Cain shrugged. “Why would I have need of them? They’re weak. Even the damn elf king couldn’t keep himself alive.”

  Finn coughed. “What?”

  Cain chuckled. “Oh, you didn’t know? Ludcarab is dead. The elves are without a powerful leader, considering his heir has proven that he will stay in his realm twiddling his thumbs unless his fae mate tells him to jump.” Cain knew all about it. At least his predecessor had been smart enough to set up a half-decent spy network to keep tabs on the other races. The wolves believed the vampires remained clueless to the goings on of the supernatural world just because they had bided their time underground for so long. Fools.

  “Okay.” Finn folded his arms across his chest. “What about the fae? Do you think you can defeat them, too?”

  Cain sighed. “Have you been listening? A hybrid army—”

  “Will not have the power of the fae,” Finn snapped.

  “What they lack in magical ability, they will make up for with sheer numbers,” Cain pressed. “Do you have any idea how many dormants there are in the world? Centuries upon centuries of wolves breeding with humans. Almost all of them walking around clueless as to their true natures.”

  Finn shook his head. “Canis lupus rarely allow themselves to be with someone other than their true mate.”

  “I don’t know what fairy tale you’ve been living in.” The vampire king taunted. “What about the ones on the verge of going feral? The ones so close to losing their minds that any female becomes a better option than no female at all?”

  The male wolf appeared ready to vomit, but Cain could see he knew the ugly truth about his race. Finn looked disgusted at the prospect of some of his race lowering themselves to be with humans, not that Cain could blame him. Humans were disgusting. The wolf growled low in his throat.

  “Not to worry, Finn. If everything goes according to my plan, neither of us will have to trouble ourselves with the homo sapien race much longer.”

  Cain would not go into details with the wolf, but part of his plan included a breeding plan that would eventually replace all the pesky humans. Those left alive would be busy spitting out more dormants, which would lead to more hybrids. And with each hybrid created, his power would grow. Of course, Cain would have to keep some full-blooded Canis lupus around. After all, what could be better than feeding from the Great Luna’s beloved wolves? There was even a part of him that considered keeping Fane alive, just to have the male chained up and available to feed from whenever Cain wished. He chuckled as he thought about Fane’s face as he watched him feed from the alpha’s mate. It was definitely an idea worth entertaining. Had he mentioned it was good to be king?

  “This is insane.” Finn stepped away from the gurney. “There’s no way.”

  “There is always a way,” Cain bit out through clenched teeth.

  “What of the djinn? The warlocks? The draheim? You truly believe you can—”

  Cain swiped out his hand, slashing it through the air. “I can and I will.” Cain decided to appeal to the part of the wolf that he had seen in the forest— the wolf thirsting to be free of all masters. The dominant in him couldn’t stand the idea of being beholden to another. “And once you realize the freedom you will have—once you are no longer under the thumb of Fane and the damn goddess who thinks she should be able to tell you what to do and who to bow to—then you will appreciate all I am doing.”

  Finn cursed under his breath.

  “Are you reneging on our deal?” Cain asked. “Are you really that weak?” He continued walking. He needed to get Finn to Willis so the scientist could retrieve the wolf’s blood before the damn beast decided to back out. Cain could feel the fear and uncertainty rolling off the wolf.

  “No.” Finn barked. “I just don’t see how it’s possible, but…” He paused for a moment. All Cain heard was the soft sounds of their feet on the floor. “I don’t want to continue living as I have been. Another dominant male will not subjugate me.”

  “I assure you I will not fail.” There was too much at stake, and failure wasn’t an option.

  Cain picked up the pace. He continued to talk to distract the wolf. “There was news through the supernatural grapevine that Fane took on challengers to his rule. Did you fight him and lose?”

  “I planned to fight him, but there was a mutiny among the rogues before I got the chance. One of them convinced the rest that they could assault the Romanian mansion and prevail. Fools,” Finn spat out. “I knew it would be a bloodbath, so I didn’t let my pack take part. Since then, I’ve been biding my time. Fane and his wolves haven’t troubled us.”

  “It was wise of you not to engage in a battle you knew you couldn’t win.”

  Finn made a grunting noise. “I hope I’m not making an unwise decision now.”

  “Don’t worry. Willis just needs to—”

  “Who’s Willis?” Finn interrupted.

  “A scientist I am working with. He is studying the blood of my kind and yours, figuring out how we can get them to blend,” Cain explained.

  “A human?”

  “Yes. The humans are vital to my plan.”

  “Hmm.”

  “As I was saying, Willis needs to compare your blood to that of a dormant.”

  “Then what?”

  Cain pushed through a door. Beyond it was a room full of tables covered with scientific equipment. “Then, based on the results, he will know which blood bonds with the vampire virus. And from that, he believes he can make blood that can be transfused into your kind.”

  He walked to a chair sitting in the farthest part of the room. It was bolted to the floor, and leather straps were attached to the arms and legs. It looked like a torture contraption. And for Finn, it would be. The Canis lupus certainly wasn’t a small creature, and he would have to be restrained. Cain had a feeling that regardless of his willingness to help, Finn’s beast would not take kindly to being bitten by a vampire. The king turned to the wolf. “I need you to sit there.” He pointed at the chair.

  Finn’s brow rose as his lips pulled back, revealing long canines. “Excuse me?”

  Cain sighed. “I cannot risk your wolf deciding he doesn’t want to cooperate halfway through the procedure. The way I understand it, man and wolf do not always agree.”

  After several minutes, Finn finally moved forward and turned, letting his large body fall down into the chair. Cain made quick work of the restraints, using his own vampire strength to make sure the damn things were tight.

  The door to the room opened, and Willis walked in. His eyes widened, and Cain thought the male would faint from excitement. “You captured one?”

  He shook his head. “No,” Cain said with a note of warning. “I convinced him to volunteer to work with us.”

  Willis attempted to school his features and cleared his throat, apparently picking up on the unspoken threat. “Rock on.” He nodded, “Hello, Mr.…”

  “Finn.” He growled and eyed the human, as if the much weaker male was actually a threat. Cain mentally shrugged. He supposed Willis was actually a threat, considering the human genius could easily kill the wolf with one of his chemical cocktails.

  “Well, Mr. Finn, welcome to Area 51 and the Dormant Project.” Willis smiled.

  “Super original title,” Finn mumbled.

  Willis shrugged. “I’m a geneticist. I create brilliant solutions to problems within the human body. I’m not a freaking wordsmith.” Then he turned to Cain. “Are we ready?”

  Cain nodded. “Have one of your people bring in the first dormant.”

  Willis picked up a phone and spoke the command into it. Cain looked at Finn. “I need to taste your blood. I will not be drinking from you for sustenance. But I need to compare the amount of wolf blood in each dormant.”

  “Why?” Finn’s body visibly tensed.

  Cain sighed. Had the damn wolf been listening to anything he’d said? “Because so far, every time we try to mix vampire blood and wolf blood, the wolf blood overcomes the virus. Your race has super-healing abilities. Apparently, that is why a vampire cannot turn a Canis lupus.”

  “We are hoping,” Willis interjected, “that perhaps the dormants with smaller amounts of wolf blood will be susceptible to the vampiric virus.”

  “Sounds like you’re doing a lot of hoping. Perhaps what you are really doing is wishful thinking.”

  “Every glorious creation starts out as nothing more than a simple idea in a person’s mind.” Cain said. “Nothing worth doing just happens, Finn. Truly magnificent creations take time, trial, and error. When we determine how diluted the blood must be, then we can mix the blood and make something entirely new. Not human, not vampiric, and not wolf, but hybrid blood. Willis believes we can use this blood to give transfusions to the dormants, even those with a higher percentage of Canis lupus blood. We might even be able to morph a full-blooded Canis lupus.”

  Finn’s eyes narrowed as his brow wrinkled and his lips pressed tightly together. Finally, he rolled his large shoulders. “Fine. Bite me.”

  Cain smirked. “Two words I never thought I’d ever hear from a Canis lupus.”

  “Don’t push your luck, vampire. I bite back.”

  He tilted the male’s head to the side and struck quickly. His teeth had to work hard to puncture the tough skin. It naturally wanted to heal the moment the flesh was broken. Warm, life-giving blood immediately flooded his mouth. Rich in nutrients, the iron flavor coated his tongue. He only took one swallow before pulling back. He wouldn’t admit it, but that was one of the hardest things Cain had ever done. The vampire called on centuries of self-control as his hands gripped Finn’s shoulders. He vaguely noticed the wolf grunt as if in pain, but he forced himself to ignore the sound. Cain’s natural desire to hold his prey down and take what he wanted, what his body craved, screamed at him to drink deep and keep on drinking until there was nothing left to take. The power that flowed into him from the full-blooded Canis lupus was intoxicating, and the effect was immediate. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes, savoring the taste, then ran his tongue across his teeth, making sure to get every drop. The vampire felt as if his very cells had been as dry as a desert and were now hydrated to the point they might burst out of his skin. The constant hunger that gnawed at his insides fled, and he no longer felt the ache to sink his teeth into the nearest jugular. This was why his people sought out dormants. And the effects he got from the dormants was but a fraction of this experience.

  Cain took several deep breaths and cleared his throat, pulling himself together, although he wanted to leap back onto the wolf and drink him dry.

  “You have the taste?” Willis asked, drawing Cain back to reality.

  “Yes.”

  The door opened, and two humans pushed in a gurney. A woman laid on top of it. She looked like the others, as if she was simply asleep. Essentially, she was. A medically induced coma, as Willis had explained it. The female appeared to be in her late teens or early twenties. She was the best kind of dormant—one with no attachments. Cain had found this woman himself. As an orphan, as the humans called it, no one would miss her. Not to mention, she’d lived on the streets, so it hadn’t been hard to convince the girl that he could offer her a better life. He had promised her she would be working with the human government on various top-secret projects, which wasn’t entirely untrue. It was amazing to Cain how gullible and desperate humans were. The girl, who had looked half-starved, filthy, and lost, had barely asked any questions before she had shrugged, said “‘F-it, why not?” and then jumped in the car with him.

  They rolled her over to the only empty space in the room, which was beside the chair where Finn sat restrained. Cain paid no attention to the wolf as he walked over to the female. As he turned her head, he heard a deep, loud growl.

  “Get your damn hands off of her.” Finn snarled.

  Cain turned his head to see the glowing eyes of the wolf looking back at him. Finn’s body shook, and his muscles strained against the straps holding him in place. “How many times do I have to tell you? I’m not going to hurt them. I’m going to bite her. Just as I did you. Not to drink. Just to taste.”

  “What’s her name?” Finn’s voice was deep and guttural with his wolf.

  “What difference does it make?”

  “Tell me,” Finn yelled.

  Cain huffed and grabbed the clipboard that hung on the side of the bed. He read over it and then answered. “Lizzy Fairchild. And I didn’t abduct her, if that helps your little wolf scruples. She came willingly.”

  “Lizzy,” Finn practically whispered, though the sound was not gentle. His voice was rough and filled with longing. He sounded like that of a man who had been imprisoned for decades when someone suddenly opened the door to his cell.

  Cain’s hands clenched around the clipboard as he realized what the hell was happening. He looked at the female and then back at Finn. “You’ve got to be bloody kidding me.”

  “Get away from her.” Finn’s eyes never left the girl’s face.

  “I’m going to bite her, then she will be taken back to her room.” Cain attempted to keep his voice matter-of-fact and non-confrontational.

  “If your mouth gets anywhere near her, I will tear the lips from your face and feed them to my pack.”

  “Why is he getting so angry?” The shake in Willis’s voice gave away a genuine fear of the restrained wolf.

  Apparently, I need to step up my game if this damn wolf is scarier to the human than the king of the vampires.

  Cain set the clipboard down and folded his arms across his chest. He faced Finn and leaned his hip against the gurney. “I should have considered this, dammit. But what are the odds?” He glared at the wolf. This mongrel could ruin the entire operation if he managed to get free from those restraints.

  “What are you talking about?” the scientist asked again.

  “GET. AWAY. FROM HER.” Finn growled so loudly that the glass in the windows of the room rattled.

  “Dude, he can’t get out of those restraints, can he?”

  “I don’t know, Willis. They’re designed for humans. They probably haven’t been tested against Canis lupus strength. Perhaps you should get one of your concoctions together to knock his big ass out.”

  Cain heard Willis fumbling around. The human was so alarmed by the possibility of the feral-looking male breaking free of the restraints that he could barely keep his hands from shaking.

  “Is it because she’s female?” Willis asked. “I read in those books you gave me that the males of their kind are very protective of the females.”

  “Not just any female,” Cain replied.

  “What does that mean?”

  “Just hurry the hell up!” Cain watched Finn struggle against the restraints. His eyes never left Lizzy’s still body.

  Cain knew he had to bite her quickly. He could hear the leather of the straps creaking. The massive wolf strained, pushing and pulling himself around in the chair. He might get free before Willis could get the damn needle in his neck. “You and you”—he pointed at the two humans that rolled her in—“take her back to her room.” As they began to move her, Cain stepped up next to the gurney and turned the girl’s head. Quick as a snake, he darted forward and bit her soft flesh. The groan he’d successfully held in while drinking from Finn hummed from his throat. Her blood wasn’t as potent, but it was still better than a human’s. A massive roar filled the room, pulling him from the pleasure of her taste. He drew his fangs from her neck. “Hurry the hell up,” Cain commanded. He pushed them and the gurney out of the room, slamming the door behind them and throwing the lock in place … as if that would keep an enraged male wolf from getting out.

  He turned back to Willis and Finn. The hapless scientist wielded a syringe, and he was trying to find a place in the wolf to insert it. But every time he got close, Finn would buck violently, and the human would shrink back. Cain noticed the wolf had managed to break one of the leg restraints, and he was flailing his foot wildly, trying to connect it with the scientist. With inhuman speed, Cain ran to the pair. He grabbed the wolf by the head and turned it so the scientist had clear access. “Stab him, dammit.”

  The male scientist looked very unsure, but the glare in Cain’s eyes was enough to spur him to action. He jammed the needle into Finn’s neck and pushed quickly on the plunger. Finn fought for at least half a minute more before going still.

  Willis fell back against the wall as if his legs might give out. “I thought he came willingly?”

  Cain released the male’s head. “He did.”

  “Then why did he freak out like that?”

  Cain looked at the door where Lizzy had been wheeled out. “Because she’s not just some female to him.”

  “She’s family?” Willis’s face scrunched up in confusion.

  “Worse,” Cain bit out. “She’s his true mate.”

  “What does that mean?” The scientist’s breaths came in quick succession. He leaned forward and rested his hands on his knees.

  Cain gave him a disapproving glare. Maybe he needed to get the man out of the lab and make him actually exercise or something. Cain didn’t need his scientist dying of a heart attack before he could definitively solve the hybrid-creation problem.

  The vamp king stepped away from the now unconscious Finn and stared out the window at the hundred-plus bodies lying on gurneys. “It means things could get messy if other full-blooded wolves were to join the program and find mates among any of these”—he motioned to the bodies—“test subjects.”

  “So, they’re like”—Willis paused as if trying to figure out the right words—“soul mates or something?”

  “Yes,” Cain snapped. “True-mated wolves are two halves of a whole. Their souls are designed to complete one another. The males are extremely possessive and protective of the females in their pack, as you mentioned you read in the books I gave you. Those protective emotions are multiplied tenfold with true mates. If Finn got loose, he would tear this place to the ground just to get to Lizzy.”

  “Sheesh.” Willis huffed. “This is like the romance crap you read about in books.”

  Cain turned to look at the stupid human and cursed the fact that he needed the man for his plan to come to fruition. “You’ve learned about vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures, and this is what surprises you?”