Twenty-year-old Claire must deceive a vampire prince to infiltrate the monarchy and discover their secrets while resisting her desire for him.
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Nothing in my life has ever been easy. Including the mission my family has sent me on.
My sister and...
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Appartenir (verb) to belong; to concern
For a long while, I sat in my bed, staring at the door, wondering what it meant to be fated to a vampire.
A vampire whom I was supposed to deceive and kill.
A vampire who was just as beautiful and alluring as he was cold and dismissive.
A vampire who hadn't seen fit to come back to my room and explain what the hell this necklace did or check and see how I was handling this life-changing revelation.
The longer I waited for him to return, the angrier I became.
I didn't want him to affect me like this, but the intensity of his words, combined with the strange longing his absence left behind, left me wanting more.
More of...everything.
We were fated, yet nothing had changed.
When I finally accepted that Bastien wasn't coming back, I curled underneath the bedsheets and attempted to find sleep, but the memory of his mouth and his hands haunted me, keeping me awake.
Absently, I grazed my thumb along the sharp edge of the bloodstone he'd given me. All I needed to do was touch the stone and say his name, and he'd be drawn back to me.
It seemed like a promising idea, only, Bastien didn't want to be mated to me. In fact, he'd begged me to send him away.
Sadness mingled with my anger, and I twisted in the sheets, trying to find a comfortable position despite how luxurious this bed was.
If Bastien wanted to share my bed, he'd be here. Nothing had kept him from barging into my room when he knew I was with other men, but now that he knew I was alone and safe, he didn't feel the urge to be with me.
Clearly, he didn't want me. Not really. He was just protective because of this cosmic connection between us.
A little voice in the back of my head reminded me that he'd saved my life. Breathing air back into my lungs when I was already dead. He'd been scared to lose me.
Someone whose business was a war didn't save lives; they ended them. Yet, he saved me. That had to mean something, didn't it?
I wasn't sure. His actions in every other situation said otherwise.
The duality of my thoughts kept me awake until the the wee hours of the morning. Eventually, I lapsed into a light sleep, peppered with dreams of him, that ended the moment the sun rose over the snow-covered mountains, sending its delicate pink light into my room.
