With her Siren mate and his mother captured by slave traders, Commander Gwen Jet is willing to do anything to get them back, even going undercover as a slave. But when she and Ania are both captured, the situation goes from bad to worse, especially when she finds that Dorian Zade no longer remembers her and is in survival mode.
While she can’t help being angry that she suffered four days of torture in answering the Siren’s call for a male who no longer knows her, their mating cord also may be the only remaining connection between them. Luckily, it seems to be enough to keep the still drugged and more aggressive version of Zade from seeing her as an enemy and trying to kill her.
Because of the cord her Siren mate now desires her as much as he did in the beginning, before her Lotharian captors stripped his energy from her. But Gwen can't help wondering which version of Zade is the one that feels that way.
And what will happen when his memories return?
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Excerpt from the rescue
Gwen grabbed Jordon's arm when he went to pull away. “Don’t be a martyr. I can remove your collar as well. I don’t care what’s going on here, but we really need to leave if we’re going to. Every moment we linger is a risk.”
He looked unsure, then looked at Sarinnea, who nodded.
“I’ve worn this collar for fifteen Earth years,” he said to the brash female who still had a strong grip on him.
Gwen stepped close, took a deep breath, and put her hands on the Norblade male’s slave collar. The moment the word she spoke hit the air, the collar came unlocked. This time the reverberating pain it caused in her body sent her to her knees, which got scraped on the stony ground, along with her hands that Zade had dragged across the brick wall as they escaped.
“Damn it, Ania. It doesn’t send you to your knees. What am I doing wrong?”
She looked over and saw Zade studying her again. Was that admiration she saw in his gaze? Or condescension? It had always been hard to tell with him. At the moment, it was nearly impossible to read his expressions.
“A little help here,” she said to him, snapping her fingers and waving her hand to motion him to help her. Despite their situation, Gwen snorted as she watched Zade almost reluctantly walk to where she knelt in the dirt. Evidently he’d kill for her but didn’t want to help her up after she fell. Males were so hard to understand.
“I thought I was supposed to be the owner and you were supposed to be the slave,” he said, his tone full of sarcasm that he couldn’t explain to himself. The warrior female had done nothing but help people, yet everything about her irritated him. As did the fact that he wanted inside her more passionately than he had wanted out of his cage.
Gwen laughed despite the situation, finding Zade’s smart-ass remarks oddly reassuring since it meant he trusted her enough to know she wasn’t going to do more than verbally retaliate. It meant the real Dorian Zade was still in the damaged male somewhere.
“And here I thought maybe I was going to be spared your sarcasm now that you don’t remember anything about me,” Gwen said, smiling at his glare.
He finally offered his hand to her, pulling her to her feet, catching her as she weaved. “I’d offer to carry you, but I don’t think I can. They drugged everything I ate and drank. It’s fading a bit, but I’m still doing well just to walk.”
Gwen patted his arm before shifting her gaze to Jordon. “I’ll make it. So you coming with us or not?”
Jordon sighed and climbed over the fence. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Gwen snorted. “I hope so too. Now let’s get the hell out of here.”
She grabbed Zade’s wrist, pushing the com link as she lifted it close to her mouth. His gaze was hot on her as her lips almost grazed his arm, but she made herself ignore the signals his body was sending.
“We’ve found Sarinnea,” she said when Synar connected.
“Good. We ran into complications, but we’re on our way in. Meet me at the shuttle. It’s in the woods just outside the city. The coordinates are in the com unit,” Synar said.
“Heading there now. Jet out,” Gwen said, ignoring the way Zade rubbed the wrist she’d held while he held her gaze. Pulling her eyes from his, she looked at the new group member that she hoped could prove himself useful. “Which way is the city gate, Jordon?”
He lifted his hand and pointed.
“Thanks. Let’s go then,” Gwen said, heading off.
The other three watched her stride off not even glancing back. They looked at each other and then followed.
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