Chapter 2
Ashleigh Wyss
The next morning, I sat down to breakfast with my father.
I watched as one of the servants brought several platters of food and placed them on the table.
With boredom, I sighed as they were each uncovered, revealing mountains of eggs, sausage, bacon, toast, and pancakes.
There were bowls of fruit, but none of that looked even remotely appetizing.
I reached forward and held up my mug. When the servant beside me didn’t fill it fast enough, I growled with warning before he rushed forward and grabbed the carafe of coffee. I watched the delicious black liquid pour into my cup.
“Leave some room for cream,” I added.
“Yes, mistress,” he answered quickly. When he was finished, I grasped the handle of the bowl of creamer and poured enough into my coffee to lighten it to my preferred taste.
I hadn’t been sleeping well. Not for the past few nights.
Not since Elijah had rescued me from the vampires that tried to kidnap me.
My body was hot. Even the soft fabric of my clothing felt scratchy and tight.
I wanted to rip it all off. A bead of sweat gathered at my brow, and I rushed to wipe it away before it dripped down my forehead.
I took a deep breath and took a sip of the delicious brew, sighing with feigned contentment.
I hoped it would make it better, but deep down I knew it wouldn’t. There was only one thing on my mind, and it wasn’t coffee. It was the massive six-foot-eight man who had dared to gaze at me naked with an expression that said he would devour me from the inside out.
That single look had set my body on fire.
I couldn’t let that happen. I was too valuable of an asset to the Crimson Shadow pack to lower myself and mate with someone below my station. My father expected better of me.
But already, the first marriage he’d arranged had fallen through.
My potential husband had been caught sleeping around with a chambermaid and it had garnered enough publicity that I’d been forced to decline the match at my father’s insistence.
He’d had me do it so he could save face, but the second I’d given my word that I was no longer interested, he’d gotten to work on another more advantageous match.
He hadn’t told me the man’s name yet, but chances were the marriage would make him a shit ton of money in the process.
I was his only daughter. It was my duty to marry high enough to bring my family even more power.
I looked out the window as I sipped my coffee, taking in the mountains in the distance. Just beyond those peaks was the city of Vienna, a beautiful place I’d spent much of my life shopping and exploring with my friends.
I glanced at my father, and he looked over me like I wasn’t even there. I swallowed a mouthful of coffee, carelessly burning the roof of my mouth in the process. It always felt like he hated me because I’d had the audacity to be born a daughter and not a son.
Not only that, but I’d killed my mother.
My father had insisted she give birth in the privacy of our own home and there had been complications.
Something terrible had gone wrong and she’d started to bleed.
It escalated too quickly and by the time help finally arrived, she was already dead. They’d said I’d been a miracle.
To my father, I was anything but.
He hadn’t taken another by his side since her death.
In some ways, I think he mourned her but in others I think he just didn’t want to share the power he’d acquired since she’d died.
He never told me much about her. Everything I had learned had been from other people, mostly the ones who had taken care of me since the day I was born.
My father hadn’t brought himself down low enough to take care of the likes of me. He simply ruled over me from afar, directing his demands through other people and just expecting me to follow without complaint.
I sighed, taking another sip of coffee more slowly this time so that the tender roof of my mouth didn’t burn any more than it already was.
My stomach growled, but I didn’t want to reach out and touch even a single bite of food. My core protested, spiraling tight enough to hurt and I hardly quieted my groan before it escaped my lips. The servant beside me leaned down and cleared his throat.
“May I serve you anything, miss?” he asked.
I fanned my face with my napkin, hurriedly shaking my head.
“No. Thanks though,” I spat out and he sat back. My father must have noticed the exchange because he deemed me fit to actually look at this morning. His expression was thoughtful, but I knew he only thought of me as a mode of currency and not as his daughter.
“I have news for you, Ashleigh,” he said expectantly. It was so rare that he spoke to me that I hated the way I hung onto every word. Even after all this time, I still wanted to please him. I still wanted to make him proud.
“What is that, Father?” I asked with a smile.
“Last night, Augustus and I came to an agreement regarding the problem that is your hand in marriage,” he began.
My brow furrowed with confusion. My last match had been procured from another wolf shifter pack that was rising in power alongside us in Europe. What could the Malkovian vampire possibly have to do with my future husband?
“The Venuti have been vying for power since they were clipped in New Orleans some time ago. Since then, though, they’ve been laying low and growing here in Europe.
They have offered both Augustus and me an incredible amount of money and potential trade deals in exchange for you,” he explained, and I stiffened visibly.
“I’m not sure I catch your meaning,” I answered quietly.
He wouldn’t agree to wed me to a vampire, would he? Such a match was forbidden by the Council. Not only was it against the law, but it went against the very fabric of our nature.
“Vincenzo Venuti will take your hand in marriage,” he said firmly, his voice carrying an air of finality to it. I swallowed hard.
“You can’t be serious,” I said, unable to stop myself.
He slammed his hand on the table.
“You will wed Vincenzo Venuti and that’s final. You will sit in your chair like a dutiful daughter should and do what your alpha tells you, do you understand me?” he spat.
“But he’s a vampire. Father, please. It’s forbidden,” I whispered, trying to hide my horror and utterly failing.
“Do not dare to question me, daughter,” he roared, and the table rattled as his fist slammed down on it again. Every servant in the room had frozen, afraid of him lashing out at them next.
“Yes, Father. I’m sorry. It took me by surprise is all,” I whispered, staring down at the milky swirls of coffee that trembled in my cup, and I slowly realized that my hands were shaking.
“This afternoon, you will meet with the best dress designers in the country. You will pick out the dress of your dreams. Augustus has graciously offered to pay for it, and you will thank him properly when you see him next. Next week, you will fly to Rome, where the ceremony will take place,” he continued.
“I understand, Father,” I answered.
“Good,” he replied curtly.
I kept staring into my coffee, feeling both cowed and angry. My emotions surged inside me, but the sense of pure disgust had free rein. I tried to take another sip of coffee, but it tasted like ash in my mouth.
My father had sentenced me to life as a vampire’s wife.
My stomach roiled, threatening to upheave the contents onto the floor if I didn’t get a hold of myself quickly.
I braved a glance up only to see that he’d gone back to stuffing his face full of pork sausage and I had to turn away before I threw up.
I closed my eyes and the door slammed open so hard it crashed into the wall behind it. The floors rattled. I tore my gaze up only to see the man who had haunted my dreams for the past few nights.
Elijah.
He sauntered into the room like he owned the place with a sizeable group of men at his back.
I recognized Theo and several others, all of them lowly soldiers who did my father’s dirty work.
They were the ones he sent when words wouldn’t solve something.
They were his fists and Elijah was at the head of them.
“It’s almost noon, Amir. Were you planning on standing me up?” Elijah began dangerously and the look of raw shock that passed over my father’s face was comical. He covered it up as fast as he could, but I’d still seen it anyway.
“You should be dead,” my father spat.
I opened my eyes in surprise. I should have known. As pack leader, he had to take Elijah’s challenge no matter what. My father would never lower himself to a fight and had probably done something to avoid it last night.
“You should know it would take an army of vampires to kill me,” Elijah answered with a cocky grin. His shadowy gray eyes found mine and it was just as jarring as the first time.
With a single look, he possessed me. I felt as if he’d reached out and torn my clothes right off of me, like he’d bared my soul with nothing more than his gaze.
The powerful intensity behind those gray fortresses was enough to suck the air right out of the room.
My heart pounded in my chest, the temperature of my skin rising with every prolonged second that his stare held mine.
I’d thought that Elijah would back down and remember his place in the pack. I had hoped that it was just maybe the booze talking, that the pressures of the night sharing the compound with the Malkovians had just gone to his head.
With a heavy swallow, I realized that I couldn’t remember him drinking a single drop last night.
He drew his shoulders back, dragging his sordid gaze up and down my body. I turned away, trying my best not to breathe.
But I did. I caught his scent.
My blood boiled. I had long resigned myself to never experiencing the full power of a mate bond. I was the alpha’s daughter. Our pack reigned over Austria along with the Malkovian clan. My life was one of duty. I was never meant to find love.
His scent though. Fuck me sideways…