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

The Ferals and lycan mercenaries had absconded the moment it seemed Mandrake was going to lose, along with some of those who feared to face Hades’ wrath. Hades himself appeared disinterested in those who’d run and instead bellowed instructions to his guards on what to do with those previously loyal to Mandrake but who’d remained behind and now clamored for Hades’ forgiveness.


The guards rounded up everyone except Cerbera, and Oleander and led them away. The stare which Hades bestowed upon them made Valentine shudder, and the women fell to their knees.


“By rights I should destroy you as I did Mandrake and you should join him and Belladonna in whatever hell awaited them.” Hades towered menacingly over the women who’d dropped to their knees before him.


In Valentine’s opinion, Hades’ expression one suggested that he still would. Then Hades smiled, and Valentine was certain he preferred the clan Lord’s previous appearance.


Chapter 34