Showered and ready for bed, I entered the room to find Regina sitting on the bed with the rose in her hand. Her eyes turned to me and slid over my body with mirth like I wasn’t even worth looking at.
“You won’t keep his attention long, you know.”
“Whose?” I asked, staring at the rose.
“Don’t play coy with me, bitch. You know who I speak of.”
“If you’re speaking of Knox, I’m relieved that I won’t.”
“He ate your pussy, and you fucked his face while he did.”
I scoffed, shaking my head. “He licked it once.”
“No, you stupid girl, he ate it, and you came on his tongue for hours, you just don’t remember. Knox isn’t from this realm—he doesn’t play by the rules either. You’re cute, but that only lasts until he fucks you, then his interest will wane, and he’ll come back to me. It’s just that innocent pussy he wants from you. The moment you lose your virginity, you will lose his interest and just be another discarded whore. Hundreds of them pine for him. You’ll just be another one of the sad, pitiful bitches discarded into the trash bin.”
“He isn’t taking my virginity, Brander is.” I crossed my arms, studying her as she lifted the notes I’d placed together and then gazed at the dress. “You should go now.”
“You think he will allow his brother to take your innocence? Don’t be stupid, girl. He is a virile male, all hunter, and you are marked as prey.” Her anger erupted, slithering through the room, and for a moment, her face changed into that of a hag.
I stepped back, noting the smirk that lifted her lips while she fingered the red chiffon cocktail dress. She tossed it aside, standing to stare at me.
“Doesn’t matter, I chose Brander. Knox didn’t want it and left.”
“You’re not even pretty.” She ignored my statement as she let her gaze slide down me with disdain. “Why do you get gifts when everyone else gets bent over whatever is closest and pounded into it like a piece of fucking meat?”
“Because you allow him to do it,” I mocked, watching her as her cheeks heated with anger. “Look, you don’t want to be treated like a whore? Stop allowing him to treat you like one. Stand up for yourself, or shut the fuck up, sit down, and continue to take it. You are allowing him to treat you as he does. If you allow him to do it, he will continue to treat you the same way. Bottom line, Regina? Close your legs until he respects you. You have the pussy, he wants it. Use that, and if you don’t, you have no one but yourself to blame.”
“You think you get a choice? Knox is the type of man you want to be owned by. When he fucks, he fucks you with every part of him. It’s so fucking brutal that you spend the rest of your life searching for it again, and never find it. Being owned by him means you are his to use when he sees fit. Why do you think his household is mostly run by women? There isn’t one who wouldn’t slit your throat to take his bed for one night to feel him again. He offers protection and his body. You’ll fucking take it if you’re smart.”
“I’d rather not know what it feels like to be owned. I am a Hecate witch. I’m royalty by birth. Neither Knox nor any other man will ever own me. I choose my fate and my chaos, and what I allow to happen to me is on me, no one else. You won’t find me bitching about you sleeping with my man, because the moment he betrays me, I’m done. I’m worth more than that, Regina. So you want to be owned? Fine, but not me,” I snorted, shaking my head as she frowned, and her power filled the room again.
She snorted and shook her head. “You already are, Aria. The moment you laid down in that chair and allowed him to place his name on you, you became his. The moment you parted your thighs and came for him, you sealed the fucking deal. You parted your flesh, touching it while he placed his name on your thigh, and when you started coming with your clumsy attempt to fuck your own flesh, he did it for you. You screamed his name, riding his face until your screams turned painful because he wouldn’t let you stop coming. He drank your essence, slurping it clean before he covered it back up. I listened to him as he erased your memories, and you woke up talking as if it had never even happened, but I know otherwise because I watched it happen. He needed one last taste, so you knew he’d tasted your sloppy cunt first. It was so sloppy, glistening with come from that glorious tongue of his.”
“He never did that for you, has he?” I noted the longing in her tone and the betrayal in her eyes. “He never pleasured you with his mouth? Don’t come in here telling me fucking lies. Get out!” I trembled with anger as her lies slammed against my head, feeding me false images.
Brander filled the doorway, staring between us before he hiked his finger over his shoulder. “Get the fuck out, Regina. You were told to keep your distance.”
“Why? Because Knox is planning to fuck her?”
“I won’t ask you again,” he stated coldly.
She stared between us, smashing the rose in her hand before she exited the room with it. I swallowed past the anger. Looking to Brander, I watched as he followed her down the hallway with his eyes before turning back to look at me.
“Does Knox have the power to erase memories?” I whispered through trembling lips.
“Go to bed, sugar. Don’t listen to displaced hags, they live to hurt pretty little things with their lies.” He reached in, grabbing the door to pull it shut.
I heard the lock sliding into place, and my eyes closed, replaying the morning Knox had tasted me. Opening them, I frowned, knowing that he said hours had passed, and yet it hadn’t felt like any time had passed at all. Moving to the bed, I took a seat and hugged my legs against my chest. I could do a memory spell, but that would alert the house I’d wielded magic, and lord knew what it would do to me.
I reached over, grabbed the pictures, and set them on the nightstand before pushing the dress away from me, lying back on the bed to sleep as the day weighed on my mind. I said a silent prayer for my sisters, and prayed that Amara was safe; even if she wasn’t who she used to be, she was still my sister and my womb mate.
My eyes grew heavy as I picked up one small shard of the crystal, holding it as a smile slipped over my lips. Regina was bitter, and she was a hag. I’d caught a glimpse of her, and it had been something I wouldn’t forget soon.
Tomorrow I would lose my virginity to a stranger, one I hadn’t felt fire for when I kissed. Maybe it was my mood, or perhaps I was cursed like Regina to always crave more than I knew I should reach for. I slept, oblivious to what was happening around me, uncaring that tomorrow was coming faster than I wanted it to—with the wrong man.
I woke up to something in the bedroom and turned on the light beside the bed. Knox stood in the corner, his eyes dark with something primal banked in them. His shirt was covered in blood; his hands were covered in black ooze that dripped onto the floor.
“Knox, what the fuck happened?” I whispered, moving from the bed to where he stood.
“Worried about me, lamb?” he asked huskily.
“No, I’m worried for whoever pissed you off,” I muttered, holding Knox’s stare as his lips curled into a devilish smirk.
“Smart girl. I heard your rose got stolen, so I brought a couple in vials to replace it. Would you like to see them?” he asked carefully as I moved back to the bed, sitting down to stare at him.