Breaking Belle (Princess After Dark Book 2)

by Isabella Starling

  I tore into them, knocking one of the men out before he even had the chance to scream. He lay on the ground unmoving as I went to work on the other two.

  Their eyes were wide, now fully aware of their mistake.

  “Time to pay,” I growled at them, and in the next second, I jumped the smaller one while the tall guy came at me with a gun in his hand.

  I kicked the tall guy, knocking the gun out of his hand while my own were busy choking the stocky blond. The taller man stumbled on the ground, and all three of us lunged for the gun, hands grabbing desperately to get hold of it. I was the first one there, and I grabbed it, shooting the tall man in the head as if it meant nothing. The second his dead body dropped to the floor, I felt the rush of exhilaration I could only get from killing the men who had slaughtered my family.

  “Where is she?” I barked at the blond, who now held his hands up and was taking steps back from me. “Don’t you dare fucking run. Where is Arabelle?”

  “S-She’s in the dungeons,” he managed to get out, his voice as shaky as his hands. “Down… downstairs.”

  “How many people in here?” I asked, clicking the safety off on the gun. His face paled.

  “Please, I–” he started, but I approached him and punched him, breaking his nose instantly.

  “How many fucking people?” I repeated.

  “Three, besides us… Just three… And Nico,” he managed to get out.

  I approached him and sent a single bullet into his temple, and he dropped to the ground. He wasn’t worth wasting more than one more.

  I stepped over the dead bodies and headed inside, my senses on full alert as I tried to locate Belle. She was in the dungeons… Fuck knows how they’d been treating her, and if she was even alright. I needed to get down there quickly.

  I took the stairs two at a time and ran at the men downstairs, the shots from my gun so loud in the confined space. Two men dropped in seconds, while the third ducked and shot at me from his desk.

  He hit my shoulder, the bullet burying itself in my arm and making me curse out loud as I smelled the burning flesh. I came at him then, attacking savagely and bashing his head in until there was nothing left of the man but gore. I retreated, taking a step back and checking my shoulder. It wasn’t too deep.

  I reached up with my uninjured arm, a beastly scream coming from my lips as I tore into my flesh and dug for the bullet. My fingers wrapped around the object and I pulled it out of my own shoulder, cursing anything and everything that had ever existed. I stared at the bloodied bullet in the palm of my hand, and then put it in my pocket. This bullet would be the one to kill Nico, once it came to it.

  Continuing my journey down into the dungeons, I found several cells that were empty and unused, just like they had been when my family was using the castle. I reached the end of the hallway and glared at the still empty cells. Had that Russian fucker lied to me? Belle wasn’t in any of them.

  I went back, frantically searching for any sign of life when I tripped on something on the ground. I knelt down, my fingers finding a trapdoor on the floor. A grin lit up my face as I tugged on the door. Locked.

  I felt rage like never before, and I beat the door down until it splintered in my fists and came apart, the wooden boards creaking under my fingers. And then I climbed the ladder into the horror that lay below.

  The room was a prison. No windows, no bathroom, just a dirty mattress and a rusty bucket. And in the midst of it, my girl, my beautiful Belle, lay in the torn tatters of her dress, unconscious.

  I ran to her, my arms lifting up her lifeless body and cradling it as if my emotions alone could wake her up from death.

  But then I felt it, a glimmer of hope, her chest rising so very slightly I could have missed it. My beauty was breathing.

  I carried her up the ladder and outside, running the length of the hallway and outside, into the cold and unforgiving winter. I didn’t stop running until the only sound in the castle were the echoes of my feet hitting the ground, not until I reached the rose garden.

  The atrium in the middle of the castle was untouched, still just as beautiful as it had been. At least they hadn’t torn this place apart, at least they let those memories rest like the dead should.

  I tore my way into the garden, through the roses, my shoulder hurting horribly as I walked in with Belle in my arms. Her skin was ghostly pale, her long hair limp, her whole body lifeless as I sat down on the stone bench with her in my arms.

  For the first time in a decade, I prayed. And I remembered my sister, and how she had died in my arms at our family home. The exact moment I felt her heart stop and her body go numb.

  “Dominico,” she whispered, and I pressed my forehead to hers, trying not to show my tears. “Hide, or they will get you too.”

  “Never,” I told her, my desperate fingers clutching at the wound in her neck, even though we both knew I’d never be able to make it better.

  She was dying, bleeding profusely, probably only a few minutes away from succumbing to her wound. But I couldn’t let it happen. I couldn’t lose my sister.

  “Go,” she said, spitting up blood. “Go, Dominico, avenge our family. I love…”

  And that was it, her last breath, her last word. I bit my lip so hard it bled all over my face, trying to stop myself from screaming with the pain of it all.

  “I will,” I promised her, before I laid her body on top of mine, lying still as the Russians barged into the room once again.

  I will, I repeated in my mind, and I laid there, a single tear falling down my cheek as the Russians pronounced us all gone.

  Dead.

  That was the day I became a monster.

  “Wake up,” I whispered to Belle. “Please. Please, beautiful. I need to know I can still be a man. I need to know I’m not a monster.”

  I hung my head and prayed as thick snowflakes filled the air around us.

  MY EYES FLUTTERED SLOWLY OPEN.

  I felt the cold first—sharp cold biting into my limbs, but at the same time, making me pleasantly numb, as if I was dreaming. My lashes went up, and my pupils zeroed in on the sight before me.

  Dom was holding me in his arms… it must have been a dream. He’d been gone for such a long time. Such a long time without him.

  “Dominic,” I whispered, and his hand found my cheek, gently caressing my skin.

  “Don’t talk,” he growled, and then his mouth was on mine, and he was kissing me.

  The savage desperation he kissed me with made me think maybe it wasn’t a dream after all. Maybe my beast had found me in the nest of snakes, and maybe, just maybe, he’d managed to steal me back.

  I kissed him back with every ounce of energy I had left in my body, my lips gentle whereas his were demanding, draining me of every bit of pain.

  “It’s really you,” I whispered against his lips, and he started kissing me everywhere, covering every inch of my face with his lips, pressing down, sucking, taking me back. “I can’t believe it, Dominic. I thought I’d lost you, I thought I’d never see you again… They made me believe you were dead.”

  “I’m here,” he promised me, muttering the words against my skin over and over again.

  I clung to his body, desperate to make sure he really was there. But now I was starting to come to, my eyes slowly taking in our surroundings.

  “We’re back in the castle,” Dom explained, as if he was reading my mind. “In the rose garden, beautiful. I wanted you to be with my family.”

  “Dom,” I said, my voice breaking as we kissed again, our love bursting at the seams and our pain slowly seeping out into the snow below us.

  He kissed me like I belonged to him and like he never wanted to lose me again. And I let him claim every part of me and cover every inch of my skin with his love.

  “Can you take me inside?” I whispered. “I’m so cold, Dom. So cold…”

  “I’ll take care of you,” he promised firmly. “You’ll never worry about anything again.”

  He took me in
his arms, carrying me out of the garden and away from the snow.

  “Look away,” he ordered me gently, and I curled up close to him, hiding my face in the crook of his shoulder.

  I felt us going up the stairs and into his master bedroom. I could recognize it by the scent of him, leather and cinnamon, like danger and winter wrapped into one. I was addicted to it, and I’d never be able to associate the smell with anyone else. And I liked it that way.

  Dom laid me on the bed as if I were a broken doll, and told me he’d be right back, but I wasn’t having it. I begged and begged him until he promised he’d stay, only making a phone call on a burner phone he had hidden in the room. I waited for him to deal with it all as I slowly felt myself coming back to life, my body flowing with new hope and strength I never knew I had.

  Once he was done, he lay on the bed next to me, his fingers gently trailing my features.

  “Did they hurt you?” he asked roughly, nearly choking on the words.

  I shook my head, and he enveloped me in his arms, his scent overwhelmingly familiar, reminding me who I belonged to. After only a few weeks, there was no doubt about it. I was Dom’s now and forever, and I would spend the rest of my life proving it… if he let me.

  “Dom,” I whispered, and he looked into my eyes. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life afraid.”

  His mouth set in a thin line as he caressed my cheek.

  “I’ll make sure you don’t, beautiful,” he promised. “Nico is still out there, but I will make sure he is punished for his actions. I’ll make sure that lousy jackass never forgets he picked on the wrong man and the wrong girl.”

  I spent the next twenty minutes convincing him I was okay, only cold and malnourished, and then we heard the sound of cars on the gravel outside, and Dom took my hand and led me out there.

  We stood at the top of the stairs as the entrance hall filled with people. Luca stood at the front, but behind him, there were men, women, even children. I noticed Martha amongst them, wearing a silent smile. Entire families that I’d never seen before all looked up at Dom as if he was their god, the only religion they ever believed in.

  And then they cheered, raising their fists in the air and whooping for the man they believed would lead them into a brighter future—my man, my Dom. And I found myself joining in the laughter. I believed them, I believed their happiness and joy at seeing their prince rise from the ashes. Just like them, I believed life would be okay again.

  Chip stepped from the crowd and stood next to Luca, and the two men hugged.

  I ran down the stairs and hugged the boy who was now suddenly all grown up.

  “What happened to you?” I whispered.

  “I saw everything that happened,” he said. “I tracked down Luca, and I told everyone who’s here to come and save you.”

  I could have kissed him, but instead, I just laughed and held him close.

  Maybe, finally, things would work out for the better.

  As I looked up at Dom, grinning at the people who already loved him, I knew I had found my place in the world.

  3 days later

  The car pulled up in front of my old house, and I fidgeted nervously in the backseat.

  Dom reached over to me, gently wrapping his fingers around mine and giving me a reassuring smile.

  “It will be okay,” he told me gently. “You’ll be alright, beautiful.”

  I nodded, and we got out of the car together, with Dom holding my hand as he led me down the path towards the front door.

  He rang the doorbell for me, and I stood in front of my old home feeling worried but hopeful. That day, I was wearing a new outfit—a stunning red lace dress and a cape over it. Dom had assured me I looked beautiful, but I wasn’t worried about my appearance. I was worried that my little brother wouldn’t want to come with me. The rest of them, as Dom had taught me, could go fuck themselves.

  My father opened the door, his face paling the second he locked eyes with Dom.

  “Hello, Dalton,” Dom hissed because he loved to torture those he didn’t respect.

  I nudged him in the ribs, and my father backed away into the house as we entered.

  I felt like a different person as I stood in my childhood home. I no longer felt like a helpless child, I felt like a powerful woman who could do anything she set her mind to. And as my eyes focused on Adrian, I felt them fill with tears. My little brother was no longer, and it looked as if he had undergone his own transformation in the time I had been gone. He stared at me with the eyes of a man, not a boy, and I knew my absence had changed him just as it had changed me.

  I ran to him, kneeling in front of him and taking his hands in mine while our brothers stared on.

  “Adrian,” I said gently. “I’m so sorry I’ve been away.”

  He didn’t say a word, but as he raised his eyes to look at Dom, I saw curiosity sparkling in them. I had wondered before how Dominic would take the news that I wanted my baby brother to live with us, but he’d been nothing but supportive. And now, with the two of them in the same room, I couldn’t help but draw some lines of similarity between them. Both so headstrong, serious, set on their goals. They both had a heart of gold but were often mistaken as men with bad intentions. I wondered whether they would get along.

  Dominic approached us, his footsteps heavy on the cheap floor. He joined me in front of Adrian and sized him up with his eyes.

  “Hey, kid,” he said, his voice gentler than I was expecting it to be. “How do you feel about living in a castle?”

  “Is it haunted?” Adrian asked with narrowed eyes, and I shifted uncomfortably on my feet, afraid of Dominic’s response.

  “Probably,” my man said easily, without a care in the world. “I’ll help you find every ghost in there, if you like. And one day, I’ll tell you all about them.”

  Slowly, Adrian started nodding.

  “I need to get my things,” he said, but I pulled on his arm.

  “No, we’ll get anything you need,” I promised him.

  He gave me a long look before turning around and looking at the rest of our family. Six children, four of our brothers that we would never see again… And my father, cowering in the corner like a frightened child.

  “There’s nothing left for us here, Adrian,” I told my brother, taking his hand in mine and walking towards the door.

  He fell into step behind me, and so did Dom. We walked outside, and when we’d almost reached the car, my father called out to us.

  “Wait!”

  His voice was like a glimmer of hope in the darkness I now associated with the rest of my family. I turned around, taking one long look at him, and knowing what he wanted before he even opened his mouth to speak again.

  “Can I come with you?” he asked desperately.

  I knew where this was coming from. He’d seen Dom’s impressive car, the way he strode into any place like he owned it. And now he wanted a piece of it.

  My father had always been an opportunist, but for the longest time, I spent hours upon hours finding excuses for his behavior. But now, I was done with it once and for all.

  “Goodbye,” I told him, and we all got into the car.

  I didn’t take a single look at the house as we drove off, towards out future.

  2 months later

  “DO YOU, DOMINICO BIANCHI, TAKE this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

  I looked into Belle’s eyes. Her beautiful, chocolate brown eyes—as expressive as they were the first day we met, except now they had a whole new story to tell. I could see the smile trying to break out on her lips mixed with an urgency for this to be done, so she could be back in my arms. But I didn’t see a shred of doubt. She wanted this, just as badly as I did.

  “I do,” I said proudly, and Belle smiled at me, still a little timid, still a little shy. Just the way I fucking liked her.

  “And Arabelle Dalton,” Luca went on, turning towards Belle. “Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, until death do you part
?”

  “I do,” Belle whispered, and before Luca could finish his next sentence, pronouncing us man and wife, I had her raised over my shoulder, my hands holding her up and carrying her out of the rose garden.

  “I now pronounce you man and wife,” Luca yelled out after us, and Belle giggled as I set her down once we made it over the threshold and back into the castle.

  I set her down on the floor and she twirled for me, looking more beautiful than ever in her stunning ivory gown. It was delectable, the bodice consisting of a corset with hand-sewn diamonds covering my girl’s tits. The dress flared out into a princess cut, layers and layers of silk and tulle truly making her look like a fairytale princess. I couldn’t get enough of her. I could have stared for days.

  She ran ahead of me, and I chased her all the way to the master bedroom, now finally belonging to the both of us. She was on the bed in seconds, and I was next to her, my fingers urgently undoing the buttons of her corset, desperate to make contact with her milky skin. She helped me along the way, moaning and begging me to hurry, to get her out of that goddamn dress so I could finally have my way with her.

  Belle giggled over and over again until I turned her towards me, my eyes playful and looking into hers.

  “Did someone have too much to drink?” I asked her, and she giggled again.

  “So much I saw the cutlery come alive in front of my eyes,” she laughed, and I covered her skin with kisses.

  This woman was innocence and sweetness and a dash of pure magic. She made me believe in fairytales again because she was the perfect queen to suit the ruler in me. And she would rule beside me like the best damn queen there was.

  “You silly girl,” I groaned against her skin. “Too drunk to let me make love to you?”

  “Never,” she whispered, pulling me against her. “I want you to make your promise come true…”

  “Which one?” I growled at her, feeling the monster take the wheel. I was going to claim her, I was going to make her submit completely, and I wasn’t going to take no for an answer.