“Binding a djinn to his soul will incapacitate him for quite some time. He will be practically useless for at least a month, maybe longer. Although … it is hard to say how it will work on a contracted soul,” Myra added, looking at Lucie.
“So no sending him off to find and kill the witch?” Lucie smiled and bit her bottom lip.
Abaas chuckled. She wanted to order him to kill immediately. Having her as a master would be interesting. He thought back to a time when he wasn’t so corrupt. Before power and jealousytook control. He could remember it clearly … the first time he saw her …
Abaas watchedfrom the bushes as the fairy princess Alice sat in a field blanketed in flowers. Sunlight poured over her, clinging to her skin, tracing every soft line of her form as if the light itself adored her. She was perfect. Radiant. Untouched by darkness. She looked so happy, so at peace.
And for the first time in his life, he felt … happy.
As if shewashappiness itself. And he wanted it. Wanted her.
He kept his distance, watching in silence. Day after day, he lingered in the shadows, unseen. He watched her laugh, watched her tend to others with gentle hands and a kind heart. Her light, her goodness—it drew him in like a drug, pulling him closer with every stolen moment.
Somewhere along the way, he fell in love with her.
One day, he dared to step closer.
His wolf howled the truth the moment he did.
Mate.
The word echoed through him, shaking him to his core. Clinging to that certainty, he gathered what courage he had and approached her.
She ran. Fear filled her eyes as she fled from him, as if he were something monstrous.
Still, he tried again … and again … and again. Each time, she ran without giving him the chance to speak, to explain, toprovehimself. Soon, she was no longer alone. Her guardian, Dylan, remained constantly at her side, a barrier Abaas could no longer cross.
Something inside him began to rot. He started going mad. The rejection festered, poisoning him from within while his wolf clawed at his sanity, driven wild with need. She didn’t feel the bond like he did. She wouldn’t let him get close enough to feel it. But he knew—knew—if he could just reach her, she would feel it too … or at least give him the chance to make her understand.
He tried again. This time, it ended in confrontation. Rage took hold, twisting his desperation into something darker, something dangerous. He vowed in that moment that he would take the fairy princess as his own.
The fairy queen acted swiftly. Alice was sent away.
Time passed, and word eventually reached him that Alice had married Nathon, the Alpha of the Red Grove Pack.
That was the day something inside him finally broke.
When another wolf claimed her, she didn’t run. She stayed.
The pain was unbearable.
He festered. It hurt. He wasn’t good enough for her. Not because of who he was, but because ofwhathe was. A demon. Something unworthy. Something beneath her. A crushing, drowning feeling invaded him. The agony consumed him. His wolf went mad.
He had to have her.
He needed to have her.
He WOULD have her.
The obsession had poisoned his existence. It was no longer good enough to just have her. He would take the next fairy princess as his own. He deserved the pureness of the fairy princess. He should have had it from the beginning. His wolf was strangely fixated on the idea that any fairy princess would do. As if his wolf had been brainwashed and driven to only accept a fairy princess as his mate.
The corruption deepened as his mind unraveled further. He needed to start a new species, one that was half-demon andfairy. A species that the fairies wouldn’t find unworthy because they would also be fairies too. He would be able to enter into Elysia and so would his offspring. He would be accepted by them. Reality and fantasy blurred together, and the lies became truth. The fairy princess had wronged him. She felt like she was too good for him. And in spite of him, she took another werewolf as her mate. Yes, she did it because she thought she was better than him.
He was crazy, he was evil, he was corrupted, and he couldn’t see past obtaining a fairy princess. He no longer cared if it was Alice, her daughter, her granddaughter … it didn’t matter. He would have the fairy princess and produce an heir. The next fairy princess would be part demon. They could never look down on him then. He would own Elysia, and a new world power would come into existence.
“Are you ready?”
The sound of Lucie’s voice brought him back from his memories. Abaas looked up at Lucie and into her green, serene eyes. She didn’t look down on him. She didn’t treat him like she was better than him. She didn’t fear him. She challenged him as an alpha female should. He could see the events of the past clearly now. He’d wronged the fairy princesses. Alice was a pacifist, a fairy princess who didn’t have a fighting spirit. Seeing a half demon would have been terrifying for her, and he could forgive her for simply being scared. What he did because of this was wrong.
