by Lexi C. Foss
Endless stars danced overhead, as well as a bright moon that wasn’t quite full.
I stared up at it for countless minutes, the fresh air a foreign concept that rendered me frozen. Had I ever experienced such a moment? One where I wasn’t expected to be somewhere right away, didn’t have a monster looming over my shoulder to dictate orders, or wasn’t outside just for a field exercise?
I searched my foggy mind and came up blank.
Then I gazed upward once more, inhaled slowly, and exhaled in a similar fashion.
It wasn’t until I scented a minty aftershave on the wind that I realized I wasn’t alone.
The hairs along my arms stood on end, my throat constricting. “I… I’m sorry. I just… I was…”
“Admiring the night?” Ryder finished for me, stepping out of the shadows and into the moonlight shining down on the balcony. “You’re allowed to stand outside, Willow.” He trailed a finger down my arm, his touch oddly soothing while simultaneously terrifying.
He’s a royal vampire.
That made him old. Powerful. Dangerous.
I swallowed and forced myself to face him, needing to see his eyes. They served as a stark reminder of his lethality, the coldness of his dark orbs sending a chill through my spirit. This was not a male I wanted to trust, even if he had offered me something no one else ever had—a moment of peace.
“I’m getting ready to retire for the evening,” he informed me softly. “I just wanted to make sure you didn’t need anything else. More food, perhaps?”
My stomach churned at the notion, his sandwich sitting heavy inside me still. “No, thank you.” It came out so polite. So quiet. So… strange.
I’m talking to a royal vampire.
Why the hell am I talking to a royal vampire?
As the hours had spun onward, my memories had begun to trickle in. Not all at once, just pieces and splashes of my history, including startling moments from my past and punishments I longed to forget. Courses I never wanted to take again. Exams that haunted my nightmares.
Part of me wanted to bow at his feet. That was the obedient servant part of my mind that had been trained over countless years to always submit.
Never look a superior in the eye.
Bow.
Beg.
Please.
I shivered at the latter, my experience with pleasing lycans not one I wanted to revisit anytime soon. Thankfully, the breeding camp still resembled a haze in my mind. Perhaps because of the drugs. Or maybe it was just his blood. In which case, I’d likely wake up screaming later when the night terrors came.
“I don’t suggest running,” Ryder said quietly. “Because if the wolves don’t catch you, I will. Neither outcome will end well for you.” He brushed his knuckles down my cheek, pausing at my neck. “I put some clothes on your bed. Feel free to do whatever you want with them.”
With that, he turned away from me and disappeared through a set of glass doors that I suspected led to his own room. He didn’t slide them closed, leaving me to wonder if they had been open this entire time. Or had he come out here through my room?
My room, I repeated to myself, frowning. What a strange concept. Rae and I had shared a room once, or what the university called a room, anyway. It was more like a space with wall dividers within one giant hall. Our beds were pushed together. We had two little chests for our uniforms. And nothing else. The bathroom was shared and open, as were the showers. They were gender-neutral as well, something that started to cause discomfort around puberty, but I quickly learned not to care about nudity.
Yet Ryder had gifted me clothes.
Curiosity caused my feet to move into my room, my hands immediately seeking out the outfit he’d left for me on the bed.
A white T-shirt that smelled like him.
And a pair of too-big gym shorts.
They were probably the thickest materials I’d ever been allowed to own. Not worn or translucent, but actual clothes.
Who are you? I wondered at him, disturbed by his behavior. Why are you doing this? I’d never met a royal before, but I knew their reputations well. They enjoyed playing with their food, their games notoriously cruel.
Was he doing this to placate me? To give me a false sense of hope?
If that were the case, he’d have to try a heck of a lot harder.
I didn’t buy the whole chivalrous act.
All vampires had ulterior motives. He claimed he wanted me to teach him about society, but as a royal, he already knew the rules. Except he wasn’t acting the part of a royal. Starting with his home. Where are all the Vigils? His harem? His mortal staff?
The only being I’d seen so far was Damien, who had acted more on par with my expectations than Ryder. Yet their easy candor had been unique, too.
Oh, but when they touched me together, I thought I’d just become dinner. And rather than feel terrified, I’d felt… hungry. Interested. Intrigued, as Ryder would say.
Which was so damn wrong.
Yet, also expected.
Vampires were alluring creatures of the night, their flawless looks and hypnotic appeal two lethal traits that aided in their ability to captivate their prey.
And I’d fallen victim to their allure.
I’d almost leaned into Ryder, to entice him to bite me.
Only, he said I wasn’t ready, thus implying he intended to make a meal of me in the future. While also using me for information.
I shook my head, the entire experience morphing into a cataclysm of confusion.
What I needed to do was rest, take advantage of the amenities while I had access to them, and plot my next steps. Becoming Ryder’s dinner wasn’t going to work for me. But I couldn’t escape until I had a better idea of where we were, as well as a notion of where to go.
I pulled on his shirt and shorts, then slid into the sheets on the too-soft bed. Sitting up, I frowned down at the plump mattress. Why was it so cushiony? Where were the lumps? The hard cement slab beneath? How could anyone sleep like this?
Rather than try, I pulled the blankets off the mattress and made myself a proper bed on the floor. No pillow.
It was much better. More solid. Reminding me of my previous home.
A life I no longer lived.
A world I left behind.
For a future I didn’t understand.
6
Willow
Three days later and I still didn’t understand Ryder.
“You want me to attack you,” I said slowly, eyeing his position on the mat.
We were in his training room, surrounded by a variety of weapons. He’d given me a knife to use for our sparring match—an activity that was his idea, not mine. Just like everything else we’d done over the last few days.
“I want you to try, yes,” he replied. “Consider it a test of your abilities. Or do you prefer the term exam? You’ve referenced that a few times when discussing your courses.”
The man was obsessed with my university experience. It made no sense. He should already know what courses I took, what marks I earned, and the paths they opened me up for in this world.
Yet he questioned me as if he knew nothing about the current world, something I found hard to believe since he was a royal vampire. Except, he didn’t act like any of the ones I’d studied before. He lived alone. No security. No servants. And he asked me to do strange things like spar with him.
“All of my exams involved human opponents,” I informed him. “I’ve never attacked a superior.”
“Oh?” He cocked a brow. “So the hammer incident was meant to seduce me, not hurt me?”
I flinched. “That was different.”
“How so?”
“I wanted to escape. It wasn’t an exam.”
“And do you want to escape now, pet?” he asked, stalking toward me, his dark eyes smoldering with malevolence. “Is that how I provoke you into a fight, by evoking fear?”
I swallowed and stumbled backward, only to find myself up against the wall with a shirtl
ess vampire closing in. I tried to dart to the side, but his hand shot out, his arm blocking my path. Then he repeated the action on my other side, caging me between him and the wall.
“Is this the inspiration you require, Willow?” He leaned in, the heat of his body a luring prospect against mine.
He was lethal.
Gorgeous.
A predator cornering his prey.
A darkness I shouldn’t admire.
And yet, my heart skipped a beat at his proximity, the minty quality of his breath an invitation between us.
Just three days ago, I’d wanted to fight for my life. Then he’d shown me a kindness I’d never experienced before, he spoke to me as if I mattered, and he fed me, clothed me, and gave me a bed.
Every move he made floored me.
I sensed the danger lying beneath the surface, but his actions were unbearably foreign. He called me his pet, yet it sounded more like an endearment than a classification.
He pressed his nose to my cheek and drew a line to my ear, the light caress stirring a swarm of butterflies inside. I didn’t know how to process this. My body nearly leaned into him, but my mind held me back.
This was all a trick, his vampiric abilities overriding my sensibilities.
He’s not a lover.
He’s not a friend.
He’s the enemy.
“You’re supposed to be piquing my interest,” he reminded me softly, the warmth of his breath tickling my neck. “Playing this mousy role isn’t very appealing, Willow.”
I shivered, my lips working without sound. What did he want me to say? Perhaps nothing. What he really wanted was for me to fight. I still had the knife in my hand, and my arms were free at my sides.
It would be easy to attack him.
To hurt him.
Then maybe I could run.
That’d been my original plan. I’d ignored it these last few days because I needed time to acclimate to my new situation. But I was just as confused today as I was when I woke up several days ago.
“I know you’re struggling with your memories,” he murmured. “Have you forgotten how to fight as well?”
It wasn’t so much a struggle as it was a fog. I remembered everything, but there was this intangible gray film over every thought, shading my recollections with a dreamlike filter.
The only experiences I couldn’t recall at all revolved around my time at the breeding camp. Something terrible had happened there. Something I didn’t want to think about. Something that involved glowing green eyes.
Instead, I focused on my university background, the classes I’d taken, the friendships I’d made, and worked on pulling those into my mind. They weren’t perfect, but they were there, lurking inside the bizarre mist I’d mentally contrived.
Ryder sighed. “If you don’t want to spar, then I’ll just eat you instead.”
My focus flew upward to his smoldering irises once more, his expression severely serious. He’d bite me right here, right now, if I didn’t do as he required. I could see the conviction in his stare.
I’d never been bitten by a vampire before.
I didn’t want to start that habit now, either.
That eyebrow of his remained arched, his patience hanging on by a thin wire.
He wanted me to fight him? Fine. I was the one with a weapon, not him. And his hands were busy propping him up against the wall in his human-formed cage.
I lashed out with the blade, only to have him jump backward a beat ahead of me reaching my target. The end of my knife only grazed his bare abdomen, his lips pulling into a feral smile.
“Good choice,” he praised. “More.”
This man was insane.
Certifiably nuts.
Maybe the whole royal thing was a lie? Some fucked-up fantasy he’d created for himself in the middle of wherever the hell we were located. The geography I understood was region based; they didn’t explain where the breeding camps or other destinations were. Just the regions and capitals.
Ryder fell into a crouch, his expression inviting me to play.
Rather than turn him down, I went for it. If I could injure him even a little, it’d provide me with an opportunity to escape. And if nothing else, it would tell me what I was up against.
I considered throwing my dagger at him—I’d taken an entire course on knife fighting—but I didn’t want to lose my only weapon.
Instead, I darted around him, trying to reach his back, but he spun with me, reached out, and snagged my wrist. I whirled in an attempt to escape him, my instincts taking over. Except his grasp caused me to twist in a way that forced me to drop my knife.
Fuck.
I should have thrown it.
Alas, there was no time to correct the error. Ryder was already coming for me, trying to find a way to subdue me.
He brought my arm up behind my back, but I used the momentum to my advantage to spin and tried to take out his knee. Ryder dodged me, his counterattack hitting me square in the sternum.
Shit, he’s fast.
Silas had been my primary opponent at the university. Sometimes Rae. And neither of them had anything on Ryder.
He moved with a precision I would have admired had I not been the subject he sought to cut down.
I escaped his hold once more and ran toward the weapons rack. He chuckled behind me, then cursed when I found a pair of throwing stars. I aimed both at his torso, only to watch him avoid them with a crazy backbend that should not have been possible.
It shocked me so completely that I stopped moving, just to be yanked down onto the mat a second later by his much stronger body. I tried to dislodge him in the way I’d been trained, but he captured my wrists in one hand and pulled them over my head. Then he put his opposite palm at my throat, his gaze thoughtful as I squirmed beneath him.
“That was cheating,” he informed me, his breathing far more even than my own. “I gave you one knife. You lost it.”
I inhaled a gulp of air before replying, “You didn’t say I couldn’t grab more.”
His lips curled. “I suppose I didn’t.” He cocked his head to the side, his thumb brushing the pulse on my neck. “That wasn’t a horrible performance, Willow. Better than I anticipated, actually.”
That didn’t appear to be much of a compliment. Not that a compliment was warranted. How long had I lasted against him? One minute? Maybe two?
I nearly growled in frustration.
Then his hips settled between mine, and my frustration morphed into something else entirely. Heat spread through my veins from the point where our groins touched, my heart hammering an unsteady beat in my chest.
He has me pinned in a helpless state with no option but to comply.
And he’s turned on.
My throat went dry with the realization. I’m completely at his mercy.
“You need to eat more, Willow.” His dark eyes radiated with a hunger that rivaled his growing arousal below. “It’ll help with proper muscle growth and fill out your curves.” His gaze dropped to my mouth, and then lower to the fabric covering my heaving chest.
I wore his clothes—a plain white shirt and a pair of boxer shorts. Neither left much to the imagination, especially as I felt myself dampening at the apex between my thighs.
He’s a hunter, I thought, inhaling sharply. A vampire. A predator encased in a mirage of perfection.
And right now, all that perfection was pressed up against me, his muscles resembling a brick wall above me.
His dark eyes finally returned to mine, the knowledge in his depths stealing my ability to think. He could smell my reaction to him. He could feel it with his thumb against my pulse. He knew he had the upper hand in every way.
I was lost to his superiority.
No was a word I could never utter in his presence. Not without experiencing swift punishment.
Yet a part of me had to admit that I wouldn’t refuse him for more than just societal reasons. His presence endangered my senses, making it difficult to think.
> Which was why it took me a moment to register the alarm sounding around us. The blaring siren barely penetrated my thoughts until Ryder leapt to his feet to stalk over to one of his security panels.
He had one in every room, including his guest suite upstairs. I’d tried to play with the one in my temporary room yesterday, but I couldn’t activate it. Which told me they only responded to him.
“Hmm,” he murmured, scanning the security images populating his wide screen. “We have company.” He looked at me. “Do you know how to use a gun?”
“No.” Humans weren’t allowed to handle weapons of that nature, only combat-style tools like batons and swords. That seemed like something he should know, in addition to several other things.
“We’ll rectify that later,” he said, typing in a code on his panel that caused the wall to part beside it.
My eyes widened at the adjoining room Ryder had just revealed. It was a giant armory. His hammer paled in comparison to all this, telling me he hadn’t been kidding when he’d said there were better weapons upstairs.
Because wow.
The large room boasted several rows of knives, guns, grenades, and a variety of other items. Ryder turned left out of my view.
I forced myself up onto my feet, my intention to follow him, except the panel caught my attention. Yellowish-orange silhouettes painted the purple-shaded background. It reminded me of the thermal scanners I’d studied in my university security course. The purpose of the class had been to demonstrate all the ways humans were observed and “protected.” Really, it was a way to deter us from escaping. Or that was how Rae, Silas, and I had interpreted it, anyway.
“How many?” Ryder asked from the other room. When I glanced at him, I found him watching me from the threshold. He didn’t seem to care that I’d checked out the footage. If anything, he appeared pleased by it.
“Nine,” I replied, assuming he wanted me to tell him how many yellowish-orange blobs were on the screens he’d left up on the panel.