Page 192 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

My father was going to kill me and feed me to the river monsters. Because I couldn’t make him happy. I was worthless, impossible to love. There was something wrong with me. Maybe if I could figure it out, I could fix it.

Girls who were perfect, who were special—those were the girls who were loved.

I wokeup to the sound of myself choking.

Aster’s face hovered above mine. He swallowed, releasing a breath as the tension in his face relaxed. “See? You’re still alive. You’re okay.” He held my head up as he fed me blood replenishing potion.

“Do you still want me to remove her tattoos? I can try burning them off,” Juliette said.

I glanced down at my body covered in blood, bra and panties soaked through. A horrified cry spilled from my lips.

“I do,” Aster said. “But not today.”

My eyes shuttered. Aster let my head rest in his lap.

“What are you going to do about Conrad, Sir?”

Juliette’s voice was tinged with nervousness, or perhaps anxiety.

Aster sighed heavily. “What do you mean, sweetheart?”

“He wanted me dead,” she said softly. “They both did.”

“And you know this, how?”

Juliette didn’t speak. Breaking through my tsunami of grief, a brutal, feral rage was building. Kylo must’ve felt the moment our bond severed.

Oh, gods. Did he think I was dead?

“Kitten, Conrad would never betray me in that way. I need you to drop these paranoias.” Aster slowly ran his hand through my hair, soft and gentle, as if I’d imagined his previous cruelty and venom.

“Is she going to stay in the dungeon?”

“Why would Evie stay in the dungeon?”

Juliette made a strangled noise. “But you said—” She cleared her throat. “She lied to you. She’s been ruined in the eyes of Lillian. Doesn’t she need to atone? Aren’t you angry with her?”

“Of course I’m angry,” Aster said calmly, a tinge of irritation in his voice. “But she isn’t ruined. She made mistakes out of fear, and now that she’s safe, she will atone under my care. Soon we’ll all be far away, somewhere much better than this stain of a city.”

“But she’s been fucking the leader of the Masked Order!”

My eyes fluttered at the sound of a hiss. Aster’s hand covered Juliette’s mouth.

“I ought to clean out that filthy mouth with soap,” Aster admonished, slowly dragging his hand away. “Juliette Montgomery, you will stop this treachery at once.”

She flinched at the sound of her full name. “But, Sir, I’ve been faithful to you since the day we met,” Juliette said, voice quivering with building emotion. “I’ve done everything you’ve ever asked of me. Why? Why am I not enough for you? You said I was special. You said I was perfect. She isn’t perfect at all, and yet you still love her.Why?”

Her words slurred as she began to cry. My eyes closed again.

“Lillian below, I do not have the bandwidth to do this with you right now,” Aster hissed. “How many times have we been over this? I have enough love for both of you, and my love for Evie does not detract from my love for you. You arebothspecial. She almost died. She lost all of her blood to be purified for me, and that isn’t enough for you. What do you want, Juliette? Do you want me to be as cruel to Evie as your father was to you?” Aster was yelling now, and Juliette sobbed harder. “Well, I won’t. I’m not that man. Dry up those manipulative tears. We are already at war. I don’t care to add any more drama into the mix.”

Soon we’ll all be far away.

We are already at war.

Oh, gods. I was still bound, and Kylo would have no way to track me if Aster left with me. And what happened to the borns’ insistence that they could easily overtake the turned without the need for war? Had the war begun overme?

I was half-delirious from blood loss and pain, parsing through these conversations as I burned with rage and grief. I had to get back to Kylo. I had to show him I wasn’t dead.