The Princess

Chapter Seven – Laito’s POV

Mnn… how adorable.

Little b***h thought she was safe in the garden. Kneeling there among the roses like some saint, her crimson hair gleaming in the light, her sweet lips parted in thought. Ah, April always made the mistake of thinking she could hide. But I saw her. I always did.

Leaning against the iron archway, I let my eyes roam over her without shame. Those curves—mmm, that body was made to be worshiped and ruined in equal measure. The way her dress clung when the breeze pressed against it, the way the lace at her collar teased just enough skin to make me imagine more.

“Ne, April-chan…” I whispered to myself, grinning. “You look so pure it hurts.”

She wasn’t pure, not really. Not with the way her eyes lingered on me when she thought I wasn’t paying attention, not with the way her breath caught whenever I leaned in too close. Innocence was only an act, and I was dying to strip it away. Slowly. Painfully. Pleasurably.

My brothers were idiots. Ayato wanted to shout and brand her like some trophy. Reiji wanted to polish her into perfection. Shu just wanted to keep her quiet little voice to himself. Subaru? Tch. He didn’t even know what he wanted, pounding walls like that would keep him from wanting her blood.

But me? Oh, I knew exactly what I wanted.

I wanted every blush, every gasp, every desperate plea that would fall from those soft lips when I touched her the way no one else dared to.

I chuckled, low and wicked, running a hand through my hair. Perverted, they’d call me. They weren’t wrong. But they didn’t understand the thrill of watching her squirm, of pushing her past the edge of propriety until she couldn’t even look at herself the same way.

That’s what I’d give her. Freedom. Release.

I could already imagine it—her ocean-blue eyes wide, tears trembling at the corners, her voice breaking as she begged me to stop and begged me not to stop all at once. That mix of shame and pleasure, that sweet contradiction… ah, it made my fangs ache.

I licked my lips, grinning as she rose to her feet and brushed the dirt from her dress. The way her hands smoothed over her hips, completely unaware of how it made me imagine them trembling under mine.

“Fufu… April-chan,” I whispered, my grin widening. “You’ll come to me sooner or later. And when you do… I’ll teach you what it really means to be loved.”

Not the way Beatrix coddled her. Not the way Karlheinz indulged her. Not the way my stupid brothers hovered and circled like vultures. No—real love. Messy, dangerous, overwhelming.

Love that would ruin her forever.

And oh, how beautiful she would be, once ruined.