Maisie

"Don’t fucking touch her!"

We both glanced to the left. It was Cole.

He was dressed in a velvet green suit that matched the emerald of his eyes. His blonde hair was slicked back from his face, and if I had been a different woman and him, a different man, I might have thought he looked handsome tonight.

But next to Soren, he looked plain. Small. Like a child playing on a field he would never have the ability to master.

His eyes flared gold as he attempted to grab me out of Soren’s grasp with a snarl, "She was promised to me! Get your filthy hands off her!"

Without even sparing a glance in Cole’s direction, Soren caught him right out of thin air, made a grunt of displeasure and flung him across the amphitheater, straight into one of the stone pillars. The sickening crack of bones against stone made my stomach lurch.

Lana screamed.

I tried to scramble backward, heart hammering against my ribs, but Soren’s wrist snapped out with inhuman speed. His fingers locked around my arm like a steel manacle, yanking me forward until my chest slammed against his. The heat of his body burned through my clothes. I had to tilt my head all the way back to meet those starry, soulless eyes.

My traitorous pulse fluttered.

No. No. No. Goddess no.

"And where do you think you’re going?" His voice was layered, ancient, sliding down my spine like claws and languid kisses at the same time.

I suppressed a shudder, despising how my body still reacted to him, warming and tightening with useless aware, while my mind screamed in pure panic. I shoved against his chest, but it was like pushing a mountain. "Away from you. And this nightmare."

His lips peeled back into a fanged grin. His grip tightened until his claws dug into my wrist. "And here I was under the assumption that there couldn’t be a wedding without a bride."

The words landed like a slap.

Ice flooded my veins as the meaning sank in, and I began yanking frantically against his hold. "Have you lost your mind?"

He seemed to consider it for a second. "In truth, I have never felt more sane."

And then, Soren dragged me forward, down the blood-soaked aisle and at the sight of the frightened priestess standing between Jericho, who had his claw aimed at her carotid, and Mercer, whose white embroidered jacket was now bloodied, I realized this was really happening. They were going to force me to marry them.

I’d never even dreamed of marriage or even considered it for long enough to form an image in my mind and I imagined that if I ever did, it certainly would not be like this. Not as a prisoner. Not to these men who had constantly treated me like garbage.

I lost it.

"Let me go!" My scream tore across the stunned hall while I twisted and fought wildly. "I am not marrying you, you psychotic bastards—put me down!"

Soren simply bent, scooped me up, and threw me over his shoulder like a sack of grain. His powerful arm clamped around my thighs in a grip that left no room for escape. The world inverted. Blood rushed to my head.

I unleashed my fury, pounding my fists into his back—his stupidly, intoxicatingly warm and scented back—kicking, clawing, yanking at his hair. "Let me go! I don’t want this! Soren, please—please put me down!"

Every strike felt useless against the solid muscle. My voice cracked with rising hysteria.

Fresh rage surged through the terror. I started threatening to kill him, to castrate him, to burn their entire castle to the ground. All I earned was a low, cruel chuckle.

Tears stung my eyes as the altar drew closer. My mind fractured with horror. I was helpless. Completely, pathetically helpless. Four mad men had decided I belonged to them, and no amount of fighting or screaming changed that. Oh god. What kind of nightmare was I caught in?

Two feet from the altar, I caught Tessa’s gaze. Her makeup was smudged and she shook with such fierce rage and hatred. As if this were my fault.

Soren dumped me roughly onto the altar. My rump hit stone by the priestess’s feet. I immediately tried to scramble off, only to slam into Quinlan’s solid chest.

"I would strongly suggest you not do that, mon cher," he murmured, voice hot and silky. "If you run, we will hunt you down. We will bind your hands and feet and drag you back here. Either way, this is where it ends... and begins."

"I do not consent to this," I rasped, eyes darting between their merciless faces. They didn’t care.

The priestess was shaking violently, Jericho’s claw pressed to her throat and Soren inclined his head toward her. "Begin."

Her fear was palpable as she glanced from Soren’s face to that of the Queen who observed everything with delicate white knuckled fingers, though her expression remained stoic. "I-I’m afraid, I cannot. T-this union is yet to b-be blessed b-by the Q-Queen—"

"Do you want to die?" Soren asked.

The woman’s breath hitched and Jericho’s claw sank into her throat, blood already trickling down her neck.

She jerked her head left and right in a desperate shake. "It is not within my c-control. The auspicious time—"

"Kill her," Soren quipped in a bored tone.

I gasped.

The priestess surged forward, desperately. "I’ll do it! I’ll hold the ceremony!"

The Priestess’s hands were jittery as she produced a dagger, glancing at them uncertainly. "The girl has to decide who goes first. You must not force her to make the choice." To me, she said with a terrified, slipping smile, "Come, child. I will explain it to you.".

Come? Come where?

Four pairs of predatory eyes pinned me. I had no choice. Quinlan’s fingers rested on the small of my back as he nudged me forward and I found myself in front of the priestess, being offered the bejeweled dagger.

"Ideally," she explained. "The first you choose to bond with will shed the first layer of your garment before the Court. For as many partners you choose, will you wear a separate layer."

That explained why Tessa’s clothes were voluminous and multilayered.

She glanced nervously at my sparse clothing. "But you are hardly dressed—"

"Get on with it," Soren snapped.

The priestess swallowed hard. "You will make an incision on the part of him you wish to leave your mark, and he will do the same for you. The first bond must be made with the one you share the deepest connection with. It makes for a stronger link. And naturally... the first one is the first one you will lie with during the consummation rite."