Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 126(@200wpm)___ 101(@250wpm)___ 84(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 126(@200wpm)___ 101(@250wpm)___ 84(@300wpm)
“What?” she yelped before jumping from the couch and hurrying to the foyer to look in the oval mirror. “Holy cow! What is that?”
“It’s my claim on you, love,” I told her with a smirk.
In an instant, the simmer in my stomach flared into full-blown fury when Celeste rested her left hand directly over the birthmark.
What. The. Fuck.
A diamond ring on her third finger sparkled in the firelight.
I shot to my feet and stalked over to her, grabbing her hand and yanking it toward me. “What the fuck is this?”
“Um…an engagement ring?” Celeste tugged her hand half-heartedly, but I didn’t let go.
“You’re engaged?” I shouted.
3
CELESTE
Fury shone from Ren’s blue eyes, and I couldn’t blame him for his reaction to my engagement ring. Although we’d just met, I had a feeling that I would be devastated to learn that the tall, dark-haired daywalker was supposed to belong to another woman. I’d met attractive men before, but none of them held a candle to Ren. And I had never felt drawn to any of them like I was to him. Which made sense, considering how little I knew about the connection between a daywalker and his consort.
I would have been stuck in a loveless marriage if I hadn’t met Ren today. One that wasn’t my choice in the first place. Something that I needed to explain to the sexy daywalker before he got even angrier.
“I am,” I confirmed with an apologetic smile, turning my hand to interlace our fingers. “But the engagement didn’t happen the way you’re probably thinking it did. What do you know about witch marriages?”
A slight gleam of humor broke through the anger in his intense blue orbs. “Turning my earlier question around on me?”
“It seemed appropriate.” I shrugged and stared down at the ring as he tugged it off my hand.
“There, much better.” He pressed a kiss to the spot where the gold had been wrapped around my finger, and a sensual shiver raced down my spine. “Now tell me how you ended up engaged to some bastard who never should’ve had any claim on you since you were meant to be mine from the moment you were born.”
“My world is different from yours in so many ways,” I began with a sigh. “Witches don’t have fated consorts like daywalkers. There are no mystical connections between couples in my coven. Instead, we’re paired off based on our powers.”
Ren’s head tilted to the side, and more of the anger drained from his gaze. “It was supposed to be an arranged marriage?”
My lips curved over his choice of wording, as though my engagement was a thing of the past now that we’d met. His confidence only made him more appealing to me—which was saying a lot since he was already pretty darn near irresistible. And it was well-earned since I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my life in a loveless marriage now that I’d felt my first spark of desire. “Yes, the High Priestess and my parents agreed that her son and I would be a good match since our hereditary powers complement each other. It’s been understood that we would marry since I turned sixteen, and it became official last month on my eighteenth birthday.”
“Eighteen,” he drawled, shaking his head. “So young.”
“Too young for you?” I quipped with a quirk of my brow.
Shaking his head, he dropped the diamond solitaire into his pocket. “I’m more than five hundred years older than you, but our age difference could be a thousand years, and it wouldn’t make you any less mine.”
“Five hundred years,” I echoed softly, my eyes going wide. Logically, I knew Ren could be that old because daywalkers were immortal and didn’t age like humans, but I hadn’t really considered that the gap between us would be so big. Especially since he only looked about ten to fifteen years older than me…in the very best way possible.
“Callidora was your age when she and Braeden discovered they were destined to be together.” At my look of confusion, he added, “The adorable daywalkers dressed as vampires for Halloween are my niece and nephew. They belong to my brother and his consort, who have probably already let everyone else in my family know that they’re the reason I found you.”
Remembering the cute little girl and boy he’d been with, I grinned up at him. “Choosing those particular costumes makes them even cuter. No wonder I thought they were such convincing vampires.”
He shook his head with a sigh. “Maxine has her father wrapped around her little finger. That’s the only explanation I have for why Braeden agreed to it.”
I thought about how the man who resembled Ren had placed his hand on the woman’s lower back when they’d led the kids away from my home. I couldn’t remember a single time my father had done something similar to my mother. “From the little I saw of them, your brother and his consort seemed very close.”