Chapter 3
Fallior
BASTIEN
Death would be the easier option, all things considered, but my brother was right.
It was my responsibility to lead the army and hold the boundary between the Unified Territories and the Lawless Lands.
Hector and Chastity, the leaders of Light and Dark beyond our borders, were closer than ever to accepting terms of protection.
But the situation was tenuous. Factions inside the covens still didn’t trust vampires, and it required a skilled negotiator.
After centuries of diplomacy, I wasn’t about to hand ownership of my castle to my whelp of a nephew, Tyson.
I had to overcome the problem this woman presented.
I’d been mateless for centuries. Now, five hundred years later, she appeared.
It all seemed too suspicious, but Marius wasn’t listening to reason.
A year would go by in a blink, and if I kept her at arm’s length, I could get through this and move on with my life. The pull of a mate bond couldn’t be as strong as my free will.
The one benefit I could see was that she didn’t appear to know who she was to me.
And neither did my brother. Thankfully. While we’d once been as close as true brothers, we’d drifted further apart over the centuries.
As the High Prince, his job was to rule and play nice with nobles.
Mine was to hold the line between our people and the terror that reigned beyond it.
Yet, despite our differences, he was still my brother. Not by birth, but by death. Mon Sang. My blood. I’d sworn to do anything for him. Which was why I drew in a long breath and forced myself to look this woman in the eyes. “Fine. I’ll accept her into my service.”
I watched her for a moment, tracing the shape of her lips as they parted in surprise, reveling in the flush of color that stained her cheeks.
“Splendid!” Marius replied with a clap of his hands. “Now, take…” He twirled his finger in the air. “I’m sorry, but what is your name, dear?”
She glanced between the two of us. Then, haltingly, said, “Claire. My name is Claire Donadieu.”
A cool breath of air wrapped around my shoulders and rustled through the long strands of her hair.
Claire.
Her name was its own kind of magick. There was no other way to describe it. Forever, my attention would be attuned to the sound of it. My senses sharpened whenever it was spoken. My desire for her absolute.
I closed my eyes and drew in another steadying breath.
I didn’t want this. I didn’t want to be fated to anyone.
Had I known when I saw her across the ballroom that the intense need to speak with her was the pull of a mate bond, I would’ve run instead of giving the bloodstone—my mate-identifying rune—time to recognize our connection.
When I opened my eyes, I found Marius dabbing the dried blood from Claire’s neck with a damp towel that he’d procured from a steward, cleaning the worst of the mess the choker had made.
I had to swallow a growl at the sight of him touching her.
Even though I loved my brother, a vision of tearing his arm from the socket and beating him with it flitted through my mind.
My fingers tensed, and adrenaline coursed through my limbs.
I watched him tend to her the way I should be.
When he was finally done, Marius captured her hand in his, holding it as he escorted her to me.
I had to keep this new protective desire in check.
If my brother discovered the truth—that Claire was my mate—I’d be forced to give up my castle to Tyson and live here in the capital.
Pandering to gossiping courtiers, hosting expensive parties, and listening to petty disputes.
A sentence worse than beheading, in my opinion.
My brother offered me Claire’s hand with a grin. I merely glared at him. Marius sighed in frustration. “Bastien, it’s time to take Miss Donadieu to the dais, claim her as tradition demands, and put this whole mess behind us.”
Claim her. Yes. That’s exactly what I wanted to do. To claim her as mine. To make us one body. One breath. The longer I stood in her presence, the stronger it became. The pull was unlike anything I’d experienced before.
Fight, damn you. Fight back. I was stronger than some base desire. I knew nothing about this girl, and I was suspicious of the little I did know. I could do this. I just needed to remind myself of what was at stake.
Her deep brown eyes met mine, wide as a fawn, and the bond between us deepened. I could feel her heart beating in my chest, and I could smell her fear as keenly as I could smell the apples ripening on the trees in the orchard below.
She was afraid of what came next.
My instinct was to offer words of comfort. To take her in my arms and tell her she would be safe. Because I’d make her safe. An instinct that I had to fight against with all my willpower.
Chest tight, I slowly lifted my hand and waited for Marius to place hers in mine. When he did, a pop of something that felt like magick stirred between us. A jolt of heat that I felt in every corner of my body—the first ounce of warmth I’d experienced since my death.
I tried to look unaffected because I knew Marius was watching me.
Studying my reaction. He might come off as a playful host, but there was a reason why my brothers and I named him High Prince.
He was cunning. And I knew he was suspicious of my intense opposition to Claire.
However, Marius wasn’t the one I was worried about at the moment.
Claire was grimacing at the place our bare skin touched like my flesh had just burned her, and I wondered if she had felt it, too.
The snap of magick. If the stories were true, she should be able to feel the pull of our bond.
I hoped in this case the stories were wrong.
Or, that, because her blood was tainted with magick, she was temporarily immune to it.
My attention shifted down to her throat and the black lace choker coated in blood. I used the sight to fuel my anger. I was only in this situation because she so unwisely dabbled in magick.
Falling back on the courtesies Marius expected of me, I placed my free hand behind my back. “Shall we give the people what they want, Miss Donadieu?”
“Oh, we’re going now?” she asked, her voice wobbling. “You’re going to claim me r-right away?”
I narrowed my eyes. “That’s how this works. I drink from you, and they all clap. The first bite seals our contract. That’s what you want, isn’t it? For me to drink your blood?”
Say no. Say you want to run away.
The scent of her fear intensified. My need to comfort her became almost unbearable.
Instead, I instructed myself to focus on how angry I was.
She had thrown the fate of so many in jeopardy just by daring to be in my presence.
If I let my guard down for one minute, for one second, everything I’d worked to build would come crashing down.
I hated her for who she was and for ruining what little peace I’d found in this life.
To my surprise, focusing on anger seemed to work.
It cleared my mind. If I could only stay angry, I could survive this.
“Yes, that’s what I want,” Claire finally said, even though the scent of her fear was omnipresent. The fragrance clinging to my clothes and sticking to my tongue. “Okay, I’m ready.”
“Then follow my lead.”
The attendants opened the balcony doors for us, revealing a massive crowd of nobles. Drinks in hand. Glasses raised. Marius strode forward, making his announcement of the imminent joining between Claire and me.
“Oh wow,” Claire muttered under her breath when everyone cheered. “Are they all waiting for us?”
I shifted my gaze to her face, hoping to watch her squirm under the pressure, but instead was captivated by the way moonlight streaming in from the stained glass windows illuminated her lavender hair with an iridescent glow.
It was breathtaking. The world could’ve been burning, and I wouldn’t have noticed.
“We are the entertainment,” I forced myself to say.
“That’s really intimidating,” she replied, still staring at the crowd.
Meanwhile, I was staring at her. At the way the light caught her hair.“Yes,” I said, the words dripping from my lips, “it’s all very intimidating.”
Somehow, I forced myself to tear my focus from her and carry out my duties despite everything in me screaming to claim her mouth as mine, to seal the bond between us with a kiss.
Step by step, I led us to the dais at the front of the ballroom, where the rest of my brothers and their sanguine partners stood waiting.
Tibitha, the woman I’d been feeding from for the last year, stood off to the side next to my second-in-command, Natalia.
Unsurprisingly, my niece looked miffed that I’d selected someone without consulting her.
Claire’s hand trembled as I guided her up the stone steps, and my anger wavered.
“If this is too much—”
“I’m fine.”
She wasn’t, but I couldn’t let that thought consume me.
I knew this was why our laws forbade taking your mate as a sanguine partner.
The bond was consuming enough without their blood running through your veins.
The elders warned it made us too impulsive and rash.
But I didn’t have a choice. I’d have to force myself to drink from Claire in front of an audience because my only other options were death or admitting the truth to Marius, which would destroy everything.
The violins played while I bowed to Marius. Claire, following my lead, curtsied. I tried not to take notice when the swell of her breasts strained against the black lace bodice of her gown as she did.
“As all good matches begin, so does the one between my brother, Prince Bastien of House Allard, Duke of Roselyn, and Miss Claire Donadieu. With a first bite.” He canted his head to the side and grinned coyly. “Or rather, a second, in this case.”
Soft chuckles sounded from the crowd. Others whispered, clearly offended that I hadn’t chosen their daughter as my sanguine partner.
Claire’s cheeks flushed at the attention, and I felt the thrum of her heart beating faster against my chest. Pulsing from the bloodstone I wore on a thin gold chain around my neck.
I wanted to get this over with, but dread coiled tight in my gut. I’d only had a taste of her blood, and I was already fighting myself not to drag her into a corner and finish what I started. If one drop could unravel me this much, what would happen when I took more?
Still, tradition demanded a show. I took her hands, like we were about to dance, and spun her in a slow circle before pulling her into my arms. She gasped in surprise, her fingernails biting crescents into my arms.
I guided her down until her silver lilac hair brushed the red carpet and my nose was buried in the warm hollow of her throat. Gasps came from the crowd. Oohs and aahs. This was the spectacle they all wanted from their rulers.
I drew in a breath of her delicious scent and held it, letting it fill every corner of my chest. Part of me ached to sink my teeth into her and drink until I knew every secret she carried.
Another part of me feared that if I did, there’d be no pulling back—that I’d lose the control I’d kept for centuries.
But there was no escaping this. I had to show the courtiers and Marius that nothing was amiss.
And while all this was swirling inside my head, I could tell by the clammy sheen of sweat on her skin and fluttering pulse that she was terrified. I waited for the change to happen. For my bloodlust to be triggered. For my incisors to drop and my eyes to blacken, ready to feed.
But… nothing happened.