Damon – POV
I hadn't slept.
Not because I couldn't. Not because I was incapable. But because I knew if I so much as stepped back into that room… if I laid beside her with all that heat still lingering between us, I wouldn't have been able to stop myself.
And I refuse to take what's mine like a thief in the night.
She may hate me. Fight me. Reject me. But one way or another, she'll come to accept this bond. Beg for it. Not because I force it—but because she chooses it.
Until then… I wait. I plan. I conquer.
I sat behind the heavy desk in what was now my strategy room, a thick map of the vampire kingdoms stretched before me, smudged with ink markings and blood-red lines. The Vampire King sat comfortably in his throne now—but not for long. Once I sever his arrogant little head from his shoulders and scatter his royal blood to the wind, the rest will fall in line.
They always do.
They follow strength. Power. Fear.
And I am all three.
