Chapter 47

ADAN

Adan stood in the doorway of the throne room, waiting for his father’s permission to enter.

The King spotted him and said, “Come in, my son,” in his distinctive baritone voice.

Adan paced over to the King. He bowed before his father and remained on one knee with his head hung low.

“You may rise,” the King said a few moments later.

Adan stood. The King gestured to a chair and bade Adan to sit.

“I was wondering,” the King continued, “when you would come to see me. I heard you’ve been in the country for months.”

“I felt sure I would not be welcome here,” Adan replied. “After the grave sin I committed the last time that I was in your home, when I abdicated my birthright and left my King without a proper heir.”

The King gave Adan a hard look.

Adan did not avert his eyes. He waited out a very long minute of silence.

Finally, the King said, “Say what you came here to say.”

His father liked to get straight to the point. Adan appreciated that about the old man.

“Nolan is not fit for the throne.” Adan’s face was neutral, and his tone was flat and commanding. “I worry about his temper.”

The King gave a doubtful look.

“To tell you the whole truth, Father, I did not plan to compete with him when I returned. All I wanted was to come home.”

“Is that so?”

“But now that I have seen him again, I am disappointed to learn that after all these years, he still hasn’t outgrown his tantrums and outbursts.”

The King squinted at Adan and asked, “What are you doing with his wife?”

Adan shook his head slowly.

“As little as possible,” he said. “She just continues to seek me out. And Nolan continues to come unhinged every time he sees her doing it.”

The King looked out the window to his left. The sky was black as pitch tonight.

“I will make no moves without your approval, Father. But it has become clear to me that I made a horrible mistake years ago, and it feels like it’s time for me to start righting the wrongs of my past.”

The King looked back to Adan and said, “You may go.”

Adan bowed his head and left without another word.

NOLAN

Nolan was worried he drank too much of her blood.

When she gave herself over to him like that, it took him past the realm of all control.

She pushed him away from her neck at some point, waking him out of a greedy stupor. Her cherry blood was all over his mouth and chin. He kissed her to let her taste it, too.

He saw her neck start healing and watched it happen while they finished fucking.

The wound disappeared completely in a matter of minutes. Her skin was flawless again. Just smeared all over with blood.

Nolan licked all the drying blood off her before they got dressed. To his surprise, she insisted he let her do the same to his face. It got him so turned on he asked if he could fuck her again.

Yena shook her head and said, “No, sir.”

It was time to face whatever was coming next.

They walked into the palace hand in hand. Then she parted ways with him quickly, not pausing to let him kiss her. That was for the best.

Nolan found a small mob waiting for him in the lobby outside his office.

His lead attorney was bossing everyone around, giving out assignments like a football coach teaching his team a new play. When he saw the prince approaching, the attorney silenced everyone.

They all started to bow. Nolan waved them off and said, “Let’s just get started,” and ushered them all into his office.

They discussed damage control for what the attorney kept referring to as “the situation.”

Nolan found himself beyond grateful that Yena had given him her blood. It had revived him enough to keep him focused through the whole awful ordeal.

Six hours later, he excused himself and left the legal and PR teams to finish writing the statements he would have make to the public tomorrow, or as soon as they were ready.

On his way out, he asked his secretary to send some food up to their room.

Yena was already asleep. Nolan took a fast, hot shower and came back to bed.

His hair was wet and he was still a little damp all over, but he crawled into bed beside the princess anyway.

She started stirring sleepily and turned onto her side, facing him.

Nolan slid his hand up Yena’s silky purple nightgown and grabbed her ass. She let out a sleepy little moan, then took his hand and guided it between her thighs.

YENA

I woke up to Nolan’s warm touch and my hands pulled him on top of me before my mind was fully awake.

Then he had his fingers inside of me. And I was up.

I’d been planning on asking him how that meeting went. What was going on and what was going to happen now.

I wanted to apologize. It seemed like this whole thing was all my fault. I should have just stayed away from Adan, like Nolan asked me to.

Like I told him I would.

But my husband had other ideas that I didn’t mind entertaining.

Nolan kissed me for a few minutes, then told me he’d be right back. He got up and walked around the perimeter, lighting all the candles. I dipped into the bathroom while he did that and freshened up.

I found Nolan pacing the bedroom. He stopped in his tracks when saw me.

He nodded to the bed. I climbed up onto it and laid back obediently. He nodded approvingly and walked over to the edge.

Then he gently moved my head to the side and examined my neck. I guess he was satisfied with what he saw, because his eyebrows relaxed a little and he let out what sounded like a sigh of relief.

“You can do it again if you want,” I said.

He shook his head and said, “I’ve taken enough from you already.”

I pulled him up onto the bed. He used his knees to push my legs apart, but then sat back and looked at me. Like he was studying something.

“What?”

He shook his head and said, “I’m just admiring your beauty.”

My face felt hot. It still flattered me any time he told me I was beautiful.

I told him just to do it. I told him I wanted him to.

Nolan hesitated for a long moment, looking into my eyes like he was trying to make some sort of big decision.

I watched as the darkness finally took over him. He growled and bit into my lip.

Blood started to pool in my mouth. I swallowed it.

Nolan sucked on my lip for only a few seconds then pulled away, wiping his mouth. He looked down at me and smiled. His teeth were all red with blood.

I heard movement outside our room. Someone gave a very light knock on the door before padding away down the hall with quiet, hurried footsteps.

I raised an eyebrow and Nolan told me he had ordered us food.

“Let’s eat,” I said. He nodded like he was really glad I wanted to do that right away. I realized he probably hadn’t eaten all night.

Nolan retrieved the food, and we sat at our little dining table to enjoy our midnight feast. Then we collapsed in bed, curled up in each other’s arms, and passed out.

It was lucky we got to have that time together. Before our lives blew up in the morning.