Page 30 of Wedlock (Vampire Bachelor Games #3)

It’s not written in Angelina’s handwriting, so I don’t expect anything different from the hundreds of other notes I’d torn open this evening until I read it, a groan bursting unbidden from my lips as the words sink in.

‘Eleanor, I’ve run because Viper bit me and had me under his control. He’s working to undermine Falcon and take the title. You made a mistake choosing me. Your world is not mine; I want no part of it. Angie.’

Throwing the note from me as though it’s poison, I roar at the ceiling.

She was under a thrall.

All this time.

Under a thrall from my own brother.

I drop my head into my hands as the ramifications of what she’s written fall into place, and an unfamiliar lump builds in my throat.

Just when did he bite her? Did he find out Mother had selected her and bite her before she even entered The Games?

Or was it the first time they met, when the director intimated Viper had done something terrible?

So terrible he’d wiped the footage. But when I’d asked Angelina she’d said nothing happened.

‘No, she’d neatly avoided the issue. Oh, Christ. Had she even then been under a thrall? Even then, as we’d spent those halcyon first nights together on The Games, exploring each other’s bodies and sharing our inner thoughts? Even then?’

My thoughts spin from one chaotic scenario to the next, my hands shaking in rage and impotence as the hours tick by and I don’t move. More than one person knocks to gain entry, and there’s more than one entreaty for me to come out.

The sun comes up and sets again, and still I remain seated. I’d locked the door after Revna left; no one can disturb me. But the reality is, I can’t be any more disturbed than I already am.

Finally, getting myself back under control, I re-read the note, one line in particular standing out.

‘I want no part of it.’

Yes, she’d been under a thrall when she told me she hated me. But when she’d penned these words her mind was clear. She wanted no part of me, even when she was free and able to return and tell me everything. Which could only mean she wasn’t lying when she said she hated me.

My phone buzzes for the millionth time, and I open my messages.

There are several from Wolf, several dozen from Revna, the last telling me she’s going home but expects my answer to her proposal within the week.

And one message from Mother.

It’s short and to the point and a chill runs up my spine as I get a feeling of d ? jà vu.

Rising, I make for her suites, finding her as I had for centuries, seated at her desk, her back to the window, a China tea set before her, face inscrutable.

“Mother,” I grunt as I sit before her and watch impatiently as she pours us both tea. “Your note said it was urgent, a matter of life and death.”

“It is,” she says quietly, raising her eyes to mine.

I accept the cup, wishing it were something stronger but not daring to say so in case she starts on again about my drinking. She can be peculiarly frustrating when she feels like it.

‘Then again, can’t they all?’

“I’ll get straight to the point, darling,” she sighs after taking a sip, “there’s no other way to say this. Your brother is dead.”

Jolting to my feet I stare down at her, shoving my hands in my pockets so she can’t see how badly they’re shaking.

“And the baby is definitely yours.”

“What?”

I shake my head, as if to rattle out the words that seem to have invaded my ears. Words and assertions piled too fast to comprehend. Her claim that Viper, my baby brother, is dead had barely registered when she’d added that the baby was mine.

I feel like I’m reeling from one punch in the chest to the next.

“How do you know Viper’s…?”

“Angie felt it.”

I close my eyes for a long second, before collapsing back into my seat.

‘Gone? Dead? The brother I’d fought for our whole lives?

The foolish playboy who constantly swung from one calamity to the next but never lost his devil-may-care attitude?

No, my brother has nine lives; it’s his way to get in and out of scrapes more regularly than the tides.

He can’t be gone. I need more proof, I can’t accept this. ’

“Falcon?” Mother says gently. “Do you understand? Angelina’s mind was freed from his entrapment. That could only happen with his death.”

“Then why do you sit before me so calmly, Mother?” I groan, my eyes still closed as if I can block out words like light. “He was your son , your youngest. Why aren’t you beating your chest with grief? I’ll tell you why: you don’t believe it either.”

“Sweetheart,” she sighs, “your brother and I have not been close for a very, very long time. I’ve watched you turn a blind eye to his vices.

I’ve warned you of his follies and excesses for centuries, as have your friends.

He was part of this family, and I’ll mourn his loss in my own way, but when I learned of his thrall bite on your wife I thought only of protecting you .

I know you loved him, but what he did this time was unpardonable.

If someone else hadn’t killed him you would have been honour-bound to do so — and we both know you couldn’t have lived with yourself. ”

“I found this,” I sigh as I open my eyes and reluctantly withdraw from my pocket the note I’d found amid the cards sent to the hospital. “It corroborates Angelina’s claim that she was under a thrall. But as to its veracity…”

“I’m glad you found it. But Falcon, you can’t still be questioning whether the thrall-bite was true. Angelina’s a different person. You need to see her, see it for yourself.”

‘No, I can’t face her.’

“I know it’s true , Mother. Like I said, I found the note.

If Viper is really gone and her mind is freed there can be no doubt.

But as to why he did it, whether he was forced to do so…

there are many unanswered questions. And it’s not lost on me, and does you no justice, that your focus is not also on your youngest son, but instead solely on your purported grandson. ”

“How can you say such a cruel thing?” She whispers. “My focus has always been on my family, all my family. Your son is part of that.”

“You’re just glad she said the baby is mine,” I shake my head sadly, “something I’m sure I don’t need to remind you we can’t prove.”

“She said she’d been forced to seduce Jaguar for a few weeks prior to the quickening.”

‘Forced?’

“And you trust her word,” I murmur.

“I have no reason not to, and neither do you.”

Mother raises her chin defiantly and gives me a hard look.

“Wrong,” I point to the note. “Read it. She never wanted to be with me, never wanted me . Has it occurred to you that there’s some greater scheme at work here? She may have been bitten before she even entered The Games.”

“Oh, my poor darling boy,” she whispers, rising and walking to wrap her arms around my shoulders. “Falcon, no. She said she was bitten months after your marriage. She did love you. I believe she still does, deep down.”

“Mother, stop.”

“No, you stop. Stop thinking about the title and family honour and of long, long feuds. Think rationally and consider what you know in your heart to be true. Your brother wanted something he had no right to covet, and he used your paranoia about Spider and your love of your wife to try and claim it. By the grace of God, we found out before it was too late.”

I allow her to continue to hug me, but don’t move. Her sympathy is worse than her judgment. If what she says is true then I’ve been a fool, and it’s cost me something more precious than my title.

But if Angie’s note is anything to go by, then Mother is very wrong.

Either way, it’s definitely too late.

“There’s something else,” she says finally, sighing and moving back to her seat. “It’s about Princess Revna…”

“Christ!” I scowl, starting to rise. “Don’t you ever give up?”

“It’s not about you reacquainting yourself with her,” she starts.

“You mean fucking.”

“Falcon!”

“I apologise, Mother,” I sigh as I sit back down.

I’ve had enough. I need to leave this room, this castle.

I need to get away and think, but I know rudeness will only lengthen the torture of this visit by adding a lecture about my role and responsibilities.

“Her visit was unexpected; I didn’t invite her.

I know how you feel about her, but I have more pressing matters to address at the moment than who is sharing my bed, as you well know. ”

“She bit Angelina.”

I still, my fangs instantly descending.

“Pardon?”

“You heard. I walked in on her not a second too late. She was just about to end your wife’s life, and I fear she would have gone for your son next.”

“She’d never overstep the mark that much,” I mutter, ignoring the reference to ‘my son’ as I focus on the issue at hand.

“You and I both know that isn’t true,” she murmurs.

I can’t help but nod. We’ve both known Revna for centuries, and she was never one to sit back and wait for life to hand her what she wanted when she could just grab it and wring its neck.

She probably did plan to do exactly as Mother was suggesting and would likely have just smiled and apologised later.

‘Bitch!’

The desire to confront her and rip her to shreds wars with my urge to run and check on my wife, but I shake my head and grit my teeth as I get my rage under control.

Mother, predictably, waits, watching me silently over the rim of her cup.

Eventually, I regain the power of speech.

“How is Angie?”

“She has bite marks and a bruised neck, but she’s otherwise unhurt. I came straight to you once I’d dealt with Revna. There is a great deal more I have to tell you.”

“Dealt with?” I quirk an eyebrow.

‘That’s something I would have paid to see.’

“We had dinner together, and she left. She wasn’t happy. But that’s not all…”

I hold up my hand to cut her off. I don’t have the time or the inclination to deal with the Princess.

I’m still mulling over what she’d told me about the Queen, Spider, and The Games.

Now the confirmation that Viper had bitten Angie, news of his death, Mother’s assertion that the child was mine…

It feels like a giant net is closing in on me.

“Please tell me you’ll dispense with her soon, Son,” Mother whispers. “For your own good and the future of this seat.”

“You’d presume to meddle in my relationships after the total fuck-up you’ve made of my marriage?”

“Falcon, please, I had only the best intentions…”

“Yes, well, the blame doesn’t lie solely on your shoulders. Apparently you’re not the only woman who thinks they can manipulate my life!” I narrow my eyes at her. “There’s a whole network scheming to secure my hand and my future.”

“I don’t understand. To whom do you now refer?”

“Revna told me the Queen was the one who put me in The Games, both times. She had her preferred candidates selected, as she apparently does every season. The whole system is rigged.”

Mother’s hand begins to shake, rattling her cup. Her face pales as she carefully places it on her desk.

“I beg your pardon?”

“You heard. The Queen wants me to marry Revna. She put me in The Games to speed me into marrying and producing an heir so I’d leave this seat and become the future King Consort of Denmark.

I was only to go on once. Spider may or may not have suggested it initially.

But you know how that first series turned out… ”

Mother’s hand moves to her throat, her eyes wide, face paler than I’ve ever seen.

“Oh, dear God!”

“Yes, I wasn’t amused either,” I frown at her, “but it seems we’ve all played nicely into her hands and everything is going to work out as she likes anyway.”

“You didn’t tell her?” Mother chokes before spluttering again. “You didn’t tell the Princess I chose Angelina?”

“I’m not stupid, Mother.”

“Falcon,” she whispers, her eyes still the size of saucers.

“If what you say is true, and all along you were meant to marry, dispense with your human wife, put your heir in this seat and move to Denmark, then should the Queen discover I tampered with the selection process…that I chose someone specifically for you…”

“Again,” I sigh, “I’m not fucking stupid. I made that deduction within seconds. You and she are both playing dangerous games at cross purposes. Your secret’s safe with me. And, as I said, everything worked out as she wanted anyway.”

“How so?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Not to me.”

“Mother, there’s no love between me and the wife you chose for me.

My entire marriage has been a scam and a nightmare; hell, there isn’t even a legitimate heir to mitigate all the other shit I’ve had to deal with, although you claim there is.

Why not just cut all the crap? Why wouldn’t I dispense with them both and marry Revna?

In fact, maybe you should have let the Princess deal with them; it would have saved a long, protracted lie from continuing.

You said it yourself a thousand times: the Queen always gets what she wants.

Why fight it? The way I see it, everything has worked out as it should.

This seat will dissolve and I’ll live out my days fucking and sucking and ruling a land far, far away from here, where I’ll never have to even think about a human woman again, other than as a meal. ”

Mother shakes her head as tears begin to roll down her cheeks.

“My darling boy,” she whispers. “What have I done to you?”

Snorting, I stand and walk to the door. She knows damn well what she’s done.

“You can’t run from your heart,” she murmurs as I walk out.

‘Watch me.’