CHAPTER SIX
6
Draven
What’s mine is destined to be mine, and Morwenna Petrova belongs to me.
There’s something unique about her, something in her soul, her blood, calling out to me... Victoria! It has to be. I won’t let go of what was mine before, like I did with Victoria.
“You framed me!” she accuses, her defiance evident. I arch an eyebrow, my nose lifting slightly in confirmation without needing words. She catches my meaning and pressed on, “Why?”
“I told you... you were going to come back to me!” I reminded her, triggering an instant flashback.
“Oh, that.” Her tone shifts, “So framing me is part of me coming to you? ”
“Yes, Morwenna,” I replied, my voice low.
“And when do I get out of here?” she demands, and I can’t help but chuckle.
“Who said you’re getting out of here...” My words trailed off into a whisper, my finger still tracing along her jawline. My eyes admire her stunning violet eyes, so reminiscent of Victoria’s. Every part of her reminds me of Victoria – her blood, her scent – but her attitude... no.
“I’m meant to get out of here,” she insisted, her voice firm. “You can’t keep me here, and I don’t belong in a place that uses humans as prey to feed on their blood,” she adds, recalling the accident she witnessed in that blue room. I could easily wipe her memory at this moment to erase what she saw.
“Oh, I can,” I retort.
“I’m not staying,” she counters.
“And you’re not leaving,” I assert.
Her breath catches in her throat as she continues, “You’ve got a pact to maintain. You don’t keep humans here unless they work for you, and vampires don’t come to Chimera City!” I see where she’s going with this. I know the pact.
“I don’t care about some pact, Morwenna. What I do know is that you’re not leaving,” I declared, my words dripping with threat.
“I will leave. You can’t keep me here like I’m your prisoner,” she challenges.
“Of course, I can,” I cut in.
She matches my energy, saying, “And what makes you think that? Just because you have all the power in the world doesn’t mean you can—”
“I can do anything I want, Morwenna,” I interrupted her, “because do you know why? You trespassed on my property, took pictures thinking you could expose me. The law states any Chimeran who trespasses on the Vimic’s property, my manor, gets killed. It’s always been that way, and you broke that pact... So yes, I can literally do anything. I have the power,” I said proudly.
“So it’s you who decides my fate. Very well, then. Do what you want to do. Kill me, drain my blood, as long as I don’t have to endure staying with you here!” Morwenna challenges, and I must give her credit for holding onto her stubborn attitude. Her eyes betray fear – I smell it, feel it – yet she conceals it like a pro.
“I’m not killing you, Morw—”
“Then drain my blood!” she interrupts. She really has this damn courage? Victoria wasn’t as talkative as this one, Morwenna. Was she really in the right body?
I licked my lips as I smelled her blood again, coming from her right arm, the one I had cut intentionally for tracking purposes in case she tries to run from me. I can smell it, and it calls to me. Hmm, strange. I wasn’t smelling Victoria’s reincarnation blood in her veins. Yet.
“As I’ve said, I’m not going to kill you, but for the blood aspect... I will take it,” I said, my hand caressing her jaw that I was gripping. “All of it,” I whispered against her lips as I leaned closer. She jolted back at the closeness of my lips, looking as if they were about to press on hers. My other hand found her waist, pulling her close behind as her body collided with mine. I could hear the rhythmic beating of her heart, sounding like music to my ears. And with the inevitable, I smelled her, her scent fresh against her lips as I whispered under her ragged breaths, “I own you.”
“You don’t own me,” she whispers back, her violet eyes steady with my gaze.
I scoff a whisper, “Yes, I do,” I said as my hand on her waist pulled her in even closer, my other hand, tightly caressing her jawline. “I own you, Morwenna. Your body, your soul, your blood, everything. I own every bit of it,” I said, feeling the heat radiating from my body when hers pressed tighter against me. “So yes, I own you, every part of you, Morwenna,” I savored the way her breaths kept coming in, dancing in tune with mine.
My caress lingered on Morwenna’s jawline, my fingertips brushing the warmth of her skin. Leaning closer, I whispered into her sensitive ear, “My brothers want you dead. They crave your blood, Morwenna. They thirst for it just as I do, but... I don’t share. I’m not going to share you with anyone, Morwenna, because I’m fiercely proud and jealous. Anytime I share you with someone else, anytime my brothers lust for your blood, I feel jealous,” I confessed, letting the words linger in her ear before continuing. “And that’s why I want you. I need you to become my wife, Morwenna, and I will be your husband, my love.”
Her breath caught in her throat. She was speechless, and thousands of thoughts began to swirl in her mind. If I want to know if Victoria’s reincarnated essence lingers in her, I must do exactly what I did to Victoria years ago – marry her, mate with her, and then mark her according to my plan. Then she’ll become my queen, and my thousand years of waiting, hoping that Victoria’s reincarnated soul wouldn’t be in vain.
“Y-Your wife?!” The question came out as a crack in her voice.
“Yes, Morwenna,” I responded.
“No!” she exclaimed in a breath. “I decline to be yours or be your wife!” she added.
Did she just decline me? Impossible. Again, my voice, seductive and charming enough, is usually irresistible. I thought I had her trapped in them, but she said no to me. Damn. Morwenna, my love, was truly an anomaly.
But my charming voice pressed forward, “Being my wife means power, love. You’ll have everything you truly desire, protection.”
And not freedom. The last time I granted freedom to Victoria during our wedding night for her to meet her people, she was killed by her own people. So certainly, I wouldn’t repeat it with Morwenna. All I need is her invitation, her answer, which I crave from those luring lips of hers.
“I’d rather scrub toilets than be the wife of a Vimic,” she says, her voice dripping with disdain. Then, she directs one word solely at me, “you!”
My teeth clench as I whisper through them, “Rethink your words, Morwenna.”
“There’s literally nothing for me to rethink, almighty Lord Draven!” she retorts, her voice thick with sarcasm as she adds the powerful title to my name. “I will never be your wife,” she repeats.
I draw my lips away from her ear, back to her face as I lick my lips. “You’ve got some nerve to decline my proposal for making your life better.”
“Better?!” she scoffs, mirroring my words. “My life is far from better the moment you think being your wife will make it perfect. Better. That must be a joke!”
“Does this look like I’m joking?” I say, locking her gaze with mine, trapping her within its intensity. She closes her eyes, trying to escape the depths of my stare, focusing instead on my lips.
“Your lips say nothing more than a joke to me,” she replies, fighting the urge to entertain sinful thoughts of kissing them. Then, she blinks and looks away. “All I need is for you to let me go. I’m sure there are plenty of other Chimerans you could possibly lure and make your wife,” she suggests, her voice full of implications.
“I asked for one thing. You,” I stated.
“And I denied the one thing you asked me. You,” she mirrors my words.
I can’t believe anyone would deny me, especially me.
She has denied my invitation to be my wife, and the nerve she has to speak back to me.
No one, I mean literally no one, has tried it, but she’s an exception, an anomaly that I need to keep around.
I have been feared, respected, and obeyed, and she’s done the opposite.
Although I still see the fear in her eyes, she hides it by throwing rude remarks at me. She doesn’t respect me like my subjects do, and she doesn’t obey; her obedience is always dripping with feigned sarcasm. This is why I hate speaking softly to get things done; instead, I should do the opposite.
“Morwenna, Morwenna, Morwenna, Morwenna,” I chant in a singsong tone that tastes deliciously on my lips. It holds danger, spell, D-A-N-G-E-R. Danger.
“Let me go,” she says, noticing how dangerous my words are now getting to her chest. Her body flinches.
“Let me go,” I whisper her words back.
“Y-yes,” her voice cracks. “Let me go,” she repeats, trying to mask her fears with stubbornness.
“You declined my invitation, and you need me to permit you to go.”
“Your words were hardly an invitation,” she says, “and I’m bound to my opinions to say no!”
“The only opinion available is yes to me.”
“That’s hardly an opinion at all,” she says.
“Say yes to me, and I may reconsider,” I say, adding a seductive edge with a dangerous undertone, urging her to comply. I may reconsider not locking her up in the dungeon or killing her, according to what my brothers want. I may reconsider not having to ruin her until she says ‘yes’ to marry me. Yes, that’s what I should do.
“No!” she says.
“Look at my eyes and say it,” I command.
Her head, under the power of my control, lifts slowly, and her gaze meets mine. She’s meant to be lost in my gaze, and instead, I’m the one lost in hers. Her violet eyes stop me in motion. Damn. I’m feeling things now, including primal ones. Now, I feel lustful with every thought that comes from her mind, until she says, “No!”
My powers don’t appear to work, and I hate being defeated. She cannot be the one resisting my powerful charms, and she isn’t the one who is going to win. And that’s why I have plan B: force her.
“You do know I can force you to say yes to me!” I say, my voice dangerous.
“To marry you? No,” she says, still stubborn. Always stubborn.
“You have two choices: either you say yes to me, or you face the wrath of my brothers!” I threatened, my voice a warning. That’s when I read the fear in her eyes. That’s what I wanted to see, feel, and enjoy – not her stubborn defiance.
“None of them,” she countered.
“Do you think I’m fucking joking right now, Morwenna?”
“You always think the whole world should fear you, and no, I don’t think you’re joking. That’s why I’m not afraid of you, nor should I be, and you don’t have the power to instill fear in me.”
Courage, very courageous of her.
“I love your courageous nature, Morwenna,” I said, my voice dangerously low. “I cannot stand it, but it makes my cock throb anytime you act like that,” I added, making the sinful words catch her breath. “And that’s why I must show you I’m not joking with what I said.”
With that, everyone in the palace, which was momentarily paused under my influence, comes back to life with a gasp of her breath.
My hand, which was on her waist, shifts off, and all eyes, including the eyes of my brothers below me, shift up at me.
Morwenna takes three little steps back as she tries to maintain her distance from me.
I smirk. My plans were just working until Cassian shouts, his words directed at Morwenna. “What have you done, human girl?” His voice then heightens, “You’ve broken Lord Draven’s jade pendant!”
Morwenna, shocked, drifts her eyes to the ground where the jade pendant lies broken in two. Her eyes widen in horror, and her lips drop a little as she looks at me, shocked and bewildered. “No, no, no, no, no... It’s not me! I didn’t do it!”
A dark smirk settled on my lips. I knew what really happened, and I had my ways.
“Cassian, do you know the rules? Anyone who not only tries to steal from me but also breaks my property, what happens to them?” I directed my voice at Cassian.
“They pay for what is broken or... death!” Cassian replies, and Morwenna’s horrified gaze meets mine.
“And I hardly doubt you can afford to pay me back for my jade pendant you broke, so death it is for you then,” I said, causing her breath to hitch even further. Her sister, Theresa, tries to speak, but she doesn’t. Defending her sister is of no use anyway.
“I didn’t...” Morwenna murmurs to herself, her eyes still looking at me in fear as she points to me, “you did...”
“How dare you point at Lord Draven!” says Cassian to Morwenna. “Say the word, brother, and my armies and I will get the task completed!” That’s all Cassian wanted to hear. He wanted to fight, but he couldn’t until I passed the instruction to send out his armies to attack, until I commanded it.
My gaze went to Morwenna, whose heart was still beating faster. “Why...” she couldn’t complete her words.
“Say ‘yes,’ and I’ll reconsider,” I suggested, my voice dangerous.
“So, this is part of your threat?” she questioned, her voice low.
“Like I said, you’re going to be mine one way or the other, and speak the word before I hand my brothers to you,” I threatened, my voice poised to crack her resolve.
“So that’s how it goes then...?” she says, her tone resigned. “Very well!” She turns her gaze to Cassian, who has already gathered his armies. “I surrender to all you fucking vampires. You can now kill me!” she declares.
What the hell was she doing? That wasn’t part of my plan. Why does Morwenna have to make things difficult? I thought it was going to be easy. I threaten her with death, and she’ll say yes to my invitation to be my wife, not this. She’s really different, an anomaly.
“What are you all waiting for? You can start killing me, drain my blood, you fucking blood-suckers!” she adds, and Cassian’s eyes meet mine. He thinks I’ve given the order to take my ‘own,’ Morwenna.
Now that my plan has crumbled all thanks to her, I must think of something else.
I grabbed her wrist immediately, turning her to face me.
Her body collides with mine, and I rest her hand on my chest. Cassian’s armies pause their steps, thinking I have it under control. Well, I don’t.
My ‘one’ is crumbling my plans, and my fucking cock isn’t even under control. My brothers will be thinking I was going to drain her blood now, the way our bodies were so close.
Her blood is intoxicating, and I just want to sink my fangs into her neck now.
Gazing into her violet eyes, I demanded, “What in the world are you doing, huh?”
“Getting myself killed and drained by your bloodsucking armies!” she retorted stubbornly, though I could still detect fear in her voice. She was afraid of death but clung to her defiance. “Isn’t that what you want...?”
“Do I appear to want you being killed?” I questioned, the metallic scent of her blood lingering in my nostrils. “I want you to say yes.”
“I said no,” she snapped back.
“Are you truly this obstinate?” I gritted my teeth in frustration.
“You want me dead, and I’m simply fulfilling your wishes. That shouldn’t be a concern for you,” she replied.
I didn’t desire her death. I lost Victoria a thousand years ago to death, and she seemed to think I should lose her now.
It was a threat, all a chilling threat, but Morwenna Petrova remained obstinate. Too stubborn. Too courageous, even in the face of death.
My brothers undoubtedly wanted me to take some action against her, to punish her, drain her blood, take her heart, anything.
I sighed, not in defeat because I would never admit defeat. I simply needed to strategize my next move. “Just apologize to me, and everything will return to normal,” I suggested.
“Apologize?!” she echoed my words. “For what? I am not apologizing to you...”
“Just utter the two words, Morwenna,” I urged through gritted teeth. I could overlook her stubbornness for now, but here she was, once again, making things difficult.
“No, I’ll only utter those words when pigs can fly, and if pigs can fly in your so-called world of dark magic, I’ll never, ever apologize to you,” she retorted, making a veiled reference to the dark magic I had previously employed.
Her stubbornness called to me, much like the scent of her intoxicating blood, and that’s why I put my next plan into action.
“Get on your knees and fucking beg,” I commanded, my voice authoritative.
“What part of me not begging you don’t you understand? I’m not kne—”
“On your knees!” I cut her off, my voice cold, slicing through the gasp of her words. I added one more word, sending shivers dancing down her spine. “Now!”
She hesitated to obey, so my hand left hers and came to rest on her head. Slowly, I lowered her head, causing her body to comply with my powers, her knees hitting the ground. Her compliance was what I truly needed. With both of her knees on the ground, I licked my lips. It wasn’t her choice to kneel; it was my dark control over her mind and body.
My hand caressed her silky dark brown hair, which had a white strand at the front, a stark contrast. Partially brown, partially white, her hair reminded me of Victoria, her hair a cascade of copper infused with strands of white. I was sure of it, and Morwenna had a few strands of white in her hair. She even had the same violet color eyes as Victoria. I thought I had sensed Victoria’s reincarnated essence in her, but I was mistaken. Yet, she still gave off vibes of being Victoria’s reincarnation. She truly is her. I hope.
But Morwenna was stubborn, and I had enough on my plate thinking of what punishment to mete out to her now.
But her kneeling down only fueled the heat within me.
“Now, Morwenna... you have five seconds to apologize,” I said, though I couldn’t fathom why I was offering her a second chance. I’m usually known for being cold and unforgiving, never one to give second chances.
Instead of apologizing, she scoffed and retorted, “Fuck you.”
“Fuck me?” I echoed her words under my breath. Did she really just say that to me after I tried to show her mercy? Fine. Time to ditch the kid gloves and show her the merciless side of me, the side that instills fear in others.
And that’s when a primal thought entered my mind, raw and sinful.
It was time to embrace one of the deadliest of the seven sins she could ever imagine.
“That mouth of yours, Morwenna,” I began, “I’m going to fuck it,” I added as my hand, which wasn’t holding her head instinctively drifted to my hip, the heat of my throbbing cock radiating through my fingers a stark contrast to the icy fury in my veins.
Fuck.
That was the sin I was talking about.
Her breath hitched when she heard the sound of me unzipping my pants. I was already turned on, ready to punish her.
“What... What are you doing?” her voice cracked as she asked. My eyes drifted to her lips, so sexy and inviting, the lips I wanted wrapped around my cock right now.
A sinful smile formed on my lips. “You’ll see, Morwenna,” I respond.
She would see.