?”
