The morning was quiet until the sound of voices broke the silence.
Auren opened his eyes.
He didn’t feel the sharp, stinging pain of the bond today.
Instead, there was a steady hum in his chest.
Evryn was close.
She was safe.
He didn’t put on a shirt.
He simply walked out into the hallway in his dark trousers, his bare chest marked by the shadows of the dim house.
When he reached the kitchen, he saw them.
Evryn was standing by the table.
She was smiling at Steven, her hands resting on a basket he had brought.
The morning sun made her look soft and beautiful, a sharp contrast to the cold rain of the night before.
“Thank you for bringing everything,” she said to Steven.
Her voice was kind.
Steven nodded, his eyes warm as he looked at her.
“You shouldn’t have to carry things alone, Evryn.
I’m here to help.”
Then, Steven looked up.
He saw Auren.
The air in the room suddenly felt very thin.
The two men stared at each other.
Steven didn’t move, but his muscles tightened.
He stood his ground, refusing to look afraid of the man standing in the shadows.
Auren didn’t growl.
He didn’t have to.
He just stood there with his silver eyes glowing like ice.
He looked at Steven not as a rival, but as an ant he could crush if he chose to.
After a long, tense moment, Auren moved.
He walked into the light with a slow, smooth grace.
He didn’t look at Steven anymore.
It was as if the other man had disappeared.
Auren reached out and took the basket from Evryn’s hands.
His fingers brushed hers gently.
It was a silent claim.
He wasn’t just taking the food; he was taking back the space around her.
He looked down at Evryn.
His eyes were no longer cold.
They were soft, filled with a quiet protection that he didn’t try to hide.
“If you need somewhere to stay,” Steven said evenly, his voice smooth but carrying the weight of a command disguised as hospitality, “I can give you the family house.
It is empty.”
The offer was polite on the surface but layered.
Auren understood it clearly.
He felt something tighten inside his chest…
He knew exactly what Steven meant: Distance.
Separation.
Get out of her house.
“Thank you but there is no need,” he said, his voice dropping into a low, calm that brooked no argument.
“We will leave soon.”
Evryn closed her eyes briefly, a small, weary movement as if she were steadying her pulse against the mounting tension.
“Thank you again, Steven,” she said gently, her voice a soft bridge between the two men.
“I’m fine.
Don’t worry about me.”
Steven studied her a moment longer, his gaze searching her face for a crack in her resolve, then he nodded once.
Evryn closed the door firmly behind him, the wood striking the frame with a sharp, final sound that echoed in the sudden silence of the room.
She turned slowly to meet Auren’s gaze, her eyes flicking involuntarily over the hard lines of his bare chest before settling, with a forced sternness, on his face.
“You could at least wear your shirt before coming out,” she muttered, a faint flush of irritation….
Auren didn’t move.
He stood in the middle of the room with a predatory grace, looking as if he owned the very air he breathed.
“What are you afraid of?” he asked, “What Steven would think?”
Her brows drew together.
“Steven is like a brother to me.” The words came quick and defensive, a shield thrown up between them.
“He knows me better than I know myself.”
Auren’s jaw tightened at that, a small muscle leaping in his cheek.
“Does he?” he asked quietly, as he crowded her space.
She reached into the basket, her movements jerky with frustrated energy, and pulled out the folded clothes.
She slapped the fabric lightly against his bare chest, the sound a soft thud against his skin.
“Wear it.”
He caught the clothes in one hand without a word, his gaze never leaving hers.
She continued speaking as he stepped back into the bedroom to dress.
“He came this morning to check on me,” she said from the other room.
“I asked him to bring what I needed.
If I went to the market myself, you would wake up by the pain of distance, so I chose to stay.”
He stepped out of the room, tugging his shirt over his shoulders as he went, smoothing the fabric into place.
“Wise decision,” he said lightly.
“Good girl.” His palm tapped the top of her head, casual, almost teasing.
She immediately slapped his hand away…
sharp enough to make a point.
“Stop it.”
Auren only smiled, clearly amused, the corner of his mouth lifting as if her reaction had been exactly what he’d expected.
His eyes moved to the basket on the table.
In the center sat sealed glass containers filled with deep, crimson liquid.
It was human blood.
it was a luxury…
highly regulated and governed by the strict Blood Laws established between the vampire kingdom and the human realms.
Under these laws, the common vampire population survived on the thin taste of animal blood.
Human blood was reserved for the one who pay for it, sold only in the vampire markets where the price of a drop reflected its purity; the more gold one paid, the richer and more potent the blood they could claim.
It was the drink of high lords and kings, a symbol of absolute status.
Beyond these legal trades, however, lurked those outside the law…the rogue hunters who defied the treaties to hunt humans in the shadows, risking everything for a taste of the forbidden.
He looked at her, his voice low and heavy.
“You did not need to buy that, Evryn.”
He knew the cost.
He knew that for a servant, this one meal cost more than a month of hard labor.
Evryn didn’t look up from her plate.
She spoke softly, but her words had a sharp edge.
“You are my guest.
More than that, you are a King.
Shame on me if I served animal blood for your breakfast.”
“You chose the expensive one.
You are generous,” he replied, his heart tightening.
“Don’t worry,” she said with a small, bitter shrug.
“I have been saving for years, Enjoy my broken future, Auren.
I won’t be needing that money for a wedding now.” Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
Auren felt a pang of sadness.
“Evryn…”
“To be honest,” she interrupted, her voice gaining a strange, dark strength, “I will enjoy every drop of seeing you well-fed.
If I’m to be part of this mess, I’ll do it properly.”
Auren watched her for a moment.
He realized she was using her pain as a shield.
He decided to change the subject, turning his voice serious.
“Tell me,” he said, leaning forward.
“How did you come to this house so fast?
One moment you were at the farm, and the next, you had vanished.”
Evryn picked up a piece of fruit, thinking as she ate.
“Mmm…
I don’t really know.
I was lying on my bed, crying and thinking of this house.
I wanted to be home so badly.
Then, a magical gate just…
opened.
Right in the middle of the room.
I was scared to death.
I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“And yet you stepped into it,” Auren remarked, his silver eyes narrowing.
“Most people would have run away from a hole in the air.”
Evryn gave him a small, guilty smile.
“I was desperate.
I just wanted to be away…
from everything.”
Auren went quiet for a second.
He was trying to solve a puzzle.
“Tell me then…was there someone else?
Any other man in your life?
Someone who might have a reason to cast a soul-binding spell on you?”
She shook her head immediately.
“No.
Only Ray.
He was the only man I ever knew, the only one I ever talked to.
And now…
you.”
She looked away, her tone turning sad and distant.
“When my father died, the world went dark.
I was depressed.
I felt like I was drowning.
That’s why I left this house and went to work at the King’s palace.
I was cold to everyone.
I pushed people away.
I made sure they hated me so they wouldn’t get close.”
She took a shaky breath.
“Only Ray broke through.
At that time, I didn’t need love…I needed comfort.
I needed to feel safe and not be alone.
He gave me that.
Or I thought he did.”
She looked at Auren, her eyes honest and raw.
“So, I am sure there is no one else.
No one loves me to cast a spell like that.”
Auren listened, but he didn’t look convinced.
He watched the way the morning light hit her face and thought about the gate that opened for her.
Auren leaned back, his silver eyes watching her over the glass of crimson liquid.
“So,” he said, his voice dropping an octave, “that is why you stayed with him.
Even when you knew he was playing behind your back.”
Evryn didn’t flinch.
She picked at the fruit in front of her, her movements precise.
“Yes.
I wasn’t ready to give up on him.
I never went looking for proof, Auren.
Never.
To be honest, I wasn’t ready to see the truth.”
She looked up at him, a small, weary smile touching her lips.
“I was so happy when the palace transferred me to the farm.
Even if that happiness didn’t last once you showed up.
I thought, finally.
I thought being away from the palace distractions would bring us closer to our future.
I believed that marriage would change him.”
Her smile faded into something sharper.
“But he didn’t choose me.
I don’t even why he wanted to marry me.”
Auren tilted his head, a shadow of a smirk appearing.
“Smart man,” he murmured.
Evryn’s hand stilled.
Her eyes snapped to his, flashing with a sudden, dangerous heat.
“Smart?” she repeated, her voice dropping to a deadly quiet.
“Because he didn’t choose me?
I am that bad, then?”
She let out a short, dry laugh that had no humor in it.
“Ah, no wonder you were so arrogant from the start.
You must think I’m some pathetic prize that even a traitor like Ray didn’t want to keep.”
She leaned forward, her sharp tongue finally lashing out.
Auren took a slow sip of the blood she had bought with her life savings, the rich taste filling his senses while enjoy her.
“Listen to me, Your Majesty,” she said, the title dripping with sarcasm.
” He wanted a girl who would stay quiet and keep her eyes shut, and I am not quiet.
I am loud, I am difficult, and clearly, I am the only person standing between you and a very painful death.”
She gestured to the expensive blood on the table.
“So don’t sit there with your royal attitude telling me who is ‘smart.’ If you think you’re so much better off without me, feel free to walk out that door and see how far your ‘freedom’ gets you before your heart stops beating.”
She took a bite of the fruit, her gaze never leaving his.
“I might have a broken future, but I still have my teeth.
Don’t test them.”
Auren didn’t look angry.
If anything, the “silver frost” in his eyes seemed to glow with something that looked suspiciously like respect.
Then, he did something she didn’t expect.
He laughed.
It was a deep, rich sound that seemed to vibrate through the small kitchen.
Evryn was caught completely off guard.
Instead, he seemed genuinely amused by her fire.
Her words hadn’t bothered him at all; they had delighted him.
“I said only one word, and you attacked me like a cornered cat,” he said, his voice warm with lingering laughter.
He reached across the table and took her hands.
His skin was warm now from the blood, his grip firm but not forceful.
He didn’t let go even when she tried to pull back.
“I called him smart for a reason you do not see,” Auren said, his expression turning serious but his eyes remaining soft.
He leaned closer, his voice dropping.
“He is smart because he did not choose you.
If he had chosen you, he would have chosen his own death.
I would have killed him the moment he tried to touch what belongs to me.”
Evryn’s breath caught in her throat.
The “arrogance” was still there, but it felt different now…less like a king looking down and more like a man making a promise.
“And he was smart to want you as a wife,” Auren continued, his thumb grazing over her knuckles.
“Not because you are quiet or easy.
But because you are loyal.
Because you stay when the world burns.
Because you would spend your last coin to feed a ‘guest’ who has done nothing but bring you trouble.”
He looked at the glass containers on the table, then back at her.
“He was smart enough to see your value, Evryn.
He was just too weak to deserve it.”
Evryn stared at him, her sharp tongue finally silenced.
The anger she had been using as a shield began to melt under the heat of his gaze.
She had spent so long feeling like a discarded choice, but sitting here, with a vampire king holding her hand in a kitchen that smelled of rain and expensive blood, she realized that the “broken future” she had been crying over might have just been a narrow path leading her to something much more dangerous…and much more real.
She swallowed hard, her heart hammering against her ribs.
She pulled her hand back as if his skin had burned her.
“I do not belong to anyone,” she snapped, though her voice wavered.
“Choose your words carefully, Auren.”
She didn’t wait for him to respond.
she turned on her heel and hurried to her room, closing the door firmly behind her.
Once she was alone, she leaned against the wood and fanned her face with her hands.
Her cheeks were hot.
“Damn him,” she whispered to the empty room.
“His confidence…
his words…” She shook her head, trying to clear the image of his silver eyes.
“I knew from the start he wasn’t ordinary.
Stay away from him, Evryn.
He is a storm, and you will get swept away.”
In the kitchen, Auren sat in the silence she had left behind.
He didn’t look offended.
Instead, a slow, satisfied smile spread across his face.
He had felt her heart race through the bond.
He liked shaking her feelings.
He took another slow sip of the expensive blood, savoring the richness.
After a moment, he called out, his voice loud enough to carry through the door.
“Evryn.
Get ready.
We are going to the palace.”
The door to her room flew open.
Evryn stepped out, her eyebrows pulled together in a frown.
“The palace?” she asked, crossing her arms.
“Why?
I want to stay here.”
He shook his head once, a firm, final movement.
“No.”
She opened her mouth to argue, her defensive instincts flaring, but he cut her off before she could find the words.
“I have a garden,” he said casually, though the trap was perfectly set.
“Large.
Ancient.
Full of rare flowers and herbs that haven’t been seen by human eyes in centuries.”
He watched her closely, waiting for the hook to catch.
He saw it at once.
Her eyes lit up, and her pupils grew wider with pure excitement.
As a healer, plants were her language, and he had just spoken the perfect word.
“Rare?” she asked, trying desperately to sound unimpressed and failing miserably.
“Some you won’t find here…
or in any other land, for that matter,” he continued, his voice weaving a vision of beauty.
“Some only grow in the deepest shadow, thriving on moonlight alone.”
She pictured it without meaning to.
Winding stone paths between glowing greenery.
Scents that were exotic and alive.
A place where her hands could work freely, protected by the very man who ruled the dark.
She exhaled slowly, her resistance crumbling under the weight of a thousand black petals.
“When do we go?” she asked.
He laughed quietly.
“That was almost too easy,” he remarked, his eyes shimmering with victory.
She smiled faintly, the tension between them finally breaking.
“You’re a cheater.
You knew exactly what to offer.”
The air felt lighter now.
The danger hadn’t vanished, but the bond between them felt steadier.
Balanced.
“We can go now, if you want,” he answered.
“You don’t need to pack anything.
Everything will be ready for you there.”
He stepped closer and extended his hand toward her, palm open and steady.
“You just need to hold my hand.”
For a long moment, she said nothing.
Her eyes moved from his face to his hand, then back again.
She did not know exactly where this path would lead.
She did not know what waited for her beyond the gate, or how much of this choice was her own and how much belonged to the spell.
But she knew one thing.
She wanted…
just this once…
to make things easier for him instead of harder.
Slowly, she reached out and put her hand in his.
Her fingers were warm and real against his skin.
“Lead the way, Your Highness.”
Auren closed his hand around hers gently, his grip was firm, as if he would never let go again.
The golden gate ripples, showing a glimpse of tall black towers.
Together, they stepped through.
The small house in the human lands vanished, and the gate closed behind them.