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Damn, he was still raw from the loss, destroyed in ways he didn’t understand For one thing, he doubted he’d ever ht about his wife And no e

He’d wanted to have a faoing out alone to deserted places to paint, always against his advice They argued everyat dahen he came home from Guard duty He’d loved her, but they’d been oil and water

Then one day, after returning froht, he found a pool of blood on his kitchen floor and no sign of his wife

Crushed was the right word

He left Jewel in the bathroom to pull down her short denim skirt and do whatever else a woman did after hot, quick sex in a public place

He headed into the men’s room, took a pee, and tried not to feel like the ass-end of hell

These days, he ainst the Invictus and not ed in the exact sa the Ancient Fae and her army of vicious, bonded wraith pairs The wo da her ambitions

His realm, Swanicott, suffered alht so that his Vampire Guard was in a worn out state as were his Shifter and Troll Brigades

He left the bathrooh boards of the bar creaked beneath his leather hip boots and two-eighty frame He was taller than most mastyrs since he topped out just shy of six-seven

The place s out of Nashville played on the radio, crusty and gut-wrenching He was at ho wohts

Lately, he’d been doing a lot of the latter He’d gotten into the bad habit of letting his starvation run way too long between feedings, which tended to ramp up his already surly temper He needed to stop that shit, but he wasn’t sure how Ever since Mastyr Malik had hooked up with his blood rose, a woned to ease the pain of a mastyr’s starvation forever, Zane had been irritable as hell

He didn’t want a blood rose of his own; he wouldn’t knohat to do with her even if she happened to come alo