#Chapter 55: Downfall

Alaric I’d been pacing relentlessly in my office for what felt like hours now, my mind whirling. But surprisingly, despite everything—despite the attempted arranged marriage to Emily, my mother’s false promises, the Harrington pulling out of several business ventures—my mind was elsewhere tonight. It wasn’t business that I was obsessing over. It was Elara who I couldn’t stop thinking about. She hadn’t left my mind since the banquet. I couldn’t stop feeling her since she had kissed me beneath the stars, her lips soft and desperate against mine, her fingers curling around my biceps. Hell, if I was being honest with myself, she hadn’t really left my thoughts since the night I had marked her. The way she gasped when my fangs pierced her soft skin, the heat between us despite the cold water, her pulse suddenly hammering through the new bond we’d created… Even now, just thinking about it, I felt something warm and unfamiliar stir inside of me. If I closed my eye