I caught my reflection in the mirror by the door. This little get-up was actually quite sexy. Despite the scars, my breasts looked amazing, and the unlined lace provided just enough view of my nipples to be scandalous without looking too pornographic.
Victor liked me to look “classically sexy, not whorish.”
His words.
“Any chance I could get an ETA? I’m losing steam, here.”
“No ma’am, I’m sorry.”
The sun had almost fully risen, and I squinted at the bright light. I didn’t need to live nocturnally like vampires, but Noctis operated on that schedule and I’d become used to it after living here for so many years. I walked over to the windows and closed the curtains, hiding the beautiful palette of pale blue, orange, and pink.
By now, we should have finished the first round of sex, and my body knew it, heat or not. My pussy throbbed with want, while my eyelids were getting heavier with each blink.
I sat back on the couch, squirming in my seat, and changed the channel to the morning news to get my mind off sex.
So you can expect more warm, clear weather through the week until this low-pressure system moves in from the north to bring a little rain to the weekend.
Thanks, Magnus. And now on to Livy, who’s standing live outside of the Premier’s Mansion hoping to catch a glimpse of Premier Corvane and his new bride as they head off for their honeymoon….
I felt my heartbeat pulsing through my whole body, echoing in my ears and drowning out whatever the reporter had to say.
The Premier… had a bride?
Clips of a wedding ceremony taken earlier that evening at Sanguiel’s Temple filled the screen. Victor, looking perfect as usual in an immaculate tuxedo, was standing next to an equally perfect woman with bleach-blonde hair, tanned skin, and ice blue eyes.
They smiled and kissed.
I could hardly breathe. My cheeks drained of blood, making me lightheaded, and I felt I might pass out.
I hated Victor, but I needed him. I wanted him here, I wanted him gone. I craved and reviled his touch.
I didn’t know what was wrong with our bond, if it was maybe some defect in me, because Victor claimed he’d been smitten from the beginning. That just a whiff of me had sent him into a years’ long tailspin, desperate to find the one who’d mistakenly caught his eye.
And… he’d taken a different bride.
An anguished scream erupted from my chest, and I fell to my knees on the ground. How could he do this to me? Mateswere monogamous, mates didn’t hide, mates didn’t marry other people…
The front door opened and Tailer bolted inside, crouching beside me. “Ma’am, what is it? What’s wrong?”
I couldn’t speak; the only sound I was capable of making was a keening wail. The pain seized my entire body, and I felt like it might rip me to shreds from the inside out. My lungs shriveled and disappeared as I gasped for air, now finding even screaming no longer possible.
My mate had cheated on me. I touched the mark, the claiming bite he’d taken that first night, the one that connected me to him, body and soul.
It burned with betrayal .
I could hardly see, but I heard Tailer curse under his breath as the reporter continued talking about the beautiful wedding, the “event of the decade that everyone had been clamoring to get invited to.”
Tailer spoke into the radio strapped on his shoulder. “Code Green. I repeat, we have a Code Green.”
I collapsed into myself like my heart was a black hole, trying to pull the rest of me inside and crush me into nothing.
“Just stay with me, ma’am… Sage. Your mate will be here soon. He’ll make everything all right.”
And here they come! Oh-oh my, does Premier Corvane look eager to get started. Premier! Premier! Do you have time to… Well, apparently not! Tune in this evening at seven for an in-depth segment on the new Madam Accalia Corvane, cousin to the late Premier of Fenmoor, Kain Ulfic. Back to you, Eyvind.
* * *
“Sage? Sage? Answer me!”
