Tingling fury ignites inside my unsteady heart. How dare he look at me like that? He has no right. He will never have me. Therefore, he should not be allowed to make me question what he truly wants.
What I truly want.
I wanted to escape. I—I still do. He’s just confusing me.
The Thorn King stands slowly with his height towering over me and making me feel small between himself and Rorrick just behind me. In my heels, I barely come up to his hard pectorals. His skin is warm, the opposite of my pale features. The long length of his dark hair is a stark contrast to my fiery red. His features are sharp like Christian’s. Royal in that way. Half of hishair is pulled up away from the hard angles of his face, and white bones decorate through the thick, messy braid that lines the top of his head.
He’s alarmingly handsome... but I don’t see a resemblance between myself and the Thorn King. He isn’t the ugly, cruel man Delilah painted him to be either. It’s a strange beauty he holds. He also shares that with Christian: a deadly attractiveness that you know will get you in trouble... and yet, you dive right in anyway for just a chance to be near them.
Another man with dense, dark leathery wings looks from me to Christian before he quietly says something over the king’s shoulder. A sharp sneer presses to the Thorn King’s lips. A low chuckle vibrates through his big chest, the strange black diamonds accentuating his thick neck shift as he laughs.Thorns... they don’t look like thorns though. They’re too pretty, glinting in the fiery light of the evening.
“Yes.” His arrogantly sly attention finally slides to the Blood Prince. “She’s not his yet.”
“It’s Prince Christian,” Christian introduces himself casually.
The Thorn King seems to have long forgotten the prince is even there when he brings his piercing gaze back to me.
“Care to take a walk with... dear old Dad?” The smirk on his handsome face is alarming with his heavy attention suddenly on me. With the inky line across his eyes, the jagged gems protruding from his skull, and the sharp points of his teeth, he looks every bit the monster Delilah warned me about.
“Actually, the hunt is about to commence,” Christian says, his hand pressing low on the small of my back, his body lining up perfectly with mine.
The Thorn King’s gaze dips to that small contact between me and the prince, and I see the calculations in his eyes.
“Yes. Well, we won’t be long.” And then my hand is in his, and he’s pulling me away.
Christian’s body lurches, but he’s stopped abruptly.
“She’s fine. He’s not going to hurt his own daughter,” Seven whispers calmly.
But when I look back at them, Seven’s hand is pressed hard into Christian’s chest, Rorrick’s glaring attention following me every step I take, and nothing—absolutely nothing—feels fine in this moment.
Especially me.
Once we’re several yards away, I pull my attention back to the Thorn King. He looms over me, the soft leather of his wings hanging overhead. His warm hand lightly cradles mine like he’s worried he might break it if he puts an ounce of pressure on my skin. With patience and care, the cruel king guides me through the haunting smoke of the gardens.
“Do you like the Blood Prince?” he asks abruptly.
My lips part, but I’m hesitant to say the wrong thing. I don’t want to put any more tension between the already hostile kingdoms. Do I lie? Or do I give him a vague answer of honesty?
“Not... not really. He’s an asshole, if I’m being honest.”
His rumbling laughter is warm and tingles across my body in the strangest way.
“I do agree,” he murmurs. “Did you like your life in the mortal realm?”
Jesus. We really should have prepped the topics of discussion because this is not a good start for Daddy.
“No. I didn’t.”
He nods like he’s pleased to hear that, which suddenly makes me want to punch him in his obnoxiously square jaw. Emotions shake through me, and it’s only then that I realize I blame this stranger for the life he put me in.
From the moment I was born, I didn’t have a fucking chance at a normal life.
Because of him. Because not a single person who called themselves family ever showed up for me.
Why now?
“Why? Do you feel bad for leaving me in a life where I was constantly afraid? Constantly hurt? Constantly on the verge of breaking down and never getting back up?”
