Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 160578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 642(@250wpm)___ 535(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 642(@250wpm)___ 535(@300wpm)
“As a fucking Rebellis? Dad himself can’t change traditions as old as fucking time!” Ever the purist, it makes it easier for her to be a bitch. This is why Evie is important for Halen. She tames the feral cat that lives within her.
“No.” My mouth twitches in the corner when my eyes land on my sister. “As a Hayes.”
“Wait—” War lifts his hand, pausing the conversation. “She’s you guy’s sister?”
“—that’d be kinda hot…” Vaden murmurs, leaning into me. “Imagine if you did all the things you did to her and then found out she was your sister.”
Ignoring Vaden’s incestuous obsession, I find Luna again. “As my wife.”
“What the fuck!” Halen flies off her chair, her anger narrowed on me.
“Careful, sis. You know jealousy gives you hives.” Smoke rings veil my chuckle as I roll the trunk of my joint between my fingers.
“How the fuck could you keep something like this from all of us?” Halen’s tongue is about a second away from getting cut out. “So typical of you, huh, Priest. You dance around the truth just like Dad. So, when is the wedding?”
“I knew.” River raises her hand.
Halen’s eyes swing to her.
I clench my jaw. “Halen, sit down.”
“How the fuck could you not tell me!” she continues, ignoring everyone.
“Halen, sit down,” I flatline.
Her tantrum feels like nails on a chalkboard. When she doesn’t stop, I trace the lines of the table until my eyes collide with hers, and finally, everything falls silent. Her mouth hangs open mid-argument before she lowers herself back down. It takes a lot to shut her up. The vein pulsing against her forehead further proving that.
“One.” It’s too late. I’m already locked on her and the way she squirms in her chair, she knows it. “For a Hayes, you sure as fuck forgot how to rein in those emotions. Two, you’re not gonna start firing the blame around the room. There will be things you won’t know. There are secrets you still don’t know, and that’s how it’s going to be going forward, so if you have a problem with that?” My brows rise. “Speak now or forever hold your peace, but I warn you, whether we shared a womb or not, I will make decisions that best the society, and not your ego.” When enough time has passed for her to object, I continue. “And there isn’t going to be a wedding. She’s already mine.” The joint is back between my lips before I pass it to War.
Halen is smarter than she is a brat, and that’s saying something. As much as she has a lot of emotions, she usually directs them in a way that doesn’t implement the EKC.
She needs reminding every now and then.
“So why was she with you?” Stella asks from the other side of War, her eyes bright. She’s excited for the story, probably hoping for more blood and gore. I smirk at my cousin. “I mean, there’s always a reason, right?”
“She came to me for three years. I lashed out when Dad had told me that I had to make her my wife at the end of her training to be able to sit where I do. I wanted to punish them through those years, and her, for simply existing. For being the one thing that I couldn’t control.”
“Surprise, surprise….” Halen snickers under her breath.
I ignore her. “The night of Mom’s final gala, I put Luna up for auction.”
“Of course you did.” Stella settles into her chair as if I’m telling a bedtime story. “Who to?”
My tongue slides over my bottom lip. “Archer Thorn.”
Stella’s eyes widen, unblinking. Her head tilts a little. “Huh. Not my choice of subject but okay.” She turns her attention to Luna. “What happened there?”
Luna doesn’t answer. Bone structure framed from an ancient goddess, her dark lashes are almost too dark to frame eyes so damn surreal. There’s not a single woman walking this earth that comes near her kind of beauty. She simply isn’t for this world.
Definitely not for someone as fucked up as me. If the Fathers and her parents didn’t forge the marriage, there’s no way I would have had a chance at ever coming near her, even if I was interested. Which I wasn’t. She merely intrigued me. She always has.
She tucks her hair behind her ear. I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times that surprised me. That maybe I’d seen a smidge of something else in her. “Nothing spectacular. He set me up, allowed me to leave whenever I wanted, see who I wanted, and only checked in on me when needed.”
My eyes narrow. If she thinks she can dance her way out of her secrets this time, she has another thing coming.
“And I’m guessing the Fathers helped you with getting to Perdita to perform in your little tent once a week?”