Ch. paid to leave pregnant with the vampire king heirs 1 paid to leave pregnant with the vampire king heirs 1

Chapter 1 Chapter 1 

Vampires can’t have children, 

My husband’s family reminded me of that every night for a year. 

At 8:15 this morning, a doctor found three heartbeats. 

At 9:00, fifty million dollars hit my account, along with the papers to sever our blood bond. 

I signed before my hands stopped shaking. 

He doesn’t know. 

+45 Coins 

Neither does the rest of the vampire world, and that is exactly why I have to run. 

Three days later, every Court gossip feed in the country ran the same headline: VAMPIRE KING HUNTS RUNAWAY BLOOD BRIDE AND HIS $50 MILLION. 

Forty-five minutes before the money arrived, I was lying on a paper-covered table in a private clinic, cold gel on my stomach, watching a doctor’s face go pale. 

She moved the wand. Stopped. Moved it again. 

“Mrs. Vale,” she said quietly, “who is the father?” 

My throat closed. “My husband,” 

“Your husband is a born vampire. Over four hundred years old.” 

“Yes.” 

She turned the screen toward me. Three flickering lights, fast as hummingbird wings. 

“Then this shouldn’t exist,” she whispered. “Vampire men don’t father children. In the Court archives, it has happened four times in a thousand years. Every one of those children became a king or a queen. You are carrying three.” 

I didn’t hear anything after that. 

Chapter 1 

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+45 Coins 

My name is Sloane Hart. Twelve months ago, I was bonded to Dorian Vale, Prince of the Eastern Court and CEO of Vale Capital, the most feared vampire on the continent, in a candlelit ceremony that was really just a merger with better wine. 

It was a contract bond. My family’s small company was drowning in debt. The Vale Court needed a human blood bride with a rare blood type and no inconvenient opinions. 

I fit the job description perfectly. 

In twelve months, I saw my husband maybe thirty nights. He was always in Geneva, always in a Council session, always/on a plane. His father, Augustus Vale, called me “the empty cup” at dinner, loud enough for 

the staff to hear. 

The empty cup was now carrying three heirs. 

For a normal family, that’s champagne. 

For the Vales, it was a weapon. 

I was still sitting in my car outside the clinic when my phone buzzed. 

An email from the Court’s chief counsel. 

Mrs. Vale – Pursuant to Clause 9 of your bonding contract, the severance provision has been executed. Fifty million dollars was wired to your personal account at 0900. The Prince’s signed Rite of Severance is attached. Upon your countersignature, the blood bond will be formally dissolved. We wish you well. 

I read it three times. 

Rejected. 

Paid off. 

Effective immediately. 

And then, God help me, I laughed. 

Because I had spent a year learning to be furniture in that mansion. And one paragraph from a lawyer I’d never met had just set me free and funded it. 

I called my attorney. “Nina. Reply to them.” 

Chapter 1 

“And say what?” 

“Ask them what took so long.” 

A long pause. “Sloane, are you serious?” 

“Deadly.” 

+45 Coins 

The documents arrived at the Vale estate at ten the next morning. Nina stood beside the Court courier, sweating. “At least read the terms.” 

I flipped to the last page and signed without breathing. 

“Is the money clear?” 

“Cleared. Untouchable. All yours.” 

“Good.” 

I left the Vale rubies in their velvet boxes. I left every gown. I left the black card on the vanity with a single 

note. 

The PIN is your birthday. I never used it. 

Then I picked up the one suitcase I’d arrived with and walked out of a house with eighty rooms and no windows that opened. 

I didn’t look back. 

I made it all the way to the gate at JFK before the bite mark on my neck, the one he’d given me on our bonding night, the one that was supposed to fade into a scar, started to burn. 

Like something on the other end had just woken up. 

And realized I was gone.