Page 114 of A Dawn Of Blood

Just like he did the first time I saw him the night my wolf stirred from sleep, he looks more like a movie star gazing at you from a billboard than someone you’d expect to see in real life — tall, athletic, his defined jaw cleanly shaven, and his thick, short brown hair swept back, with a defiant strand still falling out of rank here and there.

Jericho. It’s all I can do to stare at him as my entire inner world shatters to pieces.

Everyone else seems to be in too big of a shock to move.

“Good evening,” his deep, smoky voice booms across the room. He throws a casual look over his shoulder. “Also, my apologies for breaking your wall.”

With that, he turns to look at me again. He smiles.

Bile rises up my throat.

“Anna,” I hear Raven mutter, concern in her voice.

“Get behind me, everyone,” I grit out an order without taking my eyes off the man in front of me.

But no one manages to do anything because Lorcan is lunging forward, yelling, “You bastard.”

My entire body tenses, my head snapping in his direction only to see a burst of shadows catch him mid-air.

In no time, they spread to everyone else, paralyzing them before they can do anything.

Fuck. I turn back to Baldur, who’s started slowly, casually walking over to me. “You’ll have to excuse the continued lack of manners, because you see…” He lazily waves a hand around. “The others will only get in our way. It’syouI’m here for, Freya, only you.”

I start retreating, my eyes never leaving my people.

Baldur stops as well, tilting his head at me in what seems to be tender surprise. “I never thought I’d say this, but you look even more beautiful in the midst of this war than you did the last, my darling.”

I ignore the words coming out of his mouth. I just keep staring at him, feeling as if I’ve taken a step out of my own skin and am looking down on the absurdity of the situation with cogs turning frantically in my head.

What the hell do I donow? It’s him for sure, but being in my dead mate’s body like this...

It’s making me want to murder him in the slowest, most painful way possible.

And at the same time, it’s making me hesitate more than I’ve ever hesitated in my life.

He raises his eyebrows at me. “What is it? You won’t even talk to me?”

“Talk to you?” I echo through gritted teeth. “Why on earth did you think I’d want to talk to you?”

He blows a laugh through his nose. “I thought you liked this voice, this face, this body.”

The smirk on his lips makes rage take over like a river bursting through a dam.

I summon all my powers and attack, getting in his face with a thunder whip around his throat. “If you thought hiding in his body would prevent me from killing you,” I grind out, “you were dead wrong.”

Baldur moves to grab me by the neck, I swing my arm back to deal a blow, when a sound coming from behind makes us both freeze and look in its direction.

I watch a figure fly through the hole in the wall and stop right next to us.

Cain.

Relief and concern clash in me.

Then he grabs Baldur by the arm and yanks it away from me, his eyebrows pulled down. “Stop it,” he commands. “I told you, father, she’s not who you think she is.”

Chapter 79

Istep away and blink at Cain, my heart melting into a puddle. He didn’t come to take his father’s side. He came to try to reconcile us.

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