Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [832]
He could have pushed her for the truth when he’d met her at the Toms settlement, but Alex didn’t seem the type to be forced into doing anything she didn’t want to do. Kade would need to win her trust in order to win the information he needed from her.
He might even have to seduce it out of her, an idea he considered with far too much interest. Yeah. Tough job, getting close to Alexandra Maguire. Every mission should demand that onerous a task.
Thoughts of how he would play things with her the next time he saw her made the hours and miles fall away behind him. In no time, he had reached the huge tract of forested, virgin wilderness that had been in his family’s possession for centuries. The familiar smell of the woods and the earth that lay dormant beneath the snow put a tightness in his chest. For so long, this expanse of land had been his home, his kingdom and domain.
How many times had he and Seth run wild and whooping through this very forest, brothers-in-arms, young lords of the chase? Too many to recall.
But Kade remembered the night that the idyll of their shared childhood had ended. He still felt the weight of that moment in the cold hand of dread that clamped down on the back of his neck as he approached the sprawling compound of hand-hewn log buildings that comprised his father’s Darkhaven.
Unlike most Breed civilian communities, this Darkhaven had no perimeter fence or closed-circuit security cameras. There were no guards posted along the way, either. Then again, this far out in the bush, there was no need. The land itself acted as sentry to the many residences and the people living within them. Harsh, remote, expansive.
If the predators on four legs didn’t dissuade any unwanted human visitors from stumbling onto the property, Kade’s father and the roughly twenty other Breed males living inside the Darkhaven would be happy to take care of them.
Kade trudged through the snowy path that led up to the large main house. He knocked on the doorjamb, uncomfortable entering the place unannounced.
His father’s younger brother came to the door and opened it. “What are you doing standing out there in the snow, Seth …?”
“Uncle Maksim,” Kade said, tipping his head in greeting when recognition lit up the other male’s face. “How are you, Max?”
The Breed male was nearly three hundred years old but, like all of their kind, looked to be in the prime of life with his unlined face and thick brown hair. “I am well,” he replied. “This is certainly a welcome surprise, Kade. Your father will be so pleased that you are home.”
Kade resisted the urge to chuckle at that sentiment, but only because he knew his uncle meant it as kindness. “Is he here?”
Maksim nodded. “In his study. My God, it’s a relief to see you again and to know that you are alive and well. You’d been away so long without contact, I’m afraid many of us had assumed the worst about you.”
“Yeah,” Kade said, knowingly wry. “I get that a lot. Will you tell my father I’m here?”
His uncle clapped him lightly on the shoulder. “I’ll do better than that. Come with me. I’ll take you to him myself.”
Kade followed the big male through the massive residence to the private study that overlooked the broad western range of the property. Maksim rapped his knuckles on the door, then squeezed the latch and pushed it open.
“Kir. Look who’s returned home, my brother.”
Kade’s father turned away from an open program on his computer, rotating in his large leather chair to face them. Kade watched the stern expression darken from one of surprise and relief, to one of confusion and not-too-mild disappointment when he realized it was the prodigal son who waited at the threshold, not the favored one. The scowl deepened. “Kade.”
“Father,” he replied, knowing there would be no emotional embraces or warm welcomes as his father got up from his seat and strode around to the front of his long desk.
He spared only the barest glance at his brother who stood behind Kade near the door.