Twisted Kingdom (Royal Elite, #3)

by Rina Kent

She’s all mine with a capital M. And now, she’s back. This time, only d...

He watches me as if I’m the only one in the busy hallway. The interest in his eyes is paralysing, suffocating even. His gaze studies me close, so close, as if he’s relearning my features, the curve of my shoulder, and the line of my collarbone. Almost like… he’s making sure I’m real.

This is more than my attraction or feelings. This is about my worth. I deserve better than being the other woman. I deserve better than being a mere pawn. I deserve better than him.

“Ellie!” Ronan hops on my desk, nearly knocking my pens on the ground. “I was just telling King about how to bring you back. I even offered to sing.”

Teal snorts from my side. Ronan grins at her, but it’s fake. It’s rare to see Ronan fake anything, he’s about the most honest out of the horsemen.

Whenever Aiden doesn’t get his way, he resorts to establishing his dominance. It’s part of the push and pull game he plays so well. A game in which all I’ll ever be is a pawn. A game I always lose.

He smells like pain and pleasure. Sweet and bitter at the same time.

I would be lying to myself if I say I didn’t miss him, and I promised to never lie to myself again. I missed his maddening touch and that heated look. I missed his kisses and the baths he ran for me. I missed his scent and his crude words. But most of all, I missed him. The man, the monster.

Instead of giving him what he wants, I go slack in his hold and lower my gaze, cutting off eye contact. I erase him and his metal gaze, sinister features, and tousled hair. “Look at me.” I don’t.

Oh her being a shell is going to break him

Silence is my only weapon and I’ll use it until the very end. No matter how suffocating that silence is.

He grips my jaw with two rough fingers and forces my head up. “Fucking look at me.” I stare at the ceiling with its white lights. “Elsa,” he growls, the sound echoing around us like a dark promise. “Don’t push me.” “Show me your worst,” I say with a levelled tone.

I hold on to the anger and pain. Anger and pain allow me to ignore my body’s reaction to him. Anger and pain turn me numb to his touch.

I say nothing. I’m safely tucked in a numb halo right now. If I say anything, I’ll lose the shelter this place offers.

My toes curl in my shoes. I stare at an imaginary dot on the wall beyond Aiden’s head. He lied to you. He has a fiancé. You are the other woman.

“You’ll be soaking my dick when I fuck the defiance out of you.” “Or you can rape me and use the blood as a lubricant.” Aiden stops, his fingers freezing over my folds. He leans back and watches me closely. Intently. Like a stone.

This time, I meet his gaze. I meet those cloudy, sinister eyes that sometimes seem like an endless void. A place where you go and never return. I want him to see my expression. No idea what it looks like right now, but I hope it’s filled with anger and hate.

I hope he sees he did this to us. He broke us. Broke me. He told me he chose me, but ...

“You think I’d do that to you?” He enunciates his question, almost as if he’s angry.

Aiden releases my sex and my wrists. My arms drop on either side of me like lifeless body parts. I don’t move from the door. Not even when he steps back further.

His face remains impassive, but when he speaks, his voice hits me like thunder in a winter night. “Well played, Elsa. Well fucking played.”

“Are you done?” He smiles, but it’s neither mocking nor in triumph. It's a challenge at its pures...

“You can use my body all you like, but I’ll never forgive you, Aiden.” “T...

Perhaps my ears are damaged because I could swear I just heard Aiden say he won’t touch me. His strongest weapon has always been physical intimidation. Hell, except for today...

“Is that a promise? Not touching me, I mean.” “Until you forgive me, I won’t fuck you.” “Which means never.” “Believe me, sweetheart. When ...

During my entire stay at our house in Birmingham, I never had a full night’s sleep.

I’m the daughter of that monster. Now, I just have to decide whether to fight or embrace it. I have to decide if I’m the type of person who locks children up to torture them like Ma or the type who sets them free like Dad. Death or life. Darkness or hope. As I wrap my arms around Aunt, I know exactly who I want to be.

For the following week, Aiden doesn’t leave me alone.

He’s there during lunch, dropping off my special food. I don’t eat any of it, opting to have lunch boxes, but he keeps bringing it anyway. He’s also there during practice, passing me water and his sports drink. I stopped counting the number of times he wanted to talk to me and I refused. He offers to drive me home after school. I refuse to and choose to ride with Knox instead.

His jaw clenches and his left eye twitches whenever I do that. He clearly doesn’t like it, and I expect him to drag me by...

I often stiffen, expecting him to drag me into a corner, announcing the game is over, and teach me whom I belong to in his sadistic dominating ways. None of that happened. It’s weird. No. It’s disarming.

His nice, grovelling side is starting to freak me out. Aiden doesn’t do grovelling. Aiden takes without permission, leaving disaster in his wake.

Apparently, he’s into football and was accepted into Elites. Teal and Kim wanted to see him play.

Oh this is going to drive aiden insane

Aiden’s eyes lock with mine. His lips curl into a smile. A genuine one that reaches his cloudy eyes.

“Go, nine!” I scream. Aiden’s smile falls. The darkening of his features is alarming, to say the least.

Oh my poor bby

The three of us get on our tippy toes as Knox runs at full speed. He’s about to shoot and score when Aiden tackles him from behind. Hard.

I glare at Aiden. He stalks back to the midfield with an expressionless face, but I feel the tension beneath the surface all the way to where I’m standing.

“He’s jealous,” Kim says. “Kim!” I hiss. “What? He is. King doesn’t go back to defend. It’s not a coincidence he went back after you called Knox’s number.”

“You told me not to tell him Knox is your foster brother. Admit it, Ellie. You want him to be jealous.”

but leaving a person cornered is no different. Even if that person is Silver.

“Silver?” I ask. If she tells me it’s none of my business, too, I’m out of here. She discreetly shakes her head and mouths, ‘Cole.’ That’s it. Cole. She obviously needs help.

“You should tell Aiden.” The words feel like acid as I say them, ripping and melting me into nothingness. “What does he have to do with anything?” She frowns, seeming genuinely confused before she raises her head. “King didn’t tell you?”

“I won’t say anything until you talk to him.” “About what?” I ask. “What do you think?”

My grip tightens around a bottle of water. I was supposed to give it to Elsa, but she doesn’t need it anymore. The new boy passes her his sports drink and she gulps half of it down as if she was poisoned and he’s giving her antidote. Then, she snorts laughing at something he said.

It took everything in me not to break his fucking leg during practice three days ago. Or yesterday. Or today. My blood boils to the point of ignition every time I think Elsa only came to watch practice because of him.

She’s so fucking beautiful. And she’s happy. The fact that she erased me this fast deepens the dark hole inside my chest.

Empty words. Empty promises. She was always shit at keeping her promises. Fuck.

For her, I was another boy, while I dreamt about her every time I managed to sleep. For ten years, she’s been a constant in my life, but I was only a stop in hers.

And then fucking what? She’ll never be fully mine if her closed-off head doesn’t open up to me.

He smiles at me so wide, I’m tempted to cut his face open. The only reason I don’t is because Elsa would hate me even more.

“I hope to get along in the future.” “Not if you keep messing with what’s mine.” “Elsa is my foster sister. Oh, and I met her first.” I meet his hazel eyes with my deadliest ones. “Doubtful.”