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Chapter One

Severin looked up at the moon and watched a shooting star streak across the sky. For hundreds of years, emptiness had filled his soul. His bonded mate’s death should’ve killed him. Sometimes he’d thought she’d been lucky to find peace after years of torment on Earth, especially after he saw what his twin brother Scepter found with his female Aurora.

He pressed his palm over his heart. An ache of loneliness settled in his core. Although happiness filled him at the knowledge that Scepter finally found his true bonded mate, he’d never had that.

It hit him as he stepped back that his brother Scepter must’ve experienced something similar all those years ago when he’d lost Bianca to him. She’d been his twin’s female first; they’d mated, and married, and then Severin returned and claimed a bond. Although Fate created Bianca for him, Scepter and Bianca had loved each other long before she’d known about Severin. At first, Bianca struggled to let go of her feelings for his twin, but once they bonded, she said Severin completed her.

He rubbed his sternum. He knew, to a certain extent, what Scepter had gone through. Some might say his pain was worse, since Fate bonded Bianca to him while his twin fell in love with her. His brother and Bianca were planning a life together while Severin traveled hundreds of miles away. And then, Bianca died. They both lost the female who meant the world to them, or so he thought at the time.

He let out a sigh. When he’d come home, the unmistakable scent of his female hit him the moment he set foot on his family’s property. Severin looked forward to seeing his parents, but he’d missed the connection to Scepter until he’d seen her. The female’s beauty, which Fate said was his, drew him like a moth to a flame. Hellfire, he couldn’t ignore the pull to her any more than he could ignore breathing.

Severin clenched his fists at his sides. The memory of the wrath he’d faced from Scepter overshadowed the exhilaration he’d felt the first time he’d embraced Bianca. His heart raced as he recalled Scepter’s fury as Scepter pulled Severin away from Bianca. His Fated mate and Scepter’s first love were one and the same.

“What fools we were back then, brother,” he muttered.

“Are you going to jump?” a feminine voice asked from behind him.

“Do you plan to rescue me if I do?” he asked, looking over his shoulder. The female was tall and sexy, like most of their kind. She had midnight-dark hair piled on top of her head, held up with wooden-looking sticks he thought were probably as much a weapon as a hair accessory. He turned around, floating a few inches above the ledge.

“Nice trick. Do you pull rabbits out of your hat for the kids as well?” She sounded bored. Her voice came out in a deep, sexy rasp, reminding him of how humans who smoked a couple of packs a day for fifty years or more sounded.

He tilted his head. “Is that the type of male you like, the kind who can pull shit out of thin air and amuse others?”

She snorted. “Hell no. Those are a dime a dozen. I like my males who know how to make me orgasm and don’t fuss in the morning when I’m not around to stroke their egos. Now, those are hard to find.”

Severin lifted a brow. Female vampires were interesting, though sometimes very off-putting. The old world tended to coddle them, isolating the most highborn so they didn’t sully themselves with every male before finding their bonded mate. Hell, if his female hadn’t felt a pull toward Scepter thanks to the twin connection, he’d have been her first.

He gritted his teeth and banished the memories.

“You’re angry at Scepter,” she said.

Severin eliminated the space between them, sliding his hand around her throat. “Are you reading my mind?”

“It’s quite easy when you’re so open, amore. I suggest you release me, or I won’t be responsible for what I do next,” she said sweetly, her smile flickering with a hint of fangs.

“You think I’m scared of you?” he asked, tightening his fingers. He let her go, stepped back, and perched on the ledge, crouching low. If there was one thing he understood, it was how dangerous it could be to be too close to others of his kind. He was in unknown territory. Although it was technically Scepter’s, he hadn’t been given the freedom to roam, not like the female in front of him.

Scepter’s scent clung to her, signaling to anyone that she belonged to his twin’s Family...as they call themselves instead of Clan, as he and his crew referred to one another. If she felt safe making a threat, she could probably carry it out. More than likely, others were close by. Severin didn’t doubt his abilities in battle, but he also didn’t want to start a war with Scepter and his crew.

“What’s your name, amore?” he asked, mimicking her phrasing.

“Why? Do you plan to look me up for the opportunity to court me?” She placed her hands on her hips and gave him a sassy smile.

Severin stood. “I have had a bonded mate. I don’t need to court a female, and I have no plans to ask your father for your hand. Is that what you’re looking for?”

A flash of pain crossed her beautiful face. Her bright blue eyes flared, but then she closed them, shielding herself from his gaze.

“My father planned to sell me when I was a child. If it hadn’t been for my twin—” She took a deep breath. “The concept of courting is nothing but a joke, Severin. I told you what I was looking for. Besides, you’re a whole lot of complications I don’t think I want or need. I’ll see you around, Severin, brother to Scepter.”

She flashed away before he found out who she was. His heart lurched. What the fuck was that? Severin looked around at the night. The thought of returning to his lonely bed left him dissatisfied. Instead, he turned to the sky and became mist.

His mind raced. He wanted to figure out who the female on the roof was and why his heart ached for her. Maybe it was because they were both twins, but he didn’t think that was it. He wished he could take back the harsh words and undo what he’d said. Damn, he hated feeling like he’d put his foot in his mouth.

Severin rematerialized inside the dark cave, miles outside New York. The wards he’d set tingled over him, telling him the place hadn’t been invaded while he’d been away.

He settled onto the lounge chair, resting his arms on his knees, his head hanging low. How had his life become so fucked? Severin closed his eyes, thinking back to the day he’d come home to find Bianca at his family estate.

Five hundred years ago...