Selene's POV

The pain never really ended. It came in waves, scorching my veins, burning through muscle and bone until I wondered how there was anything left of me at all. I woke to it. I slept in it. I breathed it like air. Alaric's precious serums dulled it for a time—hours, maybe a day—but it always came back. And when it did, it reminded me what I had become.

A thing. His thing.

"You'll thank me for this one day," Alaric would say, his voice smooth as silk, his eyes ...