Heartless Prince: A Dark Captive Romance (Dark Dynasty Book 1)

by Stella Hart

  Deep down, I knew that wasn’t true. Whoever was in that SUV was watching me, and they wanted me to know.

  But who the hell was it?

  4

  Elias

  I tossed my phone aside with a frown and zipped up my pants despite the aching in my groin. Tatum had stopped replying to me, and I was too fucking frustrated to come. Having her right there at my fingertips telling me how she liked danger had worked for a few minutes, but it wasn’t enough.

  It was never enough.

  I was sick of playing games. Sick of waiting. I wanted to have her right here in front of me. Wanted to press my hands into her soft skin, gripping her so tight she cried out. Wanted to bite those plump pink lips, make her scream into my mouth. Wanted to fuck her tight little pussy so hard she wouldn’t be able to walk for a week.

  I wanted to own her.

  Right fucking now.

  I knew there was a protocol in our society, and I’d been patiently sticking to it for a long time, as crazy as it drove me. Now I was officially done with it. I wasn’t supposed to contact Tatum at all before the time was right, but I couldn’t help myself anymore. Not when she was so close last night, shivering only yards away from me behind that stone as she watched the proceedings.

  I had to admit, it bothered me that she’d been there. I already knew she wanted to be involved with us, but when she sneaked into the Tomb party like that, it showed me that she wasn’t scared of us.

  I wanted her to be scared of us. I wanted her to be terrified when I finally took her. I wanted real tears, real anguish. Real pain. Not this fake bullshit where she pretended to be frightened but secretly wanted it the whole time.

  No, I wanted her on her knees, stark fear in her eyes, begging and pleading.

  I took a cold shower to ease the aching in my loins, then headed downstairs to my father’s study. One of them, anyway. He had identical ones in every house we owned and used, even the vacation homes. He spent most of his time in Fairfield or out at the Lodge in the northwest of Connecticut, but for the last few weeks he’d been here with me at our New Marwick property, keeping an eye on me to make sure I didn’t do anything unwise. He knew how impatient I was getting after being kept from my prize for so long.

  He was standing by a roaring fire, lazy white curls of smoke drifting up from a Cuban cigar held in one hand. When I entered, he turned to look at me. “What is it?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “What do you think? I want to know about Tatum. When is she arriving?”

  He pressed his lips into a thin line as I spoke. “How many times have we discussed this?” he asked.

  “Not enough, obviously, because I still don’t have a straight answer.”

  “It’s still being set up. As I told you last time we discussed this matter, it needs to look normal. The transfer of the money, that is. It can’t be done in one lump sum, or else we risk drawing the wrong kind of attention from certain people. The last thing we need is the US Attorney’s office breathing down our neck over financial irregularities, and you know they’re always watching us and waiting for us to slip up. So we’re carefully laundering it through her father’s business, and when the last dollar is in, she’ll be ours.”

  I folded my arms. “I know all that, but I still want a date. I’ve waited a year and a half for this, and my patience is seriously wearing thin.”

  He held a palm up. “Fine. Three weeks. She’s being watched at all times, just to make sure she doesn’t get any funny ideas or try to leave.”

  “Good. That wasn’t so fucking hard, was it?” I said.

  A bored expression appeared on his face. “Don’t you have some study to do now?”

  That was his way of dismissing me. It wasn’t like I actually had to study to get through grad school. I did it when I needed to, because I wanted to know all the necessary shit, but there was no way I needed to put my head down and work my ass off like other people did.

  Being born into a family like mine ensured my success and set it in solid stone without me having to lift a finger if I didn’t feel like it. Entering a brotherhood like Crown and Dagger made it even easier. We were the nation’s dirty little secret, running and controlling things across the nation that most people couldn’t even dream of. There was nothing that didn’t come to us if we decided we wanted it.

  We owned most of the buildings at Roden, as well as more than half the land within several miles of it. The local police were in our pocket, along with the mayor. People who knew of our existence feared us, only speaking about us in hushed tones (aside from the odd vocal conspiracy nut who no one gave a fuck about listening to anyway), and they also desperately wished to be us.

  We had everything, after all.

  Even the lowest-level members were given enormous monetary gifts, flashy sports cars, dream jobs upon graduation, and access to multiple luxury mansions on private properties and islands if the need ever arose. They had all the connections they’d ever need, and they would never be down on their luck. The society would always see to that.

  It only got better from there. The second level, where I was now, brought untold pleasures that the average man could only ever fantasize about. It taught me what I liked, helped me uncover all the things some deep, dark part of me had always craved. I didn’t want innocent girls who liked tender kisses and gentle lovemaking on their backs in romantic candlelight. I wanted it dirtier, darker, sicker. I wanted to hurt them. I wanted them begging, crying, screaming. I wanted to give them exactly what they deserved.

  The society showed me there wasn’t anything wrong with me. I was just a man with needs, like all the other men who made it that far. They all got what they wanted, too. Any woman they desired could be theirs, because every woman had a price.

  Tatum’s was lower than expected. I guess she and her pathetic little family were desperate enough that they’d sign her life away for even the most paltry of sums. Or perhaps—and I hoped this was the case—she felt such crushing guilt over her past that she knew she wasn’t worth the full million we would’ve been willing to offer if she’d bothered trying to negotiate. She was worth nothing, and I couldn’t wait to show her that. I couldn’t wait to ruin her.

  I hated knowing she’d actually signed up for this, though. I didn’t want her consent for any of the things I planned on doing to her. But I suppose in the end, it was easy enough to pretend I didn’t have it. That was the closest I’d ever get.

  Besides, I’d still be taking all her firsts for myself. I’d ensured that anyone who ever dared to display interest in her never went near her again, so even her first kiss would be mine. The first cock she took in her mouth would be mine. Her virginity would be mine. The first orgasm that ever tore through her would be because of me. All of those things, taken and done to her by me and me alone. The thought made a giddy rush speed through my veins like a drug with her name on it.

  I couldn’t wait to see her expression when she realized what she’d truly gotten herself into; when she realized how utterly I owned her.

  She knew she would be sold to Crown and Dagger one day, but she didn’t know her new master would be me. When she first saw me in her new home in a few weeks and realized who I was and what she’d done, those gorgeous baby blues would come alive with pure panic, flaring hot and bright before they went dark with terror. She would try to leave, but by then it would be too late. Too late to avoid what she’d done, too late to avoid the punishment I had in store for her.

  She deserved it.

  Why, you may ask?

  I despised Tatum Marris with every inch of my soul, and hate was nature’s most potent source of energy. It was vast, endless. It drove me to dark places, drove my need to claim her as my unwilling prize when the time was right, just so she’d feel the same pain she brought upon everyone else.

  A lot of people liked to think that someone like me could never really want for anything because of my family’s obscene amount of money and power. That was true for the most part, but the one
thing even the richest people could never buy was time. You could have all the gold and jewels and prime real estate in the world, but it wouldn’t buy an extra minute with your loved ones once they were gone.

  One of mine was gone, and it was all because of Tatum. No amount of cash would bring them back, but I was still going to make her pay anyway.

  See, I didn’t just want to own her.

  I wanted to destroy her.

  5

  Tatum

  At ten o’clock, I was still shaking. For the last few hours, I’d tried to focus on reading lecture notes and assignment details, but my mind kept drifting back to the disturbing messages.

  Finally, I abandoned all pretenses of study and headed out into the hall. I wanted to find Mellie and talk to her about everything that was going on, see if she had any advice for me.

  Her suite was just a few doors down, but it felt like I hadn’t seen or spoken to her in ages. That was weird, considering how she was my best friend here at Roden.

  Come to think of it, she’d been acting quite oddly for the last two weeks. She was suddenly busy all the time, and conversations at breakfast and dinner were stilted and vague. It almost seemed as if she was avoiding me, though I couldn’t think why. I’d asked Greer and Willa about it, but they’d never been as close with Mellie as me, so they hadn’t noticed anything unusual about her behavior. They figured she was probably just stressed about assignments.

  As I padded toward her door, I heard shouting coming from her suite. Not wanting to intrude, I hesitated in the hall, wondering what was going on and if she was okay.

  “Shut the hell up!” I heard Mellie say. “I honestly don’t know why you bothered coming here. Just fuck off with your pack of goons. Where are they, anyway? Shouldn’t they be following you around like puppies?”

  “Are you serious?” said a deep masculine voice in response. There was a brief pause before he went on, voice edged with fury. “For fuck’s sake, you really have no idea what you’re doing. At all.”

  “I’m not as dumb as I look, Henry,” Mellie replied, her voice shrill and furious now. “I’m so fucking sick of you treating me like this just because I don’t have a dick! Men aren’t actually superior, you know. Are you ever going to get that?”

  “You think that’s what this is about?” The man scoffed. “I guess you’re gonna get a nasty shock soon, you stupid little bitch! Just wait.”

  There was a tinkling sound as something shattered. “I said get out!” Mellie yelled.

  The man didn’t say anything else, and the door opened a few seconds later before slamming behind him as he strode out into the hall. I shrank back against the wall, and his brown eyes narrowed as he saw me. “You,” he said, eyes blazing.

  I raised my brows. “Um… do I know you?”

  He came closer and jabbed a finger toward my chest. “Stay the fuck away from my sister.”

  My eyes widened incredulously. “Huh?”

  He looked around us for a second, presumably making sure there was no one else to witness his threatening gestures. “Just do as I fucking say. Stay away,” he hissed.

  Before I could respond, he strode away. When he reached the stairway, I finally gathered up the courage to call out after him. “Whatever, asshole!”

  He didn’t turn around.

  I headed over to Mellie’s door and knocked. She opened it in a huff. “I told you to fuck off! I don’t… oh, it’s you.”

  “Yeah. Me. I think I just met your older brother. Everything okay?”

  She chewed on her bottom lip, her eyes wide. “You saw Henry? Did he say anything to you?”

  “Yeah. ‘Stay the fuck away from my sister’. Any idea what that’s about? I’ve never even met him before.”

  She waved her hand and stepped aside to let me in. “Oh, who knows with him? He’s an idiot. Probably thinks you’re a bad influence on me or something,” she said as she set about cleaning up the broken glass.

  Her offhand comment sliced right to my core. Because I came from a poorer family—when I was younger, at least—I’d often heard the ‘bad influence’ line from my richer school friends. Their parents would side-eye me or outright ban them from hanging out with me, as if I’d pass on ‘common’ behavior to them purely because I wasn’t rich and didn’t have the right pedigree. It made me feel lower than low, even though I knew they were just elitist assholes.

  Mellie knew all that. I’d confided a lot of my insecurities and past traumas in her over the last few months.

  She saw my face, and she shook her head and held out her hands, palms facing me. “Shit! I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant that he’s always been weirdly protective. He thinks everyone is a bad influence on me. It’s so annoying. It’s like he thinks because he’s a man, he automatically knows better.”

  My face softened. “Oh. Right.”

  “Also…” She averted her eyes. “I just remembered. He was friends with Ben Wellington. Around the same time as when you….”

  She trailed off, and my stomach lurched. This was the second time last year’s incident had been brought up today. Guilt tightened my chest. I felt like I was falling, spiraling, down, down, down….

  Don’t think about it. It didn’t happen.

  “I’m sorry, Tatum,” Mellie said softly, seeing the look on my face. “I shouldn’t have brought it up. And I’m sorry my brother was a prick to you. If it’s any consolation, I doubt he’ll be visiting me much more after the fight we just had.”

  “It’s fine,” I said, swallowing my feelings. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded as she swept a small pile of broken glass into a corner. “Yeah. He’s just a dick sometimes. Don’t worry, he didn’t attack me or anything. I overreacted and threw the glass at him. I know that’s bad, but he was being such an ass.”

  “I get it. Are we okay?”

  Her eyebrows puckered. “What do you mean?”

  “You’ve been kinda weird for the last couple of weeks. We’ve barely even spoken, and I’m kinda getting the sense that you’re avoiding me.”

  Mellie rubbed her forehead and sighed, her shoulders sagging. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry,” she murmured. “Let’s sit down.”

  I followed her over to the cream-colored sectional and sat next to her.

  “I’m sorry,” she repeated. “You’re right. I didn’t even realize I was doing it, but now that you’ve mentioned it….”

  She trailed off again, and I looked at her, my eyebrows raised. “What’s going on?”

  “I was just worried, and you’re my best friend, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to avoid telling you the truth if you kept asking. And I knew you would, so I backed off and hoped you’d forget about it after a while. But then you didn’t, and you and the others were still talking about it all the time, so I avoided you even more.”

  She was babbling now, and I was beyond confused. “Ask about what? I don’t get it.”

  “Your paper! The exposé thing you’re doing on Crown and Dagger.”

  “Still confused.”

  She hesitated, inspecting a flawlessly-manicured nail. It never ceased to amaze me how perfect she looked at all times, even when she seemed anxious and troubled.

  We were the same height and weight with the same color hair and eyes, but she always managed to look like a far more expensive version of me. Straight glossy hair with zero flyaways, glowing skin, polished nails, eyelashes so long and curly they couldn’t possibly be real.

  “I know a bit more than I originally let on,” she finally said. “Way more than Greer and Willa. See, my dad is really high up in the society, and even though he’s not meant to tell outsiders anything, he’s let a decent amount slip to me in private over the years. So I know a lot. I know which parts of the urban legends are true or false, I know about the stuff they do, and I know where they do it. I even know where they do their initiation ceremonies. If I figured out enough of the logistics, I could actually sneak someone into a ceremony at some point.�
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  I tilted my head to the side. “Well, it’s just a college paper. You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t wa—”

  She cut me off, holding up one finger. “Wait. Sorry. It’s a long story.”

  I leaned back. “Okay.”

  “You wanted to go digging into the society, which I get, because it’s interesting. But as soon as you started wanting to sneak into their events, I got worried.”

  My brows shot up. “What, worried they’d do something to me? Like… they’re actually dangerous?”

  She shook her head. “No. Of course not. Although, those guys can be pretty weird when it comes to their stuff, so you’d want to be careful just in case,” she said slowly. “I know you managed to get into the Tap Week party, but that’s nothing; just an event to show off to all the newbies.” She paused for a quick breath. “Anyway, as I was saying, they might be a bit pissed if you sneaked into anything more serious, but they wouldn’t hurt you. That’s not what worries me.”

  “So what is it?

  She sighed. “Like I said before, my dad is in the society. Every male member of my family for generations has been in it, because one of the founding members was a Davenport. So they take it really seriously.”

  “How seriously?”

  “Take Henry, for example. He was in it, and he decided he didn’t want to be anymore. The parties and other stuff were just boring to him. Anyway, no matter what level you are, you’re obligated to help your society brothers in any way, using whatever connections you have. He didn’t want to do it. I guess he didn’t like most of the other guys or something along those lines.”

  “So what happened to him?”

  “Well, obviously, it was fine for him to leave. They don’t kill you or anything, like all those dumb urban legends say. But it caused a massive rift in my family, because Crown and Dagger has been such a big part of it for so long. So Henry and my dad got in a huge fight over it, and since then, Henry’s basically been cut off from the entire family.”