BLOOD PRINCESS
GODS OF CHAOS MOTORCYCLE CLUB
HONEY PALOMINO
COPYRIGHT © 2021 HONEY PALOMINO
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WORLDWIDE
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without permission from the author. This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, events, locations and incidences are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This book is for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature content and is intended for adults only.
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Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Epilogue
About the Author
Thank You
Prologue
WILLA
This is a mistake.
It’s all I could think about, but still my feet kept moving, carrying me away from everything and everyone I’ve ever loved, rushing me into the unknown, into the darkness of the forest, the swaying trees blocking out the moonlight I was hoping would light my way.
Maybe I was wrong.
Maybe I hadn’t thought of everything, after all.
Tears streamed down my face and I reached up and wiped them away with my trembling fingers.
This is a mistake. This is a mistake. This is a mistake.
Leaves whipped against my bare arms, scratching my skin. At any other time, I would have cried out, but I barely felt the sting tonight.
I wasn’t sure I felt anything at all.
I’d had to block out all my fear just to get this far.
I couldn’t stop at the first bead of blood. I couldn’t let the darkness I must travel through deprive me of the possibility of a real life — a life on the other side of this isolated existence.
If this is a mistake, it will be the most glorious mistake I’ve ever made.
Trying to control my breath, I opened my mouth and gulped the hot summer air. Dead leaves crunched under my loafers, the closest thing I had to a sensible shoe. Despite the heat, I shivered as the warm breeze blew back my long, blonde hair.
This is the love I’ve always wished for.
This is the opportunity I prayed for in the silence of the night.
This is real. This is real. This is real.
I replaced the words rattling through my brain and forced a courageous smile as I soldiered through the woods.
This wasn’t a mistake.
This was everything I ever wanted.
Just one chance was all I ever needed.
It was a miracle, really. As if the universe knew what I needed to survive and provided it.
Maybe it was my mother’s spirit, or perhaps some other celestial ancestor guiding me through the forest, but eventually I broke through the trees with a relieved cry.
A movement in the branches above my head stopped me in my tracks.
I looked up and peered straight into the bright yellow eyes of an owl, his wise stare seeming to pierce my soul. With a mighty flap of his wings, he threw his head back and hooted, a long song that cut through the silence of the night.
Startled and frightened, I gasped and turned to run towards the headlights, shining like a beacon in the darkness of my life, leaving the screeching owl and the oppression of a lifetime behind me.
I flung open the door and slid inside, turning to face my future — Dragon.
“You did it!” he cried.
“I did it,” I replied, breathlessly smiling.
“I’m so proud of you!” He pulled me in for a tight hug and I tensed up, but his excitement was contagious and a surge of happiness filled my heart.
“Me, too! Let’s go! Go, go, go!” I shouted with glee, pulling away and looking behind me into the forest, expecting the trees to part their mighty branches and pull me back in at any second.
Laughing, my heart beat wildly in my chest as he put the car in gear and we raced off into the night, the owl’s song haunting my mind as the castle slowly disappeared behind us, the moon hanging bright and clear over the only home I’d ever known, the home I was leaving behind.
Chapter 1
DIANA
“What does one wear to an interview with a king?” I asked my assistant, Rosa.
“A smart suit,” she replied, promptly. I had no doubt she’d already done hours of research on the topic already. That’s why I hired her. I’d had to steal her away from a local real estate mogul, but once I’d seen her at work, deftly handling every request and demand he’d thrown at her, I knew I needed someone like that by my side. I also knew women like her didn’t grow on trees, and my chances of finding a Rosa of my own was slim to none, so I did what any successful businesswoman did — I gave her an offer she couldn’t refuse: twice the salary she was making then and three times the benefits.
It worked.
And she was just as efficient and loyal as I’d dreamed she’d be.
“A bright red suit, black pumps, a single strand of pearls, with your hair pulled back in a tight knot. Red lipstick.”
“Done. Anything else I need to know?”
She pushed a large binder across my desk.
“It’s all there. Just look over it before you land. From all reports, the King of Lilivania is extremely media shy. Landing this interview speaks volumes about how respected you’ve become in the last year. That Ellen interview really did wonders for your career, Diana. This interview with King Joseph will do the same.”
“Have I told you today how amazing you are?” I asked, opening the binder and pushing away the sense of overwhelming fear that washed over me.
“I’m only propping you up on the pedestal you deserve to be on,” she insisted, before waltzing out of my office and leaving me alone with my thoughts.
I’d spent the six months working my ass off since leaving the news station I’d worked at in Portland for over a decade.
After getting passed up on promotions that I deserved, I made the bold decision to become a freelance journalist. After a few weeks of gathering my courage, I reached out to almost everyone I’d come in contact with during my years at the station, offering anyone and everyone a chance for a no-holds-barred interview, with no
filters, no pesky management censoring the subjects we could discuss, and the reception I received was immense.
I hired a social media advisor and started a website, tapped into the fan base I’d built at the station, then posted my interviews online and watched the interest grow.
Sure, anyone in this day and age can go to their own social media accounts and say anything they want, but having a skilled journalist guide you through an interview and let you be yourself, let you say anything you want and not censure you or try to twist your words, was a concept that appealed to many celebrities.
I was contacted by names I never dreamed I’d hear from after a while — first just local celebrities, but soon I was interviewing a steady stream of increasingly famous A-list actresses and rock stars and visual artists.
When I was contacted by Ellen, who wanted to use my quickly growing readership to clear her name after her staff leveled some serious complaints her way, I graciously jumped on the chance.
As much as I enjoyed the success, I never in a million years expected to be contacted by the ruler of a small country I’d barely heard of. To be fair, he’d never heard of me until his daughters’ nanny told him about me. Clara was my roommate in college and through a series of random events had ended up the primary caretaker of the king’s twin daughters.
His Royal Highness, King Joseph of Lilivania, was launching a PR campaign to improve the image of his small country, hoping to increase tourism and awareness of the tiny country his family had ruled for centuries. Famously reclusive, landing an interview with him was noteworthy for that alone. He’d not allowed a non-family member through the doors of his palace, outside of his staff, for a decade.
Nobody was more shocked that Clara had convinced him to give me the time of day than myself. As soon as the shock wore off, I quickly got to work learning everything I could about him.
And now, the time had come.
Tomorrow morning, I’d be on my way to the biggest interview of my life. Nervous excitement rushed through my veins as I studied the information Rosa had compiled for me.
Five minutes later, Rosa came back in with my cell phone in her hand.
“It’s Clara,” she said, her tone somber. I grabbed the phone, flashing a curious look her way. She shook her head with disappointment as I put the phone to my ear.
“Clara?”
“Diana, I’m so sorry, the interview’s off,” she said, her words rushed and breathless.
“Why?” I cried, my heart sinking.
“If I tell you, you have to promise not to leak this information,” she said. “It’s bad enough already, if the king finds out I told anyone…”
“I promise,” I assured her.
“One of the girls is missing.”
“Missing?” I asked. I knew right away she was talking about the twins, her charges, the king’s daughters. “Oh, no!”
“I can’t believe it,” she said, her voice cracking. “Willa was missing from her bed this morning. The king is beside himself, so is Eva. The whole staff is frantically searching for her as we speak.”
I could hear the fear in her voice and my heart swelled with empathy for her. I couldn’t help but remember when Grace and Ryder’s daughter went missing. We all feared the worst immediately. I know how important it was to hold onto hope in these situations.
“Clara, it’s going to be okay. The police will find her!”
“That’s the thing, Diana!” She cried. “He won’t call them! The king is so paranoid that he’s kept them isolated all these years because he was so afraid they’d be kidnapped again!”
“I know, but we don’t know what’s happened this time,” I assured her. “Let’s not jump to conclusions.”
The girls were only six when they were kidnapped by an obsessed madman. Luckily, they were rescued, but not without suffering some lingering scars. Since then, the king had locked them away from the public eye, forcing them to live their lives behind the secure stone walls surrounding the castle grounds. Unfortunately, the seclusion had only served to increase the public’s curiosity about the girls. It was one of the touchy subjects I hoped to approach during our interview, even though I’d been given strict instructions not to bring them up. I wasn’t sure I could resist.
“His paranoia isn’t going to help us find her! He dismantled the security cameras years ago, sure somehow they would be hacked. He fired most of the security team because he doesn’t trust anyone. And, because nobody has seen the girls lately, he doesn’t want the public to know she’s missing because he’ll have to provide a recent picture.”
“Well, either he wants her back or he doesn’t! That’s absurd,” I said.
“He won’t listen to anyone,” she said. “He’s beside himself with worry and rage and conflicted beyond belief on how to handle this.”
“Well, this is just awful,” I said. Rose was still standing at the door, listening to my side of the conversation. I looked up at her and shook my head.
“I know,” Clara sighed. “I was just calling to let you know the interview is off. I’m hoping this is over very soon, but even if she waltzes back in here in five minutes, the king is spooked enough that he won’t do the interview now.”
“I understand,” I said, and I did. Of course he’d call off the interview. Just my luck, I figured. It was too good to be true. “Clara, is there anything I can do to help from here?”
“I wish,” she said. “I don’t know what to do myself. He sent a few of his staff out into the city to look for her, but we don’t know which direction she went in or anything. We don’t know if she’s alone or if someone took her. Nothing! I don’t even know where to start. Not that he would let me, even if I did. He wants everything done in secret and on such a small island, there isn’t a lot of room for being discreet.”
The island of Lilivania was in the middle of the Norwegian Sea, a neutral country near Norway, with a rich history and a stunning landscape, albeit a small population of only about fifty thousand people. If the king’s men were out on a hunt, word would surely travel quickly.
Outside of my disappointment at losing the interview, I felt terrible for Clara. She’d provided a sense of family when I needed it the most during our college years and we’d been close ever since. Even with her being halfway across the world, we did our best to keep in touch. It didn’t take me long to think of a possible solution to her problems.
“Clara, what about the Gods?”
“The Gods?” She echoed. I could see her in my mind wrinkling her nose in confusion.
“Maybe they can help. Do you want me to talk to Slade?”
Clara knew all about Slade, of course. And because I’d held nothing back, she knew about the Gods of Chaos Motorcycle Club, and of course, Solid Ground, the organization they ran to help people who couldn’t go to traditional sources for help.
“I don’t see how they could —.”
“— You’d be surprised! They work miracles, Clara, they really do. Let me just talk to Slade.”
“I really don’t think so, Diana,” she said. “The king would never go for it.”
“Okay, well I don’t want to overstep or be disrespectful, but if you change your mind, let me know. And if you need anything at all, just call. I’ll be sending you all the good thoughts I can.”
“Thank you,” she said. “We’re going to need it. I just can’t believe this is happening. I should go now. Thank you for understanding.”
“Of course,” I said. “I love you. Hang in there.”
The line went dead and I met Rose’s gaze again.
“That sounded awful,” she said.
“It is. One of the girls is missing,” I said. “The interview’s off.”
“Dammit. I’ll go cancel your travel plans,” she said, turning away.
“Wait,” I said. “Give it a few hours. I’ve got a weird feeling about this, Rose.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” she said, walking out, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
>
I hated the feeling of helplessness I had. I wanted to get out on the streets of Lilivania and search for Willa myself. Hopefully the king would come around and accept the help he needed.
Sometimes, you had to expose your vulnerabilities in order to get your needs met, and this seemed to be one of those times.
I sighed and leaned back in my chair, my heart hurting for Clara, and the king and Eva, too.
Chapter 2
CLARA
No.
No no no no!
That’s all I could think as I stood frozen outside of the king’s study. I thought maybe if I thought it hard enough, I could wish all of this away. I couldn’t help but feel that this was all my fault — although I had no idea what I may have done to cause all of this directly — I was the one primarily responsible for caring for the girls.
And now one of them was missing.
Again.
Thank God I wasn’t around the first time, because just living through this nightmare for the last — oh God, how could eight hours have passed already? — eight hours was enough to make me sure my heart was going to seize up any moment and I couldn’t imagine going through it twice.
The poor king.
First, he’d lost his wife right after the girls were born, and then both the girls were taken when they were six, and now that he’d gotten them back and found the strength to keep going — Willa is gone again.
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