Sin Undone

Once he was out of sight, Sin huffed. “Good cop, bad cop doesn’t work on me. You’re not going to change my mind.”


“First of all,” Con growled, “I’m not the good cop. Second, I know I’m not going to change your mind. But at least tell me the truth.” He wanted the truth because he did plan on changing her mind. “I just did.”

“Tell me the rest of it.”

She curled her hands into fists and got that stubborn set to her mouth, the one that made him want to kiss her just to make it go away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “Don’t do this,” he gritted out. “You’ve made a lot of progress. You know, with your brothers.” Pink splotched her cheeks, and she averted her gaze. Kicked at the snow. “You don’t understand.”

“Then make me understand. Because even if you go back to the den, we still don’t know what’s up with the horse guy or why someone besides your assassins wants you dead. So you should be at the hospital with people who care about you right now. Not in your assassin den, all alone and hiding from your brothers.”

The color in her cheeks deepened, and she lifted her angry gaze to him. “Hiding?” He stepped closer. “Hiding.”

“Maybe I just don’t want to be treated like a child by them—”

“Then stop acting like one!” he shouted. Her head snapped back as if he’d slapped her, and he pressed his advantage, stepping into her. “You don’t want to be owned, possessed, chained, but what the hell do you think you’re doing to yourself? You’re going back to your den to be free? How are you free if you can’t go anywhere without worrying about being killed by your own assassins? You’re still a slave, Sin. But this time, it’s of your own making.”

Her dark stare flared with fury. “I told you why I took the job—” “Yeah, yeah. You took it to spare Idess.” He knew he was being a dick, was once again doing a repeat of what he’d done at Rivesta’s, but dammit, she had a shot at having a family. And if she went back to the den and shut herself off, she’d close down again, maybe tighter than ever this time. “But you know what? I think you’d have taken it anyway. You couldn’t even deal with your feelings, so how would you have dealt with the real world if you were out in it instead of living in a cave where you had a great excuse to not hang out with your family?”

Her eyes went steely. “God, you’re such an asshole sometimes.”

She’d called him that before. Had called him worse. But this time, it actually hurt. Because she was right. “Don’t do it, Sin. Just… don’t.” “I think,” she said, in a soft voice he hadn’t expected, “you’re forgetting that I couldn’t get out of my job if I wanted to.” She dragged her hands through her hair, which glinted with bluish highlights in the sunlight that squeezed between the treetops. “This is pointless. I either go to the hospital and be a prisoner there, with my brothers as jailers, or I go to my den, where at least I’m my own warden.”

“No.” He couldn’t let her go. He couldn’t— The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and an animal growl rose up in his throat before he could stop it. He spun around, instinctively tucking Sin behind him. The sight of Bran standing in the shadows with two male dhampires came with a gut-wrenching blast of dread.

“It’s time, Conall.”

“Con?” Sin tugged on one of his belt loops. “Who are these douche bags?”

Was it wrong for him to want to smile at that? Nah. “The ugly one would be my clan leader,” he said quietly. “Stay here.” He moved to Bran with swift, sure steps. Show no weakness. “I’m not ready.”

“Your state of readiness is irrelevant,” Bran growled. “Our first female has gone into heat. The rest will be ready to breed by the end of the week. We need you.” The idea of having sex with anyone but Sin made him cold inside. Hell, the very thought of even feeding from anyone else made him ill. Which wasn’t a good sign, and somehow, Bran was aware of the reason for Con’s reluctance. His dark gaze zeroed in on Sin, then cut sharply to Con when he stepped in front of the dhampire leader to block the view.

“The Warg Council is on our backs as well.” One of the other males, Enric, if Con remembered right, gestured in the direction of the cabin. “The pricolici and varcolac both want our allegiance in their war. We need the Dhampire Council to assemble.”

Con shook his head. “So we refuse to take sides.” “We’ve already been drawn into it. We have dhampire females mated to pricolici,” Bran said, and Con thought about Sable, hoped she was okay. “Some are fleeing with their families to our lands, and others are dragging dhampires into the conflict.”