Gates of Paradise (a Blue Bloods Novel)

“It only happened once, the night before the trials. I was so keyed up, so afraid of what was about to happen. I’d trained for weeks. If I lost, I would die.” He couldn’t look her in the eye. His voice was flat. “She came into my bed, just as I was about to sleep. I didn’t know what was happening until it was too late. She seduced me. She was my brother’s mate. She knew I was scared and she used it against me. Then the next day, I found out why she had done it.

“I entered the arena. They hadn’t told me who my opponent was, but somehow she knew. It was her. I would have had to kill her to win, to make alpha. It was either her or me.

“I couldn’t. Not only because of what we’d done the night before, but because of who she was. I loved her too, as a sister. She must have worried that that wouldn’t have stopped me, so that’s why she seduced me, just to make sure I lost. I thought the masters would kill me. I wanted them to, after everything that happened. I couldn’t face Edon. I don’t love Ahri, and I don’t think she loves me. I think she’s just angry and confused. I don’t know. I think she wanted to win. She wanted to be alpha.”

“That’s terrible,” Bliss said, though she wasn’t sure whether she was referring to what Ahri had done, or Lawson.

“I figured losing at the trials was my punishment. I meant nothing to her, so I knew she’d never tell Edon, and no one would ever know.”

“Did you—” Bliss almost couldn’t bring herself to ask. “You didn’t leave her behind on purpose, did you? When you guys escaped from Hell?”

Lawson looked as if she’d hit him. “You have to know I would never do that. I’d rather have faced Edon than leave her in the underworld by herself. I would never wish that on her. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. I thought at first that maybe she believed I had, though, and that I was partly to blame for what happened to her down there. But then I realized that if that were true, she’d have said something. To hurt me, or to hurt Edon.”

“If she was content to keep it a secret, I don’t understand why she’s acting like this now,” Bliss said.

Lawson raised an eyebrow at her. “You really don’t?”

“Why would I?”

“She’s jealous.”

“Of what?”

“Of you. Of you and me, I guess, but probably mostly of you. There’s something special about you, and she knows it. We all do.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Bliss said. “She just saw you with someone else, and now she wants you back. I think maybe she always wanted you and settled for Edon.”

“Maybe.” Lawson considered the possibility. “But she didn’t get quite this bent out of shape when she found out about me and Tala. She was pissed, but she never seemed jealous. No, it’s you.” Tala had been his mate until she was killed by Romulus, before he and Bliss even met.

“Well, you need to do something about it. We have to figure out what caused the break in the timeline, and we need everyone to be able to work together.”

“It will be fine,” Lawson said. “Just let it go.”

Bliss thought Lawson was such a boy sometimes, hoping that something would go away if he ignored it long enough.

“Let what go?” Edon said.

Bliss hadn’t noticed the rest of the pack in front of them. So much for a private conversation. “It’s nothing,” she said.

“Yeah, forget about it,” Lawson said.

“Because it meant nothing to you?” Ahramin asked.

“What are you talking about?” Edon asked. “Ahri, what are you talking about?” But then Bliss saw the look of comprehension cross his face. “No. No, you didn’t. You couldn’t have.”

He could have been talking to either one of them.

“Edon, it’s not what you think,” Lawson said.

“It’s exactly what I think,” Edon said. “It couldn’t be clearer.” He turned to Ahramin. “I love you. Why would you do that to me?”

“Because I wanted to be alpha. I did what I had to do. We needed a leader. A real leader and not one who rolled over and sat up for the masters. I’m sorry, Edon, but it had to be done.”

Edon turned away.

“Edon!” Lawson yelled. “Edon!”

Edon shifted into a wolf and growled. For a moment it looked as if he would rear up and lunge at Lawson. But he stumbled back against the wall and then stormed away.

Lawson’s face was full of anguish. “Edon!”

“Let him go,” Ahramin said. “He’ll come back. He has nowhere else to go.”





THIRTYTHREE


Schuyler


nce upon a time, before Schuyler had discovered she was different, that she was a vampire, that she would have to continue what her mother had started, she had been a regular girl at a competitive and elite private school in Manhattan. And as a student of the Duchesne School, she was expected to attend a prestigious college. Her mother had attended Harvard, and her father Stanford, but Schuyler had been drawn to the smaller schools—the urban schools—the “flowerpot” Ivies—Brown, Columbia, as well as the “brainiac” schools like the University of Chicago.