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.

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

massive Jacuzzi tub

wasted no time in getting Cassandra into the heated water. She sank into the bubbles with a grateful sigh, forgetting for the moment of her heartache and confusion and simply allowed Iona to scrub

wrapping her into a thick white terry cloth robe

her and Cassandra began stuffing her mouth with the juicy protein. As strength returned to her body,

image of Serra in all her aching beauty intruded on her quiet moment, and she hated

before — not that she’d actually dated all that

because the knowledge that Tieran’s first love was in

so pinched and bitter but in her heart she felt cheated of the new

mistakenly believed the biggest threat was Ulster.

downstairs waiting for Cassandra’s Alpha. With Serra between them,

combing 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 claimed that’d she’d barely escaped