Page 98 of Princess Redeemed

I’ve ended a fate that wasn’t mine and claimed one that is.

The air thickens around me.I can feel them watching.My stepfather’s spies, maybe.Or my father’s.Or Dominic’s.The pack’s.

I keep walking, hoping to find a portal home.

Because if I stop now, I’ll break.

I won’t give Richard that.

No.

He once forced me to my knees.

The next time I face him, he’ll drop tohisfucking knees.

He will see the child he abused and called a monster has become something far worse.

A mother.

A survivor.

And soon…his end.

61

The moon shines brighter.I reach a small clearing where the grass sways gently in the nocturnal breeze.I stop here to rest, my back against a tree.My body aches with an intensity that almost matches the pain in my heart, but it’s bearable.Almost tolerable.The pain in my heart, however…

I close my eyes, allowing myself the luxury of grief for what could have been—whatshouldhave been.

Richard has taken so much from me already.My youth.My joy.

The attention and love of my mother.

A tear escapes from my closed eyelids, and I let it fall without wiping it away.It’s okay to shed tears for the woman who gave me life.

For she’s the reason for my grief.

I’ll lose her when I kill the demon king.

I touch my swollen belly lightly, drawing strength from the tiny life growing inside me.

“Everything will be fine,” I whisper into the silence, a promise to myself and to my unborn child.“I will never let him harm you.”

I rise and continue to walk, the weight of my victory pulling me forward.I am not the prey anymore.I am the predator.The hunter.The promise of revenge is a sweet song that sings in my heart, and it propels me further into the night.

The moonlight glows on my clothes, illuminating the stains of Eris’s blood.

A chill sweeps through me.

I’m not a killer.

But this had to be done.

And unfortunately, I’m not finished killing.

Again the chill.

It’s a validation of the change inside me, of the transformation I’ve undergone.I’m no longer just a woman or even just a vampire.