All Chapters of Alpha Maddox's Mortal Temptation : Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

Ken Doll snorts. “Were you watching us from the window?”“I mean . . . yeah?”“Creepy. You need a hobby.”“You’re right. I’ve heard amazing things about paragliding, or competitive duck herding. Maybe I could—oh, wait. I forgot that I’m literally stuck in a one-hundred-and-thirty-square-foot bedroom twenty-four seven.”“Read a book, pointy.”“Enough.” Lucien stalks across the room to crouch in front of Max, who instantly tries to scramble away. His tone is firm but surprisingly gentle when he asks, “Where were you going to take Daisy?”Max doesn’t reply, so he continues, “You are fifteen, and I’m not going to punish you like an adult. I don’t know who you got mixed up with, or how, but I can help you. I will protect you.”Sweat trickles down Max’s temples. He’s much younger than I thought. “You’re just going to get rid of me. If I tell you, you—”“I do not hurt my own, especially not children,” Lucien growls. “I am not Roscoe.”“No.” Max’s eyes flick to me. “He’d never have made allia

I’m escorted out. I must really be at my most busybody, because I’m tempted to ask if I can stay. Figure out what this strange war within the Weres could be about. Instead I meekly follow Mick up the stairs.“I hope I didn’t get you in trouble,” I tell him, “but I saw Max take Daisy, and I know you guys don’t believe me, but he’d attacked me, so—”“No one doubted you,” he says kindly.I look at him. “Lucien sure did.”“Lucien knew Max had attacked you first. He is very good at smelling lies.”“Oh. As in . . . literally smelling?"Mick nods but doesn’t elaborate. “He knew Max was up to something, knew it had to do with Ana, and wanted to get as much information as he could out of him. It’s a tightrope to walk, for Lucien. He won’t go about interrogating every person he doesn’t like, or he’ll be the same as Roscoe was toward the end. But the Loyals have been hurting their own, and they must be stopped.”“He sure seemed ready to let the others torture Max.”“That was a show, meant to sca

A wave of dread sweeps over me. There is no air in the world left for my lungs.“And who would that be?” Lucien murmurs, licking his lips. He inhales me deeply, purposefully. “How interesting. In the past week I’ve witnessed two attempts on your life, and you’ve never smelled as scared as you do just now. Why, Vampyre?” His stark face is all sharp lines, sculpted by the glowing lights of the monitor. His lips move, full and ruthless. I cannot look away. “Who is Anna Holt, Seraphine?”He sounds sincerely curious, and I wonder if maybe he has nothing to do with her disappearance. But maybe he does. Maybe he’s pretending. Maybe he didn’t know her name but hurt her anyway.I push against his chest. It’s like trying to move an army of mountains. “Let me go.”“Seraphine.” His eyes bore into mine. “You know I’m not going to do that. Alex,” he says, louder this time, still looking only at me. “Bring back Cal. It looks like we’re going to have to extract Gabi and break the armistice with the V

“There were eight Weres monitoring the situation,” he says, unoffended. “And a tracker in her suit. Max had no vehicle at his disposal, so we knew he was going to attempt to hand off Daisy to someone else. She was never in any real danger.”“Sure.” I shrug, pretending I don’t care. “And children are soft and adaptable and make for perfect pawns in the power plays of great leaders, right?”“I can only protect Daisy if I know where the threats against her are coming from.” He leans forward across the table. The scent of his blood is like a wave lapping at my skin. “I’m not like your father, Seraphine.”My throat is suddenly dry. “Well, you’re wrong. I would throw Daisy under the bus, if I had to choose between her and Anna.” I have priorities, very little heart, and find no pleasure in being deceitful when others are being honest with me. Daisy might be growing on me, but she wasn’t the one who slept next to me for a whole week when I was fourteen and gave myself seizures by trying to f

He shakes his head and starts cutting the sandwich out of its crusts. I follow the rhythm, mesmerized by his graceful hands, and recall that this is something Anna used to prefer for her food when we were . . . younger than Lucien, for sure. I would not have thought a big bad wolf would be this picky.“Not to be a discord sower, and I promise this is only marginally related to Juno’s hankering for carving my organs out, but maybe you should investigate the possibility that one of them tattled you out.”“I did. Despite them having risked their lives for me a dozen times over.” He says it angrily, like it was sour and painful, something he’s ashamed of, and the thought hits me: that maybe Lucien is the kind of leader who measures his strength not by the battles he wins, but by the trust he is able to accord to others.There is something about him, about the way he commands, that manages to be at once pragmatic and idealistic.He sets the crusts aside and leans his palms on the table onc