Damaged Queen (Darkness Within Duet 2)

Prologue

Ten years later from The Initiation

Draven was precise as he slid his blade across the man’s throat. No one in this world would ever be allowed to betray him. Not again.

Anyone who even thought it, or if there was even a hint of a rumor, he was going to slit the person’s throat. No one would live to tell the tale of their betrayal, of how they made a fucking mockery of him.

“Are you done?” Axel asked, taking a long drag on his smoke.

“I’ll be done when I’m fucking ready.”

Axel held his hands up. “You’re right. You’re the judge, jury, and executioner. You’re not going to find her.”

Draven ignored his friend.

Oh, he heard every single word, but he wasn’t paying attention.

Not today.

Not any fucking day.

“I’m not looking for her.”

He’d given up on finding Harper years ago. She’d gone from Stonewall, left without a backward glance. His father had kept tabs on her, always dangling that shit in front of him as if it was some kind of fucking victory card. Whenever he went to find her, she was gone, moved on, and his father always knew. Part of him wondered if his father expected him to keep him alive based on his knowledge of her. He had the biggest fucking surprise of his life then.

So much had changed since Harper left. The town wasn’t the same.

When the war started, it turned the streets red with blood. His father, Alan, had been planning to rid the world of everyone who opposed him, from Axel’s father to the politicians who were threatening to turn their secrets in, as they were tired of being blackmailed.

Draven had been the one to make the final hit to Axel’s father, to land the blow that would put his father out on top.

Even now, he still remembered the proud look on Alan’s face, how he’d been so happy to finally have his son be something.

Alan never expected him to turn the gun on him.

There was only one outcome with an all-out war, and that was for him to rid the world of monsters. The only problem? During the process, Draven knew the beast within him had finally been set free. The darkness hadn’t even been touched during this. From the moment he set about killing, about putting Alan as the leader, as the king, he’d been setting about his own father’s destruction. As if he’d allow a world where Alan ruled.

Not on his watch.

Cleaning off Jett’s knife, he pocketed the blade and stared over at Axel.

“You’ve been looking for her since the day she left.”

“Are you fucking deaf? I’m not looking for her.”

“Then why do you still have guys on the lookout for her? Looking for any possible crumb she may have left behind?” Axel asked. “She’s gone, and she’s not coming back. You just can’t handle the fact you’ve been played. You were played ten years ago.”

“I’ve got men out there looking for her because when I find her, and I will, I’m going to make sure she pays for everything we’ve lost. Everything she caused.”

“Draven, let her go.”

“No. I’m not letting her go. I gave her everything, and she threw it in my face as if I was fucking trash. Not going to happen.”

Axel looked down at the dead bodies.

Draven stared at the blood and found a sense of calm in all of the chaos. This was his world now.

He watched as Axel pulled another cigarette from his pocket and lit it up. The scent filling the small room. The apartment block was rundown, filled with junkies and crack whores. Some of the women even tried to get him to buy them, to put them up for auction. They were used pussies, and his auctions only ever had virgins on them, especially now. He knew how much they fetched. The money was a more welcome price, and well, the bitches always stayed intact when he held them.

“Call the cleaning crew. I’m out of here.”

“When is all of this going to stop, Draven? You’ve won. You own everything. You’re the king! You’ve got everything your father ever wanted. Stonewall is all yours, all of this is yours. You own the cities, the MCs, it’s all yours.”

Draven smiled. For a twenty-eight-year-old man, he certainly had a lot of power at his fingertips. He’d shown the world just how bad he could be, and some didn’t like it. They tried to bring him down, and others, well, they wanted to kill him, to own him.

No one had ever won.

He was evil.

He heard the rumors. Men and women liked spreading rumors about him. Some said he was sired by the devil himself and they’d cast him out of hell as he was too bad even for that place. Others thought he was the boogeyman. Women were both excited by and afraid of him.