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.

a scrub, she’d feel less ready to cry. Her warrior strength that’d filled her during

the massive Jacuzzi tub and set

a grateful sigh, forgetting for the moment of her heartache and confusion and simply allowed Iona to scrub

her into a thick white terry cloth

plate of nearly raw meat awaited her and Cassandra began stuffing her mouth with the juicy protein. As strength returned to her body, Cassandra’s brain

chewed and swallowed, an image of Serra in all her aching beauty intruded on her quiet moment, and she hated her. An irrational urge to smash her fist into Serra’s pretty mug was shockingly hard

— not that she’d actually dated all that much

first love was in

hating herself for sounding so pinched and bitter but in her heart she felt cheated of

biggest threat was Ulster.

With Serra between them, how could she hope to command Tieran’s love?

the snarls from Cassandra’s hair. “She arrived without notice, bursting into the house, claiming she’d seen Ulster’s band closing in on our territory. She