Prologue

A Note from Izzy

Roughly ninety percent of the world population was slaughtered after humans discovered the existence of vampires and lycans. The mortal governments tried to weaponize and enslave them.

That plan didn’t work out well for humankind. Hence the massacre that followed.

The humans who survived were put into pens like cattle.

Many of them now serve as blood slaves. Others are chew toys for the lycans. It’s the true meaning of dystopia.

And I’ve been living in this new reality for nearly one hundred and eighteen years.

However, I’ve held on to my hope, waiting for my long-lost vampire mate to return to me. He possessed a vision of respect, a way to govern humans without being cruel. He strongly believed in respecting the source of food that kept him and his brethren alive.

Cam.

The oldest of vampire kind.

There are many who once respected him. But the majority of the world thinks he’s dead.

He’s not.

I can feel it in my very soul. Because he’s my mate. He’s the reason I’m still alive. We performed a ceremony over a thousand years ago, binding our spirits together in a dance that’s meant to last forever.

But he was taken from me.

Imprisoned.

Tortured.

And now… he’s awake. Only, he’s not the man I once knew and loved. He’s a monster. He’s cruel. And he has no memory of who I am to him.

He sees me as food. A toy. A fuck sleeve.

Which is the purpose of this note.

My story is not for the faint of heart. Cam is irrevocably broken. He’s dark. He sees no problem with taking what he feels he is owed. Because he’s been reprogrammed into an ancient being with no ounce of humanity left in him.

Apart from his link to me.

That’s why I won’t give up. I will fight for him until my dying breath, even if it’s his hands wrapped around my throat.

Cam is destined to be king. My king. Just as I’m destined to be his queen. And you know what they say—the queen is always the strongest piece on the board.

He intends to make me bow and crush my spirit.

Meanwhile, I’ll be searching for his soul. And when I find it, I’ll deliver a lethal blow. One that will bring him to his knees.

Unless he kills me first…

Trigger Warning: This book contains dark themes of dubious consent bordering on non-consent, breath play, blood play, depressive thoughts, self-harm, and slave-like elements.

Chapter One

Cam

This is my mate? I thought, studying the blonde on the bed. Fuckable lips. Beautiful tits. Supple waist. Pretty face.

I supposed I could see the physical appeal. But I felt nothing for her other than an urge to fuck her.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. I also wanted to drink her dry again.

Alas, I couldn’t do either option because she was unconscious.

“Fucking mortals,” I muttered, disgusted by her slow regeneration process. If only Lilith had succeeded in her attempt to create unbreakable human toys.

With a sigh, I returned my focus to my laptop and started a new log.

“My liege,” Lilith’s voice greeted, the tone grating on my nerves. I’d heard it far too often over the last ten days.

Unfortunately, it was required.

Too much had transpired over the last century while I’d slept, and without my memories, I relied on this high-pitched voice to update me on the world order.

“If you’re watching this log, then you have decided it is time to announce your return to our alliance. I have prepared a few suggestions for you—”

“Have you?” I drawled, rolling my eyes. “And who is king here, hmm?”

I listened as she listed several ideas on how to approach my reemergence into society. None of them appealed to me.

This was my kingdom.

Therefore, I would run it my way.

She’d already set a meeting for three days from now, but thanks to Ryder’s recent broadcast featuring Lilith’s severed head, the various region royals and clan alphas were in distress.

I would need to deal with the errant rebel at some point. However, establishing order was a more pressing matter. Especially with the revolutionaries on the rise.

“You really did fail me,” I said to Lilith as I turned off her log. “Perhaps I won’t punish Ryder too harshly, as it’s clear your death was well deserved.” And not just for her failures as a leader, but for her irritating voice.

Did her voice always bother me like this? I wondered, wincing from the headache that followed her log. Or is this just a residual reaction to sleeping for so long?

Because every one of her logs seemed to splinter across my skull, leaving a dull ache behind. Which couldn’t be normal. But I couldn’t ask Michael or any of my other subordinates about it. Pain was a weakness. It made me no better than a mortal.

Like the delicious-smelling blonde on my bed, I thought, returning my attention to her. “I’m not sure why I’ve kept you for so long, Ismerelda. Maybe I’ll let you explain it to me when you’re awake.”

Or, more likely, I’d just kill her again.

I was starved for her. I’d tried drinking from a few other humans, but their blood just didn’t compare to her exquisite taste.

A fucking travesty, really. Because the female was disobedient with a penchant for speaking out of turn. I hadn’t been impressed when she’d run toward me on the tarmac. And I was less than impressed now as she continued to sleep on my bed.

“I should put you in a cage,” I told her. “Perhaps that would help you understand your role in life.”

She didn’t reply.

Didn’t even fucking react.

Because she was still recovering.

With a growl, I set my laptop off to the side and stood.

It was time to send a communication to the leaders of the world—Your king has returned.

But first, I needed to move my pet to her quarters. I’d only put her in my bed because I’d hoped for her to awaken while I worked.

Alas, she remained comatose. Not my preferred flavor of female.

“You had better be ready when you wake up,” I told her as I lifted her from the bed. “I’m going to destroy you.” Because her scent was fucking killing me. That had to be why I’d chosen her as a mate—her addictive fragrance and taste.

I glanced down at her breasts again. And probably that attribute, too. My gaze traveled over her. All the attributes, hmm.

“Pity you won’t wake up and give me a proper distraction.” I carried her through my room to the bathroom area and the walk-in closet beyond it. 

There was a little door at the back that led to the area I’d had made up for her. It was meant to be a private dressing room, but a small bed had been brought in to replace the furniture.

Nothing else existed here apart from a light overhead, which was controlled via a switch in my closet.

Just like the door had been redone to lock from my side, not hers.

I set her on the mattress and paused to admire the way her blonde hair flowed over the single pillow.

Very pretty, I admitted. But still asleep. 

“Such a waste.” I left her in the dark and locked the door before grabbing one of the many suit jackets hanging in my closet. The inky fabric paired well with my dark pants and my obsidian dress shirt. Mostly because it rivaled my mood—black.

Lilith had failed me. Not that I was surprised.

Oh, she’d been a faithful little pawn, following our cause all the way to the end. But she’d never been all that powerful. Her skills had resided in politics, her ability to persuade and manipulate others providing her with a strategic edge when convincing others to follow her lead. 

But that was where her skills had ended.

She’d been naïve.

Arrogant.

Too caught up in her own glory to consider the brute strength of her elders.

Which had led to her demise, thus inspiring the protocol to wake me up. Although, according to my assistant, Michael, she’d been considering stirring me from my slumber several months ago.

The rebels of our kind had started gathering forces. It wouldn’t be enough to take down the Blood Alliance. But they would undoubtedly pose certain problems that I wanted to get ahead of.

Spilling ancient blood would be a waste of precious material.

Thus, we needed to find a way to collaborate. Form a middle ground. Or design a way to make the revolutionaries heel.

It would start with the mission I intended to deliver to the royals of my kind and the alpha lycans.

“My liege,” Michael greeted with a low bow as I exited my room. He’d obviously been waiting for me, perhaps sensing my intentions through our Sire bond.

Because apparently I’d turned this male into a vampire as a gift to Lilith.

I had no memory of the act, nor did I feel all that connected to the man, but the records indicated I’d gifted him immortality shortly before the revolution. Michael anticipating my needs only bolstered the truth of our shared history.

His bright green eyes met mine for a brief second as he stood upright, his focus shifting to the female lingering near a door at the end of the long residential corridor.

Mira—the original lycan.

She remained alive while the rest of her kind always expired. That was what made her more of an equal than her brethren and why she’d joined our cause a century ago.

Or that was what Lilith’s notes had stated.

Relying on her logs from the last century grated a bit on my nerves. Fortunately, though, I could still recall memories from over a millennium ago, which allowed me to recall my brief acquaintance with Mira.

We’d only met once, and she’d been just a pup at the time. She certainly wasn’t the gangly teenager from three thousand years ago. Instead, she’d matured into a beautiful woman.

Alas, I found myself craving a very different blonde.

An unconscious one.

With delectable blood.

This was why the Erosita mating bond was dangerous to my kind—it made us infatuated with mortals. But once I’d indulged in my fill of Ismeralda’s blood and her pussy, I would be able to tame this need.

I only wanted her because I’d gone over a hundred years without her.

And if she continued to insult me the way she had yesterday when she’d tried to run up and hug me after disembarking the jet, I’d be over her far more quickly than expected. 

Besides, there was an entire array of blood virgins—a group of untouched humans with a unique blood type—upstairs waiting for me to stop by for a taste. I’d move on to them just as soon as I fucked Ismerelda out of my system.

“I’m ready to announce my return,” I said, addressing both Michael and Mira. “We will be moving forward with the meeting in three days, but I’ll be leading in Lilith’s place for obvious reasons.”

Michael nodded. “Of course, my liege. I’ll go check our telecommunications connection to ensure we can reach all quadrants of the world for your announcement.” He didn’t wait for my reply, instead moving swiftly down the hall and through the door at the end in a shuffle of long legs and hurried steps.

“While he’s doing that, I’ll provide you with an update on Sota and Troph.” Mira pushed away from the door frame, her arms falling from their crossed position against her chest to hang loosely at her sides.

“Have you been to see them?” I asked as I moved toward her, my eyebrow arching up in curiosity. The two Blessed Ones were still in the process of rising, their mental states more ravenous than useful.

Fortunately, I had no memory of that part of my waking.

From what Michael had said, the feeding process hadn’t been needed for me because I’d only slept a century.

Meanwhile, Sota and Troph had been resting for several millennia.

They’d been too weak to handle the gift Nyx had given them—immortal life with immortal children. The only cost was their inability to take a long-term mate.

For some of the Blessed Ones, they couldn’t handle life without their former lovers and opted to sleep instead. But in Sota’s and Troph’s cases, they’d refused to accept their children’s need for mortal blood. And rather than support their offspring, they’d chosen to hide in their slumber.

An atrocity, really. One that marked the two of them—and several others—as unworthy of their gifts.

However, Sota and Troph had been the first to choose their misguided morals over their children’s survival.

Hence the reason we’d chosen these two as our first subjects for the next phase of the trials—the ones Lilith had failed to complete during my century of rest.

“I brought them evening breakfast,” Mira replied as she stepped out of my way through the threshold and followed my lead down the adjacent hallway.

The entire complex underground was riddled with corridors. It would be easy for one to get lost in the underground, but Michael had provided me with a map upon my waking, thus allowing me to relearn my way around.

I started toward the conference area where formal communications were designed to take place. Lilith had fashioned the room to resemble the one often used in Lilith City, thus allowing her to keep this place a secret from all the royals and alphas.

That was perhaps one of her more clever ideas.

“They’re still ravenous for anything they can get their mouths on,” Mira continued. “The intended lesson is definitely being conveyed.”

I nodded. “As it should be.” Blessed Ones didn’t require the human essence to survive, which was partly why Sota and Troph had failed to understand the needs of their children.

But that misconception would soon be rectified.

Once Sota and Troph regained enough of their mental faculties to communicate, we’d show them the human bodies they’d devoured in their state of immortal hunger. Only then would they truly grasp the concept of survival and the fate they’d left their children to endure alone.

When a being is hungry enough, he’ll consume anything to survive. Those were the words Michael had painted in blood above the mutilated corpses. And he’d been sure to write the statement in a script that the ancients would understand. We were just waiting for Sota and Troph to be cognizant enough to read it.

I turned left down another hallway, followed by a right and another left before reaching the elevator at the end. Mira watched as I punched in the necessary codes, then entered behind me in contemplative silence.

“I’ve been thinking,” Mira started slowly, her ice-colored eyes bold as she met my gaze. She was an alpha wolf, used to subduing others with a stare. 

However, her dominance was no match for my own, something I conveyed with a simple arch of my brow as I waited for her to finish her statement.

“I think we should wake up Fen next.” The sound of the elevator reaching our desired floor punctuated her confident words. “His bloodline is slightly different, given that he’s the father of lycans,” she added as we stepped out of the elevator. “It would provide the researchers with another sample type for their trials.”

“Technically, it would be your blood that would provide the varying sample type,” I murmured, leading the way toward the conference room. “You’re the only immortal lycan, after all.”

“Yes, but if you bite me, I’ll bite back. And I have sharper teeth.” She flashed me a wolfish grin with her words, not at all afraid of challenging me as her superior. “Mortals are easier prey.”

“Easier, yes. But they’re not very durable,” I returned.

“I take it your Erosita is still out of commission?” She gave me a pitying glance that I ignored, instead choosing to open the door to the conference area.

A massive round table took up the center of the room with more than fifty chairs encircling it. Most of the walls were composed of dark glass, just like the formal meeting room in Lilith City. Only that glass wall could be un-tinted to reveal the skyscrapers outside. These panes had hard rock behind them—rock that matched the wall with the door.

I moved toward the chair directly across the table and in perfect line with the entrance. There was a camera mounted just above the door, thus keeping the rocky wall out of view of the lens and making this particular spot in the room the central focus for filming.

“So…” I settled into my chosen chair. “You want to wake up your father and give him to the researchers.”

It was a purposeful redirection of our conversation because I had no desire to speak about my Erosita with Mira or anyone else. 

Which was something I thought I’d made clear when I’d taken Ismerelda back to my quarters after Mira had recommended a room near the blood virgins.

Why the fuck would I keep my primary craving on a different floor?

No, Ismerelda would stay in the room I’d fashioned for her until I grew tired of her.

Then she could be moved.

Or killed.

But that was a debate for after she woke up.

And entirely irrelevant to this discussion.

“Fen’s bloodline is likely similar to those of the other Blessed Ones,” I told her as I steepled my fingers together on top of the granite tabletop. “As I said, he’s not a lycan. We also already have two ancients in the process of waking. So why do we need a third one?”

She took over the chair to my right and met my gaze once more, her expression devoid of emotion. “Because Lilith failed,” she answered flatly. “So now vampire kind is running out of time to develop an alternative blood bag.”

Yes, because my brethren had been glutinous over the last century. We weren’t out of food yet, but we would be within the next decade if our trends continued. Hence the purpose behind the experiments—we needed to find a way to keep our food sources alive despite our feeding habits.

But I already knew all that. What I wanted her to explain was, “Why Fen?” I studied her emotionless expression. “Why do you think he’s needed?”

“Because there’s a chance his blood is different, and at this point, we need as large a sample as we can get.”

“So by that logic, we should wake up all the Blessed Ones,” I countered.

She shook her head. “Not at the risk of angering all the royals in existence.”

Hmm. She had a point there. 

“You chose Sota because you know Sahara will accept her father’s fate as a justified punishment, just as Lajos would have—”

“Accepted his father’s punishment as well,” I finished for her. “Yes, I’m aware of why I chose Sota and Troph.” Thanks to Lilith’s records, anyway. 

Because I possessed no actual memory of it, just like everything else.

“So you’re suggesting Fen because there’s a chance he’s different and he wouldn’t cause any issues with leaders of the Blood Alliance,” I summarized.

“Yes. I would be the only one to protest his treatment, and I’m giving permission.”

“Why?” I pressed. “I thought you were on good terms with him? Isn’t that why you chose to rest with him in his crypt?” 

Lilith had awakened Mira shortly before the revolution to bring her up to speed on what the human governments had attempted to do to lycan kind. That had made Mira’s recruitment to join our cause relatively easy.

Mira studied me for a beat before relaxing into her chair with a sigh. “He abandoned me. Maybe not right away like Sota and Troph did to Sahara and Lajos, but that just means I endured more of his hatred than they could from their own fathers.”

Her icy blue eyes met mine, betraying the first flicker of emotion. But it was gone in a blink, the stoic alpha returning to mask her features.

“My personal reasoning for giving permission isn’t relevant. The point is, he might add a unique essence to the trials. And if nothing else, he’s another body to experiment on.” She lifted a shoulder. “I just wanted to provide it as a suggestion. You can decide if it’s worth our time or not.”

I considered her for a long moment while evaluating the potential of waking and experimenting on Fen.

Containing him would be easy. Because while the Blessed Ones were immortal and revered as the creators of vampire and lycan kind, they weren’t supernaturally inclined.

They weren’t abnormally strong or capable of hypnosis.

They couldn’t shift.

They lacked the skill to phase, which was a rarer master vampire ability to teleport.

They were essentially human, just incapable of dying. Which was exactly what my kind needed all mortals to be for us to survive.

As for Mira, she just wanted a way to make lycans truly immortal. That wasn’t something she’d admitted to me but was a note in her file regarding her allegiance. 

Because if we found a way to make human life eternal, the same method could be applied to ensure lycan longevity—which would allow her to finally have a real pack that didn’t eventually die.

That’s why she wants Fen, I realized, still studying her. Because his essence might provide the solution she’s been salivating over. His actions created her, after all.

“All right,” I decided aloud. “Set everything up for the ritual and figure out where to house him.”

I’d participated in the other two awakenings because they’d required a superior essence to satisfy the ritual. And as the eldest vampire, my blood was powerful enough to wake any Blessed One. But Mira was Fen’s offspring, thus making her capable of performing the ceremony on her own.

“Thank you, my liege.” Her chin dipped in a slight bow. “I’ll start making arrangements tonight.”

“Let me know when everything is in place. I’ll observe the ceremony and assist as needed,” I said as Michael entered the room with an air of nervousness swirling around him. “What is it?” I demanded, his sickly sweet scent irritating my senses.

How is this weak male my progeny? Has no one taught him to control his emotions?

“It seems that our communications systems are down, my liege.” Unlike Mira, Michael did not meet my gaze, his green eyes remaining on the ground while he spoke. “I have our technology team working on it right now, but they said it might be tomorrow before it’s fixed.”

My eyebrows lifted. “How the fuck did that happen?”

“They’re not sure, my liege.” He swallowed. “But they’re looking into it.”

“It’s Damien,” Mira muttered.

I glanced at her. “Damien?”

“Izzy’s brother. He’s a technological genius.” Despite the irritation in her tone, a hint of admiration came through. “He’s the one who has been fucking with Lilith’s phone and helping the revolutionaries gain access to Lilith’s former bunkers.”

I snorted. “He didn’t help them with anything. I let them explore the labs.” It was all part of the protocol to help my cousin, Jace, and my progeny, Darius, understand what Lilith had been trying to achieve—an improved food source—during my slumber.

Alas, they didn’t seem to appreciate it the way I’d intended.

They truly had been corrupted by my brother, Cane. If the bastard wasn’t asleep in our father’s crypt, I’d throttle him for brainwashing our cousin and my progeny.

“Regardless, Damien’s the one sabotaging our communications now. He’s probably trying to find a way to reach Izzy.” Mira gave me a speculative look. “I warned you. She’s headstrong and—”

“I can handle my Erosita,” I interjected. “She’s naked and locked in my closet. Her brother won’t be able to reach her.” I refocused on Michael. “Work with the communications team to fix this and contact me as soon as it’s done.”

“Yes, my liege.” He bowed low before slipping out of the room without another word. 

“Meanwhile, I’ll go deliver a much-needed lesson to my Erosita,” I added, a hint of a growl touching my words. 

Because if this was Damien’s doing, I’d be ensuring his sister paid for his interference.

You had better be awake when I get back to my room, Ismerelda, I thought at her.

Not that she could hear me. I had our mental connection locked down. 

But that didn’t stop me from adding, I’m hungry and annoyed. And you exist for one reason—to serve me. Prepare to bleed.



Cruelly Bitten will release in April 2023

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