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

With a low growl, Cole scratched Valentine’s throat with his teeth, then, with his mouth pressed hard against Valentine’s jugular Cole pushed with his hips as he bit down. Valentine cried out and jerked instinctively as he was pierced simultaneously.


Another warning growl came from the Alpha Predator and Valentine stilled and lay pliant beneath his Lord. While Cole sucked gently, he moved his hips subtly. The movements were too light to pleasure Valentine and his body burned with need.


Since any attempt on his part to urge Cole to deepen the maddening thrusts might be perceived as a challenge of dominance, there was nothing he could do. All Valentine wanted was to be taken. Almost as if he’d voiced the desire aloud, Cole flipped Valentine over, then yanked him up onto his knees.


With his fingers digging deeply into Valentine’s hips, Cole buried himself to the hilt on the first stroke.


Chapter 20