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

“Cinder? Are you there?” Cole’s voice came from down the dimly lit hallway and Valentine whirled around at the sound. He’d expected Cole to be somewhere on the stairs.


“Yes. I’m here.” Valentine stared down the hallway and picked out the broad figure of Cole at the end.


“This way. Hurry. There are guards patrolling. I don’t want anyone seeing or questioning us.”


If he was honest, Valentine didn’t either. He didn’t waste time running in the skirt he wore. Instead, he dematerialized, solidifying close to Cole.


For a moment, Cole just stared at him. The way a starving wolf might a helpless deer. But instead of vanishing, Valentine stood his ground, tilting his chin at Cole as if daring him to try and touch.


“Follow me.” Cole nodded in the direction of the stairs. “If anyone approaches, disappear, and come back after a couple of minutes. I don’t want us seen together.”


Chapter 18