Haven 3: Forgotten Sins Read Online Free PDF Page B

of the SUV in just a pair of jeans with Nicholas’s head in his lap. “I can’t watch him hurt like this.” He combed his fingers through his mate’s damp hair and stared down at his sleeping face. Nicholas looked so peaceful—except for the blood drying along his jaw and down the side of his neck.
    “I know it’s hard,” Torren offered from the front passenger seat.
    “No one said love was easy, though.”
    “How does what happened have anything to do with love?” Jonas wanted to yell and snarl the words, but he kept his inquiry quiet so as not to disturb his slumbering mate. “What happened to him?”
    “I told you.” Torren turned in his seat so that he could look at Jonas. “He was beginning to remember, and the spell was trying to prevent it.”
    “I don’t understand. I thought the spell just made him want Malakai. Why can’t he remember shit? And what was that out there in the pond? Torren, I need some answers. What am I missing here?”
    “You’re not missing anything. Are you very sure that he doesn’t love you?”
    Jonas stroked the hair back from Nicholas’s face and sighed. “I’m sure. I think this proves it, don’t you? If he loved me, he wouldn’t have forgotten.”
    “Are you always this melodramatic?” Torren pushed a hand through his ebony hair and rolled his eyes. “He does love you, and that’s the reason he’s remembering. When the spell was cast, and Nicholas became obsessed with Malakai, it pushed away all memories of you. The spell can’t manufacture the feeling of love if his heart already belongs to someone else.”
    That sounded all good in theory, but Jonas wasn’t buying it. “That would make more sense if he hadn’t forgotten a lot more than just me. He doesn’t even remember challenging Phillip, and that was a fairly pivotal point in his life.”
    “Why did he challenge his brother?” Raven asked as they bumped along toward the main drive.
    “Phillip was cruel. He killed his own father because he was power hungry. Then he did everything in his ability to destroy this coven. He kept a dozen or so donors in the main house for himself and his inner circle, but he cut off the blood supply to the rest of the coven. Phillip wasn’t directly involved with Cyrus Redway and his slave trade or whatever you want to call it, but he definitely supported the asshole’s efforts.”
    Torren’s eyebrows drew together. “I’ve heard about the experiments Redway and Alpha Cunningham were doing. From what I understand, the trade ring was huge. Are you sure Phillip wasn’t involved?”
    “I’m not sure of anything, but I don’t think so.” Phillip had been too selfish for something like that. He didn’t buy, sell, or trade. He took what he wanted, and anyone who crossed him ended up dead.
    “He mostly kept humans, said their blood was the sweetest. As far as I know, Redway and Cunningham had no use for humans in their scheme.”
    “What happened to these humans after Nicholas became leader?” Raven dipped his head at the guard as they passed through the gates.
    “Humans are dangerous, and while we can compel them, it doesn’t always stick. Their minds can’t comprehend what we are, and that leads to mass hysteria and shit like the Salem witch trials.”
    “Agreed,” Torren said with a grimace. “They’ll do anything to assure their self-proclaimed superiority.”
    Both men spoke as though they knew from experience, and neither seemed to be the biggest fan of humans. Jonas, however, found them intriguing. Humans were fairly low on the evolutionary chain, and yet they were still brave, courageous, and fiercely protective of their beliefs—even if some of those beliefs were asinine or flat-out insane.
    “Phillip’s guards executed the humans after his death. There was a rebellion of sorts, and a lot of lives were lost before we finally got things under control. It wasn’t pretty.”
    “And you were there through all of it, fighting by Nicholas’s