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

“But the master expressly demanded all guests to wear red in their costume.” The servant looked from Libertine to Valentine and back.


His expression of disbelief was almost comical, but there was no humor in the situation. Valentine, just like his father, was aware of Mandrake’s dress code. And their token gesture of disobedience was to ignore it.


“I shall have to inform the master.” The servant snapped his fingers, and another man came running. “Take theses…gueststo their rooms. Libertine is the bridegroom; this is his son. I shall inform the master of their breach of etiquette.”


“It is the prerogative of the groomto decide upon his own choice of clothing, and since Valentine is my son, he abides by my will. Tell Mandrake what you wish.” Libertine swept past the servant, and Valentine followed close behind.


“This way, sir.” The second servant didn’t even bother to hide his disdain and marched ahead of Libertine.


Chapter 6