Kane's POV: I send Willow up to the apartment, give the Gammas orders to set up a extra guard rotations, and then try to mind link my mother. I haven’t spoken to her in days, but she is blocking me – no doubt pissed at me for throwing her mate in the dungeon. “James.” I turn to my butler. “See if you can find my mother. I need to talk to her.” “She’s in the dungeons with Bismarck, your majesty.” “Of course she is. Okay. You should get some rest too.” He bows and leaves. Off to do whatever it is a butler does. I’m exhausted, and it feels as if an off-key marching band is hammering out a melody against my skull. The pills I gave to Willow when she had her concussion are up in my room – I used to carry them on me at all times, but I forgot about the crippling headaches I used to get before she came into my life. Smiling at the memory of that first day, the way she let her inhibitions go and almost tried to inhale me feet and all. The way she looked at me, tempting Dario to the surfa

“Kane stop!” I scream. “She’s here to help. Don’t kill her.”Without letting go of Agatha, he turns his head to look at me, his eyes flashing. His anger washes over me like a tsunami, robbing the breath from my lungs, rendering me nearly boneless with fear. I’ve never felt rage like this before. “You let her in?”“No.” I gasp, trying to breathe through the anger waves hitting me one after the other. “She found her own way in through one of the secret passages.”Kane growls and turns away from me to look at Agatha, and I can breathe a little easier, but that watery numb terror doesn’t leave me. “Which one?” he asks. “How did you get past my guards?”To my surprise, Agatha only smiles. Gods, I’m ready to pee myself and she smiles. The woman’s not right in the head. “Let me go, and I’ll show you.”“No,”

Kane’s POV: I sit on the foot of the bed, watching Willow strip down to her underwear, ignoring the rising arousal at the sight of her naked body. For the first time, she looks uncomfortable and feels awkward in my presence. I don’t like it. “You know,” I say. “There was a time when I didn’t care about the feelings of the she-wolves I had sex with. If I wanted it, I just had to find the closest Omega. I always asked, of course, but none of them ever said no, and as long as they didn’t say no I was okay with it, even though I knew they only consented because I’m the king.” She looks at me, her green eyes troubled. “Where are you going with this?” “I do care now, Willow. If you’d rather not do this, we’ll find some other way.” “I don’t know another way.” “Then we fight like we always fight. I don’t want you to walk away feeling like I…violated you.” “It’s not rape if I consent.” She moves a large glass container she foun

Agatha and the witches lit up the carnivorous common room and sit in a circle waiting for us. “Once upon a time, we took up this whole floor,” she tells the witches. “But we’d gather here in this room every night for prayers.” I glance at Kane. His mood hasn’t changed, and he hates being here with the witches. I reach out to touch him, but he flinches away from me. Despite what he said, I don’t think he’s fully forgiven me. Not yet anyway. “So how do we do this?” he asks, cutting off Agatha’s reminiscing, and putting the jar in the middle of the circle. Everyone gasps when they see it and whispers rise up around us like a breeze through the trees. Even Agatha looks surprised and unsettled by it. She hovers her hand over the container, her eyes lighting up. “Strong,” she says. “Like I suspected. The aphrodisiac makes all the difference.” “We didn’t use it,” Kane says. Agatha’s eyebrows rise up. “Interesting.” “I really don’t care about how interesting all of this is, Agatha. Let’s

Kane's POV: I’m back before most of my wolves even noticed I was gone. Glenn meets me on the helipad. “Where’s the weapon?” I ask. “Safe. No one knows, don’t worry.” “I’m not worried. I want to launch that thing as soon as possible.” “So you can get Willow back?” No. I can’t see her just yet. I need a few days at least. Willow harmed our bond, used it against me, and even if she doesn’t fully understand the damage she caused, she had enough knowledge to know she could hurt me. And she didn’t care. Dario is quiet. He’s hurt and confused. He’s furious that I left our mate with Patrick, but at the same time, he’s suffering because of what she had done. And unlike me, he wants to punish her for it, while also making excuses for her. It’s causing me a lot of pain and confusion too, and the only thing I can think of doing right now is staying away from her. “Kane?” Glenn asks. “You okay?” “No. Has Charmaine ever used your bond to get something she wants?” “Oh.” Glenn laughs softly.