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Another cold laugh cut through the air. “Oh, no. There will be none of that. At least not the way you’re hoping. I have so much to show you.”

He traced a razor-sharp claw down her cheek, slicing open her skin. She tried to pull away but he yanked her closer.

“I want to show you everything you missed while we’ve been apart. Namely, the insufferable misery of being quartered and buried alive for more than a century. Doesn’t that sound fun, precious mate of mine?” His eyes burned with sadistic pleasure. “But first, I’m going to drain you dry.”

She gasped, unable to draw a single breath into her lungs. He struck with the precision of a viper, his curved fangs sinking into her throat as he bit down and ripped open her flesh. Blood rushed into her mouth, choking her, as he ravaged her throat.

This was it. There was no escaping him now. He would leave her too weak to run, just as he'd done before. Her life was over, but her suffering would be endless.

She should have never left Juniper. She was her purest love. Her truest love. She would never look into her kind eyes again. She would neversee Christian, her son, again. They were all lost to her now.

He drew back and hissed, slipping easily in and out of her mind now that he had her blood. “Tell me more about those you love. I look forward to such introductions.”

Memories of her siblings flooded her with trauma as if he’d hurt them only yesterday. “Please. You have me. Don’t?—”

He slapped her so hard her head snapped back. “Don’t you dare think to tell me what I should and should not do. For that, alone, I should eat your friends.”

Rage, unlike anything she’d ever experienced before, tunneled through her and she screamed, bearing her fangs and unleashing her fury on him.

Clawing at his face, something primal came over her. She sank her teeth into his shoulder. But in the end, he was stronger.

When he yanked her off of him, her fang snapped loose, and she howled as blood sputtered past her lips. Something inside of her snapped and rage erupted from the darkest shadows of her soul.

She had nothing left to lose. After centuries of blocking her mind and making herself small, she let the fury seethe out of her, slashing her claws into his face, ripping at his eyes and growling like a feral animal.“I hate you!”

He jerked her off of him, slamming her down on the rock hard enough that white light burstbehind her eyes, momentarily stealing her sight. Gripping her by the throat, he hoisted her overhead. Blood flooded her vision as capillaries burst in her head. She pushed her mind into his, embedding herself deep in his thoughts, frantically searching for any weakness she might use to end him.

She expected the dark, twisted thoughts and the deeply disturbed memories she found. She even flinched at the images of his time underground. But what she had not expected to find was visions of her mother.

“Get out of my head!” he snapped, slamming her into the rock wall.

She would not relent. So long as she was conscious, she needed to understand why her mother was in his memories.

Castles. Armor. Royalty. These were not visions from her time. Her mother was there. But not with her father. A malformed sense of affection stabbed into her.

Tenderness. Protectiveness. These were not sentiments Cerberus displayed. Then it occurred to her…

He loved her.

He had a life before becoming her mate, a life that involved Adriel’s mother. How was that possible?

“Stay out of my memories!”

She refused to let go. She needed to understand.

In some way, he saw her as his. And shebetrayed him when she accepted her calling to Adriel’s father. Then she found the moment he decided to strike back.

“No…” He choked her, but she’d punctured his deepest memories and there was no prying her from his mind without killing her.

He lied. It was all a lie. That’s what this was. Centuries of torture and vengeance all in the name of revenge. He was not her mate. He was a traveler who had used and abused her in a scheme to punish her mother.

His fist sank into her stomach. Her crushed windpipe wheezed as she desperately tried to breathe.

“You think it matters now? You’re mine. You’ll never be rid of me. And I plan to make you suffer for the rest of eternity.

He struck again, burying his fangs deep in her ransacked throat, determined to finish her. In a desperate grasp of hope, she blew open her mind and reached for Juniper, hoping she still had enough of her blood in her system to hear her call.

My parents. Go to my parents. Lilias and Lazarus Schrock. Find them. Tell them he has me. Please. Juniper, he’s not my mate?—