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After a long day of anxious waiting, Wrath comes around. As Beth holds him and cries, he hates his life as a warrior for the first time. With Beth now being his wife, he doesn’t want her exposed to the violence. They hold each other until Havers comes into the lab with Marissa. Havers looks agonized and he admits to Wrath what he did. He volunteers to let Wrath take his revenge in a ritual that will result in Havers’s death. Wrath tells him, no. They’re even now, for what Wrath did to Marissa all those years.

When the brothers show up at Havers’s, Wrath and Beth accept an invitation to go to Tohrment and Wellsie’s while Wrath finishes recovering. Wrath is still too weak to dematerialize himself so Beth, Butch and Marissa decide to drive him west. As they get on the highway, Beth smiles at her vampire husband, thinking that she asked for an adventure. And boy did she ever get one.

Epilogue

A month later, at Tohrment and Wellsie’s ranch in Colorado, the brothers are in the war room getting ready to go out hunting. Wrath has taken up the role as leader of the brothers and he’s accepted his position as the Chief of his race. Vampires have started coming to him, asking him to resolve disputes and bless their children, traditional duties of the Chief that have been missing since the death of Wrath’s father. Beth is adjusting to her role as the chief’s uta-shellan. Butch and Marissa are happy but struggling with the implications of his mortality.

As the brothers ready themselves to go out, Wrath frowns as he sees Beth strap on a dagger. What are you doing, he asks. I’m coming with you, she says. Why, he demands. To fight, she replies. Oh, no, you’re not, Wrath counters, because I forbid you from warring. Beth kicks up her chin. Excuse me? You forbid me, she says. As the two of them square off, the brothers quickly file out of the room.

On the other side of the door, the brothers listen to muffled, angry voices. So who do you think’s going to win this one, Tohrment asks. The brothers make their wagers. The door opens. Wrath walks out looking fierce, pulling his leather jacket on. A moment later, Beth appears, wearing two guns and a dagger. She’s smiling. As the brothers laugh, Wrath puts his arm around Beth and kisses her. None of you look too surprised, he says to his brothers. Yeah, Tohrment replies. We all bet on her.

Together, Wrath and Beth disappear into the night.

Deleted Scenes

Deleted Scenes

The vast majority of things I see in my head get used in the books—which is why the Brotherhood novels are so long! And most of the time, if I do take something out, I use it elsewhere. However, there are some scenes that I have set aside, and I’ve included some below with commentary.

I trimmed this out of the beginning of Lover Awakened, due to length issues. I really like the scene and wish I could have taken it further, as it was the beginning of an entire subplot involving the trainees. Reading it again, I’m reminded of how far John has come—at this point in the series, he was just starting to meet all the Brothers and had a lot to learn about his new world.

Standing in the training center’s gym, waiting shoulder-to-shoulder with the other trainees for the next jujitsu position command, John was beat. His brain was blank-slate exhausted, his body aching. He felt like he’d been picked clean and left for dead.

Okay, so that was a little melodramatic. But not by much.

Class had started as usual at four in the afternoon, but they’d had to make up for the time they’d lost the night before. So instead of ending at ten o’clock, it was now two a.m. and they were still being put through their paces.

The other guys looked tired, too, but John was damn aware that no one was as wrung out as him. For some reason, his classmates were handling the training better than he was.

Some reason? Christ, he knew why. Not only did he have to work harder at everything because he was an uncoordinated boob, but after that whole therapist, visit-to-his-past-nightmare, he hadn