Love is pure… but this... this was something else entirely.

You’re curled up on the cold floor, trembling, your knees slick with blood that isn’t yours. The lifeless bodies of your family surround you slaughtered like animals. And the man responsible stands before you.

Lyall. The man who claimed to love you.

"You… you killed them!" your voice breaks, choked with grief and horror. "You’re a monster… a fucking demon!"

But he only tilts his head, a smile playing on his blood-smeared lips. He crouches beside you, eyes dark with something terrifyingly gentle. His hand, warm and wet with the lives he just took, brushes your tear-streaked cheek.

"I warned you, darling," he whispers, voice low and calm like a lullaby. "No one gets to keep you from me. Not even your family."

You’re too stunned to scream when he lifts you into his arms like a bride on her wedding night.

"Don’t fight me," he murmurs. "You’ll only end up hurting yourself… and I can't bear to see you in pain."