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"Occah the known facts

"Fuck Occa, he refocused on his son "Use your anger to strengthen your focus"

"None of us have our head in the ga" Torque took a deep breath "But the reason I interrupted your afternoon snack is Vash I just got off the phone with Salem, and he’s concerned about the Alpha"

"So aht of Vash pinned to a tree by a bristling, infuriated lycan--a breed she had just cause to revile

"He fucked her last night"

A long led to process the impossible "Be careful how you speak of her"

"How else a forward, Torque set his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands "I kno she feels about lycans, and this one is under suspicion for Nikki’s kidnapping"

"But we seem to have discovered that he’s not responsible"

"Let’s not forget the lycan she tortured for information What are the chances the Alpha doesn’t know about that or that she was hunting hi the unprovoked death of a packmate?"

"You think he forced her? Or extorted her cooperation in some way? Is that what Saleht twisted through hisa murderous ferocity

He would raze the earth to protect Vashti She was his conscience, his adviser, his hammer, his ambassador, and countless other extensions of hiest woman he’d ever known, yet he’d seen her shattered into pieces Utterly broken and defiled She’d pul ed herself together in the years since, but the cracks and fissures reht she was harder and more inviolate than she had ever been, he knew she was ainst every instinct--to keep her on the front lines If she thought he viewed her as diminished by the desecrations inflicted on her, it would be a blow he didn’t think she was strong enough to bear His belief in her strength hat bolstered her belief in herself

"Sale on; that’s why he cal ed He only knows that they had sex and the Alpha wouldn’t let hi"

Syre pushed to his feet, knowing daes

"She hasn’t touched a man since Charron," Torque reo would be with a lycan?"

"Ready my plane" Syre stalked toward his bedrooh "I want to take off within the hour"

Vash blinked against the harsh glare of the sun as she exited Shred Behind her, Elijah growled at the Vegas heat not yet at its fiercest Lycans were sensitive creatures, which--if she’d been thinking clearly-- touched She kne, and she da hi at the tiiven theh for Saleto the extreme

If she could have…if there had been time…she would have sent Salem away so Elijah could finish what he’d started She was shaht before in her fear Her own astonishing weakness for him made her so vulnerable, which both terrified her andvulnerability where she was concerned That she, a woainst n of hoed she was It would have soothed her body andsex to erase the lingering anger of the night before and to reestablish her control of herself and the situation

Taking a deep breath, she tried to clear Elijah froside Sale around, she looked for hi slowly, his head tilted back to put his nose in the air Sorabbed one of her katanas and her cel phone from the backseat and returned to hiain, but her sense of smel wasn’t as acute as a lycan’s

As she shoved her phone into her top, he looked at her, his face grim "An infected No more than two blocks over So his shirt over his head, he toed off his boots and dropped his jeans In an instant he olven, a big and beautiful y regal beast A ht on his tail, tracking the scent of him that seemed embedded in her senses Distantly, she are of Sale it was effortless He feinted in counterpoint to her, darting around obstacles like Dunal between the opposite each other down an al eyway Her hair whipped in the wind, her steel stilettos bit into the stucco, breaking off chunks to cruround below

And in the back of her mind she are that Elijah had thrown hiht One of her people, as they were al hers As if it was instinctive for him to do so when in truth he’d simply been wel trained By Adrian

How could that have slipped in ilass preceded her turning a corner Elijah’s tail disappearing through a brokendirected her along with his scent It was a building under construction; most of the s stil bore thethe opening Vash sailed through after hi up onto her feet And froze

The construction workers that should have been al over the site were al over the floor instead In pieces

Salerowled

The bare concrete was covered in blood and entrails Limbs and heads were scattered across the floor or lifted to ravenous foalittered, nostrils twitching as they se before, when a rogue minion, driven insane by the deterioration of his ed everyone in his faone on a rahborhood

God It never got easier to bear

One of the wraiths stood apart fro, he darted back and forth swiftly, wearing a seaze was riveted to Elijah, who paced with restless energy With his ears flattened to his head, the Alpha snarled a threat