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

“A walk it is.” Arsen grinned as Valentine took his arm. “Come on, boys.”


With Arsen at his side and the gargoyle dogs bounding around them, Valentine was able, at least for a short while, to put all thoughts and concerns about the upcoming mating of Libertine and Belladonna from his mind. I’m lucky to have a friend like Arsen. At least I won’t be lonely once Belladonna is installed as matriarch of the house. I truly hope Father and I are worrying unnecessarily.3


The date for the mating ceremony came all too swiftly for Valentine, and there had still been no word from Hades that would cause the ceremony to be delayed. Libertine was resigned to accepting Belladonna as Mandrake had decreed.


The ceremony was being held at Mandrake’s home, and Valentine sat beside his father in the carriage Mandrake had sent for them. The vehicle was as ostentatious as the man himself. Covered in gold gilt, its brightness made Valentine wince as he boarded it.


Chapter 5