But I embraced it anyway. I had to learn to live in the sun again. I had to hope that the dark days were over.
* * *
That evening, when my allotted phone time arrived, I immediately opened the Noctis News app, and there, front and center, was the “emergency” that had called his attention.
PREMIERE VICTOR CORVANE AND WIFE WELCOME BABY BOY…
As if on cue, the Sanguis Vita rose in my throat and I bolted for the bathroom, throwing all of it up.
Dammit, why did this still affect me so much? I hated Victor. Accalia hated Victor. They hadn’t even slept together, but the happy news of him and his beautiful wife having a baby still rocked through me with the pain and betrayal an unfaithful mate, refreshed and ready to hurt me all over again.
Staring only made it worse. Her, glowing and holding their infant son, while he stood beside them, smiling and proud.
The perfect family.
And then there was me, scarred and hidden in the background. Kept in the shadows like the dirty little secret I was.
Not good enough to be by his side, to have his children, or to live in his mansion.
A deep sob racked through my chest as I fell back against the bathroom wall. I couldn’t do this anymore. To have my body soobsessed with a man, who manipulated me to make me feel this way about him, when I despised him so much.
I sat there until the alarm on the phone told me it was almost four, and I peeled myself off the floor to hide it. Now I could also be upset about how I’d wasted my one hour of freedom being miserable over that Hecara-forsaken vampire.
More than an hour. I’d wasted four and a half years on this asshole. Cried for him, begged for him, bled for him, nearly died for him.
And what had I gotten in return?
A prison. A beautiful prison, but a prison nonetheless.
“I’m sorry, Liora,” I whispered, patting my chest. “I know you want him. But I’m done.”
* * *
Victor knew something was different about me. I could tell with his caution. His hesitancy. The way he chose his words carefully when he spoke to me.
They were kind, but almost like he was nervous.
But he couldn’t punish me, because I hadn’t done anything wrong. We still had sex, I still submitted to his feedings, I took my Sanguis Vita and my medicine like a “good omega,” and yet there was a chill in the air. A detachment in my expressions and responses. Just enough where he was scrambling to fix what he didn’t know he’d broken.
Because he’d nearly won. He’d had me just as he wanted me—pliant, willing, and docile. And now he was beginning to realize it might just be an act.
“Sage,” he started, his voice going up a bit at the end like it was a question. Like he was testing the waters.
He was getting ready to leave for the evening, his shirt buttoned up and tie neatly knotted around his neck.
I sat up from where I lay on the bed, training my face to be devoid of any kind of expression. “Yes, alpha?”
There was a slight wince in his eyes, as though he knew I only referred to him as that sarcastically. But he swallowed back his anger. “Could you help me with my cuff links? They’re new, and they’re giving me some trouble.”
I dutifully swung my legs around the side of the bed and got up, walking to his side. They didn’t look any different from normal cuff links, but then again, I didn’t know much about menswear or accessories.
Sliding the face through the hole, I twisted the toggle at the other end and then he stopped me before moving to his other wrist, turning me so my back was against his chest.
“I have a present for you,” he purred in my ear. He held me with one arm, his free hand digging in his pocket until he pulled out a gold necklace with a large jade pendant. I stayed still while he placed it on my neck, fastening it behind me.
“See? We match,” he said, showing me the face of the jade cuff link I’d just helped him with.
“Thank you,” I responded flatly.
