“You’re not to pleasure yourself without my permission again,” he says, gripping me by the chin. “Is that clear?”

His command shivers through my bones. “Yes.”

“Your first orgasm belongs to me. Your pussy is off-limits to your fingers until I decide to give that gift to you.”

For the first time since I learned of my fate six years ago, I experience a thrilling sense of anticipation.

4

After dressing for dinner, we arrive on the first floor. The silk skirt of my black dress swishes against my legs as Liam takes me by the elbow and leads me down a wide hallway. I’m entranced by the huge portraits on either side, gawking wide-eyed at the larger-than-life forms of what I assume are the Brotherhood’s ancestors.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“How did the Zodiac Brotherhood begin?”

He stalls in the middle of the hall, attention on the portrait that has captured me so.

“That’s Evangeline Castle. She was my grandmother by several degrees of greatness. And I mean that in every sense of the word.” Letting go of my arm, he tangles his fingers with mine, and I hide a wince because my palms are still tender from his punishment. “She was only eighteen when she set sail with a group of explorers. They would have never discovered the island without her unusual skills.”

“Unusual?”

He nods toward the portrait of his ancestor. “She knew the nighttime sky better than most men. The constellations and planets, and their position depending on the season. At first, the explorers believed she was a superstitious soul, but after she predicted two potential catastrophes, they started listening to her.” He sends a cursory glance down the hall. “She led them here, and by doing so, they escaped certain death in a storm. Got rich in the process too, because the island was uninhabited and abundant with gold.”

He wanders down the hall a few paces, pulling me along until we’re staring at a portrayal of a group of men from what appears to be the 17th century. “Are these men the explorers?”

“Yes. Evangeline was a progressive thinker. An Amelia Earhart of her time. But they couldn’t deny there was something special about her.” He tilts his head, and our gazes lock. “There were twelve explorers, one for each zodiac sign.”

“That’s quite a coincidence.”

“We don’t believe in coincidences, Novalee. The explorers didn’t either. Evangeline became their prized queen, shared among the twelve but locked away in a tower.”

“Why did they lock her up?”

“She wanted to leave the island. They didn’t.”

“So she was their prisoner?” Sickness rises in my gut at the thought.

“Their prisoner, their queen, and the mother of their children.”

I gape at him, my mind spinning through the implications of what he just said. “She’s not just your ancestor, is she?”

“No. All twelve of us are descendants of Evangeline Castle.”