Broken Princess (Adair Legacy Book 1)

  Broken Princess

  ADAIR LEGACY BOOK 1

  KL DONN

  Copyright © 2022 by KL Donn

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Photographer: Lindee Robinson Photography

  Models: Camden, Logan & Julie

  Cover Design & Formatting: Alluring Write Productions

  Editor: KA Matthews

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Synopsis

  Prologue

  1. Aria

  2. Aria

  3. Severo

  4. Aria

  5. Aria

  6. Severo

  7. Severo

  8. Seven

  9. Aria

  10. Severo

  Epilogue

  Next in the Adair Legacy

  About the Author

  Also by KL Donn

  Praise for Broken Princess

  Wow! I absolutely have no words about this book!! It was so incredible!

  AUDREY KROFCHICK, GOODREADS REVIEW

  What’s better than revisiting the Adair empire? Having a triad between three of the Adair kids. Seven, Severo, and Aria kick off the Adair Legacy series in Broken Princess and these three light it up. I haven’t read a good ménage since…well since the last one KL Donn wrote.

  CAROL NOY, GOODREADS REVIEW

  Holy freaking shizzballs!! When the prologue shattered my nerves, I knew this was going to be good! Good?! That is a freaking understatement!!! F***ing amazing more like!!

  LYNNE GARLICK, GOODREADS REVIEW

  I was a goner with the prologue and hooked. From start to finish I couldn't put down the book. Severo, Seven and Aria give you a completely addictive read.

  AMANDA M, GOODREADS REVIEW

  Synopsis

  From USA Today Bestselling Author KL Donn comes the Adair Empire spin-off series, Adair Legacy. Broken Princess is the first standalone book in this all-new darkish romance series.

  Aria Adair is the princess of the Empire. Her father—King—rules with an iron fist, and her mother is just as deadly. The one thing Aria has always known, though, is she’s loved. Her whole life, she's felt it, reveled in the knowledge that no one could take it away from her.

  Until that fateful night when everything changed.

  Kidnapped. Beaten. Left to burn alive in the trunk of a car. She had no hope of surviving.

  Seven and Severo Petrov-Corelli have always known, from the day she turned fifteen, that Aria Adair would be theirs. They've protected her without anyone knowing and saved her on the day she was slated to die. Finding her burned, scared, and broken, they hunted her tormentor and exacted the justice Aria deserved.

  As she healed, picked up the pieces of her teenage life, and learned to live with her scars, the Petrov-Corelli twins kept their distance. Biding their time and waiting for Aria to reach eighteen so they could lay their claim once and for all.

  The trouble with waiting is that it opens the field for someone else to believe they can lay claim to the Adair Princess as well.

  Only this time, she might not survive.

  Alpha males ✓

  Menage romance ✓

  Age gap ✓

  Over the top obsessiveness ✓

  The Adair Legacy will check all your boxes and leave you breathless for more. But beware, there are dark elements in each book, and they may not be for the faint of heart. These are the children of the Adair Empire, after all.

  Dedication

  For me. I have adored diving back into this world again and I hope you enjoy it too.

  Prologue

  KING

  Four years ago.

  “Motherfucker!” Everyone in the house comes running into the war room as I scream. The contents of my desk, now on the floor, shattered.

  I’m not fucking done yet, though. Not by a goddamned long shot. Some motherfucker is about to die.

  “Boss?” Cas is the first to walk closer. The air in my lungs forces harsh breaths out, and I know I look like a rabid fucking dog.

  “Someone took her.” No one needs to ask who I’m talking about.

  I only get this livid over two girls in my life. My queen, Lilith, and our daughter, Aria. The little princess who wasn’t supposed to make it. She was meant to die, the doctors said, but my girl is a true Adair. She’s a fighter. She takes no prisoners and pushes through life.

  “Danny-boy, get on surveillance at the school,” Cas commands. Born at six months, Aria has spent much of her life in and out of the hospital with an auto-immune disorder. She’s been home the past three weeks with a terrible flare-up and begged to go back to school today.

  At fourteen years old, she just wants to be treated normally. As normal as an Adair can be anyways. In the best private school in Pensacola, Florida, her security is tight, which makes me wonder if we have another mole.

  “King?” Lilith’s fearful voice penetrates the haze that's clouded my sanity.

  “My queen.” I hold my arms open for her as she worriedly strides forward, and the men surrounding me remain silent as she surveys the room.

  “What’s happened?” The nervous tone in her voice suggests she has an idea.

  Sitting her on the couch, I kneel in front of her as Luther stands behind her. Dimitri and Atticus bookend both sides of her frightened body. They know her reaction may be worse than mine.

  “Aria,”—she shakes her head in denial, and my fury continues to spike—“has been taken.” There are no rose-colored glasses in our world.

  “By whom?” she forces out. Tears spill down her cheeks as she pales.

  “I don’t know.”

  “What do they want?” Her lower lip trembles.

  “I don’t know.” I hate not having fucking answers.

  Her eyes narrow, and I know I don’t have to worry about her falling apart… I have to worry about her slaughtering someone without blinking an eye. “What do you know, King?”

  “Nothing yet.”

  Pushing away from everyone, she stands and walks to the window. “Dimitri!” she snaps.

  “Yeah, Lil?” D stands and meets her stare.

  “Find my daughter's guards. Bring them to me.” A smirk plays on the other man’s lips as he nods and leaves the room.

  “My queen, behave,” I mutter.

  “My baby is missing, King. My little girl is scared and needs to come home.” Her words are vehement, but her eyes show vulnerability.

  Pulling my love into my arms, I look to Luther with a nod, and I know he’ll have everyone in the house on it. Including her brother Holden. Our boy protects his sister like she’s his child half the time, and I know if he and the Petrov-Corelli boys get to whoever took her first, we’ll never have answers. Only body parts.

  Aria

  Gasping awake, I look around the darkness surrounding me, and sheer terror invades every fiber of my being. I’m gripped in the icy cold hands of death and struggling to remember everything Uncles Luther and Cas taught me.

  I was warned from an early age that I was the vulnerable one. I was the one our enemies would focus on because I’m sick. I’m always damn well sick. And while I don’t understand all the dealings my parents are involved with, I know the majority are illegal.

  I notice how people fear my dad and uncles like venomous snakes. My brother and all the other boys of my generation are precisely the same as their fathers. And we girls get left in the dark, guarded, loved, placed on a pedestal that is now crashing down.

  I have no idea when I was taken. What day or time it is even. I do know I’m in the forest somewhere because I can hear the call of an owl, so it must be nighttime or close to it.

  “Breathe, Aria,” I say to break the silence I’m encased in. “Luther and Cas told you what to do.” Taking a couple of deep breaths, I register the faint scent of gasoline in my nostrils, and fear blasts through my veins.

  Feeling around me, it doesn’t take long to figure out I’m in the trunk of a car. There should be an escape latch, though, and I struggle to find it. Touching along the panels above and beside me, I can’t locate the small handle that’s supposed to be there.

  “It won’t be there, little girl.” I freeze at the voice. I recognize that voice.

  “Please let me out, Tristan.” He’s an older boy at my school. He has asked me out a number of times, but I’m not allowed to date, and even if I was, I've always gotten a bad feeling from him. He cornered me in the bathroom at school once and tried to force a kiss on me. He touched me inappropriately, and when I fought back, he slapped me so hard across the face I had a black eye.

  My older brother, Holden, got so angry when he found out. He’s always watched over me; same with two of the Petrov-Corelli boys, Seven and Severo. They’re the twins of Danika, Dimitri, and Daniel and have always been by my side whenever I've gotten sick. I felt safe with them, so I confessed what had happened.

  Tristan spent a month in the hospital after that, swearing a blue streak that I would pay for it. That was almost four months ago, though, and I don’t understand why he's doing this now.

  “You’ll never see the light of day again, you little cock tease.” I was never a tease. I’m only fourteen, and he’s about to turn nineteen. I wouldn’t have been interested
no matter what.

  “You don’t have to do this. Please let me go, and I won’t tell anyone,” I beg, openly crying. I can’t find the latch, which might mean it’s an older car.

  The loud whoosh of oxygen being sucked into something and the smell of fire invade my senses, and I scream. “Let me out!” Smoke quickly fills the trunk, and I know it won’t be long before I pass out and burn to death.

  “See ya, cock tease.” Tristan’s laughter fades as he leaves me to die.

  “Daddy!” I scream over and over until my throat is hoarse and I’ve lost my voice. “Holden!” My brother has always been my savior. From the time I was born, I was the princess. And everyone treated me that way.

  “Daddy, please!” I cry again.

  I can see flames licking at the seat behind me, and a new idea strikes. Turning my body so my feet are pressed to the back seat, I begin kicking with all the strength I have. Inhaling more and more smoke with every labored breath.

  The smell of burned metal and leather makes everything so much worse. The chemicals permeate my lungs, so I can barely breathe; my throat feels like it’s on fire. My eyes are swelling shut. The heat of the inferno scalds, and I can feel it chasing my legs with every kick.

  When the seat finally gives way, a sense of relief rushes through me, and I scramble to turn myself, ignoring the searing skin as I crawl through the tight opening into the back seat of the car.

  The vehicle's interior is almost completely engulfed in flames, so when I cover my head with my arms and hurl myself at the back window, flying through fire and broken glass, I can feel my body burning. The side of my face gets the worst of the pain as I fight to free myself of my clothing and roll around in the dirt.

  I was right. It’s dark out. The only light comes from the engulfed car just feet from me as I try to pry my eyes open. The cool breeze across my nearly naked body makes me shiver. The sound of the owl plays on, my personal, devastating symphony, as his prey eludes him.

  Pain soaks into my flesh like a wet sponge, and as I drift into the darkness, my focus has settled on a broken rose. A lonely flower of one, singled out by the burning light of the fire.

  CHAPTER 1

  Aria

  PRESENT DAY.

  Scars may heal, time will pass, but memories? Memories last a lifetime. And mine? They haunt my every waking moment of every single day.

  Tristan Walker took everything from me four years ago. He stole a life that never belonged to him, and I’ll never learn why. As soon as Seven and Severo Petrov-Corelli saw me in the hospital bed, they went on a rampage even their fathers couldn’t control.

  Tristan was found, piece by piece, for weeks.

  I was haunted with pain.

  Nobody knew who committed the heinous act. But I did. I saw it in the boys' eyes every time they would look at me. I can't understand why they did what they did and probably never will, but I’ll be forever in their debt.

  “Aria?” My mom knocks on my bedroom door. My family is…different. I’m one of the girls, so I don’t get exposed to the darker aspects of my father’s business, but I know not all of it is on the legal side of the law. My mother keeps Daddy from going off the deep end. Or so I’m told. I think, sometimes, it might be the reverse.

  “Hi, Mom.” I brush my dark hair over the right side of my face, trying to cover the scars. Even after missing a full year of school, I’m still able to graduate with the rest of my class. That’s what today is: graduation day.

  “I hate when you do that,” she scowls as she enters the room. Pushing my hair back, Mom never hesitates to touch my scars. She’s always insisting I wear them with pride. Show my strength. I don’t feel strong, though.

  “I don’t like people staring.”

  “I’ll kill anyone who stares,” a masculine voice chimes in.

  “Holden!” I wasn’t expecting my brother to be here. Running into his arms, I wrap my arms around his neck, and he picks me up, spinning me around before placing me back on my feet. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

  “Do you really think I’d miss this?”

  “I wasn’t sure. You’ve been so busy.” My eyes drift away, and I feel shame that I doubted him.

  “Aria.” He brings my chin back around. “I’d never let you down. You know that.” I do know. He didn’t four years ago or even a year ago. Not when I was five and my dog was hit by a car. Never has Holden let me down.

  “Well, I’m glad you’re here.” I smile at him, biting my tongue to stop from asking about the two people I want to see most.

  “Come on, princess, time to go.” Mom ushers me out, pinning my hair away from my face as we walk down the stairs.

  “There’s my girl.” My father, King Adair, is standing at the bottom of the stairs with Uncle Cas and Aunt Talia.

  “Where’s Hadley?” I frown. Born only weeks apart, we’ve been best friends and nearly inseparable since birth.

  “Outside.” Cas winks, and I know they’re up to something.

  Rushing to the doors, I fling one open to see Hadley standing next to two matching Lexus’s. One in white, the other black. “What is this?” I ask her.

  “They’re ours!” Her blonde hair bounces as she jumps and twirls.

  Gazing back up at my parents, I ask, “Seriously?”

  Daddy nods. “Black one is yours.” Tossing me the keys, I catch them as Holden comes down the steps with a scowl on his face.

  “Don’t you think it’s too soon for that?” My brother is a perpetual worrier.

  “Not by a long shot.” A new voice interjects, and I spin to see Severo Petrov-Corelli stalking towards me, an intense look in his blue gaze. “Hey, princess,” he mutters before his hand balls my hair in a fist, and he drops a serious kiss on my lips. I’m so shocked, I don’t know how to react, and soon, he’s gone.

  “What the fuck, Petrov!” Holden roars as he pulls Severo away from me, shoving him and yelling. I don’t hear a bit of it; I’m still lost in the feel of his lips on mine.

  “Hey there, pretty girl,” Seven murmurs in my ear from behind, turning my head around and repeating his twin brother's actions. Shocking me with a kiss I have no idea how to process.

  I like it. I liked both.

  But two.

  Both of them?

  What do I do with that?

  “For fuck’s sake!” Holden looks murderous, and I know things are about to explode.

  “You taste like candy, pretty girl,” Seven whispers as Holden storms over.

  “I told you both to back the fuck off. She isn’t ready!” my brother snarls at the twins, and both plant a smirk on their faces that pronounces their dimples. So much like their dads’. Even though they’re twins, heavily favoring Aunt Nika's features, one is fathered by Dimitri and the other by Daniel. No one knows which but me.

  I can tell. Severo is calm and sweet; he carries a lightness in his soul, more akin to Daniel’s. While Seven is darker, his eyes scream with wicked intent, and he rarely smiles, much like Dimitri.

  “What the hell is going on?” my father roars, death in his cold gaze as he looks between the twins and his oldest son.

  “These two”—Holden points to the brothers—“have been itching to lay claim to Aria for months.” His gaze, so much like Daddy’s, narrows on his best friends.

  “That true, boys?” King asks them point-blank while Mom stands at the top of the steps, a devilish gleam in her eyes. She set this up. Lord, I love my mother.

  “You break her heart, and Cas and I will slit you from nut to neck,” Daddy warns, and Uncle Cas grins. Mom and Aunt Talia look pleased with themselves.