Klaus had been open when telling us what he found out about his past. And thankfully, Klaus and Abraxas were nothing alike and I wanted it to stay that way. Klaus was a kind guy, he wasn’t an asshole like the Hunter standing in front of me and I didn’t want him to change.

“I didn’t say he was. And I’m not sure I care for your attitude.”

“My attitude?” I snort and inhale too much tea at the same time, forcing it to erupt from my nose like a volcano as I splutter

He smirks at me and my fingers tighten around the cup, ready to launch it at him. His hazel eyes move to my hand and the smirk turns into a grin. “That pup seems to have got you worked up already.”

“What the fuck did you say?”

He stares at me, yet doesn’t repeat his words. Surely he couldn’t tell already, I was barely pregnant.

Abraxas tilts his head to one side, “You heard me.” He winks and turns away, I launch my cup at him anyway, only for his hand to reach out and catch

it.

He turns and walks right up to me, carefully placing the empty cup on the stone porch next to me. “I will let that one go, this time.”

His eyes flicker in past the open door.

“She’s not here.” I mumble

“Who?”

“Your Lycan mate.”

“I don’t have a Lycan mate.” He mutters as his forehead wrinkles into a frown. Liar, liar, pants on fire.

“Why are you denying it?” I push, “Just reject her.”

“Rejecting her would imply that we are mated. As we are not, I cannot reject her. I have told Neah the same thing.”

“It’s not the truth.” He denied any ounce of it being a possibility. Maddie was clear though. She knew exactly who her mate was and had no reason to lie about it.

He grins at me. “It’s my truth, Mallory. My mate was a huge part of my life. I can not just move on.”

“How long were you together before Blair killed her?” I ask. Abraxas never spoken about his mate, his unborn child or his parents.

“Twelve years.”

“She was a Hunter too?”

“She was, and a fucking good one.”

“I’m sorry that Blair took them away from you.”

“It’s not your apology to make. You weren’t involved.”

“Your child, the one who didn’t make it….”

“He died in utero. Had already passed before made it home. I couldn’t save him. My advice to you. Don’t do anything reckless, protect that little one. We all know you rush into things and think about the consequences later. Now is the time to change that.” It felt like he was trying to find a way to not talk about his family, but not in a way that involved telling me to shut up.

Damien has always said people have secrets that they don’t want others to discover

“Why do you care? You don’t like our kind?”

“I didn’t say I cared.” He wanders away without even looking back and quite quickly, a trail of young female wolves appear, following him as they giggle until they all disappear out of sight.

Linking Neah, I ask if she is free to talk. I wanted to tell her about the strange interaction I had with Abraxas. She tells me she will be over as soon as she can.

Getting to my feet, I smell smoke and burning wood. Peering around my house, Wolves and Lycans are running out of the forest, scooping up younger children and hurrying them out of the way as flames lick the tree trunks.

Many of the Wolves threw

themselves into action, making sure

everyone was as far away as possible while others charged into the trees to tackle the blaze. But the fire grows, spreading like crazy through the forest.

A hand locks around my wrist, pulling me back as embers fall on my house, igniting the roof in seconds. Everything I had built in the last couple of years goes up in flames right before my eyes.

“You need to move.” The man holding my wrist mutters.

I look up to see Ryken, Blair’s stepfather, I don’t even know where he came from, but he tugs me backwards, away from the fire when I see familiar waves of red hair backing in to the fire.

“MADDIE!”