Once Mine: Passion Of the Troll Prince, #1

By Marcelle Sixx

Ferric Sumner, a bow legged girl from the wrong side of the tracks, was led to believe that Troll women had nothing more to offer than what was between her legs. Upon meeting the Troll Prince—Vikas Stone— he's forced to compete with her own self-doubt.

Ferric, on the other hand, never saw the other two women coming who had more to offer than she did. If she doesn't take her chance and get over her own fears, she could lose Vikas and the kingdom he holds in his hands.

• Language: English
• Publisher: After Hours Publications
• Release date: May 18, 2024
• ISBN: 9798227932495

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TAKE A PEEK BETWEEN OUR COVERS

www.christinesappgrayauthor.com

For... Kenia’s mom, with love.

Chapter One

Understand

FERRIC

When I get my own house , I’m not doing dishes anymore. Women aren’t supposed to be weak. She’s a victim. Clearly.

Mama pumped her curls in the tiny circular-framed mirror near the front door. Her short, honey-blonde strands were dry. Her ends needed a good clipping. If she thought she was somehow sexy in her short powder blue dress that clung to her rectangular figure, obviously, she was crazy. Mama was 6’2" with broad shoulders. Tonight, she sported glossy red lips against her black faux leather pumps. The real problem was the thick white belt she pulled around her waist to make it look like she had a figure.

I rolled my eyes behind her back as I dipped another plate into the sudsy water. It, along with seven other plates and bowls, had been sitting on the counter for three days. The entire time I sat in the juvenile detention center they didn’t get washed. It was bad enough that she was supposed to get me on the first day. She waited two more days to show her face; to sign the papers that would release me.

Ferric, check the fish! she hollered.

That fish was fine. I didn’t even know what kind of fish she was baking to begin with. It wasn’t like we could actually afford it. We only got $121 in food stamps, so whatever was baking wasn’t real or fresh, if that. This was just a weak attempt at trying to hook another husband.

The woman was out of her mind. My brother Mobias’s dad fled because of physical abuse. My dad was a one-night stand gone wrong. The man she ended up marrying wasn’t even worthy of being a husband. Mo ran him off about two years ago because all he did was drink and gamble, and still somehow expected dinner to be ready on time.

Mama didn’t actually care about the dishes she never touched. I was more convinced that her focus was on this guy who was coming over. Such a disgrace. Perhaps I should’ve complied and tried my best to be a better daughter, but when you look at the fact that Mama was not the best of mothers then what would anyone else expect from me and my brother? She wasn’t cleanly, could care less about how me and my brother ate, or if we ate at all for that matter. Clean or new clothes that fit were never a factor or worry pertaining to her children. A decent hug or a little encouragement was left to the imagination. Lastly, discipline and organization didn’t exist. I was born to a sociopathic, desperate narcissist.

The community where we lived was called Victory Hills. It wasn’t necessarily a place of victors. It was more like housing projects. Ninety-eight percent of the population who resided there were Trolls who were disgraced. Cast aside from families, society. Any and every lone organism looked down upon the people who lived in Victory Hills. This wasn’t the only Victory Hills in the country. It wasn’t your income that based whether or not you could be a tenant, it was more so of who you were as a person, or your familial ties. The casted out. The unwanted. The forgotten. I have a belief at this point in my life that Mama had forgotten that we were... Forgotten. Why keep trying to find a husband when there were no good Trolls left? Especially none who wanted two grown kids and a sloppy woman who bore a ready-made family.

With all of this came the fact that my mother shamed us all. She was not married when she had my brother. She wasn’t married when she had me. My mama was not the perfect suitor for anyone. She was lazy, and she couldn’t keep herself together to save her own life. So, today, as she collected herself in the mirror, with her nappy wig and her skintight dress that wasn’t becoming of a lady, all I could think was that this was a serious desperate attempt. She was still a disgrace. Sadly, it rubbed off on her children. Yeah, we were victors, alright.

One look at my mama and our queen would not approve. My mama was such a sad case that she couldn’t even look a matchmaker in the face and ask to be matched. This is why she had to do it on her own, but her own wasn’t good enough.

The doorknob to the right of me lightly jingled. Beneath the loud R&B music and my mama snapping her fingers, singing to herself I heard it. I dipped the dish inside the sudsy water once more, slightly turning my head to the door. My brother was going to be in trouble if my mother found out he wasn’t in his room grooming himself in order to meet this so-called man that was going to supposedly join our family.

Mobias crept inside with his long, meaty finger up to his lips. His crisp cornrows that stopped at his wide shoulders let me know that he’d gone out and gotten them done. Probably by one of the skanks who couldn’t swing from around his neck because he wasn’t old enough to court.

Where have you been? I whispered with a grin.

His shoulders hunched. Had to run a couple of plays to keep the heat on for my baby sister.

Mo, she’s still not happy with you.

When is she ever? My brother reached inside his sagging sweatpants, to the pocket of his black basketball shorts. That was always a secret of his, so that if he was ever robbed, they wouldn’t know that he was wearing two pairs of pants. It also helped when Tacoma got a little nippy out. As much as he stood on the corners or traveled, he wouldn’t get cold. From that second pocket, he handed me a single one-hundred-dollar bill. Don’t say nothin’. That should be enough to pay off your court fees, right?

Mo—

I got more comin’. You still have your job, right?

I do, but—

Then use the rest for bus fare or somethin’. I got to go.

I had to hug my brother. There was never a guarantee I’d see him again. With his line of work and with how quickly he was gaining favor with lords of the underbelly, I had to appreciate every second of his presence. It’d always been Mo and Rikki against the world. Most times it was the world looking dead straight at my brother’s wide chest with me standing behind him. It wasn’t because I was weak. It was because my brother had the natural instinct to protect me at all cost. You could’ve sworn he was older than me. He just couldn’t shield me away from—

What the hell are you doing in my house, boy?

Quickly I turned to see my mama there. Her hand slowly rising to a pot on the stove that was empty because I’d just washed it to prepare it for whatever side dish she was going to feed this new man.

Instinctively I stepped in front of my brother.

Mama, I just came to see Ferric, he explained. Ain’t no need for drama.

Is you or is you ain’t in my house?

I was just about to leave.

"You ain’t finna ruin my chances. Not again. Just ‘cause I don’t want you, it don’t mean no man feels that way about me. Be on your way, Mo."

I’m going.

Well, get! I don’t want your face seen around my place at all. You’re nothin’ but a lowlife street rat, killin’ off your own people for a dime or a dollar.

Mama, he’s going, I intervened.

You shut up, with your sadiddy ass. You think you’re somethin’ special? The only thing you got goin’ for yourself, Rikki, is your bowed legs that can be popped open at any time. That boy standing behind you ain’t shit. When I birthed him, that’s exactly what I thought he was when I looked at him. You ain’t gon’ be shit either. Done put me in debt so I can pay off these court fees—

Look, I said I'm leaving. You don’t have to insult my sister just because you’re mad at me, Merna, Mo lashed. All you do is try to break your own kids—

I should’ve aborted your ass—

—and I wish you have, too! Fuck this. Mo grabbed my shoulder to spin me around. I’ll see you some other time. You know I love you.

She won’t ever see you again! Mama hollered. "Ferric, you’re not ever goin’ to see him! You hear me? I’m the woman of this house, and I demand it!"

Mobias kissed my forehead to seal his promise. Shortly before he could back away from me, a pot crashed through the small glass window of the backdoor. I love you, Rikki. Stay the course, he told me over my mama hollering and screaming for him to get out.

I didn’t watch him leave that night. I was too busy staring my mama down as she threw a childlike tantrum in the living room. The low blow was when she called the police and said that my brother was trespassing. She’d actually gotten a police report so that she could file charges and a restraining order against Mobias. He was still a minor, meaning she couldn’t. She just didn’t tell the police that. She lied about his age. To top it off, she didn’t get to enjoy her date night because the guys she wanted to see stood her up. Somehow it was my fault because I was the unlucky child.

I’d gone to bed with my college on my mind. She didn’t know I'd gotten accepted to U of H. Mobias signed off on everything on my behalf, forging her signature. He was pretty good at that. My brother was hustling as hard as he could to get himself an apartment with a fake ID in Houston so that he wouldn’t be much further away from me than he had to be. The gesture was nice, though I should’ve been telling him not to do anything illegal. However, I’d rather have him closer to me than to the witch who was trying to seek a comeuppance. In these last two weeks with this broad, I was planning on doing overtime at the country club where I worked so that I wouldn’t wind up in Houston with empty pockets.

Hey, baby. It’s me again. Pathetic. She was calling the guy again, leaving yet another message on his machine that he’d just erase. I’m really worried about you. I’m hoping you didn’t get into an accident or something. I’m still waiting for you. Dinner’s cold, but I can heat it up. It’s not a problem.

Clearly, she cares more about a husband than her own children. Merna was not going to ruin my chances at getting away from her.

Chapter 2

Excuse Me

VIKAS

At nineteen years old I'd seen more than the average human in their lifetime. I wasn’t just some 6’7" stud with dark brown skin, perfect teeth and a faded mohawk with tattoos along the back of my hairline. I was a prince. Not just any prince, either. I was the best friend of the Lycan King, an honorary brother to the Demon Prince, and one of the only friends to the Fae Prince. My most prized connection, though, was being the son of Trevert and Bane Stone.

I leaned against the pane of the entry way of our kitchen, watching my one-armed father make my mother laugh. He’d never lifted a spoon or heated a pot, because if he did, my mama would have no problem beating him over the head and threatening him to get out of her domain. She was the queen of Mountain Trolls. He was just her husband. He appreciated her more than some fancy title as King Consort. He’d even gone as far as to change his last name before they married to keep their generations as Stones. Unfortunately, I was an only child. It didn’t mean my papa didn’t want any more children. It meant that he respected my mother enough to stop at one child as she’d personally requested.

Trev, I'm going to punch you in the throat. Mama laughed. Don’t you have something better to do?

What? You mean besides being right here with you; making you laugh and want to hurt me while you try to make us lunch?

"Speaking of lunch. Vikas?" she screamed.

I laughed, though. Mama, you don’t have to holler. I'm right here.

"I know. She moved my daddy out of the way so that she could get a good look at me. Queen Bane wasn’t known to smile very often. The scowl she wore was almost permanent. The only two things that could lift the corners of her lips were her son and husband. Other than that, she had a resting bitch face that could put fear in the heart of anyone. Are you eating lunch with your lil’ snot-nosed friends?"

Yes, ma’am. Headed off to the country club in just a little bit.

"Mhm. Make sure you keep an eye on Siah. His ideas are too big, but they’ll work.