Kane’s POVI couldn’t believe Luna Amy would do this to me. Females were notoriously treacherous, but her? Wait, where did that thought come from? CC was long gone, his punishment room mostly redundant.Blaylock was close by. Did my mate want him to take control of me once more? One thing she apparently didn’t want was me to lose fitness by lying about all day. Darius was a gruelling personal trainer. He didn’t seem to grasp what I meant when I asked if he was now my physiotherapist.I let that one lie unexplained. After all, I didn’t have to answer to him. Or anyone.Lisa came to see me, just once. I think she really wanted to know where the Lycan wolf was. The last I heard he was inside my clone. Imagine that.Jarvis kept mentioning some sort of serum but nothing was ever pumped into me while I was awake. I seemed to recall him saying it would enhance the Lycan in me. Whose side was he on?His own, of course. I knew he still wanted Amy. You only had to watch him with the clone. Now
Kane’s POV “Is this what you want, Luna?” I asked, pointing to her and then myself. “The Alpha on the wrong side of his desk.” “No, Kane,” she replied, rising so quickly she bumped her knee. I was always doing that. “You took me by surprise.” “Chance would be a fine thing,” I grumbled. “It’s good to have you back.” “Really? Why?” “Don’t spoil it with cynicism. I like your sense of humour It reminds me of – ” “New York? I never did get round to thanking Elvis,” I said. “If he had solved our puzzle earlier I wouldn’t have come to know you better.” “Still a smooth talker, I see.” “A few days doesn’t change a man.” “Sometimes it does.” She always had to have the last word. It was kinda infuriating yet I quite liked it all the same. “If you say so, Luna.” “Call me Amy, Kane. And it wasn’t any old puzzle and certainly not solved by a banker named after a rock ’n roll singer that everyone seems to want to impersonate.” “I thought he worked in a museum.” “I’m not going to argue
Amy’s POV Retribution beckoned in the form of either a rogue or a member of the living dead. I hoped Kane wouldn’t give up on me when he was back to full health. I didn’t even want to think about how long my half-brother had left. Maybe Mina would come for the leftovers, if it wasn’t too late by then. Would Lisa even shed a tear? It was doubtful. Was she missing Noah? I really didn’t want him dragging into this mess of my making. Seems I returned just in time to save you from yourself. Agatha? I knew you’d let me down. Just not like this. What happened to strong Amy, ready to take on the shifter world? Michael Satyr. Ah. An unknown factor. His wolf refuses to leave, I hear. You can say that again. Pretend to go along with it and then, when I give you the nod, disappear. Just like that? I can’t even see you. Don’t be difficult, Amy Jordan. Truman, I corrected. Are you sure about that? There wasn’t a wedding band on my finger, though I’d worn his collar. More than one. I d
Amy’s POVIt was cold in the underground bunker. Being surrounded by root vegetables didn’t help my mood any. But there was farmland above us, and Noah and I had to eat.Apart from being weaker than normal and very pale, he was able to complain about the lack of meat.“What I wouldn’t give for a jack rabbit or two.”“Mom had a recipe for jugged hare. Delicious.”“Don’t, Luna.”“Sorry,” I said.We were sharing the same cell, but only until nightfall.“How’s Lisa?”“Strange,” I told him.The Delta gave the ghost of a grin. “A lie would have been preferable.”“It’s not entirely her fault.”I went on to say that I believed she was being controlled by another.“Who, exactly?”“You’re going to have to trust me on this one,” I said, just as Mina appeared, looking anxious.“The prince is awake,” she announced. “It’s highly unusual. He must sense your presence.”A white-haired woman appeared behind her and Noah shrank back.“Leander always oversleeps,” the newcomer said, with scorn. She peered
Kane’s POVObliterating Blaylock was my number one priority. Yet my sister kept getting in the way. If I didn’t know better I would have suspected she was doing it on purpose. And after I’d let her off with a caution following her unscheduled visit to Zena. I didn’t have the heart to reprimand her properly, given what she was going through.I informed Ms Harvey in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t going to spend another second in her lab as a guinea pig and that she was lucky I didn’t throw her ass in my dungeon.Francis backed me up, for which I was eternally grateful. Cornelius opened and closed his thin lips a few times but nothing of substance emerged. At this stage I wouldn’t have been surprised to see ectoplasm.It had been that kind of a year.I asked to see my clone then changed my mind.“Have it brought to my office.”The lookalike could be dismantled there. It was as good a place as any, and I assumed Darius would be handy with a hammer.Lisa turned up unexpectedly. Actually,
Amy’s POVThe prince took the fur coat from my shoulders in a sensuous move which I suspected he had performed many times before.“Lie down and stretch out your arm,” he ordered.Unlike the Alpha, there was no aura, yet I hurried to obey. Fear had diminished, leaving a heady anticipation.Had he softened me up merely by placing his cold lips on mine?The man who entered looked ghastly. Saliva dripped from fangs he was unable to properly conceal when he saw me. I jammed my legs together, wondering wildly if I’d forgotten to shave them.That wasn’t the part he was interested in, but he obeyed the vampire prince and kept his bloodless white hands to himself as he attached an odd-looking contraption to my bare upper limb.A vampire with a bald head chose that moment to glide through the door.“Mina said you woke early again. Oh, is this the new lady?”“Allow me to introduce Arnold, my second-in-line. This is Amy, a healthy she-wolf. I doubt she will be joining our group.”“Can I watch you
Amy’s POV Did I mention his lips were cold? I scarcely noticed at first until a pint of rhesus negative left my rapidly cooling limbs. Come to think of it, the whole room was freezing. “Are there any candles?” I murmured, drowsily. “I thought you would want to sleep, my precious.” “I meant for warmth.” “Arnold.” Mina’s crush had several attempts before an elaborate candelabra appeared in his gloved hand. Any other vampire might have set his hair alight. I suppressed a giggle. Maybe this wasn’t the first such request. Still gawking at me was the farmer I’d dubbed Horace. I supposed he had to stick around to oversee proceedings. Then it struck me. I’d been likened to a cow. This new drowsiness was getting in the way of my indignation. I allowed my head to loll back on the pillow and closed my eyes. I really didn’t want to see the rust and peeling black paint. “What’s your castle like?” Arnold tittered. “She doesn’t know, does she?” Prince Leander ignored him. “I’m about to
Kane’s POVI had no idea what Ingrid’s sister was talking about but I played along.“What do you take me for? I’m not someone who would ever pry into another’s private affairs.”“Affairs? Good choice of word. Did Jake enlighten you? Lori said he stole it at one point.”I might have known Amy’s brother would be involved somewhere along the line.“Do you want it back?”“There is no point,” she said, her tone bleak.One less thing for my to-do list.“Don’t give up,” I urged. “Mina hasn’t.” Her mouth opened and closed but she said nothing. “Noah?”“I’ll take you to him, though I should warn you, he’s very sick.”She wasn’t lying. Those furs seemed familiar and yet my Delta’s teeth were chattering.“Amy?” I queried.My sister’s mate did his best to respond through a parched mouth. Ingrid offered him a little water from her flask, a drop at a time.“In case you’re wondering, that’s my coat,” Diana said.“Good of you to think of him. I mean it.”“Prince Leander likes the females in his group
Kane’s POV It soon became clear that Miss McGregor wasn’t a rogue she-wolf. She explained that she’d been heading back to her pack above the border in Canada when her car got a flat. Jake had offered her a lift when he spotted her hitchhiking. She said he’d been on his own and never mentioned another female. I would question him later. Expecting my Luna to burst through the door and start what the humans called a cat fight, I can’t say I was disappointed when she didn’t. After a brief lecture on how lucky Miss McGregor was not to be considered guilty by association, I stood up and looked her in the eye. “You can go,” I announced. She cocked her head on one side, regarding me critically, and I knew it wouldn’t be quite so easy to dismiss someone like her. Not without proceeding to formally reject her. Faith Isla McGregor beat me to it, not even hesitating over my surname and the name of my pack. I couldn’t believe the nerve of that she-wolf. It didn’t seem to cause her much pain,
Lisa’s POVI was pleased to see my brother so happy and even unbent enough to invite Amy to tea. Kayleigh was there, moping a little, but she brightened up when she saw the Luna. Noah was supervising the border guards. Again. I’d pouted a lot until he told me Kane was thinking of appointing another Delta.He swore me to secrecy afterwards, but Amy knew. Of course, she would.“Does this mean there will be two Alphas again?” I asked, when my daughter was paying a visit to the bathroom.“No chance,” she said. “But it’s cool. Kay looks much better.”“Do you think so? I wish she would cheer up.”“She’s been through a lot.”Did the Luna think I didn’t know that?“Have a scone. Fresh from Ray’s bakery.” My visitor hesitated. “Go on. Take one at random. I haven’t poisoned them all,” I joked. To prove that, I selected one with blueberry jam inside and took a small bite. “Mm, delicious. I don’t know why I didn’t think of commissioning your stepfather to bake my daughter’s special cake.”“He’s n
Kane’s POV“If I’ve won, I want you to … ”Amy whispered the rest.“What? No way,” I said, and went on to issue a stern warning.Just for a second there I was tempted to cheat, claim she'd lost. Until –“Be nice,” she hissed, putting emphasis on the second word and fiddling with the knot on her blindfold.I watched her struggle for a while – why didn’t she just lift the whole thing over her head? – before going across to the monitor and calling up the incriminating evidence.“You won’t like it,” I warned her, again.That had been a part of my reply when she said, “Show me the footage of you and Omega Sharon. All of it.”As if there had been other encounters in the past.The truth was laid bare, making her huff with contempt.“Satisfied, Luna?”“I thought as much. She was faking it. On your orders?”“Yeah,” I managed, feeling like I’d just crawled out from under a rock and couldn’t find my way back there.Exposed, just like Amy, yet in a very different way.“She must have told everyone
Amy’s POVIt soon became apparent that Jake was lost to us. I missed Ingrid, too. Was he treating her right? I hoped so.Mom was inconsolable for a whole week and then, in typical Velma fashion, she moved on. That must have been something to do with Ray. One for the homilies, he was. She kept twittering on about my brother making his own way in the world.As far as I was concerned, he’d always been rogue material.I was biding my time to catch Kane off guard and then I would strike. In the nicest possible way, of course.It wasn’t long before we were back to sharing the same bed again. His hands kept straying to my tummy. So much for emergency contraception.I’d been feeling really sick in the mornings, something I’d not experienced much the last time around. Making him wait fit in well with my plan.Coaxing him back to our quarters that afternoon, I had a surprise in store in the form of a new game.This time, my intention was to win, though I allowed him a say in the ‘rules’ we were
Lisa’s POVSomething was off about the atmosphere in the nursery. Dan usually got the blame but this seemed different. Even more unwholesome, if that was the right word to use about my only nephew.I didn’t visit the pups with my daughter any more. She was sensitive and tended to kick off if she knew we were going there.Noah and Kayleigh were closer than ever. I tried not to resent their easy relationship while I had to work at it. Maybe she sensed my annoyance and that was why she clung to the Delta when he came home to us. Or could it be that because I was always around she missed him more?I told myself that was it even though it bugged me. A lot.Picking up Dan’s rattle one day, I felt a surge of power. Static electricity, I thought. It didn’t plug in, that was for sure.He went ape until I gave it back to him.Dora wasn’t like that. She didn’t seem to mind when he took her toys off her. Maybe she was in awe of him – or frightened. I couldn’t be sure and knew better than to menti
Amy’s POV The pups were hard work but I became engrossed in what was mainly pandering to their needs. It gave me time to think. I didn’t miss the decisions I had to make, the daily squabbles which had to be sorted between maids and Omegas. They were trivial in the scheme of things. It made me smile to think of the Alpha dealing with petty rows about dirty looks and the more serious allegations of slacking, which tended to be unfounded for the most part. Some of the older servants had heart conditions and they needed more regular breaks. If he reinstated punishment in what had been CC’s room I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night in that same bed. Yet I couldn’t stop him. I had no say and wouldn’t be aware of anything like that given that I was stuck here for the most part, even for meals. He deserves to know. Misha, now’s not a good time. Do it. Or Rhett will tell him. Are you threatening me? My wolf didn’t answer, retreating to sulk, presumably. I knew she was right. The
Amy’s POVSomething was going on. Something I didn’t understand. People were murmuring to each other and occasionally gazing at me. Was I paranoid? This had happened to a human at school, all because she had a fondness for snacks between meals.Suzie’s a renowned pie maker these days. At least she was.They’re not sniggering any more.Someone asked Chrissy in a loud voice if there was any Sharon fruit, to general titters. I didn’t get the joke. At least not until later when she knocked on the door to our Suite.I was tossing and turning in what had been the pleasure room.“You sent for me, Alpha Kane. And here I am.”“Give me a twirl,” I heard him say.What? I wanted to jam the pillow over my head, but I was curious.“Do you like it? I sewed it myself in my spare time.”“Very fetching.”There he went again with those old-fashioned words. Was I the catalyst, being around Mina and not ‘suffering’ myself. Still, I was proud of my extensive vocabulary so perhaps it was less noticeable wit
Kane’s POVCC told me more than once that a good whipping would convince anyone not to re-offend. I didn’t subscribe to that notion. My belief was that discipline should be relative.Amy had failed as a Luna when she allowed the rogue she-wolf to abduct her without a fight. I intended to pit her against Lori, an up and coming female warrior, who had once shot her by mistake. That should serve to punish both of them.Maybe I would sell tickets, for charity of course.My Luna had betrayed me by succumbing to my former Beta’s kiss. At the same event, maybe I could have my pack members – men and women – line up to claim her lips. Standing up for hours, hungry and thirsty, her mouth swollen and parched. That would teach her.And now I had found the blister pack containing something which fuelled my fury yet further.A public whipping seemed highly appropriate.I knew I would put her through none of the above. She had always been mine to ruin.If it wouldn’t hurt our twin girls I would have
Kane’s POVIf I had to absorb Blaylock, surely Garrett would help me control him? I could only hope. Asking Rhett would just depress me, because I already knew the answer.My priority was to rescue my cousin’s girl. We had a date to watch a movie for fuck’s sake. And Noah would surely not survive a prolonged invasion even though he’d been doing better recently. I needed my Delta and Kayleigh needed her stepdaddy.As for Lisa, words failed me. Her scream had alerted us and yet she must have been the one to lure the mage upstairs. My guess was she’d visited the lab and seen him.I was hoping to save him, too, if only by hosting the Lycan wolf once more. Though the mage was way down the pecking order. Probably last.In fairness, it didn’t seem as if Amy and Jarvis were lovers or even planning to be. Yet the crisis had elevated a level. Maybe they were just biding their time.I knew I couldn’t afford to think like that once Blaylock was in situ. The ancient Lycan would probably pounce on