Page 105 of Bound by Vengeance
She wished she had Kadence’s courage to fleethe stronghold. Wished she could go out into the world, forge herway, and never look back. Anything would be better than facing thehunters she’d just been humiliated in front of again.
All her life, she’d doneeverythingright! She excelled in her classes, she never disobeyed, she workedto make herself as perfect as she could be, and to become the wifeand mother a hunter would be proud to have to take care of hischildren and home.
A perfect wife forNathan. Since theywere babies, everyone had known he was the hunter she was to marry.The most perfect student and the most beautiful woman available hadto be destined for their leader. What a perfect couple they wouldmake.
Instead, he’d tossed her aside for avampire!
Had he been with the vampire woman? The ideaof the man who was supposed to be her husband lying with one ofthose creatures made her glad he hadn’t gone through with theceremony. If he’d come to her and kissedherafterthatwoman….
Thinking about it made her nauseous, and theunfairness of it all caused anger to burn in her chest. She’doccasionally experienced some anger before, but she’d never seen areason for the emotion. It didn’t solve anything, and it wasnotthe way a proper hunter woman should react toanything.
Calm, demure, poised, agreeable, loving,perfectthose were the things she’d been raised to be, andanger hadnoplace in perfection.
But she was angry now. No, not angry, shewasfuming! Her whole life she’d prepared herself for herhusband, and now she had no idea who that husband would be. Itcertainly wouldn’t be Nathan.
She didn’t love Nathan; her dreams were inruins, but her heart wasn’t. They’d known each other their entirelives, but never well enough for love to develop between them.However, she had loved the dream of being withthehead ofall the hunters.
She’d often daydreamed about being marriedto Nathan and the input her marriage would give her into theceremonies and the way things were done in the stronghold. Everyonewould look up to her, tell her how lucky she was, and hopefully oneday, she would have children. When their son rose to become leader,everyone would still revere her.
After working tirelessly at being a womanwho mostly went unnoticed, shewantedto be noticed by herhusband and her people. There were no other men in the strongholdwho could give her the same opportunities Nathan would have.
No matter who she married now, she would beas she’d always been—one of the many women who lived only for herhusband—and thatvampirewould be the one standing byNathan’s side.
She wiped her tears away and practicallystomped her way down the beach. She felt like a two-year-oldthrowing a tantrum, but the break in her calm façade felt amazinglybetter than she’d ever thought it would. For the first time in herlife, she almost felt free.
She went to throw open her arms and spin incircles but restrained herself. A tiny fit was one thing; suchabandon couldn’t be tolerated. Nathan may not become her husband,but there would be another man, and she would makehimtheperfect wife.
Perhaps it would be Asher. He was kind,funny, and would make a good father; she could see herself marriedto him. She hoped it wasn’t Logan. She liked him well enough, butit was obvious he’d been in love with Kadence, and she’d prefer notto be married to a man who secretly pined for her best friend. Thatwould be more unfair than Nathan’s betrayal of their ways.
Sighing, Simone halted and looked out to theocean. She wasn’t being fair. Nathan hadn’t betrayed their ways. Hewas trying to do what he felt best for them, and she agreed withhim that working with the vampires might be the only way to savethem all.
Kadence and Nathan had chosen thosecreatures over their kind, but she’d seen the way Nathan looked atthe female vampire, and the way Ronan and Kadence were with eachother. The obvious love between them made her heart ache. She wouldnever get to experience a love like that. Her marriage would be oneof convenience and breeding, but she hoped she’d grow to love herhusband.
“What are you doing out here?” a gruff voicedemanded.
Simone spun and gasped when she spotted theman standing behind her. He was less than a foot away, but she’dnever heard him approach. Behind him, a rocky outcropping cutthrough two of the dunes; he must have come from there.
His golden eyes were stunning but cold asthey flicked dismissively over her. About seven inches taller thanher five-eight frame, he loomed over her when he steppedcloser.
As her shock over his sudden appearancewaned, Simone absorbed more details about him. A scar ran straightdown from his deep brown hairline to the center of his cheek.Despite the disfigurement and his obvious dislike of her, she foundhim a little intriguing. When she took a deep breath, the resinscent of him filled her nose, and she found herself eagerlyinhaling it as the corner of his full lip curled into a sneer.
“Did you hear me,hunter?”
He spat the word hunter like it wassomething foul, had the attitude of an ogre, and exuded the warmthof a corpse, so why wasn’t she afraid of him?
“I heard you,” she replied.
This time, when his gaze ran over her, hismore leisurely perusal of her body made her nerve endingstingle.
“What are you doing out here?” he demandedagain.
“Walking,” she replied and gestured towardthe beach.
“Not out here and not alone, not after whathappened with the rest of your idiot brethren.”
Simone’s shoulders went back, and for thefirst time in her life, she glared at another. “We’re not idiots,”she retorted.
He grunted in response.
