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He sits and watches me.

I remain standing, that innate anxiety tripping up my spine. I’m not good enough for him. I’m nothing but a pawn. I’m damaged.

I turn, trying to escape his gaze, coming face to face with Damon. He’s shirtless now–lean muscle and tattoos in the firelight, that scar at his throat catching a glint of orange. He’s lounging on the cushions with Hunter beside him, the two of them vibrating with the same lazy energy. But their eyes… they’re sharp. Hungry.

The drug the King gave me hums across my skin. He promised that I’d feel it, but I didn’t know it would pulse in every heartbeat, rise in every touch. The sensation between my legs is no longer an ache of pain, but a deep, throbbing want.

I glance over my shoulder and my eyes meet the King’s. He doesn’t speak. Doesn’t move. But I feel his permission. So I walk–barefoot across the soft, damp grass, my black dress trailing behind. Damon catches my wrist and pulls me into his lap, his hands already pushing aside fabric. “You did a good job up there,” he tells me, fingers stroking against my thigh. “You were brave and strong, even when he pierced you.”

That’s what it was. A piercing. The sharpest pain I’d felt other than the needles Damon pushed though my nipples. I see a streak in his blue eyes, and ask, “Are you jealous it wasn’t you?”

“Doll baby,” he says, pushing my hair over my shoulder, “everyone at that wedding wishes they were the one that had you sprawled out on that altar and fucking tonight.”

My skin warms, hot from the idea. Of the rich entitled men and women jealous ofme. The idea makes me laugh, a giggle bubbling up from the inside. I feel bold. Magical.

Like a queen.

I glance over my shoulder, back at the King, and meet his eyes. Nothing in them tells me to come back over. To stop what I’m doing.

Hunter murmurs from next to me, “Do you like knowing he’s watching?”

I do.

But…

The flicker of doubt must show on my face.

“He gave us rules, you know?” Hunter speaks into the shell of my ear, not quite touching me, low enough no one else can hear. “We were told to get you ready for tonight. He needed you to be pure, but prepared.”

“We could do whatever we wanted to you–exceptthat.” His jaw tenses. “And fuck that pissed me off.”

I close my eyes thinking of all the ways they showed me how to be with a man. The salty taste of their cum, the way it felt, slick and hot covering my pussy. Their thickness in my hand, in my mouth. The feel of the tip of an arrow, the threat of pain, bringing me to orgasm. The mix of good and bad, and dirty and taboo all combined.

“Sometimes I think he doesn’t want me,” I admit. “That this is all for show.”

Hunter laughs and hooks his finger into the loop of my collar, tugging me close. “Oh, he wants you.” Damon’s fingers trace down my collarbone and over the swell of my breast. They dip just below the boning in the corset, finding the hard metal bar in my nipple. It’s less painful now, and more sensitive, pebbling into tight, desperate peaks. “He may not have touched you since the party started, but that mask of his, it doesn’t hide the hunger. It’s the way his jaw tenses. The way he grips the armrest like it’s your throat.”

“How do you know?” I ask.

Damon bites my shoulder, just hard enough to make me twitch.

Hunter shifts next to me, fingers curled into the cushion. “It’s the look of a predator who is ready to pounce.”

“Are you ready for him?” Damon asks. “Because I think if I checked, your pussy would be sloppy wet.”

I shiver and nod.

“Good girl,” he whispers. “Then go to him.”

I rise, missing the heat of Damon’s touch and the reassuring words from Hunter’s mouth.

To my surprise, the King meets me halfway, the Shadows clearing as he gets closer.

He directs me deeper into the woods until we pass through an iron gate, into the darker edge of the forest and to a small clearing. In the center of the space is a solitary fire pit resting on top of a patio made of smooth, stone pavers. A single chair sits to the side. I look around and see that just a few feet away, tucked into the trees, is a small cabin.

I’m learning the House of Night, and the sprawling estate surrounding it, is endless and filled with many secret spots.

He stops beside the couch and turns to me. “Dance for me.”