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I wonder what she thought of this show. Did it disgust her?

I hope it fucking does.

The embarrassment of her rejection caused my face and my entire body to heat. And it was nothing like what she had shown me at the party that night.

This one was wounding, but it made me that much more determined to figure out what the little mouse’s motives were for being here in the first place.

She wasn’t like the rest who had signed up, that much was painfully clear. The others wanted the status or the money that came with working for a family. But the way she watched me when she was on duty was not at all like a guard.

I was more like a hunter watching her prey.

I sent her a wicked grin and watched with satisfaction as her eyes narrowed at me.That’s right, little mouse, let that anger brew, and then maybe finally I’ll get another taste of whatever it is you’re?—

The painful squeeze of my thigh caused my gaze to snap to Prince Icas.

“Watch yourself,” I hissed under my breath, hopefully low enough for the guests not to hear, and tried to shake off his hand again, but he held on tight.

His grin was a slimy one.

“Too busy watching you, my love,” he said and lifted his hand from my leg to push my hair behind my ear and expose my neck. The same side he bit last night. It was hard to smother the urge to flinch away from him.

I gave him a smile for show but turned my head to look at our guests so I could get his disgusting hands off me.

The oldest daughter was looking at us with a grin that more closely resembled a sneer with the way she bared her bloodstained teeth at us. She wore a stark white sweater that had bloodred rubies sewn into it, making it look like she had accidentally spilled her tasting on herself.

“If only the Castle family had a son,” she said with an exaggerated sigh and plopped her head on her hand with a pout. “Maybe then we’d be talking about marriage plans to merge the families instead of this back and forth.”

Her parents and Father both paused. I almost thought Father was going to explode with the way his jaw tensed, but instead he let out a laugh. The two older vampires relaxed at the sound of it.

“Trust me, if I could have a daughter as cunning and ruthless as you, I would marry my son to you in a heartbeat,” he said, his eyes cutting to her parents. “I heard Priscilla alone is in charge of family punishment, is that right?”

As cunning and ruthless as her?He said it like I had never actually killed for him. Like I hadn’t plotted with him on the various ways to take over other small families and even a clan here and there.

I had done everything he expected of me and more.

His words were a burning insult.I calmed the anger that was coiling in my belly by taking a drink of the blood. I tried to focus on the heat that it sent through me instead of the anger that threatened to unravel my perfectly crafted control.

Her mother sat up at this. “Yes, actually, and she?—”

“Is that your plan, Icas?” Priscilla asked, her gaze still locked on the prince. “But last I heard, there was no plan to merge the families. Weird.”

She took a sip of her blood, the look in her eyes daring me to say something. As if it were my place to try and defend whatever motives the prince had for marrying me.

I won’t. I don’t want to fucking be in this situation in the first place.

“No. Unfortunately, Aurelia will be leaving us. My dealings with Prince Icas’s father have been a secret long before Aurelia was even in the picture,” my father said, a warm smile still on his face. “So yes, we would like to unite the families, but not in that way.”

His comment was news to me.Not in that way? Then in what way?

Obviously, Father had to have been bluffing for Prince Icas’s sake. For someone like Father to marry me off to Icas’s family andnotget any of the people under their rule in return…it was unheard of.

But when I looked at the prince, his expression didn’t change. As if he already knew the supposedsecretthat had been decided by them so long ago.

What the hell?

I tuned out the noises of Father and his guests talking, urging the prince to look at me. But when he finally did, he met me with another one of his slimy smiles, as if to say,What, something Daddy’s favorite didn’t know?

Prince Icas leaned back with a satisfied grin and wiped my blood from his mouth.