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

“Yes. You do indeed. I may not know allHades’ favorites, but I would never forget you. A Seductive isn’t his normal choice. He prefers those with iron in their spine. Fighters, aggressors, those who can fight back, not flutter their eyelashes.”


“I assure you; I am well-capable of taking care of myself.” Valentine bristled at the suggestion and despite Seth’s warning to keep as anonymous and unnoticed as possible, he shifted and pounded on the vampire, pinning him to the floor, his teeth close to the other’s throat. “As you can see.”


“Yes, indeed. Very good. But you should never relax your guard.”


Before Valentine realized what was happening, the stranger had flipped him and now held him immobile, his mouth close to Valentine’s throat. “I won’t make thatmistake again.”


Valentine tried to break the grip on his wrists, but the other vampire’s strength was the greater.


Chapter 15