~ CASIMIR ~  I regarded my council of Advisors for a moment, considering my options. They were all far too important for me to wash their minds clean and risk taking parts of them or limiting their capacity, so I’d only used the compulsion to keep them still and silent. And unaware of my conversation with Khush.  But now I spoke to them through the link we’d maintained, letting that thread thicken slightly to take a small, needle-like path into their minds. ‘You’ll remember nothing except that Khush was brought to me and we discussed the Reaping. I am unhappy with how he went about it, but pleased that he did not subvert me, only took the most efficient route to find the Queen.’ 

 ~ JESSE ~ Cazz wasn’t happy, but what else was new? But then I realized, what was actually new was that I could tell he was unhappy without looking at him. He was carrying a tension and disapproval that was reaching me through the bond. Because for the first time I could remember, he was keeping the bond open. He’d held it since we started talking and he hadn’t let it go. Hadn’t shut me down. My heart beat faster. It had been thrilling—and a little bit scary—to discover that we could talk in each other’s heads. But then he opened the bond further and started letting me feel him… I didn&rs

 ~ JESSE ~ Cazz in that very first moment I’d ever seen him, walking towards me out of the dark like an apparition manifesting out of hell itself—tall, broad, so strong, and so cold… …Cazz, staring at me intently, his arctic eyes chill and his tone so full of self-satisfaction. “Kitten, I can make them do anything. I can heal—or I can stop their hearts with a word. I could, if I wished, tell you to die, right here. Right now. And you would…” …Cazz standing with his head dropped between his arms, and his hands so tight on the bar in that room off the Den, his knuckles were white. The door shuddered with another barrage

 ~ CASIMIR ~ ‘I want to watch you get stronger, and stronger and I want to watch you win. I want to be proud to be your mate,. I am proud to be your mate, Cazz—’ I’d already had her, just hours earlier. But when she spoke those words it didn’t just light a fire in my belly, it sent a bonfire through my veins. There wasn’t time to consider why, because my wolf threw itself forward as if she were prey to be devoured. I couldn’t speak. Could barely think as I descended on her, forced to take a grip on myself or I might actually have bitten her delicious tongue, I

~ JESSE ~I just love you. I just love you and there’s nothing better than when you give yourself to me. It’s… beautiful.I hadn’t meant to say it, but it was there and it was true, and the bond was so deep and close, it just came out.I knew it was a terrible mistake the moment Cazz froze up. Desperation and fear rocketed through me and I held onto him, gripping him, one hand on his beautiful, square jaw, the other buried in his hair.“Don’t do it, Cazz, please,” I breathed, panicking. He didn’t move. His eyes were locked on mine and he stared like he was trying to see inside me.And he could. He could!