Vlad’s POV
I never thought I would step foot in this castle again, let alone Romania. This world felt like another lifetime ago. My father was an abusive bastard who spent his life exerting physical and emotional control over my mother, my two sisters, and myself. We were Romani gypsies and travelled from town to town, picking up what little work we could, legal or illegal, it didn’t matter. When my sister refused to marry a man she didn’t love, he went to hit her, but I stepped in and took the beating myself, which aggravated my father even more because I was weak in his eyes. While I was down by the river cleaning my wounds, Malik found me, he had followed the scent of my blood. He offered me the strength to fight my father in exchange for my loyalty. Three days later when I completed m
