Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
The fearful theories which cast her as some kind of super spy evaporate in the face of her reality. Every time I am in her presence, I know that she is exactly who I always thought she was. She is innocent and she is vulnerable, and she has been used by those who have an agenda.
My protective instincts make me want to wrap her up in my arms and kiss her and tell her everything is going to be okay. But my mind tells me there is still a mystery to be solved, and that if I give into my instincts now, before I have any answers at all, I will be right back where I started, too mate-smitten to think objectively.
“I want to go over the events of the past few weeks. You said your aunt called and wanted you to come home?”
Kira sighs, because she has been asked this question many times before, and answers it every time.
“Colton is always getting arrested, because he’s the one who earns money for the family. He goes out, does crimes, and gets caught from time to time.”
“I assume that is what happened to you?”
Kira nods, her expression a clear mask of shame. “My aunt worked out that I knew who I was, mostly because I told her. And once she knew I could take a wolf form, she told me I had to work like Colton did. So I did.”
This aunt has much to answer for. Kira’s introduction to her wolf self was difficult as it was, complicated by interactions with my pack and the limited time I had to help her fully understand that side of herself. Now, instead of learning from me, she has been influenced and corrupted by a woman who clearly only cares for herself and the many ways she might manipulate the situation.
“That aunt… she’s a piece of work. Evil.”
“I thought it was my father who was supposed to be the evil Russian?”
She’s being sassy, but it is possible both sides of her lineage are foreign in origin. However, that seems unlikely given Colton’s wolf form. He’s a standard American shifter. He’s a filthy, scrappy mess, but he doesn’t have any dilute in him. I don’t think her immediate family are the source of the Russian bloodline. I think her mother had an unfortunate meeting with someone who should never have been in this country, and I think she probably paid for it with her life.
“I just want to be free,” Kira says. “I never meant to cause you all this trouble. If you let me go, I promise I’ll never bother you again. I know your pack thinks I’m…”
“Quiet.”
Kira
He takes a step toward me, his eyes lit with intensity. I feel our connection flare to even more powerful life. There’s something very dark inside him right now.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he says. “Not ever, do you understand?”
“What are we going to do, then? I can’t live down here forever.”
“You wouldn’t be the first mate to be kept in a dungeon and bred,” he says. “In my lineage alone, that has happened three separate times. There is a birthing suite down here for that reason, and a nursery.”
I stare at him, marveling at how casually he says such insane things.
“Why would anybody ever do that?”
“The mate bond is unbreakable, but sometimes a mate cannot be trusted. In that case, she can be contained and bred as necessary.”
Bred as necessary.
And I am supposed to be the secret monster. Cain regards me as his possession. That’s hot sometimes, but other times, it’s just fucking broken. It doesn’t seem to occur to him that I might have a different opinion that is just as valid as his.
“Cain,” I say, my voice soft and dangerously calm.
“Yes, my love?”
“If you try to do that to me, I will kill you.”
Cain
She is not joking. She is not even threatening. She is stating a plain fact, for my information.
It is enough of a jolt to make me reconsider.
I start to wonder if I am being fucking insane.
I start to wonder if everything about this situation has not been insane from the beginning.
A lot has changed for my mate since we met. There’s a strength in her that I did not recognize before. She has suffered greatly, and she has discovered parts of herself that have lain dormant her entire life.
The pack is right to be afraid of her.
I am not keeping her in this dungeon because I feel that they would hurt her. I am keeping her down here because when I look into her pretty eyes, I see the thing that Isabella raged about when Kira bit her. My mate has capacities few other wolves do. Most of this pack submits to me easily. Kira submits when I fuck her, and that is all.