The girl was loud.
That was the first thing Nicholas registered from his chair by the window. She was loud in the way they all were....high and breathless and performing, her moans filling the room with the practiced quality of someone who knew what was expected of them and was delivering it efficiently.
He watched Lucian fuck her and felt nothing.
That was the second thing.
Nothing. Not arousal, not interest, not even the distant satisfaction he usually had for watching his brother fuck the women who sign up for the ritual. He felt nothing....Just nothing. It was like watching a machine run through its functions. Everything technically correct but completely meaningless.
He turned to the window.
The moon was full tonight, pooling silver light across the estate grounds. He looked at it the way he always looked at it....with that particular mixture of resentment and resignation he'd been carrying for years. The Moon Goddess and her games. Her rules. Her punishments.
