Chapter 1

CHAPTER1

Ihated him.

It was the only truth I could cling to because I was unsure of everything else.

I hated him for making me trust him when I shouldn’t have. I loathed him for making me see a future that was nothing more than a deception.

He was no better than his brother. At least Gavril had the decency to show me who he really was. He took from me, but not in the same way Evren had. Evren had made me want him, beg for him, and it was nothing more than a manipulation.

I fell for him when I wasn’t supposed to, and he had let me fall.

He was the heir to the Blood kingdom, everything I had been taught to fear, and he had let me fall.

I stared at his back as he started to set up the tent. I was surrounded by my enemies, but all I could look at was him. His gaze landed on me, and I forced myself to look away. I refused to meet his eyes. Instead, I stared ahead and watched his mother as she spoke softly to one of her guards. The guard that had been ready to hurt her son only hours before.

She was so different than what I expected the Blood queen to be. She was softer than the legends that were told of her. The way she continuously pushed her hair out of her face as she helped her men set up camp reminded me of my mother. My chest ached as I thought of her; after all, she was the one who had so easily handed me over to people who were only planning to use me.

She had sealed my fate as easily as the star marks on my skin.

Evren’s magic caressed my skin like a whisper, but I refused to acknowledge it. He hadn’t let it fall from me since we left the forest edge en route to the Blood Court. He hadn’t refused me my own horse, not after I absolutely declined to go anywhere near him, but he did refuse to give me space. He kept his dark magic wrapped around me for the duration of the ride. It moved and embraced me as if it was checking to make sure I was all right.

But I wasn’t. How could I be?

I tried to garner up my own power to blast his touch away from me, but I was tired. Far too tired, and I didn’t know how to control my magic like he did. Magic that I didn’t understand, that I hadn’t even known I had.

Magic that felt so familiar even though we had just met.

I thought back to a time before Evren, when I had been alone with my mother in our village. Had my magic been with me all along even then? Had my mother known? Had my father?

I could still feel it coursing under my skin. My magic had been awoken inside me, and I wasn’t sure how I had never noticed it before. It felt wild and reckless, like an extension of me I’d yet to meet.

“Princess,” Evren whispered his name for me, and my gaze slammed into his. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him not to call me that, but I didn’t say a word. I just stared up at him and prayed that he could see the anger writhing inside me. “You need to get some rest. We’ll reach the Blood Court by morning.”

I tried to ignore the noise from the Blood soldiers that surrounded us. They were all watching me carefully even though they had given me a wide berth. They didn’t trust me, and I didn’t trust them.

I trusted no one. Not anymore.

I pushed off the tree I was leaning against and moved toward the tent. He held the flap open for me, and I passed by him quickly, careful not to let his skin touch mine. But gods, I could feel him. Every part of my body felt on edge where his magic was touching me, my marks dying for more, but I held it all in.

I would never allow the heartless prince to touch me again. It didn’t matter that my body craved him.

He was my enemy and my betrayer. I had no business feeling comfortable in his presence or beneath his touch, but I couldn’t explain it. His magic infuriated me, but the way it swirled around me made my marks feel alive and my magic thrum.

He was my enemy, but he was also my mate.

He followed me into the tent, and my spine stiffened as I turned to him. There were two bedrolls on the cold, hard ground.

“You are not staying in here with me.”

Evren ignored my words and moved toward one of the rolls. He groaned as he sat, and I could see the exhaustion on his face. My fingers ached to reach forward and run my thumb over the deep crease between his eyes. Even through my anger, my chest felt heavy as I watched him.

“I am.” His magic tightened around me almost unnoticeably as he started pulling off his boots.

“Then I will sleep somewhere else.” I moved toward the tent opening, but his magic hardened, holding me in place. No matter how hard I tried, he still held me captive in both body and mind.

“You’re crazy if you think that I will allow you out of my sight for even a moment.”

“Because I’m your prisoner?”

“Because you’re my mate.” He set his boots to the side and braced his arms on his knees as he stared up at me. “You can hate me all you want, princess, but that fact is still true.”

I knew he was right. I could feel the truth of his words all the way to my bones, but I refused to accept it. He was supposed to be more, and he proved to be everything I had feared.

And I wasn’t going to be tied to him because fate deemed it so. I was tired of relying on fate and the life she had cruelly handed me.

“I am not your mate.”

Evren clenched his jaw as he stared up at me, and I could see the fury in his eyes. Good. I was furious too.

“You’re not leaving this tent, princess.”

“Says the adoring mate.” I crossed my arms as I looked at him. “Did you take lessons from your brother?”

“I am not him, Adara,” he snapped, his voice shaking with his anger.

“No.” I shook my head as emotion clogged my throat. I could feel moisture pooling in my eyes and that only made my own anger flare. “You’re worse.”

His knuckles turned white as he clenched his fists. “What would you prefer? Would you like for me to let you go out into that camp with men who were just so willing to take you from me? Would you prefer that I let your fate be up to them?”

My pulse hammered in my chest as I thought about what he was saying. “Doesn’t that bother you?” I watched him carefully for anything that would clue me into what he was thinking. “You are their prince, but they were more than willing to rip me from your fingers.”

“My mother is their queen.” He pushed his hand through his hair in frustration, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. “And I lost sight of my role.”

I could feel his anger thrumming through his magic. Fear and anticipation spiked through me as it traced over my skin.

“And what is your role, Evren?”

“I was always meant to get you away from him.” He shook his head in frustration. “But not until he was weaker. Not until I could do so without him knowing it was me.”

“So, what? You were just biding your time as the dutiful brother and son until you could rip everything out from under them?”

Evren stood and moved toward me, and I took a step back against the edge of the tent as his voice snapped. “What I did, princess, was everything that I could to protect my people. You can say I’m as bad as Gavril all you want, but you know nothing of his cruelty.”

His words ricocheted through me and settled deep in my gut. He was right. I knew little of Gavril or what he was capable of, but I was still angry. I still wanted a fight because his words were a reminder that I knew little of him as well.

“And the way you fucked me? Was that for your people, prince? Was that to protect me from his cruelty?”

He narrowed his eyes as he searched my face, and he lifted his dark, magic-stained fingers until they wrapped around the back of my neck and forced me to look up at him. “When I fucked you, that was for no one other than you and me.” He moved closer still, his breath leaving a trail of chill bumps against my neck. “You make me greedy.” His lips whispered over my jawline, and I couldn’t contain the small moan that fell from my lips. “You make me want to forget any duties that I have and just get lost in you for eternity.”

“That will never happen again.” My voice lacked strength, and I hated that Evren could recognize my weakness. I could feel his smile as he grazed his lips against my ear.

“We both know that’s a fucking lie, princess,” he purred. “You want me just as badly now as you did before you saved me with your magic.”

“I don’t want you.” I shook my head even as pressure built between my thighs. Being this close to him was bad for my head. The smell of him overwhelmed me. The feel of his magic flooded my senses. There was a familiarity that made my marks buzz along my skin, but his magic also felt like phantom hands that were trying to discover every inch of me.

It was hard to remember why I hated him when he was near. It was hard not to reach out and move into the small space he had left between us.

“You may not want me, but gods, I want you. I love fucking you.” His nose ran along my jaw, and he inhaled a sharp breath. “It makes me so fucking hard to carry your scent on my body and to know that every male around me knows that you belong to me.”

My stomach tightened at his words, and I tried to swallow down my need for him as I continued to shake my head softly.

I didn’t belong to him.

I never had. Not really.

But every part of me was begging me to let his words be true. I couldn’t see his betrayal when he was choking me with desire. I would suffocate on it, and he would make me thank him for it with my last breath.

My fingers trembled as I raised them and pushed against his chest. I needed space.

Space he wasn’t willing to give me.

“Don’t push me away, princess.” His words were soft and vulnerable as his hands grabbed mine and pushed until my fingers dug into his chest. They were branding his skin, almost to the point of pain, but I could hardly notice when he was staring down at me like he was. “Don’t hate me for the choices I’ve been forced to make.”

I jerked my hands away from him as reality set in. I could still remember the way his face had looked when I realized who he was. I could still taste the way my own magic had become bitter against my tongue.

I moved past him, toward the bedroll he had laid out for me, and I pulled it to the far edge of the tent. “Don’t delude yourself into thinking that I will fall to my knees before you simply because you wish it so. No one held a dagger to your neck and made you deceive me. No one made you pretend to be something more with me in the name of saving your people. You want to pretend to be a savior, Evren, but you are just as much a villain as your brother.”

“Is that what you want me to be?” He watched me as I dropped onto my bedroll and lay against the rough fabric. “You want me to be the man that you hate?”

“I didn’t realize you were giving me a choice.”

“We all have choices, princess, but there aren’t always two clear paths to choose from. Do you think I knew I was going to end up hurting you? Do you think I had any fucking clue that I was going to find my mate in the girl who is meant to change our world?”

I stared up at him, but I didn’t say a word.

“You have a choice to make too. You can go back to him if that’s what you choose. You can lie down and become whatever he wishes to make you.” His fists clenched at his sides. “Or you can stay here with me. You can stay here with your mate.”

“Those are my two choices?” I wrapped my arms around my chest and stared at the wall of the tent. “Stay with your evil brother or stay with the man who made me believe—”

“Made you believe what?” He ran his hand over his jaw as he stared down at me. “I may be the son of the Blood queen, but that doesn’t make me any less of the man you wanted. I have an entire kingdom to think about. There are far too many people counting on me for me to forget everything because I found my mate. But it doesn’t make what has happened between us any less real.”

“Prince Evren,” a gruff voice called his name from the front of the tent, and we both tensed. I had forgotten about everyone but him. I hadn’t even thought of the others hearing.

I could hear them now, moving around the camp, and I wondered what they thought of me.

“Get some rest. I will be back shortly to check on you.”

“Don’t.” I shook my head as I lay down and turned my back to him. Please don’t.

He left the tent without another word, and I clamped my eyes shut and prayed for sleep to claim me.