Page 23 of Sold to the Dark Vampire Prince

She was wrong. Of course she was wrong. Zander wasn’t here. It was her mind playing foolish tricks on her. He would never be caught in a place like this.

Even as she said it, her mind raced to think of plausible reasons why Zander Hunt could have been at the auction house. She knew he did pro bono work, volunteered at the center. Could he have been trying to stop the auctions from taking place? Perhaps he had been on the premises trying to save another girl from a fate like hers when he realized she was there, saw what was happening and entered the auction room to try to stop it?

Confusion swirled through her. She clutched at the folds of her ruined dress, trying to cover herself. The back fastenings seemed irreparably damaged.

The other men had backed away so far that they were practically touching the walls.

Strangely, they were standing with their heads almost… bowed. Dani frowned at this. But before she could question it, a young vampire strode forward from the shadows into the light.

A shiver skated up her spine, followed by terror so cold she suddenly could barely feel her fingers.

Breathe, Dani.

Oh yes, she’d known that voice. How many times had she heard Cruel Prince Alexander addressing the sector in broadcasts? No, he hadn’t come to save her. More likely, he couldn’t allow another alpha male to win the prize he wanted.

“She’s been bought, Your Highness.”

“And I say she has not.” The prince tilted his head, all arrogant authority.

Slowly, Dani lifted her eyes, daring to look at him.

He wore a crisp dark suit with a pale blue button down. Thick dark wavy hair was cut short on the sides, longer on top. But most striking of all were his eyes, hazel eyes that held her gaze now, even as she tried to look away.

She’d seen the prince on television before, of course, countless times. But up close, there was something about Cruel Prince Alexander that was even more enticing, the angles of his face sharper, his lips more sculpted. A perfect predator designed to draw in his prey, just like all of them were.

Then his lips were moving, his voice saying low, urgent words that made no sense.

“Dani, are you hurt?”

That was when she was certain she would be sick, right there on that cold, stone floor.

No, she hadn’t been mistaken.

After all those hours they’d spent going over her files at the legal aid office, she would have known Zander Hunt’s voice anywhere. And there was no mistaking the fact that she was indeed staring up at her attorney from the center, the one she’d been meeting with for years… and who’d apparently been lying to her all that time.

Zander Hunt was Crown Prince Alexander Visconti, heir to the vampire throne.

CHAPTER 5

“DANI, ARE YOU HURT?”

The question escaped Alexander before he could help himself. The moment it did, he wished he could claw it back. He realized the mistake the instant the room stilled. Though most eyes remained lowered, they flicked from him to Dani’s crumpled form, wondering what their connection might be.

No one could resist a Visconti royal family scandal.

The bastards.

Daniela shivered on the floor of the stage, clutching the torn panels of her red silk dress to her chest. Tearing off his jacket, Alex wrapped it around her bare shoulders. A curse hovered at his lips as her pale fingers reached out to clutch the lapels closed.

She shouldn’t have been here at all. No woman in a sector he was responsible for should have been forced to come to one of these godforsaken auction houses. They had better options for feeding given the current scientific advancements. Blood donors. Synthetic blood that was effective, even if not particularly palatable. This wasn’t the seventeenth century, for pity’s sake. But for all the times he and his father had argued on the subject, he’d had no success in getting them shut down.

He took a tentative step towards her. Pale gray eyes found his.

“Zander.”

The room exploded in whispers.

Dani’s eyes widened in alarm. Alex silently bit back a curse.