THE AWAKENING

Cassandra gave up trying to convince Arja things would be different at the other clan. Truthfully, she didn’t know if what she promised was true.

Although Jandin and Koris had been protective and kind, she didn’t know if that was their true nature when not mating with a Breeding female. Particularly a Prophesied One.

Cassandra accepted the brutal scrubbing of her skin as Arja made sure not a drop of Cristophe’s seed remained on her body, even going so far as to swish her vagina with an efficient sweep of her finger to make sure nothing remained inside her womb, and then Cassandra was dried and dressed in an frumpy brown sack of a dress that looked as if it’d been salvaged from a bag meant for the thrift store.

She lifted the hem of the ugly dress and let it drop.

“It matters little what you wear. Ulster will simply tear it from your body when he mates with you.”

Cassandra stared in open repulsion. “I don’t want to mate with him.”

A small smile lifted Arja’s mouth. “That won’t matter either. A word of advice: Don’t fight. Accept your fate with grace and maybe he won’t mark you for sport. Ulster is a mean bastard with a penchant for inflicting pain on others.”

Fear snaked its way to her heart and her knees had begun to quake as they walked down the dingy hallway to another room.

At one time, the decrepit house may have been grand but time and disrepair, vandals and neglect had aged the classy Victorian to a shell of its former grandeur.

Much like a great courtesan who had fallen on hard times and was forced to service rough patrons in a filthy alleyway to make ends meet, the old house struggled to retain some semblance of what it had once been in its crumbling cornices and creaking maple balustrade.

“Who does this house belong to?” Cassandra asked.

“Someone dead.”

“Oh.” Cassandra took that as a warning not to ask too many questions.

Her gaze darted from one room to the next, looking for an escape but everywhere she looked, pairs of eyes peered at her from darkened alcoves and musty rooms.

Arja led her into a room different from the rest. The room was awash in opulent tones of red and purple and Ulster, the scarred barbarian, lounged in his oversized chair like a king on his throne.

Three large men stood at wary attention, their eyes narrowing and their noses twitching as Cassandra entered the room.

“Ahh, there she is. The lady of the hour. Tell me, did you manage to wash that bloodsucker’s stink from your body?”

Arja bowed. “She is clean, Master.”

a sick smile as if he

sight of her filled him with disgust and said, “What do you think

gave away his hope and Cassandra wasn’t about to play his game.

I have ways to make my women say whatever I’d like them

because inside she was shaking like a leaf in a strong wind. “Jandin and Koris will find me. And they will

makes you think I won’t tear them to pieces first?” he

look around the motley group, noting their moth-bitten clothes and the pervasive sense of abject poverty that clung to everything she saw, and said,

forward, baring his teeth. “You dare much, girl. Do

bit her tongue to keep from snarling a bitter retort

what she had gleaned thus far, the star-crossed lovers had defied everything to be together, even a timeless prophecy that had doomed them from the

sins? I never knew her. I was adopted. Any revenge you seek against her would be futile. She didn’t raise me and I know nothing about this damn prophecy everyone keeps talking about. What makes you think it’s even real? I mean, it’s the 21st

statement, so much so that a

with open distrust. “She’d say anything to avoid her fate. Hurry up and put your seed in her belly. Your son, our clan, was meant to rule this

werewolves stuck in the past. I

Cassandra swallowed nervously. Perhaps she’d taken it

to her that she was a werewolf, let alone a Prophesied Breeder of Epic Proportions, she would’ve directed them to the nearest mental

in her body, ones she couldn’t possibly explain away logically — not to mention the whole losing her virginity during some feverish Phasing to two different strange men and then the subsequent wild sex with a vampire — but she’d say or do anything to dissuade the scarred bastard staring her down from

could only hope she didn’t phase again

state. She ran her tongue across her lips, dehydrated from everything that had transpired. “Can I get something to drink,” she asked, hating to show even an ounce of weakness but she was truly parched and beginning to feel a

another woman scuttled inside. “Yes, Master?” she asked, her

some water and be

nearly tripped in her haste to obey and it was everything Cassandra could

used to bow at my feet,” he said, watching her reaction. “She used

she felt on her lips and shrugged. “Unless you’re talking about my adoptive mother, which I highly doubt, the woman who gave birth to me was a

true, but she didn’t dare back down in front of Ulster. If he scented fear, he’d overrun her. She sensed there was

if she wanted to escape unscathed. She held onto the hope

woman returned with a glass of water and handed it to Cassandra. There were faint things floating in the water and if Cassandra hadn’t been desperately

was, she squeezed her eyes shut and downed the glass. The

“Take off your

“Excuse me?”

didn’t stutter and