Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 61523 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 308(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61523 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 308(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
“Romy,” she repeats kindly. “I like that a lot.”
“Thanks.” I clear my throat. “Sorry. I’m not trying to be… I’m just nervous.”
“Really?” she asks, surprised. “I’ve been waiting for this for, like, forever. My mom started talking about the Selection when I was a kid. She says it’s the highest honor and philanthropic in ways the public would never be able to understand. You and I, and all these women…we’re the reason these vampires will continue to exist. You don’t think that’s exhilarating?”
I snort. “Yeah, not really. I mean, don’t get me wrong, my mom has always told me the same thing. I just…”
“Don’t believe her?”
I shake my head. “Think it’s rosied up a little bit too much. You’re not worried about not having a say in who picks you?”
She balks for just a fraction of a moment before smiling again. “No. I have no reason to be. These are all the literal strongest, most powerful, richest, handsomest men in the world. Any of them would be better than the crop of human men out there.”
When I grimace, she laughs.
“Oh, come on. You really think these vampires are sending three a.m. you up? messages in between unsolicited dick pics? Because that’s what I’m getting outside of here, and I know just from looking at you, you are too.”
“Okay, I’ll give you that it’s not great out there. But surely there are good ones. Romantics. Men who would never participate in something like…this.”
She reaches out to squeeze my hand, a motion intended to comfort me. It’s funny, though, because her naïveté about what’s really happening here doesn’t console me at all. “It’s going to be amazing, Romy. You’ll see. And if you need someone to hang out with until you’re convinced and vent out all your worries, you can hang with me.” She looks around the room conspiratorially before lowering her voice to a whisper. “Some of these other ladies seem a little uptight.”
For the first time since entering this ballroom of doom, I laugh. It’s not as if I feel good about any of this yet, but maybe it’s not such a bad idea to have a pseudo-friend to stick with through it.
I nod. “Okay, yeah. Thanks. That’s really nice of you.”
“Come on,” Abigail says, grabbing me by the hand. “Let’s go get another cocktail and a bite of something to eat. Shall we?”
“We shall.”
It’s not like I have many other options right now anyway.
Cal
Lucian didn’t waste any time making my brothers and me follow through.
And now, here I stand, inside a luxury mansion, surrounded by elite vampires listening to my uncle address the room.
“Welcome, gentlemen, to Viewing Night,” Lucian announces. “For the next two hours, you’re invited to observe and learn about the pool of exceptional women we’ve gathered for this year’s Selection. I know many of you are new to the process, and we’ll be walking you through it as necessary, but the Council’s biggest piece of advice is to enjoy it. You’ll only have your first Selection once, and I must say…there’s nothing quite like that thrill.”
My jaw locks tightly as I lean against the wall in the back of the room, trapped in the hell of watching my uncle and his elder peers talk about this event like it’s some sort of fucking trip to an amusement park.
I’m wearing a tux and holding a glass of bourbon in my hand, but the liquor is untouched and the setting is the least deserving of formal wear I’ve ever seen.
It’s fucking disgusting, plain and simple. And if I had any other option at all, I wouldn’t be anywhere near it.
As things stand, though, I’m stuck here. Kane and Blair and Rook and Kylie have been confined somewhere out of sight since we arrived, and I’ve been tucked under Uncle Lucian’s wing.
And because of the tremendous exhibition of power he made during our first meeting, I haven’t gone rogue. Hell, he might be one of the most powerful vampire I’ve ever met. There’s no telling what he’d do to Rook, Kane, and their mates before I even had a chance to find them.
I’m trapped—both physically and emotionally—for the time being.
“Calloway,” my uncle calls from the front of the room, startling both me and the large group of men around me. I expected to be the unspoken elephant in the room for a bit—to be cast as an outsider as a further form of punishment.
Several sets of angry eyes find mine in a sneer, and the ones who don’t are openly curious. A hundred vampires, all waiting for me to make a wrong move. As the quietest brother of the Slater trio, I’ve never been under this much scrutiny in my life.
But I guess that’s the point.
“Yes?” Even the simple word feels like a bitter betrayal of my tongue. To be here. To be compliant. Everything about this is an assault on all that I stand for.