When Valentine’s sire is forced to take a mate by his Clan leader, Valentine is reduced to stoking the castle’s furnaces as nothing more than a cindered servant to the new matriarch. With his sire Libertine incarcerated and Valentine forced to wear a cursed collar, there seems no way to escape Belladonna’s hold on them. When a stranger appears, Valentine is surprised by how quickly he trusts the other vampire. He accepts the request to go to the castle of his Clan Lord, the ancient and powerful Hades, to uncover who is working to overthrow him. His reward is freedom for both him and his sire. No one is meant to know who he really is, and Valentine pretends he’s one of Hades’ favorites while in the castle, adopting the name Cinder and playing his Seductive nature to its full. But his world is shaken to its core when Valentine finds himself falling for the enigmatic Cole. As a Seductive, Valentine never imagined he’d want an Alpha Predator as a mate. Worse yet, it may be that Cole could be the very one he’s been sent to uncover. When the battle for dominance begins, where will Valentine’s loyalty lie?

Cinis

“No. I took a chance even writing to Hades. But I’ve always found him fair if forbidding for a clan Lord, and comparatively approachable for an Alpha Predator.”


“All of which lead me to believe your letter was never received by him.” Valentine scowled as he paced back and forth.


“So long as Belladonna leaves us to our normal lifestyle, perhaps things won’t be too bad. I really know little of her, except how close she is to Mandrake. Siblings as I understand.” Libertine shrugged.


While Libertine was very partial to music and was a talented musician and composer, as well as a connoisseur of a good singing voice, Valentine preferred to tinker with mechanical creations. The automaton in their furnaces was one he’d built himself. That Belladonna might interfere with what they enjoyed had never really occurred to him.


Chapter 3