From His Shield to His Nightmare

My family is human. We were gifted a long life by the Thorne clan, something close to immortality. For generations, we’ve been their most loyal guardians.

And I fell in love with Cedric, the vampire lord I was sworn to protect.

For a hundred years, I was his secret. His sin. His only bedmate.

I was his shield against dark magic. The sworn protector of his vast clan.

I thought I’d earn the mark of an eternal bond. I was even ready for him to turn me.

After all, on every blood moon, he would claim my body.

Then, at the peak of an agonizing pleasure, he’d sink his fangs into my neck and drink my blood.

He’d press his cold lips to my skin and whisper that I was his one and only. That no other blood, no other body, could make him lose control like this.

But this time, the moment he was finished with me, he announced his eternal bond with Elsie, the pureblood princess of the Valerius clan.

He smirked at the shock on my face.

"You're just a human, gifted a long life by my ancestors. My bed warmer. You didn't actually think you could be my mate, did you?"

In that moment, I understood.

I was just a renewable blood bag. A tool with a purpose.

For an alliance, for her, he sacrificed me.

He cast me into the abyss and let the darkness swallow me whole.

He thought the Guardian's Pact would chain me to him for eternity. But he forgot one thing.

Every pact has a loophole.

So I destroyed everything he ever gave me.

Then, with my family's help, I vanished.

But when the Lord of Eternal Night couldn't find his favorite toy… he went mad.

For a hundred years, I was his. I waited for his mark. An eternal bond. Instead, he finished with me, then announced he was mating with someone else.

I wasn't his mate. I was a vessel. A release for his primal urges.

Tonight, he’d found his release inside me once again.

He had me pinned to the bed, my body covered in red marks.

“Yes… Just like that…”

I gasped, feeling every brutal thrust, the sharp sting of his fangs piercing my neck. A mix of pain and pure ecstasy.

He drank my blood greedily. It carried the sacred light of my guardian family.

I felt his power, cold as eternal night, flow back into me through his fangs.

Our bodies were tangled together, just as they had been for the hundred years I’d protected him.

When it was over, I curled up in his arms.

His voice cut through the darkness. “Tomorrow night, the lord of the Valerius clan will be visiting the castle. You will join us for dinner.”

I looked up at him, my heart pounding.

He was inviting others?

In the century since we’d forged the Guardian’s Pact, he had never let anyone witness our intimacy.

“Cedric,” I sat up, my