Cruel War (The Gilded Sovereign 1)

Was he hiding something from me all this time?

I need to find out. And Ares is going to tell me.

16

Ares

I shouldn’t have done that. Fuck.

“Where have you been?” Philipe questions as soon as I walk into the kitchen. I came straight home after seeing her because my dick is hard, my balls are blue, and all I wanted was to claim her against the wall of her pretty bedroom.

“Out.”

“You seem… tense,” my brother remarks in a tone that sets me on edge.

Of course, I’m fucking tense.

“Why do you care?” I bite out, opening the bottle of beer I pulled out of the fridge. Snapping off the metal cap, I turn to regard Philipe.

He shrugs, but there’s amusement dancing in his eyes. It’s clear that older brothers are put on earth to fuck with their younger siblings. I’ve lived with it all my life, but this time, I’m done with his bullshit.

“Tell me,” I utter as I settle opposite him. He’s working on his laptop, but he closes it the moment I’m seated. “I should be looped in on everything. Shouldn’t I?” The skin where the ink has been emblazoned on me tinges when I think about it.

“The girl,” Philipe says on a sigh, lifting the beer to his lips before taking a long gulp. I watch him swallow down the liquid. “She’s getting to you.”

“She’s not—”

“Brother, I’ve seen a man whipped, I’ve been there and done that,” he tells me, leaning back against his chair. His eyes, usually a shade of bright green, are dark, filled with confidence as he tells me this.

“You? Interested in only one girl,” I chuckle. “That doesn’t sound like the brother I know.”

It’s true. Philipe’s well-known in this town for fucking every girl in his year of high school, heading to college to get his degree and getting into the panties of every freshman and senior until he moved to New York.

“A long time ago, I was someone who wanted a relationship,” he admits, and the tinge of pain is laced in his words. “Utter stupidity,” Philipe mutters. “Love and all the bullshit that comes with it is pointless. In this life,”—he waves his hand around us— “it’s not worth it. Hiding shit from someone who trusts you is not the way to a long-term relationship.”

“Since when did you become so focused on love and emotion?” Folding my arms in front of my chest, I watch my brother with curiosity. I don’t know why Dahlia has such an effect on me, but she’s not someone I’m going to fall in love with.

Not because she’s not beautiful, she is. But her father killed my mother in cold blood. That’s not something I’ll ever forgive.

“I’m not focused on it. I just learned the hard way that being in the Sovereign means you’ll be alone forever.”

“I’m fine with that,” I retort, rising from the chair and heading to the hallway, I need to get away from this conversation.

“You may be fine with it now,” Philipe says when I reach the threshold of the kitchen to the hallway, “but in a few years, you’ll come to realize this life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

For a moment, I wonder if he’s warning me to walk away. But then I remember — I’m marked. The ink on my skin is there forever. I nod, turning and heading to the staircase, which leads up to the second floor.

Once I’m in my bedroom, I shut the door and pull out my phone. Opening the messenger app, I tap out one to Etienne and Tarian to let them know there’s a bonfire tomorrow night, and then I send one to my little flower.

Tomorrow at the bonfire, our first battle… Let’s see if your petals will burn in the heat.

It doesn’t take long for her to respond with anger and rage, just like I knew she would.

I don’t take orders, Lancaster. It doesn’t matter who you are or what lies in our past, I will not bow to you and your sick needs.

I crack a smile at her feistiness. I’d never had a woman who was so adamant at hating me, but then again, I’d never been in such turmoil over anyone before. Most of the girls at school throw themselves in my path because they want to be seen. They crave the popularity that the Lancaster name can give them, but I find myself not wanting their attention. Instead, I’m more interested in the blossoming Dahlia than anyone else.

Typing out my response, I hit send before I head into the bathroom and turn on the shower. Stripping down, I glance at the ink and blood that’s collected in a pattern around the plastic wrap covering my new tattoo.

Staring at myself in the mirror, I take note of the tattoo that makes me one of the Crowns. The one thing I wanted all my life is now in my hands. But that’s not the only thing I crave, there’s one more thing that’s mine.