Page 74
Story: Barons of Decay
I push myself upright, and the velvet slips from my shoulders. The cold of the room hits my skin, and my temples throb. I need water and food. But what I want, what curlssomewhere low and lingering, is to go back to the heat. To the throne. To the place where I wasn't thinking, justfeeling.
A knock at the door breaks through my thoughts.
“Come in,” I croak, voice dry as bone.
The door opens softly, and Graves steps inside, precise and unbothered as ever, carrying a silver tray. Food. Water. Juice. A few capsules in a small dish: supplements. Recovery. The morning-after ritual of someone in power. It’s like I summoned him with my mind.
He places the tray on the side table with the same ease he always has, then turns to me.
“Good morning, Arianette.”
I sit up slowly, clutching the cloak to my chest.
“Morning.” My voice is raspy. “Do you know how I got back here?”
Graves doesn't pause. Doesn’t blink. “The Shadows always look after the Baroness,” he says simply. “You were carried back. I believe you slept through most of it.”
“And the boys?” I ask before I can stop myself. “Damon?”
“Still sleeping, I believe.” He hands me the glass of water. “As is Hunter.”
Of course they are.
Men sleep well after conquest.
Tipping back the glass, I drink until my throat no longer feels like sandpaper.
Graves watches me. I’ve started to suspect that everything I do or say, he takes back to the King. “Make sure you eat. You need the nourishment after last night.” He gestures to the pills. “Those too. Everything is organic, picked out by the King to ensure you’re at your best for the appointment today.”
I blink at him over the rim of the glass. “Appointment?”
“To begin planning your wedding.” His eyebrow arches. “Unless you’re not up to it.”
No matter how Ifeltlast night–wild, claimed, unbound–this is the story I was born into. The role written for me long before Damon and Hunter entered my orbit. My true destiny is to marry the Baron King, to support him. It’s finally happening.
“I’ll be ready,” I tell him, throwing my legs over the bed as I grab a piece of toast.
His eyes dart down my body. To the shredded shorts and the cum dried on my legs. “Perhaps a shower first.”
“Right.” Heat rises in my cheeks. “Of course.”
“Arianette.” The gravity in his voice gains all of my attention. “You did good last night. You all did. Made the King proud.”
“Really?” After so many fumbles and mistakes and humiliating moments, the words mean more than he can imagine.
He smiles, it’s small but genuine. “Yes, really.”
Something isn’t right.
Everything is pink and gold. Delicate with tiny flowers and little blue birds. I frown at the vase of blush-colored roses, perky and bright. A complete contrast to the black lace dress, the top tied up in the back like a corset, and the black Mary Janes on my feet.
“Are we in the right place?” I whisper to Graves. With every second that passes I feel more and more like an intruder.
“Yes.”
I’d closed my eyes once he drove away from the House of Night, my head throbbing and stomach rolling with the threat of nausea–lingering effects of the excess I’d taken part in the night before. I sat in the backseat praying that what happened in thecrypt, stayed in the crypt, because if anyone outside Beta Rho found out–someone like my uncle? I’d melt into the floor.
It wasn’t until we were across town at this little bungalow nestled in East End territory that I opened my eyes again. He’d dutifully wiped his feet on the doormat and placed a silver revolver with a mother of pearl handle into a basket just inside the door.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144