Dev ran a hand through his hair. “Okay, smartass, you make a good point. I don’t know how she can just turn her back on a lifetime of beliefs, but let’s both agree that she’s not stupid. She’s seen firsthand what her brother is capable of and her reaction to that realization was to help us. She’s been singing like a fucking canary and giving us everything we’ve asked for. She hasn’t tried to escape, shift or use her mental gifts since being released from the irons. So what the fuck is wrong with you?”
Tre spun around and locked gazes with Dev. “What if it’s all bullshit and she’s setting us up? Like you said, we’re talking about her mother and brother—her family. You think she’s just going to turn on them like that and give us everything? Trade her loyalty to the people she’s believed her entire life were her mortal enemies?”
Tre took heavy strides to the other side of the room before he turned. “Look, Dev. I just don’t know what to think about all this or what to believe is the truth. I know what I want to believe but…fuck. This shit is driving me insane. If we trust her—if I fully trust her—it could put us all in danger.”
Dev slipped his hands into the front pockets of his perfectly pressed slacks. “I know, brother. I know. I sound like a fucking hypocrite saying this but what the hell—follow your heart. You saw what it gave Talon and Mathias. They fought it just like you’re doing and lost. And aren’t they glad they did?”
Tre simply nodded and sighed, obviously understanding the connection Dev was trying to illustrate. “I know, but damn. She had me in knots for months and then to find out who and what she is… It’s not that simple, Dev.”
“And going after the king’s daughter like Mathias did or the sister of your best friend like Talon did is? Just think about it. Talk to her, Tre. There’s obviously something there between you. Try to trust it. Believe me. It’s hard to do but I’ve seen the payoff.”
Tre snorted. “You’re one to talk, Dev. Solidify anything with Thea yet?” Dev’s expression must have spoken volumes, since Tre lowered his gaze and shook his head. “Sorry, Dev. But look—it’s not that easy for me, man. You know what I deal with.”
Dev threw his head back and laughed. “Jesus, Tre. You are so full of shit! And quit trying to deflect. We’re discussing you right now, not me. You know there isn’t a Coteri warrior here or anywhere who wouldn’t fight side by side with you. You’ve proven your worth a million times over. Protected Mina, aided Chloe and Talon in Washington, been a trusted confidant to Roderick and been invaluable as my second in command here. And Isla—I think if she were a hundred years younger, she would see you in a different light, considering the praise she gives you. At the very least I think she wants to adopt you. So quit beating the shit out of yourself. So you get angry. Your beast has to be fed more than normal. Trust me, I know exactly what that’s like, which is another reason I’ve kept my distance from Thea. You are Coteri. Through and through. And I’m telling you—trust your fucking instincts.”
Dev watched as Tre’s head bowed under his statement. Yes, the warrior’s beast was volatile but he had it under control. There had never been signs of Tre becoming so dark he would turn Valta, but Dev knew it weighed heavily on the young warrior’s mind, particularly after experiencing the impact Alexandria had on him six months ago, only to learn that she was Valta.
“Don’t go there, Tre,” Dev warned. “You are Coteri. Always will be. You’re questioning your attraction to this female and, given her birthright, I get it. But I’ll tell you this right now—no matter where Alex came from or what you think she represents, that won’t change who and what you are. We all know that.” Dev turned and walked toward the door to Tre’s room. He opened it and turned back toward the warrior whom he could easily see replacing him as general one day. “Trust yourself, Betty. Go get a cupcake or something and get back to the man we all know and believe in. Then go and have a long talk with your female so you can get your head on straight. You’re not dark, Tre. You just need to convince yourself of that. Not us.”
Dev shut the door behind him and walked down the hall. Now to find Alex and make sure she knew exactly what she was dealing with concerning Tre. The warrior might come off as a funny prankster most of the time and be a slave to buttercream icing, but that was only on the outside. Inside, he was a boiling mass of confusion and anger that needed to be tamed. He only hoped Alex would be strong enough to handle that anger and gain Tre’s trust in order to help him to understand just how important he was to the Coteri and their mission. But God help her if she turned out to be the traitor Tre feared she truly was. Because if that was the case, Dev would let his own beast out and kill her himself with his bare hands.
Tre watched the door shut and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. Dev’s words about Alex were running on a repeating track in his mind. After returning to the Royal house last night, he’d checked in with Michael and Nic, then secured the other two females they’d rescued before retreating to his room. He knew he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to face Alex after all he had learned about her.
Throughout the night his thoughts were a churning cacophony of confusion where Alex was concerned. She was Valta. She had Valencia and Luca’s blood coursing through her veins. Yet she had given his team the needed intel to rescue the three human women as well as the opportunity for them to destroy the camp and everything in it. Too bad her brother Luca hadn’t been on the scene. The slippery bastard always seemed to be one step ahead of them. His team had found no evidence of births or infants, so they had blown the entire compound, making it look like an accidental gas leak so the authorities wouldn’t ask too many questions. Now all that was left was a burned-out hole in the middle of the bayou.
He closed his eyes and at once was bombarded with the memory of Alex’s face as he had made love to her that night six months before. The slight smile that curved her lush lips, her heavy-lidded gaze and the little sounds she’d made as he moved over her, in her. He couldn’t get enough of her that night. Her responsiveness, her touch, how good she felt wrapped around him.
He wanted that again.
But then the reality of who she really was slammed home. The evil of her bloodline knew no bounds and to think of Alex as part of that vile pedigree churned his stomach. And that truth alone was what had his insides twisting in knots. Because he couldn’t deny what he felt for her, and the implications of that not only scared the shit out of him but made him as angry as hell.
Dev’s earlier words shattered his anger and jumbled his thoughts. His general and Isla trusted Alex, believed she was trying to make amends and overcome the stench of her sadistic lineage. Believed she was fighting to prove, even to herself, that the evil that had spawned her didn’t live inside her. In that respect, Tre guessed they were similar—both fighting to overcome the potential darkness in them.
Tre sat on the end of the bed and dropped his head in his hands as another important detail Dev had shared came to mind. She hadn’t fled after returning yesterday, even though she was no longer constricted by irons. In fact she was trying to help their cause in any way she could, even without his knowledge. But the question was, could he trust her motives?
Tre stood and headed to his connecting bathroom. He needed to clean up, then find Alex. He couldn’t stay away from her any longer. They had a mountain of shit to talk through and Dev was right—he wasn’t going to figure any of this out by hiding out in his damn room.
Chapter Twelve
After being returned under guard—and in shackles, no less—to the residence on Royal, Alex had been bombarded with information about the Coteri, but her thoughts continued to shift back to Tre. Would he and his team find the women and rescue them? Would her brother be there? Would Tre be hurt in the fight? Once Tre and his men had returned safely with the women later in the night, her questions shifted to a darker level. Would he kill her now? Would he fulfill his duty as a Coteri warrior and end her life? She knew her chances of surviving this disaster weren’t good, g
iven that she was Valencia’s daughter and Luca’s sister. That much had been clear when she’d witnessed the disgust on Tre’s face when the truth of her lineage had been revealed the day before.
Even after learning of the evil that surrounded her brother, to know that Tre thought the worst of her simply because she was blood-related to the two most wanted members of the Valta hurt on a level she couldn’t fully grasp. But if she were honest with herself, she didn’t blame him for his assumptions. She had fostered those same erroneous assumptions about him as well as his king. Believed all the stories she had been taught growing up about the Coteri. She had been raised to believe her work in reproduction was paramount to her race’s survival so they could protect themselves from Roderick’s malevolent regime. It had all been bullshit, she knew that now, but yeah—she understood Tre’s reaction to learning about her heritage. Still didn’t make it hurt any less.
While waiting for the Coteri warriors to return and throughout much of the night before, Alex had had a long and very interesting conversation with Isla. The woman had been more than willing not only to explain about the Coteri, their purpose and why they were in New Orleans, but to show her as well. With the simple touch of Isla’s hand placed gently atop her own, the tiny but powerful woman had connected their mental gifts and lifted the veil on Alex’s reality. The images conveyed into her mind had brought forth smiles at the wonderment she was witnessing, which had switched to tears as she’d realized without a doubt that everything she had believed to be true was a lie.
The thought of Luca slaughtering those poor human women made her stomach turn and she despised him even more than before. And to learn of her mother’s involvement—no, her mother’s full orchestration of all these sick events—twisted Alex’s insides and created a boulder of remorse in her soul and an anvil of guilt on her shoulders.
Isla had explained the role Valencia had played, which had eventually led to the creation of the Valta and the subsequent Coteri-Valta line drawn so many decades ago. Alex felt for the first time in her life that her eyes were truly open. She had been shocked by Isla’s willingness to share so much information and found herself enthralled by all she was being told. Isla answered all Alex’s questions about Mina and Mathias, the birth of their daughter Vivienne, and even shared her thoughts on the success of the couple mating and having a child. The king’s consultant explained how Roderick had ruled his people to protect the human race—from each other and now from the Valta—and went into more detail about the king’s own lawlessness in falling in love and mating with a human.
Alex now understood the bond Roderick had with Mina, as well as the lengths to which he would go to protect his daughter, granddaughter and people. The Coteri were his life’s blood and their focus was intent on protecting humans. In contrast, Valencia saw the Valta as her means to gaining domination over Roderick as well as the human race, whom she believed were weak and expendable.
Alex’s head was spinning from all the information she had learned. She couldn’t believe the evil she had been blind to over the years. All the death and debauchery. So many women hurt. So many lies told. And she hadn’t been aware of any of it. It didn’t matter that she had been hidden away and kept apart from most of her people for a large part of her life. It didn’t matter that she’d been lied to since birth. That wasn’t an excuse and she refused to allow it to alleviate any of her feeling of culpability. Well, no more. She would never be that blind again, she determined just as General Devereaux joined them in Isla’s quarters to ask her some questions of his own.
Her talk with the general had been enlightening. With a simple nod from Isla, Dev—as he’d instructed her to call him—had leaned down and removed the remaining iron cuff from her wrist. He’d dipped his head once then taken a seat across from her. Once he’d finished asking her questions about the Valta and possible other labs, she’d been surprised when he’d turned the topic to Tre. It was more than obvious that the general cared for and respected the other warrior, and before their conversation was done, Alex had actually felt as if Dev was giving her his support where Tre was concerned.
She kept replaying the previous night’s events over and over in her head. She felt completely raw inside after all she had learned. She hadn’t been able to sleep after her talk with Dev and Isla had finally ended in the early pre-dawn hours. Her thoughts kept returning to Tre. She hadn’t gone to him last night, wanting to give him time to calm and hoping he might see her differently after rescuing the human women as well as his friend Nicolette. And thanks to Dev, Alex knew for certain that Nic was simply a dear friend to Tre.
She didn’t fully understand her feelings toward him. They had shared a single night of incredible passion but her need for him now seemed palpable and she couldn’t wait any longer.
Alex moved silently down the hall and around the corner until she found her way to Tre’s room. She knocked tentatively on his door but got no answer. She could smell his scent from behind the giant wooden door, so she knew he was there. She gently turned the knob and the tumblers clicked, opening the door. Her stomach was rolling with anxiety and fear. She didn’t want to think that Tre would hurt her, but after yesterday and all he had learned about her, who knew?
Alex looked around and didn’t see him, but the sound of running water hit her ears. He was in the shower. Heat instantly flooded her body. What she wouldn’t give to open the door, strip and join him under the steamy spray. To have his arms around her again. Touching her, making her moan in pleasure. She closed her eyes at the memory of his touch. He had been so gentle, then not so gentle when their bodies had demanded it. He had loved her body with his own like no one ever had, even though they had been virtual strangers. It had been the most erotic night of her life and one she wanted to repeat. Again and again. Only now he didn’t trust her in the least, was most likely disgusted by the thought of their remembered night together, and might very well want to kill her for who and what she was. Well, shit.
The water stopped and she backed away from the door, taking a seat in a chair in the far corner of the room. She didn’t want to startle him but they needed to talk. Get things out in the open. Both Dev and Isla had told her to be honest with herself about her feelings, and honest with Tre. Well here she was, lying in wait to ambush the man in his bedroom to do just that, although the idea of laying everything out in the open had sounded a whole lot easier when she was alone in her room. Don’t be a chicken-shit, she chastised herself. Tre was either going to accept her or he wasn’t. She honestly didn’t believe he would be allowed to kill her, but regardless, she wanted him to know why she wanted to stay. Wanted him to know what she felt for him. How badly she craved to change her life for the better. But most of all, she wanted him to believe her and believe that she wanted a new life with him.
The bathroom door opened and a breath of steam billowed out before he stepped through in all his glory. Tall, tan, still wet from the shower. His wavy brown hair curling from the water and resting on his broad shoulders. A lucky little brown towel was wrapped low around his waist, providing a perfect view of the sexy indentions below his lean hips, which disappeared beneath the towel. Alex sat frozen, unable even to draw breath at the sight of him. Tre didn’t see her as he walked to the opposite side of the large room, shaking his head, water droplets raining down onto the wooden floor. She smiled at his carelessness.
She watched as he ran his fingers through his hair and stretched, the muscles of his back flexing with the movement. My God, the man was an Adonis. Beautiful lines and curves. His muscles defined and powerful. His legs flexing with every step he took. Alex shivered at the remembered strength behind those muscles when he had taken her body months before. She squeezed her thighs together to fight the sudden need she felt, but damn, she wanted him to do that again. And again. And again.
He kept his back to her as he walked toward the giant cherry armoire on the far wall. As he opened the left door, he dropped the towel, gracing her with a prime view o
f his very toned, very bitable ass. “Enjoying the view, Alex?”
She jumped as his deep voice rumbled from his chest. Of course he would know she was there. He was a Coteri warrior. As if she could sneak up on him. Alex brought her shaking hand to her chest to steady her breathing. “I just wanted to talk to you, Tremayne. I think there are things we need to say to each other.”
Without responding, he reached into a drawer and pulled out snug black cotton boxers and bent to put them on. He slowly pulled them up his huge muscular thighs to cover the ass her mouth was currently watering over. Damn. She could have looked at that for ages.
He grabbed a black T-shirt but threw it to the side before finally turning to meet her gaze. Standing there in nothing but tight black underwear, he unnerved her. He appeared to be chiseled from stone and he took her breath away. His intense gaze held hers. He knew she was nervous. He could probably smell it on her from across the room. Even if he couldn’t, her knee bouncing up and down was a sure sign that she was feeling the pressure. She stopped the movement immediately.
“Could you at least put some pants on so we can talk, Tremayne?”
Tre smiled and put his large hands on his hips. “Why the formality with my name or my body, sugar? We’ve already seen and tasted every conceivable inch of each other, and my state of undress didn’t bother you before. Why should it now?” He raised one brow in challenge. “Scared, Alex?”
She gathered what courage she had left, stood and tried to give him a look of confidence. Meeting his gaze, she placed her hands on her hips and lifted her chin. “No, Tre. I’m not scared of you. I just thought it was time to talk now that you’ve returned with the women. To be honest, after my talk with Isla and Dev, I’m not sure what to do now or where I really fit in.”
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