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.

Her warrior strength that’d filled her during battle had

the 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 and simply allowed

was pulling her from the tub and wrapping her into a thick white terry cloth robe that enveloped her

with the juicy protein. As strength returned to her

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

that she’d actually dated all that much but she’d always been mystified by her girlfriends who’d been

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

return?” Cassandra asked Iona, hating herself for sounding so pinched and bitter but in her heart she felt cheated of the new

biggest threat

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

Serra brings trouble with her,” Iona said, combing the snarls from Cassandra’s hair. “She arrived without notice, bursting into the house, claiming she’d seen Ulster’s