Then the vision changed. Tara was smiling up at Max. She had a crown of flowers on her head. It was in Kai’s backyard on Mount Hood, their wedding day. Then the scene changed and Max was screaming at Tara in the lobby of the hotel we were at today. He was telling her to go! To get out of his life. Then it changed and they were kissing in a hotel room later. Then it changed again and I saw myself waking from the vision and not telling Max anything. I was so confused.

I felt someone’s arms around me. I opened my eyes. Max held me in his arms and Kai was running across the wedding hall towards me. Oh Great. What the hell do I do?

‘I saw Max’s mate die and you were there. Then I saw him marry Tara, the girl standing next to me. Then they were fighting on this very night. Do I tell them?’

Kai’s eyes opened hugely. ‘No, that isn’t possible. We mate for life. I’ll handle it.’

‘Right, we mate for life and his mate died, so that’s over. Tara isn’t dead and neither is Max.’

‘Drop this for now.’

“Aurora? Are you okay?” Max helped me straighten myself. He looked nervous. Did he sense it? That I had a vision about him?

“I’m okay, Max, thanks for catching me.”

Trent let out a long breath of air. “Okay good, because it’s our turn.”

The music changed just as Kai reached me. He gave me a quick kiss and a stern look, then walked away. Max looked at me accusingly. I looked into Max’s face now, seeing him weep over his late wife made my throat tighten. I looked ahead.

“What did you see?” he whispered.

Just then we were ushered out by the crowd. A loud upbeat Bollywood song played over the loud speaker. People shouted and clapped as we spun and danced around Trent. I tried to smile and follow what Tara and her friend were doing. I couldn’t stop thinking about Max. Once we had escorted Trent to the stage where Diya was waiting, I sat down.

The next three hours passed in a mix of fascination of the beautiful wedding and arguing with Kai in my head. I felt I needed to at least tell Max what I had seen and let him decide. Kai knew Max better and said I needed to let it be. In the end, I promised not to tell Max. For now. The most horrible part was that once dinner started, Max sat next to Tara and they seemed to be having a nice conversation. They were smiling and laughing and it was killing me.  The night ended well past 3am. We were beyond exhausted. I passed out the second my head reached the pillow. My thoughts a mix of werewolf labor, losing your mate, and what I would wear to my own wedding.

Secret

We woke up to the blaring of a phone call. Why are hotel phones so loud?

“Yes?” Kai answered. “You can have thirty minutes, Papa.” Then he hung up.

Why did I feel like something was about to go down? We dressed quickly and waited for the car to pick us up. Kai’s father stayed in a small compound in the nicer part of Delhi. We drove through a guarded gate and into an open gravel parking. His father and mother stood outside.

We exited the car. I wasn’t sure if there would be hugs or small talk. We didn’t have a chance to talk much since we arrived because of Diya’s wedding.

“Hello, thank you for coming. I want you to see something. Follow me.”

And his father turned and walked inside. So much for small talk. Kai’s mother approached me and gave me a hug and a smile, then walked in after us. As we followed his father, his mother turned into a different room. She wasn’t coming? We followed a winding hallway. I could hear muffled hissing. Oh no. This was not going to be good. We reached a dark door. His father put his hand on the handle and turned to us.

“It’s them or us. Choose a side.” Then he opened it.

What I saw stole my breath. A sickly, skinny-looking vampire was shackled to a medical bed. Thick iron sheet cuffs bound his legs and hands, another at his neck. His bed was tilted up so we could look right at his face. A large rag was stuffed in his mouth. He looked dehydrated, he was laboring for air. This was wrong. Vampires wanted our kind dead, yes, but this was so, so wrong.

“You’re torturing him?” I spat out.

Raj looked up at me. “It. I am gaining information from It.”

Kai looked only mildly uncomfortable. “How can you make it talk?”

Raj smiled. “One of my brightest wolves has designed a serum. If consumed in large quantities, it acts on the neuroreceptors. It’s somewhat of a truth serum.”

“So you starve him and he drinks it and gives you information?”

His father nodded.

“How long has he been here?” My eyes glanced to the desk in the corner which held a silver stake.

“Since the water incident,” his father said proudly.

A MONTH!

“We’re better than this. Our kind. We’re better.” I walked out. I couldn’t take it. For just a second I had seen something human in the vampire’s eyes. Some emotion. I shook it off. I felt Kai follow me out.

‘This is why my father is a council member, an Alpha of hundreds of wolves. He’s ruthless. But if there is one thing I know about my father, it’s that he acts with honor. This vampire must be telling him things that are important to our kind. The second it stops talking or they don’t need it, my father will cleanly kill it.’

‘After a month of torturing him!’

“Aurora, may we talk in private for a moment?” Raj had followed us into an open drawing room.

Kai stared his father in the eyes. “No.”