THE AWAKENING

“This is my home. I was born here. You are the one who doesn’t belong,” Serra said bitterly. “Where is Tieran?”

Cassandra ignored Serra’s question, her mind moving at a frightening clip that was probably nearing delirium and knew somehow that Serra had been responsible for Ulster’s sudden appearance.

“I need to rest,” Cassandra said brusquely, moving past Serra. “If Tieran wishes to see you, that’s his business. Not mine.”

“His heart belongs to me,” Serra said to Cassandra’s naked backside as she ascended the long staircase.

Cassandra kept her pace and refused to react even though the hateful comment sliced at her own heart as if it were a raw-edged blade.

Iona appeared at the top of the stairs, her careworn expression focusing like a laser on Cassandra’s belly. “You have exhausted yourself and put your pups at risk,” she warned with a narrowed gaze. “Come. You must eat to replenish your strength and then bathe the blood from your skin. You stink of death and misery and that cannot be healthy for the pups.”

Cassandra was too tired to argue and too heart-sore to do more than nod in agreement.

feel less ready to cry. Her warrior strength that’d filled her during battle had apparently been used up,

in the massive Jacuzzi tub and

the bubbles with a grateful sigh, forgetting for the moment of her heartache

her from the tub and wrapping her into a thick white terry cloth robe that enveloped her in warmth and security.

with the juicy protein. As strength returned to her body, Cassandra’s brain began

on her quiet moment, and she hated her. An irrational urge to smash her fist

— not that she’d actually dated all that much but she’d always been mystified by her

the knowledge that Tieran’s first love was in the house, awaiting his

Cassandra asked Iona, hating herself for sounding so pinched and bitter but in her

the biggest threat was

between them, how could she hope to command Tieran’s love? “I thought she’d been asked to

house, claiming