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.

and a scrub, she’d feel less ready to cry. Her warrior strength that’d filled her during battle had apparently been used up, leaving her pathetic and sad, ready

water in the massive Jacuzzi tub

the heated water. She sank into the bubbles with a grateful sigh, forgetting for the moment of her heartache and confusion

wrapping her into a thick white terry cloth

her mouth with the

she hated her. An irrational urge to smash her fist into

dated all that much but she’d always been mystified

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

for sounding so pinched and bitter but in her heart she felt cheated of the new beginning that’d just begun between she

mistakenly believed the biggest threat was

had the sinking feeling that a more insidious threat was downstairs waiting for Cassandra’s Alpha. With Serra between them, how could she hope to command Tieran’s love? “I thought she’d been asked to leave for the

house, claiming she’d