my chest before lowering to the apex between my thighs.
A shiver skittered down my spine.
I’d stood naked in front of countless supernaturals before—humans, too—but something about this vampire had my nerves climbing into my throat.
“I think you would have served better in a harem,” he mused. “But your genetics must have marked you for breeding.”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that, so I said nothing.
He continued to study me as if I were a present, appreciation evident in his gaze.
“How did I get here?” I blurted out, then immediately froze as his eyes snapped up to mine.
“You don’t remember?”
“N-no,” I admitted.
“Fascinating.” He tilted his head in an eerie manner, another wave of intrigue overtaking his features. “I suppose you did imbibe a lot of my essence.”
My eyebrows shot up. “I what?”
“My blood, pet. You drank my blood.”
“Why?”
“To live,” he answered as if that explained everything. “Your memories will return shortly. I suspect nightmares will accompany them.”
He spoke the words nonchalantly, which only seemed to heighten the chill sweeping over me.
I don’t want to remember.
But I did want to know a few things. Such as… “Who are you?” I realized the faux pas of my question the moment his eyes widened.
A series of edicts from my life began to chant through my mind, some course I took as a child ingrained forever in my head, even beneath my apparent memory loss.
Humans do not address their superiors.
Humans do not look at their superiors.
Humans do not engage their superiors.
Humans bow to their superiors.
Humans are here to please their superiors.
Humans are food.
Humans are meant for pleasure at the hands of their superiors.
Humans do not—
“I thought society broke humans of the penchant for speaking out of turn,” the vampire mused, dragging me out of my inner chant.
I needed to apologize, to beg forgiveness, to bow at his feet. And yet, my body refused to do all those things, as if I were being held up by invisible puppet strings that forced me to disobey.
Some part of me was fundamentally broken.
I’d given up on the idea of perfect acquiescence. I no longer wished to be an obedient human. But I couldn’t figure out when or how that had happened, the deciding memory a loose strand in my mind without a proper end.
However, defiance felt right.
Powerful.
Freeing.
“I’m Ryder,” he murmured after several long beats of silence. He didn’t so much sound displeased as he did amused. “As to your earlier inquiry about how you got here—you stumbled onto my property and attacked me and my lieutenant. Well, I suppose he’s a sovereign now.”
“Your sovereign?” I repeated, the title meaning something deadly inside my brain. Only royal vampires have sovereigns.
“Yes. A recent change that occurred while you napped on the floor.” He lifted a shoulder. “I needed someone I could rely on to handle a few affairs down in San José, and he’s the only one I could trust.”
“San José?” I felt like a parrot repeating words, but this location was one I didn’t recognize. Where am I? I wondered, not for the first time since waking up. However, now I no longer wanted to know so much as needed to know.
“Ah, yes, you wouldn’t know it, would you?” He sighed, the sound distinctly underlined in annoyance. “I’ve never enjoyed the whole region renaming, but I suppose I’ll need to remove the current title, won’t I? Can’t have the vampires of this region thinking Silvano is still in charge since Kylan killed him and all.”
Kylan.
Silvano.
Two vampire royals.
And if Kylan killed Silvano, that meant there’d been a change in the regime. And if this male was talking about sovereigns and renaming regions… then… “You’re a royal vampire,” I breathed. Which I’d already deduced a few minutes ago, only his name hadn’t registered as familiar, so the full thought hadn’t connected.
Until now.
“Apparently,” he muttered. “It’s not a job I ever desired to obtain, but here we are.” His gaze returned to mine, a calculating gleam radiating from his depths. “Which means, sweet pet, that I need to decide what to do with you.”
I shivered, the bars at my back suddenly colder than before.
Twenty-two years of training just to become a breeding doll. And now this.
No, thanks.
I was done with this bullshit life. If he didn’t kill me outright, then I’d just have to fight—
“Are you hungry?” he asked, interrupting my thoughts.
Am I hungry? Is that some sort of vampire joke?
Rather than reply, I just stared at him.
He studied me back in kind, his inquisitive gaze unnerving. It was the kind of