Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Shy, quiet Estrella is used to being ignored…until she received a letter from the one man she has ever loved: Prince Lysander Allardi.
Marriage to him, however, comes at a price: a quest to save his people has Lysander leaving his bride without even a wedding night, and when he comes back to her years later, he is no longer Fae…but a beast with the soul of a god.
This new husband of hers is monstrously possessive but infinitely gentle, and Estrella finds herself falling more deeply in love. The beast in Lysander demands that she stay by his side at all times, and his wrath is only appeased when their bodies are joined together.
But just as Estrella has allowed herself to believe that her husband finally returns her feelings…that’s when she finds out Lysander never wanted to marry her in the first place.
Note: Previously published as Beast of Mine
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Glossary
Caros - Classification: preter, sub-classification: blood drinker, governing body: Brethren
Faes and Faeries - Classification: preter, sub-classification: winged, governing body: The High Circle (formerly)
Lyccans - Classification: preter, sub-classification: shifter, type: wolf, governing body: Lyccan Council
Panthera - Classification: preter, sub-classification: shifter, type: panther
Sceleri - Classification: preter, sub-classification: sin eater
Souris - Classification: preter, sub-classification: winged, type: mortal descendants of angels
Vampire - Classification: preter, sub-classification: blood drinker, origin: Caros that had taken human lives in exchange for immortality
Vidange - Classification: preter, sub-classification: winged, type: mortal descendants of angels who chose to turn their backs on God
Viver - Classification: human, sub-classification: mystical, governing body: Vatican
Once upon a time...
There were humans who knew of non-humans.
They were admittedly few, but what existed was enough. With these humans' help, an alliance was formed, joined by all the known races: the shifter packs, the Caros, the Souris, and of course we, the Viver, stood by them, too.
When the first vampires were born - ancient twins of the blood-drinking race of Caros - the will of the alliance prevailed. But from their ashes came the most unwelcomed premonition.
Three strikes, the vampires would inflict against our fragile world, one stronger always than its predecessor, and try as we might, not even the most powerful among us were able to overturn this.
The twins were the first strike.
The vampire-led carnage of the Great War decades ago was the second, and while the world was saved, many had died, and the ties that once bound allied races were shorn by distrust, despair, and devastation.
And now, the last and most terrifying battle is upon us, and our hearts weep at how destiny, for reasons known only by the gods, had once again cursed the Faes and Faeries to be its harbinger of doom.
- An excerpt from the prelude of A Viver's Accounting of History: Volume MDCLXXVI
My Dear Child,
I wish I were writing this letter under better circumstances, but alas, recent circumstances have forced my hand, and I am left with no choice but to disturb your repose.
Over a fortnight ago, my Church had received the most troubling news. The evil that we knew to be coming has finally revealed its name: Danilo Moretti, a werewolf prince once believed to be dead. We had all mourned and revered him for his kindness, and it was only after his return that we realized how gravely mistaken we had been about him.
He is Sceleri now, and without an ounce of humanity left inside of him, he might as well be the Devil's right hand come to kill us all.Our hunters' reports tell me that even though he has already amassed for himself a great army, he still seeks to have his numbers swell. And he is succeeding, I'm afraid. Fear mongering is his favorite tool of persuasion, and there is no longer any race in this world that has not been compromised.
While the Lyccans are now united under the prophesied prince Domenico Moretti (who, ironically, is the sin eater's twin brother), not all shifter packs are as fortunate. The Jaguars, in particular, are vulnerable, with no alpha to lead them. And while the Caros have mostly kept to themselves, in-fighting among the members of the Brethren may make it vulnerable to an attack.
But alas, hardest hit yet again are none other than the Faes and Faeries. Betrayed by their own kind, their race is now without a home and if their plight is not readily addressed, perfidious individuals among them may persuade the last surviving Faes and Faeries to deflect...as a whole.
Dark times are ahead of us now, and my weary, cynical instincts tell me it shall only grow darker.
For the sake of the world I know you hold dear, please do heed our call.
We need you here.
Yours truly,
Milton
The Cardinal of Viver
The Prince
The woods that bordered the lands of the Panthera were akin to a dark and dense maze of colossal proportions. But instead of serpentine paths and hedges to befuddle one's senses, there was just the absence of light. Trees towered all around, with crooked, claw-like branches curved towards each other as if to shun the sun and drown the world underneath in a sea of blackness.
The way Misty spoke of the place, she had made it seem that finding the jinn would be a walk in the park. And maybe it had been, for someone like her who was favored by Lady Luck.
But for the Fae prince, it was disastrously turning out to be the opposite.
In his quest to find the one creature that could be the last true hope of his race, Lysander had found himself battling against Nature herself. Thunder and lightning came after him like ravenous hounds unleashed by an unseen deity. Quicksands and sinkholes appeared out of nowhere in a devious attempt to hold him captive, and as if those Herculean challenges were not enough, landslides and earthquakes constantly reshaped the ground he trekked, and with such treacherous silence it was as if they had been specifically devised to trap him.