Eternal Captive: Mark of the Vampire by Laura Wright Page B

“That’s real sweet, Brit Boy, but the Order doesn’t care who she belongs to. Clearly.” Lucian glanced over at Alexander and raised a brow. “You my ride?”
    Alexander nodded.
    “Let’s go.”
    As Bronwyn hovered below the water, flashes of her past and her sister’s short life competed with the rays of the sun overhead.
    Farrah had been in her Meta for just under five months when their parents discovered she’d fallen in love with another
veana
’s
paven
. Not certain as to how long the relationship had been going on, or how far it had progressed sexually, they kept her under close watch. It seemed the pair hadn’t been intimate yet, but both Bronwyn’s parents believed it would happen soon. They didn’t want the Order to find out. After all, an affair with a mated
paven
was grounds for time spent in Mondrar, the vampire prison, and the last thing they wanted was to see their child behind bars.
    Better beneath the Breeding Male, Bronwyn thought sadly. How wrong they had been.
    Farrah spent only one night with “It,” and had returned a different
veana
than when she had left. After confirming her
swell
, she’d remained in her room, refusing to be seen by anyone but Bron. Over the next several months, her belly grew—so large she had trouble breathing. It was in her sixth month that her blood began to run.
    It had never stopped.
    With no care for her small frame, the Breeding Male had placed two
balas
inside her. But what could be expected from such an unfeeling, rutting animal? Bronwyn had studied their genetic structure for her private client, and it was as though their cells commanded the animal response from them.
    The soft, warm ocean water lapped gently at Bronwyn’s shoulders, as if Farrah were somehow trying to comfort her.
    But it was no use. Bronwyn had sworn on the day of her sister’s death that she would never let the same fate befall her. And she had done everything she could to make sure it didn’t by finding her true mate before her parents could make the same demand of her. For even though her parents grieved Farrah’s loss, the humiliation and shame of a daughter pregnant with a mated
paven
’s or an Impure
paven
’s child was far worse. Her death was, at the very least, an honorable one.
    Bronwyn would never share that “honor”—never lie beneath the one she feared above all others. Yet that one was supposedly coming to this reality to do just that.
    Lucian Roman.
    She dropped her head back, accepting the full false sun on her face, and sighed.
    Lucian. The next Breeding Male? Why hadn’t she seen this on her data? Why hadn’t she pushed to get his DNA results before the other Roman brothers—why hadn’t she looked at his blood work for the Breeding Male marker? Yes, she’d known it could happen after the morpho of any of the Roman brothers. But according to her research, morpho for Lucian wouldn’t occur for a very long time.
    Unless the Order had premorphed him too…
    God. Had that happened? Is that who had sent her here? The Order? Did the Beast work under them? If they did know the truth about her and Synjon, why would they bring in the Breeding Male? Syn was Pureblood and unmated. Wasn’t that all that mattered to them? To her parents?
    Her skin felt weightless and smooth under the water. As if it knew it was protected. She’d looked everywhereon the beach for something to cover herself, but there was nothing. Nothing but the ocean.
    The Beast had said that having sex with Lucian would be his final step into Breeding Male status. If so, if it was just about having sex with someone, he’d have been the Breeding Male long ago, wouldn’t he? He was no
virgini
—of that she was sure.
    Maybe the Beast had been lying. Maybe this was a way to control her or scare her.
    Maybe he was just a monster with a cruel streak who liked to torture
veanas
.
    She placed her wet hands together under the water—the water that blocked her nudity from anyone who would be coming to