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

As soon as he materialized, Valentine covered his face in his hands. What am I doing? I’m acting as if Cole is my mate.Focusing his mind away from Cole, Valentine slipped into a dreamless reverie.


A low murmur of voices disturbed Valentine. As he left his sleep-like trance he realized why; one belonged to Belladonna. He froze as he listened.


“Is everything ready for the day of the ball?” Belladonna’s voice was clear. Too clear for Valentine’s liking.


She had to be standing directly below the shelving where he lay. Although they shared no true familial link, and weren’t close by any means, there was still a chance she may feel a faint resonance from him that would give him away.


“Yes. Everything is in place. The evening of the ball will present Hades with a surprise, the like of which will surpass anything he might have imagined for the night.”


Chapter 23