Chapter 9
Aurora
I sit with my face turned toward the passenger window as Desire drives me to Stonehaven.
My hands rest on my knees. This entire crazy week, he came to me in the middle of the night three separate times, and each time, we fucked until we were exhausted, blurring the lines between pain and pleasure until morning.
Sometimes, my wrists were bound in rigid handcuffs; other times, my Prince Harming managed with just the brutal strength of his hands.
Each time, he playfully, teasingly, threatened my ass.
The anticipation would paralyze me with terror, but he—like a connoisseur of sadism—deliberately delayed that moment, driving me to madness.
Today is Friday. And tonight, he’s going to Savannah—to entertain his father’s business partner with a bunch of club whores. Tomorrow morning, I’ll go to my parents’ place like we agreed. We won’t see each other all weekend, and the thought of it twists my insides into a tight knot.
“So, have you planned out the entertainment for Savannah yet?” I ask, unable to hold back, breaking the heavy, awkward silence in the car.
Desire is silent as he navigates through one of the many student parking lots, searching for his spot, ignoring my jab.
Irritated, I cross my arms over my chest and let out a huff. “Are you bringing Zeus for some exotic flair?” I continue, pushing his buttons.
He turns the wheel, parks the SUV, and cuts the engine.
“No, Zeus won’t be there,” he states, his voice flat.
“Just the whores. Got it.” I nod, shooting him a glare.
He turns to me. That heavy darkened gaze sends an icy chill from the back of my head straight down to my heels in an instant.
My survival instinct screams danger, so I yank the handle, throw the door open, and scramble out as fast as I can.
I practically run across the sun-drenched parking lot toward my academic building.
I need to put distance between us, to escape him.
The way I just skirted the edge has turned me on.
Beneath my clothes, my body breaks out in a light, hot sweat.
Knowing Desire, he could chase me down, pin me, and take me right here on the hood of his car in front of the entire campus strictly for educational purposes.
The worst part is, I’m not sure I’d be able to resist him at all.
That devil knows too well what my treacherous body needs and how to make it beg for more.
I make it to the lecture hall barely a minute before class starts and sink into my usual seat next to Kelsey.
All week, she’s been smugly flaunting her leather paisley-patterned choker, proud to be in a relationship with one of the Kingdom’s captains.
Meanwhile, my neck remains bare to my disappointment.
I wanted my own choker too. All week, I deliberately didn’t wear the gold necklace Desire gave me.
The emptiness against my skin was unpleasantly cold, but Desire acted as if he didn’t even notice I was walking around without his personal mark.
Unless, of course, you count the bright crimson traces of his teeth and lips.
To be fair, we hadn’t run into each other on campus at all these past few days, and after that incident with Scratch at the club, his subjects already knew perfectly well who I belonged to.
“You’ve got bags under your eyes.” Kelsey giggles, turning to me and yanking me from my thoughts. “But you still look great, girl. Another amazing, wild night?”
I instantly flush, my cheeks burning, and drop my gaze to my empty notebooks. Of course, Kelsey, more than anyone, knows how dull and bland my life was until this devil stormed into it.
“Another one.” I nod, not going into the details of what exactly he did to me. “What about you?”
“Absolutely amazing.” She sighs dreamily, tracing her fingers over the fresh dark hickeys peeking out from under the edge of her choker.
I throw a quick, envious glance at my friend’s neck. Where the hell is my collar? If Desire wants everyone around to see my bruises and know how roughly he takes me, here’s the proof—a leather choker doesn’t hide them at all.
As soon as the class ends and we walk out into the noisy hallway, I catch a glimpse of Desire’s familiar broad back disappearing around a corner. My heart skips a beat.
“I’ll catch up,” I toss over my shoulder to a confused Kelsey, and trail after him.
Where is this insufferable devil heading? For a second, I think I spot him in the crowd. Freshman girls are fluttering around him like moths to a flame, but he doesn’t even glance their way. He just blends into the dense stream of students and vanishes.
Disappointed by my sudden stalker tendencies, I step outside to clear my overheating brain. What the hell am I even doing? Acting like a pathetic, jealous fool, trying to spy on that monster as if he were my boyfriend.
A sharp screech of brakes tears through the air. Right in front of me, barely missing the toes of my sneakers with its bumper, a familiar silver Jaguar slams to a stop. The same one that nearly smeared me across the asphalt on my first day on campus.
“Hey, bitch.” The driver’s door swings open, and an eye-catching brunette with long, perfectly styled hair steps out. She’s wearing provocatively short denim shorts, a tight T-shirt, and black heels on killer-high stilettos.
At first, I don’t even get it. Did she just say that to me? She should learn how to drive properly first, idiot. It feels like she’s trying to run someone over in this parking lot every single day.
I cross my arms over my chest. “What the hell gives you the right to talk to me like …” The words catch in my throat, and I freeze, my eyes widening as they lock onto her neck.
The impossibly tall brunette smirks, stepping right up to me.
“Oh, sorry, where are my manners.” She extends her hand to me with mocking, simpering sweetness, fingers pointed down as if expecting a respectful kiss like some fucking countess or medieval queen. “Chloe Sutton, Princess of the Kingdom. Charmed.”
The gold leather choker around her neck blinds me in the midday sun.
I stand rooted to the spot. My pulse races to an aching throb in my temples.
Breathing becomes painful, but I clench my jaw until it creaks, refusing to let even a single treacherous tear form in the corners of my eyes.
This arrogant bitch wants exactly that. She came here to grind me into the asphalt with her very presence, since she couldn’t manage it with her wheels.
Does she seriously think that after a few wild nights with Desire, I’ll break and cry over some yellow collar on someone else’s neck?
Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a crowd of onlookers gathering around us.
Their necks are dotted with colorful chokers.
My heart pounds heavily in my chest, but I keep my face neutral.
“You obviously already know who I am,” I say in an icy tone, and step to the side, ready to walk away and not get dirty with this filth, but Chloe steps into my path.
“I’ve heard he fucked you at Savannah last week. Let me guess—in the VIP lounge?”
My lip twitches.
With disgusted superiority, she eyes the hickeys Desire left on my neck, then her gaze drops lower, to the dark bruises from his rough grips on my arms and wrists.
“I don’t know what pathetic fantasies you’ve cooked up in your head, little brat,” Chloe sneers, “but to him, you’re just a stupid one-night whore …. Okay, fine, a few nights—until you bore him. I’m sure he won’t mind using you a couple more times before tossing you in the trash.”
Her words burn me. I want to scream in her face that I’d rather strangle myself than let that happen.
Instead, I force my lips into the widest smile I can muster.
“Just don’t be too upset that he clearly enjoys fucking me more than spending time with you, princess,” I purr, savoring the twitch in her eye.
“You’re just a bloody bitch!” she snarls, losing all her aristocratic polish.
“Says the obedient little cunt on a leash,” I counter, throwing a pointed look at the gold collar choking her throat.
Not waiting for an answer, I turn and walk off, feeling her seething rage against my back. My eyes aren’t filling with tears of hurt—they’re filling with blinding, burning blood. Adrenaline drowns out all sound.
As if moving through a thick, syrupy fog, I wander back into the building on autopilot, not watching where I’m going through the half-empty hallways, until a broad-shouldered figure with a gym bag slung over his shoulder rises in front of me, blocking my path.
“Aurora, God, what’s wrong with your face? Did he hurt you again?”
I recognize Zack’s silky voice and recoil from his outstretched hand. “I knew it would be like this from the very beginning. That’s why I told you to stay away from the Kingdom.”
I lift my eyes. Zack’s cheekbones are blossoming with ugly purple-yellow bruises, and his broken nose is taped up with a white bandage. I’m not the only one wearing Desire’s marks.
“I’m fine, thanks for your concern.” I frown, looking into his lying eyes.
Last time, this caring bastard broke down my front door. I won’t believe in his fucking sympathy for a second. I’m not that fool anymore.
He stares at me for a long, oppressive second with his signature puppy look, trying to break through my defenses, then snorts.
The mask of concern falls away instantly.
“Right. Sure. You’re fine. You’ve seen Chloe Sutton by now, haven’t you?
” He takes a threatening step toward me, closing the distance, and I’m forced to back up until my shoulder blades hit the hallway wall.
Nowhere to run. “Do you finally understand what you really are to him?”
“Zack, just fuck off …,” I warn, panic boiling inside me.
He’s not listening to me, one hand drops into his half-open bag, the other braces against the wall over my shoulder. Leaning in close to my face, his breath washing over me, he whispers with malicious glee. “He fucks her regularly at Savannah.”
I shudder. Not even from the words, but from the way he says them. Painfully. Obsessively. The very tone of his strained voice sends a swarm of prickly goosebumps down my spine.
He pulls something from the depths of his bag and reaches for my neck.
“Every guy who joins the Kingdom is given two collars,” he grits out through his teeth. “A patterned one—for his permanent partner, the one he almost respects. And a gray one—for the pathetic whore he’s willing to share with his ‘brothers.’”
Before I can jerk away, he fastens something tight around my neck, right over Desire’s pulsing hickeys, and smirks.
I turn to the wall, squeezing my eyes shut until it hurts, just to avoid seeing that gloating vileness in his eyes.
He leans in closer, inhaling the scent of my hair. Nausea rises in my throat.
“You don’t get to choose your status anymore, Aurora.
Maybe that bastard is fucking you senseless right now, but you and I are bound by something greater—my father’s blood.
And believe me, you’ll pay in full for every second of my humiliation.
” His whisper burns against my ear. “Always remember, right now, he’s just playing with you, like a fucking lion with a piece of meat.
But soon, he’ll get bored and toss you in the trash.
When he does, I’ll be there to pick you up. ”
His hand slides down my body and strokes the dark painful mark from Desire’s handcuffs on my wrist.
“You’re nothing but a dirty whore,” he spits in my face with venom. “I always knew it. Just like my father knew it. That’s exactly why he chose you.”
Zack turns and walks down the hallway, leaving me choking on icy terror.
Alone, I stumble on trembling legs into the nearest women’s restroom.
Clutching the edge of the sink with white-knuckled fingers, I lift my gaze to my reflection in the mirror.
On my ravaged neck, over Desire’s crimson hickeys, two foreign chokers are now fastened tight—brown and gray.
A sob tears from my chest. Desire didn’t lie to me about at least one thing—Zack’s paired collar really is the color of shit.
Just like his rotten, psychopathic soul.
That fucking bastard finally got to me, broke through my armor.
And what, for the love of God, did I ever do to him?
! It was his father who was a complete maniac, and now this freak calmly screws his way through whores and dares to brand me.
To hell with the rest of my classes. To hell with this university.
I need a drink to drown out this panic. With trembling hands, I yank my phone from my jeans pocket and call an Uber.
While I wait for the car, I try to call Kelsey, but she doesn’t pick up.
She’s probably fucking Steve in some supply closet—she’s his official partner and collar-wearer.
I head to the other side of the city, to the first bar I find that’s even open at this hour.
I sit in the dim light and get drunk on hard liquor, ignoring the lecherous stares of the local guys ogling my strange collection of collars.
The alcohol hits my head, and I realize I should hide my phone, just to be safe, so I bury it at the bottom of my bag.
I know myself: I’ll come home wound up and wet from the memories alone and start blowing up Desire’s phone.
Either I’ll send him my naked pictures or call him a heartless bastard, then beg him to come to me.
And he … he’s probably already having a great time with his “father’s partner” at fucking Savannah.
I wonder if he’s there with that arrogant bitch Chloe right now?
Or has he already found a fresh temporary toy?
Maybe at this very second, he’s got her spread out on those same chains over the dance floor, driving her to screaming orgasms with his lying tongue?
This vivid, painful fantasy floods me with blinding, toxic rage, pushing out all the fear.
I want to look him in the face so badly it makes my teeth grind.
Just the thought of what I’m about to do fills me with both primal terror and some dark twisted anticipation.
My Prince Harming certainly won’t be happy to see me, to say the least. So be it.
Fuck him. If Desire treated me like this, if he couldn’t be bothered to give me a gold collar, I’ll show up as another man’s property.
I’ll come to his club wearing the shit Zack gave me. I just have to decide which one.