Series: Blood Empire #1
Publication date: May 20th, 2021
Synopsis:
Nobody will touch what belongs to us, including the women we claim.
Brutal. Fierce. Relentless.
Everything I do I do for my family name.
Now they're giving me another task--take the bride my father chooses for me. They call it business. I call it revenge. Only one empire with mafia ties can rule.
I'll use her as a pawn. Break her down. She's already damaged from the life she's led. But then something happens.
She rises from the ashes... and learns how to break me too.
**A hero with an out-of-control possessive streak and the woman forced to be his bride. The claws come out, but the surrender is so sweet... DAMAGED BRIDE is a novella-length romance and first in the Blood Empire Series. Happily Ever After? You'll have to take a chance.**
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Excerpt
I'm freaking out.
Not because I'm locked in my room like some princess in a fairytale.
Jelly Bean is sick.
He's lying in my palm, breathing too fast. Laboring for air. His little feathered chest heaves, and I almost come apart at the seams with the terror ripping me up. If I lose this bird, what do I have?
I run to the door, cradling my precious pet to my heart. When I pound on the wood, it's with as much strength as Anders did on our wedding night.
My knuckles split. My heart's shattering. And I beat harder.
Beyond the wood, I hear footsteps.
When I hear a key grind in the lock, my hands start shaking. A tear I didn't know I shed drips off my chin.
Suddenly, the door blows open, and I jump back just in time. The wood strikes the wall with a loud crack. In my palm, Jelly Bean doesn't even rouse.
Anders faces me, a wall of black from head to foot, and his gaze even blacker than the clothes he wears. "What the fuck's the matter with you?"
I don't even flinch at his harsh tone. I open my palm and show him Jelly Bean.
His gaze flicks down to my hand and then up to my eyes.
"Please," I beg. "He needs a vet. Something's wrong. He's going to die." I choke for a minute on my desperation. I'll plead for my bird but not for myself. "Please, Anders."
When I say his name, some of the steel leaves his eyes. For a minute, I'm sure he'll help me.
Why do I think that? He could as easily snatch Jelly Bean from my hand and stomp on him.
"Come with me."
I gape at him.
"Are you fucking coming or not?" he snaps.
I jolt into action. Cupping Jelly Bean to my chest, I follow Anders through the house I have yet to see since my incarceration here. The Rossi mansion is a blur of crystal chandeliers and leather furniture mixed with expensive pieces of art I've seen the likes of in museums with Grandma in the days before her mind left.
He holds the front door for me, and I rush into the brisk wind. I'm not wearing a coat, but I hardly care. I do tuck my bird closer, shielding him from the worst of the weather as we stride to a car.
As soon as I'm inside, I look at my bird. He's still breathing but looking worse by the minute.
"What vet do you use?" Anders surprises me by asking.
I blink at him. "I don't have any vet. I live in my car, remember?"
His lips tighten as he starts the car and drives through the gates. My heart's tumbling like a child rolling downhill. I don't know which way is up anymore, and I hardly care as long as I still have Jelly Bean in the end.
"I'll do anything to pay you back," I tell Anders.
He slices a look at me but says nothing.
Minutes later, we arrive at a vet's office. The parking lot's empty, and I realize the hour.
"It's closed!" I cry out.
"The fuck it is." He beats on the door just as loudly as he'd beaten on mine.
I don't think it's going to work, but then someone opens it. Relief damn near buckles my knees as a woman dressed in puppy dog scrubs waves us in.
The technician makes a phone call and stabilizes Jelly Bean until the vet returns to the office. Meanwhile, Anders is a silent guard dog, black and imposing. He makes the technician nervous, but I can't find any words to soothe her.
Minutes later, the veterinarian arrives. As I watch him examine my bird, I'm aware of Anders standing a few feet off. How is it possible he's become more intimidating? His expression is an animal's--a killer's on the hunt.
The vet looks up from Jelly Bean. "You're very lucky. You brought him in just in time. He has pneumonia. Did you recently move? Does he have new living conditions?"
"Y-yes," I stutter out.
Anders' stare is fixed on me. I can feel the burn wash over my flesh, and my nipples prickle with the stroke of his eyes.
"This often happens to small animals and birds when they've been moved." The vet gives me instructions on Jelly Bean's care and hands the bird back to me. He's looking better already after some fluids and pain management. He sits on my finger and cocks his head to look at me.
I bring the bird's feathered head to my lips and close my eyes. "Thank you," I whisper, and I don't know if I'm thanking the bird for staying with me, the veterinarian for helping Jelly Bean or Anders for helping me.
We take the bird home, and I place him in the cage with the door open and plenty of fresh food and water. I speak to Jelly Bean for a while, telling him what a pretty bird he is and how lucky I am to have him.
When I turn from the cage, Anders is watching me with those black, guarded eyes.
"Don't stay up watching over the bird," he says. "Come to my bed."
I suck in a breath.
It's an order...
But it's also a request.
Blake York got started writing dark romance as a teen, when the horrors of her mind lived on the page. Now she invites readers into that shadowed chamber with darker, filthier romance. And what can be more soul-shaking than a forced marriage into a twisted mafia family that rules its empire with bloodshed?
