THE AWAKENING

“This is my home. I was born here. You are the one who doesn’t belong,” Serra said bitterly. “Where is Tieran?”
Cassandra ignored Serra’s question, her mind moving at a frightening clip that was probably nearing delirium and knew
somehow that Serra had been responsible for Ulster’s sudden appearance.
“I need to rest,” Cassandra said brusquely, moving past Serra. “If Tieran wishes to see you, that’s his business. Not mine.”
“His heart belongs to me,” Serra said to Cassandra’s naked backside as she ascended the long staircase.
Cassandra kept her pace and refused to react even though the hateful comment sliced at her own heart as if it were a raw-edged
blade.
Iona appeared at the top of the stairs, her careworn expression focusing like a laser on Cassandra’s belly. “You have exhausted
yourself and put your pups at risk,” she warned with a narrowed gaze. “Come. You must eat to replenish your strength and then
bathe the blood from your skin. You stink of death and misery and that cannot be healthy for the pups.”
Cassandra was too tired to argue and too heart-sore to do more than nod in agreement.
Perhaps after food and a scrub, she’d feel less ready to cry. Her warrior strength that’d filled her during battle had apparently
been used up, leaving her pathetic and sad, ready to sob like a dumb girl.
Iona ran the water in the massive Jacuzzi tub and set the jets to bubbling.
She wasted no time in getting Cassandra into the heated water. She sank into the bubbles with a grateful sigh, forgetting for the
moment of her heartache and confusion and simply allowed Iona to scrub the filth from her body.
Before too long, Iona was pulling her from the tub and wrapping her into a thick white terry cloth robe that enveloped her in
warmth and security.
A large, steaming plate of nearly raw meat awaited her and Cassandra began stuffing her mouth with the juicy protein. As
strength returned to her body, Cassandra’s brain began to work again.
She chewed and swallowed, an image of Serra in all her aching beauty intruded on her quiet moment, and she hated her. An
irrational urge to smash her fist into Serra’s pretty mug was shockingly hard to ignore.
She’d never been the jealous type before — not that she’d actually dated all that much but she’d always been mystified by her
girlfriends who’d been the jealous types.

Now she totally got it because the knowledge that Tieran’s first love was in the house, awaiting his return, made her want to
commit murder.
“Why’d she return?” Cassandra asked Iona, hating herself for sounding so pinched and bitter but in her heart she felt cheated of
the new beginning that’d just begun between she and Tieran.
She’d mistakenly believed the biggest threat was Ulster.
Now, she had the sinking feeling that a more insidious threat was downstairs waiting for Cassandra’s Alpha. With Serra between
them, how could she hope to command Tieran’s love? “I thought she’d been asked to leave for the sake of the clan.”
“I fear Serra brings trouble with her,” Iona said, combing the snarls from Cassandra’s hair. “She arrived without notice, bursting
into the house, claiming she’d seen Ulster’s band closing in on our territory. She claimed that’d she’d barely escaped with her life
as she came to warn us.”
“Do you believe her? Seems coincidental, don’t you think?”
“It is not for me to say,” Iona said, shaking her head. “But I would caution you to be wary around her. She has a vicious heart and
you are a threat to her. It is in our nature to challenge our rivals. She will try to find a way to put a wedge between you and
Tieran.”
Iona’s warning only served to intensify Cassandra’s own fears of having Serra back.
“You have what she desperately wants,” Iona said, pointing to Cassandra’s growing belly. “Take care that she does not put her
own needs before yours and your pups.”
Cassandra crossed her arms protectively around her stomach, furrowing her brow at the implication in Iona’s words. Serra was
more than a threat to her and Tieran — she was a threat to the babies.
Geesh, why did everyone want to hurt her babies?