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"You love the hunt soto be feared and ostracized by your faed

His brows lifted "What makes you think I’m an outcast?"

"I’m not stupid, Tane" She folded her ar in the center of her heart She knew all about shunning And the pain of always being seen as a threat, no matter how hard she tried to prove herself "I could see how Victor’s clan treated you Half of them looked like they wanted to crawl in the nearest hole when you walked into the room and the other half looked like they wanted to plant a stake in your back"

With a smooth motion he turned to pace toward the heavy desk, but not before Laylah glimpsed the wounds that darkened the beautiful honey eyes

Wounds so raw she shuddered in horror

"My power is great enough I’ll always be feared regardless if I’m a Charon or not" He kept his back turned, his voice stripped of the emotions that festered deep inside hiive a shit about the assholes ant to see me dead I’m not here to win friends and influence vaid stiffness of his shoulders and the don’t-screith-id air

She’d been pissing Tane off since the moment they met Why stop now?

"Don’t do this" She moved to stand directly before hiaze "Do what?"

"Pretend that it doesn’t matter that you’re treated like a leper by those who have no right to judge you" She reached up to touch the hard line of his jaw "That you hide away from the world that doesn’t want you That you’re so alone it ht touch, his expression wary

"Laylah?"

"I don’t have any say in my fate, but you …" She slowly shook her head "You could be a part of a clan Even have a h rasped across her nerves "Can you see e with a white picket fence?"

She lowered her hand, pretending she didn’t give a shit he was shutting her out

"Fine, keep your secrets," she snapped "It’s not like ither first step ahen Tane reached out to lightly touch her shoulder

"She wasTane’s bleak gaze "What?"

"Sung Li" His hand absently stroked over the bare skin of her shoulder, but she sensed his thoughts were far away "She transformed me into a vampire"

"So she’s your h her stomach

She’d insisted that he reveal his pain

As if she had the right to share his deepest secrets

Now she realized that she was forcing hiht to bury

"Every relationship between a foundling and his maker is different Sometimes it can be a parent and child connection, other times it can be sexual" His voice was ruthlessly controlled "Usually there’s nothing that holds thes were abandoned by their maker and rarelyto ht directly into a clan"

At any other tilimpse into vampire politics

For all their power, they were careful to keep their world shrouded in secrecy

But there were far more important matters to occupy herLi?"

"She was my lover"

"Your mate?" she rasped

"No, but ere … close"

Even braced for the revelation, Laylah jerked as if she’d been slapped Sung Li

She sounded … exotic And no doubt beautiful, like all va another thing about her "You said were" "She’s dead"

"How?"

"I cut off her head"

Regret slammed into her "Shit I’m sorry I should never have pushed" She lifted her hand to touch hiing on by a thread and she didn’t want to be the one to snap it She’d done enough daht, thank you verytension filled the room "Don’t you want to knohy?"

She shuddered Not out of shock at his confession, but in horror at the anguish heforced to kill his lover

"I …" She licked her dry lips "I don’t want to o back there"

His hand slid to cup the back of her neck, his thuular Al Li was ancient even before she h whisper "And like rown bored with her existence"

Laylah frowned "She changed you for entertain it"

Yep Super bitch

"How long were you together?"