Page 30 of Catnip

He’d only cavedafter listening to every single detail, and had her answer all his theories, all of his questions. The damn woman had eliminated every logical concern he’d voiced. Still, it didn’t mean that he liked what he had todo.

“Just heading to the toilet, beautiful,” he said, kissing her forehead one lasttime.

He looked into her violet eyes and held her gaze one beat too long for it to seem casual, but he couldn’t say the words at the tip of his tongue. Stay safe. Come back tome.

So, instead, he simply told her, “I loveyou.”

Her jaw dropped, and he simply winked before turning his back and heading away from her. He’d never done a harder thing in his entireexistence.

Home

Ava resisted,kicking and screaming when they came at her. Recalling just what they’d done to her brother and sister when they’d gotten their hands on them, it was hard to allow them to take her. Very, very hard. The best she could do was hope that they’d planned to wait for them to get to Dale before starting her humiliation andtorture.

One of the men managed to get his hand around her mouth and nose. An unpleasant stench filled her nostrils and she almost immediately started to lose focus, slowly blackingout.

How predictable they were. Still, she was pretty glad she’d been right, given that the alternative had been them just breaking her neck and getting it overwith.

But she knew Roberto, Max, Antonio, Neri, and she most definitely knew Angela. Others had joined them, but as the old Enforcers, they were the main force behind the treason. They wouldn’t have been able to resist making a show of it, demonstrating that she wasn’t better thanthem.

Two of them were Richard’s age, the others, older, and she’d known them all her life. She couldn’t recall ever saying one unkind thing to them, or acting like a superior brat, for that matter. That wasn’t herpersonality.

Aria had been a little on the arrogant side, perhaps. Rupert, too, although his vanity was mainly about his abilities; he’d loved to spar with the Enforcers, knowing he’dwin.

Still, none of that mattered. Her time away from Dale had taught her that what she’d considered normal for so long, what her family had, really wasn’tnatural.

Most other kinds of shifters had ruling packs, prides, and flocks, like wolves and felines, but those groups left the rest of their peers to do what they wanted on an ongoing basis; they only interfered when there was a true need for it. The Flavians hadn’t overseen the rest of the flocks; they’d ruled. And their monarchy had been despotic. Fair, just, caring, she’d liked to think, but stillabsolute.

It had only been a matter of time before someone rebelled, and, honestly, Ava even saw it as a necessary thing. As she’d said to the other Alphas, itwasthe twenty-first century, and even vampires had realized that no one liked to beruled.

They hadn’t only desired to overthrow them, though. They wanted to eradicate them, not realizing that it would really mean their own doom. They’d done what they’d seen asnecessary.

Well, not just that. They’d enjoyed killing her family and they’d taken pleasure in hurting hersiblings.

Ava didn’t have achoice.

The drugthey’d used only knocked her out for an hour, but she had the sense to control her breathing, and pretend sleep, because while her consciousness came back quickly, she didn’t immediately regain control of herbody.

If they’d paid attention, the shifters driving her would have felt the difference, but they were too giddy and victorious tocare.

Although her eyes were blindfolded, and closed underneath, she felt it the second she passed the immaterial barrier keeping the rest of the world away from Dale. Some of her weariness disappeared, and, in her heart, despite everything that had happened here, she knew she washome.

“Did Max get everyone to the forum?” she heard Neriask.

“No, just us. He said he wanted to make sure the bitch was broken before he showed her to the flock. You never know, they might try to free her or something. Why they all seem to care so much about her, I’ll neverknow.”

“She wasn’t the worst of them,” Roberto admitted reluctantly. “I would have preferred getting my talons on herbrother.”

She managed to keep her gasp quiet. So Richardwasalive. She hadn’t let herself think about it too much; if she didn’t know, she wasn’t one hundred percent sure he wasgone.

She smelled a familiar fragrance, indicating they’d reached the far edge of the city, where the Bianchi family made the best wines and cheese; they were close. Tentatively, she attempted to move a finger, and smirked when itworked.

Then, shewaited.

If she wasn’t mistaken, she had three abductors. They parked the van and walked out towards the back to grab her, chatting casually along theway.

“What do you think Max will do to her,then?”

“Oh, I don’t know, but he’s going to make a point - if we make it dirty and let the word spread, no doubt her brother will rush here to defend her honor. Then, we can get themall.”

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