Page 6 of Cruelly Bitten

“So you’re suggesting Fen because there’s a chance he’s different and he wouldn’t cause any issues with leaders of the Blood Alliance,” I summarized.

“Yes. I would be the only one to protest his treatment, and I’m giving permission.”

“Why?” I pressed. “I thought you were on good terms with him? Isn’t that why you chose to rest with him in his crypt?”

Lilith had awakened Mira shortly before the revolution to bring her up to speed on what the human governments had attempted to do to lycan kind. That had made Mira’s recruitment to join our cause relatively easy.

Mira studied me for a beat before relaxing into her chair with a sigh. “He abandoned me. Maybe not right away like Sota and Troph did to Sahara and Lajos, but that just means I endured more of his hatred than they could from their own fathers.”

Her icy blue eyes met mine, betraying the first flicker of emotion. But it was gone in a blink, the stoic alpha returning to mask her features.

“My personal reasoning for giving permission isn’t relevant. The point is, he might add a unique essence to the trials. And if nothing else, he’s another body to experiment on.” She lifted a shoulder. “I just wanted to provide it as a suggestion. You can decide if it’s worth our time or not.”

I considered her for a long moment while evaluating the potential of waking and experimenting on Fen.

Containing him would be easy. Because while the Blessed Ones were immortal and revered as the creators of vampire and lycan kind, they weren’t supernaturally inclined.

They weren’t abnormally strong or capable of hypnosis.

They couldn’t shift.

They lacked the skill to phase, which was a rarer master vampire ability to teleport.

They were essentially human, just incapable of dying. Which was exactly what my kind needed all mortals to be for us to survive.

As for Mira, she just wanted a way to make lycans truly immortal. That wasn’t something she’d admitted to me but was a note in her file regarding her allegiance.

Because if we found a way to make human life eternal, the same method could be applied to ensure lycan longevity—which would allow her to finally have a real pack that didn’t eventually die.

That’s why she wants Fen, I realized, still studying her.Because his essence might provide the solution she’s been salivating over. His actions created her, after all.

“All right,” I decided aloud. “Set everything up for the ritual and figure out where to house him.”

I’d participated in the other two awakenings because they’d required a superior essence to satisfy the ritual. And as the eldest vampire, my blood was powerful enough to wake any Blessed One. But Mira was Fen’s offspring, thus making her capable of performing the ceremony on her own.

“Thank you, my liege.” Her chin dipped in a slight bow. “I’ll make the arrangements.”

“Let me know when everything is in place. I’ll observe the ceremony and assist as needed,” I said as Michael entered the room with an air of nervousness swirling around him. “What is it?” I demanded, his sickly sweet scent irritating my senses.

How is this weak male my progeny? Has no one taught him to control his emotions?

“It seems that our communications systems are down, my liege.” Unlike Mira, Michael did not meet my gaze, his green eyes remaining on the ground while he spoke. “I have our technology team working on it right now, but they said it might be tomorrow before it’s fixed.”

My eyebrows lifted. “How the fuck did that happen?”

“They’re not sure, my liege.” He swallowed. “But they’re looking into it.”

“It’s Damien,” Mira muttered.

I glanced at her. “Damien?”

“Izzy’s brother. He’s a technological genius who also happens to be Ryder’s progeny.” Despite the irritation in her tone, a hint of admiration came through. “He’s the one who has been fucking with Lilith’s phone and helping the revolutionaries gain access to Lilith’s former bunkers.”

I snorted. “He didn’t help them with anything. I let them explore the labs.” It was all part of the protocol to help my cousin, Jace, and my progeny, Darius, understand what Lilith had been trying to achieve—an improved food source—during my slumber.

Alas, they didn’t seem to appreciate it the way I’d intended.

They truly had been corrupted by my brother, Cane. If the bastard weren’t asleep in our father’s crypt, I’d throttle him for brainwashing our cousin and my progeny.