back. He’d been stripped and beaten, but on the second day of his captivity, one of the chief’s daughters, the one with the limp, had brought him a pair of flannel pajama bottoms. They were too short, but he’d been grateful nevertheless.

Of course, he’d also been suspicious as hell, but no matter how many times he asked the female, Aylin, why she was giving him clothes, she didn’t respond.

Her twin sister, however, had left him bleeding and nearly blinded just two hours earlier.

Rasha was a royal bitch.

He wondered how Bastien and Nicole were doing.

He regretted not having more time to spend with the boy, but maybe those few hours they’d spent together before this all went down would leave Bastien with positive memories. The idea that all he’d ever known of fathers was pain and abuse was too horrible to bear.

And Nicole . . . Jesus.

He closed his eyes and rocked his head back against the wall. She’d been at the gathering of the two clans. She’d seen him chained and dragged away. He’d heard her. Sensed her. And all he could think of was how he’d left things between them.

He’d yelled at her for making herself at home in a place where she should have been welcome. Instead, he’d freaked the f**k out. He’d been so full of guilt over how Terese had lived and died that he hadn’t been able to let anyone else in.

What if he couldn’t love someone the way she deserved to be loved? What if he didn’t imprint on the female he wanted? What if she died thinking she was nothing but a burden to him? An obligation?

Nicole had been a burden at first. Definitely an obligation—nothing more than part of his mission gone awry. And he’d treated her as exactly that.

But at some point, his feelings toward her had changed. He’d discovered that she wasn’t the evil Daedalus bigwig he’d believed her to be, and if anything, she had a bigger heart than many vampires he knew.

ShadowSpawn vampires, most notably.

Assholes. They couldn’t just kill him and be done with it, could they? No, they were going to drag out his humiliation and death for as long as possible. Not an hour went by when someone wasn’t coming into the dungeon to torture him. And every night, they hauled him to the common room, where they chained him to a whipping post for some wholesome family entertainment. While the entire clan looked on, he was beaten, cut, stabbed, whipped, pissed on—yeah, it was all great fun. He especially liked it when they threw rotten food at him and tried to force him to eat it.

Aylin always came into the dungeon after the family fun night events to clean him up, but she never spoke. Not that he was in the mood to chat by that point. Usually, he couldn’t see, let alone speak, through the blood and swelling.

The chamber door creaked open. Squinting at the bright light streaming through the opening, he braced himself for whatever was coming next.

A squat male who was built like a brick filled the doorway. “You have five minutes,” Brick said, speaking to someone outside.

Riker smelled Nicole before he saw her, and his heart screeched to a halt so fast it must have left skid marks on his ribs. Gripped by shock, he could only gape as she entered the dungeon.

“Oh, my God.” She ran to him and knelt at his side, taking his face in her hands. “What have they done to you?”

His injuries weren’t important. The fact that she was here and was staring at him with silver eyes was.

“Holy shit, Nicole . . . you’re a vampire.” His voice was as trashed as his body. His mind seemed to be equally trashed, because he couldn’t focus his questions or his thoughts. And like a dolt, he’d also just told her something she already knew. “Why are you here?

How?” He swallowed. “When did you turn?”

“Shh. First things first.” She stroked her thumbs over his cheeks, her touch extremely light and gentle on his bruises. “I’m here to free you and Lucy.” He wrenched his fists futilely behind his back, wishing he could touch her. “They’re letting you go. Lucy is already with Hunter and Myne.”

Thank God, Lucy was safe. But his situation was a little more serious. “That’s not possible,” he said. “kars wants to wring every drop of life out of me.”

“I have something he wants more than he wants you dead.” She smiled, revealing her new pristine white fangs. “Oh, and obviously, the vaccine Chuck gave me didn’t work.”

Riker couldn’t stop staring at her mouth and the way the tips of her fangs peeked from between her parted lips.

“Are you okay?” he rasped. “I know you didn’t want this—”

She pressed her finger against his lips. “I’m fine, I swear. I’m still getting used to it, but I’m really okay.

And if nothing else, it cured my lip-biting habit.” She gave him a sheepish smile. “At the end of the first day,

I had a super-swollen lip, and if I’d had quarters, I’d have had a full swear jar.”

He strained against his chains, desperate to get closer. Mere inches separated them, and he could barely move. He needed to touch her, needed to feel for himself that she was healthy and whole. kars thought he was being so clever with his torture methods, but this . . . this was by far the worst thing Riker had been put through.

“You look amazing,” he said, loving the dusky blush that spread over her cheeks.

He’d thought she was gorgeous before, but the dental makeover, along with the new sensual energy

that vibrated the very air between them, had transformed her from a sleek, elegant housecat to a muscular, powerful tiger. He wished he could hug her.

Wished he could whisk her away, strip her, and make love to her until she swore to never leave him.

“Wow,” she whispered. “I can feel your desire.”

She licked her lips, and his body, abused as it was, fired up like the trusty engine in the old Land Rover he’d bought after graduating from Army basic training. “I can actually smell it. This vampire thing is . . . incredible.” A dark, crafty gleam sparked in her eyes a split second before she captured his mouth with hers.

A moan of pleasure and a frustrated growl that he couldn’t touch her mixed in his throat. He leaned into her as best he could, meeting her passionate kiss with equal enthusiasm. He danced the tip of his tongue over her fangs, testing the sharpness, fantasizing about how they’d feel as they sank into his neck.

He breathed her in, reveling in the new Nicole.

He’d sell his soul to be able to ravish her right here in the cell. Stretching his restraints to the limit, he kissed her harder, stroking his tongue up and down her fangs in a blatantly sexual tempo. He was rewarded with a groan that vibrated him all the way to his groin.

“Oh, my,” she gasped into his mouth. “Fangs are . . .”

“Sex,” he finished.

“I want—”

“I know.”

She shuddered and pulled back, panting as hard as he was. He wondered if arousal had turned his eyes blue the way hers had gone to glowing green. “They’re going to be back for me in a minute. I just wanted to see you before I started work.”

“Tell me what’s going on. What do you have that they want?”

“Babies.” She brushed her finger over a laceration on his cheek—given to him courtesy of Fane an hour ago. “I know how vampires get pregnant. I can help them conceive.”

Damn, that was huge. Now he understood why kars might deal. He’d been waiting twenty-five years to get his hands on Riker, so he could wait another twenty-five if he had to. Ensuring the survival of his clan and the entire vampire race was worth it.

But . . . “What’s the catch?”

“I have to stay here until five females are pregnant,” she said, as if it was no big deal to be held by

ShadowSpawn for God knew how long. “Tonight is the new moon, so if I can get the formula put together in the next six hours, it’s possible that we could know tomorrow. Pregnancy in vampires is detectable within hours after intercourse. “

“It’s too risky,” he said. “I can’t let you do this.”

“It’s definitely risky,” she said, and he wondered if she’d honed her brisk, businesslike tone in Daedalus boardrooms. “But I’m not sure what gave you the impression that you have any say in it.”

Fair enough. But this was too dangerous for someone who had been a vampire for hundreds of years, let alone for a brand-new vampire.

“Nicole, what if the conceptions don’t happen? You could be here for years.”

“It’ll happen,” she assured him. “As Hunter so kindly pointed out, I’m a baby in your world, but when it comes to this, I’m an expert. I know what I’m doing.

By this time tomorrow, if five females pop a positive,

I’ll be free.”

He leaned back against the wall, getting comfortable. “I’m not leaving until you do. I’m definitely not letting you feed from any of these Neanderthals.”

“Letting me?” She jabbed her finger into his sternum. “You gave up the right to have any input into my life when you chose a dead woman over me, so let’s stop with the he-man act. Besides, I don’t plan to feed from any of them. Vampires can skip a moon feeding or two.”

He shook his head. “It’s not good for you, especially during the first months after you turn.”

“This isn’t negotiable,” she said. “Think about Bastien. He needs you. You need to go home.”

“So do you.”

She smiled, a bitter upturn of her lips. “My home isn’t yours. You made that very clear.”

“Nicole—”

She poked him again. “Now isn’t the time for this.”

“Now is maybe the only time for this.”

The door slammed open, and Nicole, bless her heart, crouched in front of him like a fierce guard dog. Rasha stood in the entry, a deceptively attractive demon outlined by light. All she was missing was horns and hooves. Maybe the hooves were concealed by her knee-high boots.

“Time to go, female,” she said.

Nicole swung back around to him. “Don’t volunteer to stay. Let them take you to Hunter.”

All he could think about was Nicole, stuck here during moon fever, her new body craving male blood, and his inner he-man started pounding his chest.

“You’re not feeding from another male tonight.”

She stood, all grace and elegance that went handin-hand with her snooty “I’ll feed from anyone I want to feed from.”

Possessive rage turned his vision red. “Who fed you during the turning?”

“Myne.”

Darkness swallowed him at the sudden, unbidden image of Nicole lying with Myne in her bed, her teeth in his throat, his expression etched in pleasure. That was bad enough, but had things gone even farther?

Territorial jealousy seared his veins. Myne had now been there for both Bastien and Nicole. It should have been Riker’s privilege to help his son integrate into the clan and help Nicole survive her transformation. He should be grateful; he knew that. But he didn’t think he’d ever get past the fact that Nicole and Myne would be connected forever in a way Riker never would be.

“Hurry up,” Rasha snapped. “You have babies to make.”

Nicole started toward the door, but Riker wasn’t ready for her to leave. He doubted he’d ever be ready.

“Wait.” He lunged against his restraints, and fresh blood streamed down his wrists as the shackles dug into his skin. “Did you do more with him? When he fed you?” He hated himself for asking that. And for sounding like the wrong answer would destroy him.

Nicole pivoted, her body taut as a bowstring.

“Again, none of your business. But screw you, Riker, for thinking I’d kiss you after leaving his bed.” She disappeared, leaving him with his regrets, his bad attitude, and the ShadowSpawn bitch.

Rasha entered, her seemingly permanent scowl etching deep grooves in her face. “I have to take you to your chief.”

“I’m staying.”

“For the female?” She snorted. “You’re a fool.”

Her to-the-knee f**k-me boots clack ed on the pavings as she sauntered over. “I’ll give you until tomorrow.”

She stomped on the chain connecting his wrists to the wall, wrenching his shoulders so hard he saw lights behind his eyelids. “And you stay in chains.”

Chapter 30

It turned out that while being a vampire was generally awesome, what wasn’t awesome was that vampire emotions seemed to be a lot more intense than those of a human. Things that might have been only mildly irritating before now had Nicole struggling not to break objects against the wall. Grant and katina both had warned her that the adjustment wouldn’t be easy, and if anything, they’d understated the problem.

Because between Riker’s ridiculous show of jealousy and her current situation, Nicole was ready to rip some heads off.

And as a vampire, she had the strength to do it.

“I can’t believe I’m trying to manufacture a fertility treatment with sticks and rocks in a lab that’s little more than a supply closet,” she muttered.

The vampire assigned to assist Nicole, Aylin, shrugged apologetically. “We don’t have much use for science here. My father says science is for weaklings who can’t survive in the real world.”

Nicole shot a glance at the blond female, who, except for her pronounced limp, was nearly identical to her tall, blue-eyed twin sister, Rasha. The similarities ended at their appearance, however. Aylin was quiet and reserved, where Rasha was arrogant, loud, and crude. And she dressed like a streetwalker.