I clamp my lips together in an effort not to start yelling and follow Tasha out of the Throne Room and down the hall. She shows us to a lovely room. It’s all dark and medieval, one of my more preferred eras. I take my cloak off and fling it onto the bed.
“I hate him,” I say, and Sebastian takes me in his arms.
“Forget him now. This is the first time ever that I will have you in my bed the whole night, just the two of us.”
I smile at his eagerness and say, “Indeed. And what will you do with me?”
“I will make love to you and when you fall asleep in my arms, I will wake you to make love to you again and then again until morning.”
“I like the sound of that,” I manage to get out before he kisses me, tugging at the laces at the front of the dress to get it loose. He pushes it over my shoulders, and it drops to the floor in a heap, which he picks me up from, placing me delicately on the bed before he undresses himself quickly. I kick off my shoes and crawl to the top of the bed and sink into the mountain of pillows as he falls on top of me. “Next time I will go slowly, right now I need you,” he says before he pushes himself inside me and I cry out at the feel of him. The sparks fly as I run my fingers down his back and I can feel the markings twirling away at my touch.
“Oh, Aefre,” he whispers. “I love you so much.” He wraps his arms around me and drops his fangs, sinking them into my neck and suckling slowly as he continues to drive into me, causing me to come quickly and forcefully and a second time as he groans, and the vibrations set me off.
“My sweet, sweet Sebastian. I love you. Let me show you how much,” I gasp as he bites down harder at my words. He releases me and kisses me as I roll us over and pull him up with me. I move quickly over him, bringing him into a state of pure pleasure, before I bite down on him and feed slowly as he did to me. He comes inside me, pulling on my hips as he throbs on and on until I release my bite and kiss him softly. He falls back to the bed, bringing me with him and I lie content over him, with my head on his chest.
“I didn’t Shift back,” I say suddenly, as I see my long black hair splayed out around him.
He looks down at me in surprise. “I didn’t even notice,” he says with a small smile. “Our connection just takes me over and it is just me and you.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Hm, and the fact that you find this attractive had nothing to do with it?”
He laughs. “Well, I won’t deny that I find you very beautiful, Princess, but it is you that I love. The real you. You could be a hideous beast, but you would still be my hideous beast to love.”
I smile at him and put my head back on his chest. “I’m going to fall asleep now, be sure to wake me up in a bit with your tongue caressing me,” I say slyly, and he chokes.
“You are being very wicked lately, ever since I got back. I like it,” he says as he kisses the top of my head. I snuggle into him and I think that I like it too. The jump through timelines has shown me how uptight I was. I need to relax and embrace this life again. I drop off with Sebastian’s arms tight around me and awake suddenly as I sense another presence. I turn and grab the hand that is hovering close to my back. It’s Drake. “I don’t know what Fae abilities you have, but you should know that you can’t sneak up on a Vampire,” I say, gripping his hand tight
ly.
He sneers down at me. “I wasn’t sneaking up on you. I was waiting for you to wake.”
“You have been here all of two seconds, I would hardly call that waiting.” I let go of his hand and he stands up straight as I pull the sheet higher up over me.
“Your mother had a similar marking to that one of yours,” he says quietly. “It’s interesting the way it moves.”
“It’s nothing to do with you. What do you want?” I ask.
He sits on the bed casually, as if this wasn’t wildly inappropriate, and regards me curiously. I sense Sebastian move, but put a light hand on him to keep him down. Whatever Drake wants to say he probably won’t say it if he knows Sebastian is listening.
“I am interested to know why you showed up here in that guise,” he says and points to me.
“It seemed appropriate,” I say as I stare back at him. He is very attractive with his shock of black hair and his violet eyes and sallow skin. Combined with my mother’s looks, I wonder how I ended up as I did, blonde and green-eyed. My human parents must have had more to do with my creation than I thought.
“You were looking for approval,” he states, and I curse my face that shows everything I am feeling. I stare impassively back at him and he sneers. “You will never have my approval. You are weak and an abomination. One that I am most displeased to be associated with.” I can see him watch for my reaction and I try to show I don’t care about his words, but I inadvertently draw in a breath and try to steady myself at his harsh words.
He looks almost disappointed in me as he continues, “Unfortunately, I am unable to deny that you are mine and that you are in fact a girl, but know this, I have only accepted you because I can’t deny you. If it were up to me, I would have nothing to do with you. I will open my home up to you and give you everything a Princess of this Court is worthy of, but I will never accept you as a daughter. Feel free to stay as long as you like but do keep out of Maurelle’s way. Your presence here offends her. And keep your disgusting Vampire needs under lock and key. You will not feed in that manner while you are here. Do you understand me?” He makes his demands as he stands up, towering over me, causing me to tilt my head back to glare at him in the eyes. I will myself to say something smart back to him, but all I do is nod briskly with a look of hatred on my face that doesn’t go unnoticed. His mouth twists into a cruel smile. “Keep the look, it is fitting. You will, from now on, always look this way in my presence. It may be pretense, but at least it is better than the real thing.” He vanishes in a puff of smoke, and I let out the breath I was holding as the tears that were welling up spill over and fall silently down my cheeks. Sebastian pulls me to him, holding me tightly.
“Pay him no mind. He is an arsehole,” he consoles me.
“He hates me,” I sniffle. “I don’t want to care, but I do.”
“He doesn’t hate you. He is playing with you. Once our baby is born, he will come around. He cannot and will not deny the child. He knows that. He wouldn’t be so concerned about it if it didn’t matter to him. You will be the mother of his grandchild, the Destined One, he will have to accept that, and you.”
I don’t answer, but just continue to weep as Drake’s cruel words keep going around in my head.
Chapter 5
I awake early. Sebastian, true to his word, has woken me up in the most pleasing fashion by licking me softly and I sigh. I took me forever to get back to sleep last night after Drake’s midnight visit. I couldn’t help the tears as I kept going over what he said to me. He thinks I am weak.