Chapter 1
For fifteen years, I'd been trapped like a pampered prisoner by my obsessive vampire boyfriend, yet we'd never had a child.
In his family, the firstborn always turned into a bottom-feeding vampire by their first birthday.
He couldn't stomach the thought of our child becoming a mindless, bloodthirsty monster.
But on our sixteenth anniversary, Soren Ash pinned me down, relentless, his voice a dark promise, thirteen times in a single night, begging for a child.
Foolishly, I obeyed, enduring seven soul-crushing losses in three months without a word of protest.
When our eighth child finally held on, I dared to hope, until I caught him whispering to a human girl.
"Soren, thank you for making Elara lose seven babies just to give me the girl I wanted."
"Sweetheart," he purred, his voice dripping with indulgence. "You've got me wrapped around your finger. Anything you want."
"But I'm scared!" Her voice trembled. "I'm eight months pregnant. If our baby comes first and turns into a monster, what then?"
After a heavy pause, he stroked her hair. "Relax. I've got the drugs to induce her. Elara's kid will be born before yours."
The realization tore through me like a blade: my child was nothing but a disposable shield.
Even its gender had been orchestrated by her!
Clenching my shaking hands, I let go of every foolish dream of forever with him.
My knees buckled, and I staggered back, cradling my belly as I fled toward the manor gates, only for his voice to freeze me in my tracks.
"Heard everything in the study, did you?"
There was no guilt, no shame, just icy detachment.
Seeing my tear-burned glare, he shrugged. "Now that you know, help her out. She's delicate. Stress might destroy her."
My lips twisted into something too bitter to call a smile.
She was human.
And what was I?
I gave up sunlight and family, carved out my heart to love him, only to be tossed aside for a human's passing fancy.
For a long, silent moment, Soren reached out to pat my head in an empty attempt at comfort.
I jerked away instinctively.
He rarely showed kindness, and when he did, saying no wasn't an option.
The last time I'd defied him, he'd thrown me into a den of lowly vampires, leaving me to endure three days and nights of torment.
Even now, I could still feel their jagged fangs and the sticky, stinking filth clinging to my skin.
Gritting my teeth, I sucked in a breath and met his gaze, my voice raw with desperation. "Just one more month, please? A five-month-old fetus, even if it survives, will not..."
"Elara Quinn." His voice cut through mine like ice. "As long as it's alive when it comes out, nothing else matters. You know this."
His lips curled into a cold, mocking smile. "Just behave. After this, I'll give you a real one."
My eyes squeezed shut in despair, until a fake, hiccuping sob cut through the silence.
"Soren..." The human girl clinging to his arm whimpered, her whole body shaking. "Did I make things difficult for you?"
A single tear dangled from her lashes before dropping. "If it's too much, I'll just take the baby and die. Better that than letting it live as a monster."
A loud, theatrical wail escaped her, and then she dissolved into dramatic sobs, her shoulders heaving.
As she buried her face in her hands, I saw it. Soren's eyes flared red with fury.
