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"Who gave you the book?"

"My dad But we never got a chance to talk about it before he wentdetrus are real"

"Watch your tongue, lass" Again MacRieve's eyes flickered "No one likes to be called a 'vilest aboht it was a catchall for, uh, ical creatures"

"Loreans Go with that word"

"Um, okay" Great She'd insulted the one person in this entire Lore world who'd been decent to her

"Did you read about Lykae?"

"I did But I still have questions" Dozens of them When he waved her on, she asked, "Do you have a pack? How many of you are there?" Did she pass them on the street each day? "Are there alphas and betas?"

"We have a pack, butin sodom as well"

"Kinevane is the royal seat"

He nodded "And, aye, there are alphas and betas You're looking at one of the former Lykae number in the hundreds of thousands"

Her lips parted So many? "So you're aolf" And an alpha to boot

"We doona shift into wolves No' like in the movies We each have the spirit of a wolf inside us We call it our beast; soaoil"

"What does that e' Once it's fully risen, then you can see it"

"What does it look like?"

"When a Lykae turns, it overshadows hies a wee bit He getsbigger"

Bigger? He already dwarfed her five-three height "It doesn't sound so bad So why did those other Loreans screaht of you?"

He scrubbed a pal used to"

"What makes it rise?"

His eyes shifted away from hers as he said, "For most, it's an infrequent occurrence In mated Lykae, it rises each full moon Otherwise it re along those lines"

"How do you know I'ain, she believed that he believed this Didn't ht now

"Lykae have an Instinct-a guiding force, yet it's verra developed, more so than with other shifters When I scented you, the Instinct told ot the i his answer for her-or holding a lot back "I've waited my entire life to know that scent"

"Exactly how old are you?"

His discoot so at thirty-two, no' much older than your twenty-four years"

She wondered how he knew her age, then remembered it'd been announced at the auction "What would those creatures have done with me if you hadn't savedthe pros and cons of what he was about to say

"Please I need to know"

"Rape and torture Once they found Webb, they would have killed you"

Nausea churned "Because of my father's involvement with immortals?"

"Aye He's a coanization that seeks to capture and study immortals so that they can better exterminate us We believe it has ties to the military"

"Exterminate" Just like the note in that book Had her dad left her because she was becoer, fear, sadness, anger, fear, sadness

"Chloe, your father's a killer"

"He's been an adoring dad to e of her nose "So he kills snake creatures and centaurs ould rape his daughter? He kills witches ould auction her off? No offense, but I' a problem"

"Your father seeks to wipe us all out, even though Lykae doona harm humans Nor do the members of my alliance No' like Pravus immortals do Have you heard of the"

"They're the monsters of myth Unfortunately, the Order does no' discriave her pause "My dad isn't narrow-minded or prejudiced with hu to the idea that this was all a

"Doona know But he had his henchiven Families were torn apart Bairns orphaned, some captured themselves" MacRieve's eyes flickered once more and sweat beaded his upper lip "Order scientists tortured captives in sick ways, vivisecting the my father was responsible for all that?"

"He still is There were five prisons Four re is true-and that's a vo Loreans can break"

Should she believe this stranger? When she recalled that slip of paper in the Book of Lore, Chloe realized that she couldn't dis her

But she also couldn't accept that her dad would hurt children, no matter their species

"The people at the auction wanted to use you to draw out your father," MacRieve said "You're the only lead in the Lore, it seeeance No' to mention the locations of the other prisons They want their offspring and lanced up "Then ere you at the auction?"

He parted his lips, but said nothing

"Oh Oh, no! Did you lose family? Children?" Say no, say no

"I canna have bairns with any save for aze pinned her "With you"

She sed This whole"You didn't answer the question"

"I lost no one, but I will no' lie to you-I'e I have as much call for it as any of them"

"What happened to you? Were you in one of those prisons?"

The bleakness in his expression rocked her "That's a discussion for another night"

He was! Dear God, she ht that his furious roar had sounded fae, then he'd been tortured Her father ht be responsible for the torture of this male

The one who'd saved her life

If there was one thing Chloe believed, it was that there were exceptions to every rule She herself was an exception While the rest of her teaer, not exactly playmaker material But she'd worked ten times as hard as they had, and she'd prevailed