Killean practically saw Joseph’s desire to destroy him burning behind the Savage’s eyes. But instead of trying to attack, Joseph leaned back in his chair and rested the tips of his entwined fingers against his chin.
“While I still have some knowledge you want, I have a better chance you’ll keep me alive,” Killean continued.
“I plan to keep you alive anyway. Two fallen Defenders working together to bring down Ronan is far better than one, but I understand your reasoning.”
“Good. Once we establish a more mutual trust, we can discuss this again.”
Joseph smirked. “That shouldn’t take long. Do you really think Ronan moved?”
Killean wasn’t sure, but he doubted it. They’d just established a shared compound with the hunters; it would be difficult for them to pick up so many lives again and relocate them, but Ronan would do anything to keep Kadence safe.
Maybe he was wrong, and they had left, or perhaps he was only hoping Ronan had enough faith in him to delve into this world of Savages and return from it without betraying the Alliance.
He didn’t know if he deserved any faith as he gripped the glass and brought the blood back to his mouth.
* * *
Simone liftedher head when the hunter beside her shifted. She looked toward where she’d seen Killean vanishing into the room where the Savage who’d done this to her always went. She hoped they both choked on the next person they ate.
“Simone,” someone croaked; their voice was so dry it could have belonged to a mummy recently roused from the dead.
Gradually turning her head, she met the gaze of Dallas as he stared at her from inhuman, white-blue eyes. She’d forgotten he was the one chained beside her. Those eyes should freak her out more than they did, but she couldn’t bring herself to care about the strange color on the man she’d briefly considered her leader. When she left Nathan behind, it was to follow Dallas to a stronghold he established in New Hampshire.
She never should have left Nathan and the others, but her battered pride compelled her to go. Pride, a sin she’d believed herself above experiencing, and something she never realized she possessed until Nathan chose a vampire over her. She’d never been in love with Nathan, but she’d spent most of her life with the expectation she would marry the leader of all the hunters. All those in their stronghold had believed the same thing.
But the blow her life took that day was nothing compared to the devastating mess she found herself embroiled in now. Even if she had been prideful when she was raised better than to give in to such a shameful emotion, and when she should have been happy Nathan found love instead of wallowing in the imagined life she lost, she didn’t deservethis.
Noone deserved this.
And now Killean, the only man she’d ever kissed and who made her feel a hint of passion about anything in life, was one of the monsters keeping her here. Tears clogged her throat, and if she wasn’t as dehydrated as a raisin, she might have cried for the first time since finding herself here.
Hopelessness and self-pity swamped her. She hated herself for the emotions, but she couldn’t shake them. She saw no way out of this debacle, and she dreaded becoming one of the foul-smelling creatures keeping her here.
Even if she could come up with an escape plan, she’d never been a fighter. She’d taken some of the self-defense classes Nathan imposed on the women in the stronghold after Kadence ran away, but she’d hated every second of them.
She was born and bred to become a wife, not a fighter or killer. Cooking and sewing were where she excelled. She’d been the epitome of the perfect student and destined to be the mother of the son who would one day rise to take his father’s place as the hunter leader.
Then Nathan fell in love with another, and all her dreams crumbled. She left the stronghold so she wouldn’t have to be reminded of that every time she saw Nathan and Vicky together. She left so she wouldn’t have to take another class on how to punch, kick, and stab something.
She left because, if she wasn’t going to become the wife of the leader, she planned to resume her old life as much as possible. She’d never liked change, and the changes Nathan was implementing on the hunters were too much for her.
But they were far less than the changes shoved onto her in this hellish place. And soon, if she didn’t do something, she would become one of these monsters and what remained of the woman she was would be destroyed forever.
“Simone,” Dallas croaked again.
“What?” she asked and was appalled to discover her voice sounded as bad as his.
“That vampire they brought in was one of Ronan’s men, wasn’t he?”
Simone tried swallowing to wet her arid throat; it was pointless. “Yes.”
For a second, hope shone in Dallas’s eyes. “Do you think they sent him in search of us?”
Oh, how she wished that were true, but though she was many things, some of which she hadn’t realized until recently, she wasn’t delusional. She’d seen Killean’s eyes, and though he was nude, he wasn’t chained. Recalling his cruel dismissal of her after they kissed on the beach, she knew if anyone was going to join these monsters, it was him.
“No,” she rasped. “He’s here for an entirely different reason.”
Noise on her left drew her attention to Killean and Joseph when they emerged from the room. Killean had clothes draped over his arm, but he remained as bare as the day he was born. Again, she felt a hideous blush creeping up her cheeks and ducked her head. What was it about him that always unsettled her so much?
