Page 120 of Claimed By Blood

Gideon Lancaster just agreed to talk about his feelings with a professional.

Maybe… maybe there is hope for us after all.

“Is that everything?” he checks.

I nod jerkily just as a silhouette fills the doorway.

“I don’t want to interrupt,” Vane grumbles. “But we’ve found something in the mausoleum.”

“What?” Gideon asks, finally turning away from me.

The beta wipes a hand down his face in exasperation. “Prisoners. Lots of them. Mostly lycan, but there are a few vampires.”

The alpha’s mouth hangs open for a second before snapping shut.

“Release them,” he rasps. “But be cautious about the vampires. We don’t want anyone getting drained or them preying on the locals. How long…?”

“Not as long as Evie,” Vane mutters. “But long enough.”

CHAPTERTHIRTY-TWO

EVELYN

My old room is a mess.

More so than everywhere else in the manor. The furniture is smashed to splinters and every piece of fabric in the room seems to have been torn up. Shards of my dressing-table mirror litter the ground, glinting like jewels among the carnage.

“Seems like someone ripped this place up in a temper,” Silas notes, stepping inside.

He tries to pull me forwards, but I’m rooted to the spot in shock.

“This…” Isn’t Cain’s doing.

I don’t know how I know… but I do.

“Who did this?”

Silas clicks his tongue. “I’d say it’s pretty obvious.”

“No. It wasn’t Cain.” I take a step forward, toward the bed. “He would never lower himself to destroying mere things like this. People, yes. They can be hurt. But objects? He’d see breaking chairs as a waste of time…”

“It was me.” Frost’s voice is ragged, his expression gaunt as he stands in the doorway.

When did he get here? I thought he was checking on the ghouls…

“What?” I stare at him, confused.

“After what happened… Cain wanted to torture me, but nothing worked.” The ghoul moves into the room and I notice his hands are shaking before he curls them into fists to hide it. “The thrall bond breaking was… indescribable. I couldn’t feelanythingbeyond the hole in my chest where you used to be.” My own heart throbs in sympathy, and I blink away the burning in my eyes. “Once the urge to punish me receded, he switched to trying to gain my co-operation in making more hybrids. But the only thing that got a reaction from me was you. So to torture me, he put me in this room where all I could smell was you, hoping it would make me co-operate.”

“Did it work?”

Frost snorts and glances around at the wrecked room. “Does it look like it worked?”

Not in the slightest.

“Cain has a lot to answer for,” Silas mutters. “And he—”

“If you’ve all finished reminiscing,” Draven’s calls from somewhere beyond the hall. “I think I found something.”

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