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

His coach was stopped, briefly glanced into by the captain of the guard, and then waved on. When Valentine exited the coach, assisted by Arsen, he pushed his anxiety aside. Not only was he keen to see Cole once more but also wanted Seth to be proud of him.


Head held high, and innately aware of the admiring, and envious, glances in his direction, Valentine headed toward the stairs leading to the door of the castle.


“Lend me your arm.” Valentine snapped out his imperious command and reached out to a liveried soldier, only to see it was Batair. The man’s nostrils flared, and, for a moment, Valentine thought he was going to speak.


Instead, Batair turned so that Valentine saw that he was not only a captain but also wore Hades’ personal insignia on his throat; a rampant dragon. With a smile, Batair bowed low.


“You honor me, my Lord. If I may have your name to announce at the door?”


Chapter 26