Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
He opens the box, but there is no ring inside. Instead, it’s a pendant in the shape of a broken heart. He turns it over, and on the other side, it reads, ‘Mine’. Four simple letters that hold so much power.
“I’m not taking that. I’m not yours, and you are a fool to think otherwise.”
He pulls it out of the box, and I see a delicate chain attached to it. He moves to stand behind me. After brushing my hair from my shoulder, he fastens the necklace around my neck.
“It’s cute you think you can tell me what to do,” Reon growls in my ear.
“It’s cute you think I would listen to you,” I bite back, turning my head so I can see him. He’s smirking. I turn my face as he leans in, and his lips land on my cheek. “I didn’t give you permission to kiss my lips.”
“It’s not those lips I want, Caterpillar.”
“And I don’t agree with infidelity.” I pull away, but he tugs me so my back slams into his front.
“I’m not cheating.”
“You are. She and everyone else think you’re with her. I couldn’t care less what you think.”
“It’s an arrangement, Caterpillar.”
“One you agreed to,” I point out, the chain hitting my bare skin, and it’s burning a hole where it touches.
“One I had to agree to because I haven’t chosen a wife yet,” he explains. I’d heard stories of The Creed of the Forsaken choosing wives for their members. They place a necklace on their intended so anyone in the Forsaken knows they are taken. My hand touches the necklace, and I wonder if it’s the same, even though I am not taken. The truth and fiction of the Society are just that—only they know what the truth is, and no one ever corrects the fiction of the outside world. Who would believe that filthy, deadly rich men have a Society that protects them? Doesn’t their money do that already? No, they add more influential people to give them greater control.
It’s all a game of money and power.
And only those who are members know the true extent of it all.
“I’m going to choose a wife now.” His hands go around my neck, and I feel the cold of the necklace being placed there, with the heat from his hands almost searing me. “Mine,” he whispers, his teeth nipping my ear.
I pull away, and this time, he doesn’t stop me as I unlock the door and walk out as fast as my heels can carry me away from him.
When I look back, he lifts something from the neckline of his shirt. I see the necklace I lost that night hanging around his neck and a deadly smirk on his lips.
FIFTEEN
REON
My attention is directed at her as she rushes out of the bathroom. Her blue dress swaying as she goes.
Perfection.
Pity she doesn’t realize how faultless she is.
She will, in time.
She glances back once, and her gaze falls to my neck, where I’ve lifted a thin chain from inside my shirt. I know she sees what I put there, what I refuse to take off—her necklace. In truth, I took it from her that first night and slipped it into my pocket, and I’ve worn it ever since.
She shakes her head before she turns and continues her escape. She was put on this earth to torture me. To sway her sweet ass in dresses and kill me slowly as she does.
No knife to my chest is needed.
I simply need to watch her walk away.
That does it for me.
The door shuts behind her, and my view of her is cut off. My breathing returns to normal, and I hadn’t even realized it had increased while in her presence.
The door swings open once again, and my eyes are hungry, waiting for her to be on the other side.
“Reon.” She comes into view, but it isn’t the correct she. No, it’s Maya, and she looks pale in the face, slightly off balance. “Who is she?” she asks.
“Why would you assume I know her?”
“Because you hate people. And yet you willingly offered to walk her out. And you’re standing in the women’s bathroom she just left.”
“Maya.”
“Think of your next words carefully, Reon. Think very carefully. You can’t take back what you are about to say. Do you want me to go to my brother and tell him about how we ended things?” There she is, the secret part of Maya that she keeps hidden to present a perfectly manicured woman, not the selfish, spoiled brat everyone says she is. I had heard the rumors, and now she is showing me.
She knows he would hunt Lilith down and remove her from the situation if it meant making his sister happy. They are close, very close. I find it odd, but that’s because I don’t have that type of relationship with my sister.