Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Ambrose Boucher isn’t looking for love—he’s looking for blood. After the brutal murder of his younger brother, vengeance is all that fuels him. Step track down the mysterious mate his brother died protecting. Step burn the shadowy organization behind it all to the ground. But fate has other plans. Instead of Zeke’s mate, Ambrose finds his own—and she’s the last person ready to believe in destiny.
Lucille Franklin knows exactly what being a vampire’s mate means. She watched her brother fall headfirst into a bond that was beautiful… until it turned tragic. With vampires being hunted and their mates targeted, Lucy swore she’d never let herself get pulled into that world. But Ambrose is impossible to ignore—relentless, dangerous, and already tangled in the grief that nearly broke her once before.
As the Bouchers dig deeper into a deadly conspiracy, Lucy and Ambrose are forced to rely on a bond she never wanted and a connection he can’t control. But when enemies close in and secrets unravel, trusting each other might be the only way to survive.
Can a love forged in loss be strong enough to rewrite fate—or will history repeat itself in blood?
Perfect for fans of J.R. Ward and Kresley Cole, this spicy paranormal romance delivers fated mates, emotional angst, protective vampires, and a slow-burn intensity that ignites into fire
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Ambrose
The room smelled like death. Even the chemicals they used to clean and the little air freshener in the corner couldn’t hide it. A morgue smelled like dead bodies. It was impossible to make it smell like anything else.
I stared blankly at the body draped in a clean white sheet.
Logically, I knew that they hadn’t made a mistake. They knew what my baby brother looked like. They had records of his DNA and fingerprints. Vampire Command didn’t make those kinds of errors. They wouldn’t have brought us all the way there if they hadn’t been sure.
I still couldn’t make myself believe it.
There were pieces of him on that table, lined up like they were about to sew him back together again. It was revolting, abhorrent, and there was no need. They weren’t hiding anything by placing him that way. They weren’t helping anything. Every single one of us could see that our youngest brother—my father’s youngest son—had been chopped up like meat about to be sent to a butcher.
“You know who did this?” my father asked, his voice hoarse.
“Strike Team Three eliminated all of them,” the commandant replied. He sounded nervous. Good. “It took them less than a day to get back into the compound.”
“Why weren’t we informed?” I ground out. We should’ve known the moment he’d been taken.
The commandant’s face paled. “It was a fluid situation.”
“Bullshit,” I replied flatly.
“How much less than a day?” my brother, Chance, asked angrily. “A fucking hour? You can’t tell me this didn’t take a while.”
I forced myself to unclench my fists. Killing the commandant of the United States Vampire Command wouldn’t bring my brother back, even if it would feel really fucking good for a few moments.
“It took them twelve hours,” the commandant replied.
I couldn’t believe that we’d always considered him like an uncle. Arthur had been friends with my father for longer than any of us had been alive. They’d fought together before my father met my mother, and they’d stayed close through our childhoods. Now, I could barely stand to look at the fucking coward.
“We should’ve been there,” my brother, Danny, said. “We should’ve known.”
“We did know,” my other brother, Beau, replied. “All of us knew.”
He was right. We had known that something was wrong, but we hadn’t known what. There had always been a connection between the five of us, a little niggling feeling in the back of our minds when one of the others was hurt. But it wasn’t as simple as knowing immediately which one of us it was or what the problem was. The four of us had reached out immediately, checking on the others, and Zeke had been the only one we hadn’t been able to find.
“You’re sure this was some small group and not part of a larger—”
The commandant cut our father off. It was either very brave or very stupid. “They were locals who noticed that the team didn’t get injured like they should’ve,” he said. “They knew what we were, and when given the opportunity—”
“How the hell did they even have the opportunity?” I barked. That theory didn’t make any sense. “How the fuck did they keep him down?”
“That we don’t know,” Arthur replied.
“And no one thought to ask?” Chance scoffed.
“I give you my word—”
“Fuck your word,” Beau said darkly, glaring at the commandant.
“Bjorn,” my father chided.
“It’s all right, Erik,” Arthur murmured. “This is unprecedented aggression.”
“What the hell did you all expect when you went public?” Danny asked incredulously.
“We went public sixty-four years ago, Daniel,” Arthur replied. “And since that time, targeted assaults have been minimal. The benefits of no longer having to hide our species from the rest of the world far outweigh the consequences of living openly.”
He was wrong. The assaults hadn’t been minimal. Vampires just chose to deal with them when they happened instead of running to daddy every time someone spat in their cereal. The only time anyone notified command was when they needed help cleaning up a mess.
“Tell that to our brother.” Danny spat.
“We’re doing everything in our power to make sure that this is an isolated event and not part of a larger plot,” Arthur said placatingly.
He was so full of shit. I couldn’t believe he was actually spouting that nonsense to our faces. No one in that room believed that some random group of humans had been able to take down a Vampire in his prime without serious planning and resources.
“You have all that you need from him?” my father asked after a moment of all of us staring at Arthur like he’d lost his mind.
“We do,” Arthur replied.
“I’ll expect him by dusk tonight,” my father informed him.
“I don’t know if it’ll be possible to…” Arthur sputtered.
“Tonight, Arthur. No later.” He reached out and touched my youngest brother’s head softly before cutting a small lock of hair.