Forever Is Not Enough [Council Enforcers 2] (Siren Publishing Classic)

what he wanted, and a mate was something he’d never wanted. Now, he was willing to give his last breath if she would just look up from behind her hair once and show him her eyes.
    “I’m so sorry.”
    Ben froze and stiffened at his mate’s touch on his arm. Her voice had been so low he was sure that if he hadn’t been a shifter he wouldn’t have heard her. It was the first time she had ever spoken to him.
    “Just fight it a little while longer. I’m trying to find a way to get you out of here,” she whispered as she injected him.
    Relief flooded his body. His mate was trying to help him. She wasn’t betraying him. The last thing he saw before everything went black was a pair of large violet eyes swimming with tears staring back at him.

Chapter 2
     
    Jacqueline Percival hung her head to hide the tears streaming down her face as she slowly closed the door to the room. She had no idea who the man being held captive inside was, but her heart literally hurt every time she had to walk away from him. The guilt of what she was doing to him weighed heavily on her chest and threatened to steal her breath. Unfortunately, she had no choice but to obey her father even if she didn’t agree with the man. He was beyond cruel, and to disobey him meant pain and suffering even for his own daughter.
    Wiping the tears away, Jacqueline took a deep breath to gather her composure before heading back to the lab. She didn’t want any of her father’s mindless minions to see her upset. They wouldn’t hesitate to run and tattle to her father, and then she would have to explain herself. That was a conversation she wanted to avoid at all cost. There was no lying to her father, and there was no way she would be able to tell him she was crying because she felt some strange emotional pull to one of his prisoners. That would be an immediate death sentence for the man, and she couldn’t live with that.
    “Did you give it to him?”
    Jacqueline jumped when she heard her father’s voice as she entered the lab. He had caught her off guard, and that was a bad thing. She swallowed the lump in her throat before speaking. “Yes, Father. I did as you asked. He passed out as soon as I injected him.”
    “Hmm,” her father said as he slowly strolled around the room.
    Oh God. Does suspect something? She shoved her hand into her lab coat and gripped the syringe she’d just used on the prisoner. The slim plastic tube slid against her wet palm, reminding her of what she had just done. Had she just signed her own death warrant?
    “And how did the prisoner react to this latest round of treatments?” her father asked as he fondled a few sheets of paper on her desk before perching himself on it.
    Jacqueline took a moment to gather her thoughts before answering. “He’s strong. He is fighting the drugs, but this latest round knocked him out almost immediately. I think he is wearing down.” It was mostly the truth. Her father didn’t need to know that the reason the prisoner had passed out so quickly was because she’d given him a sedative instead of the drug.
    Her father’s face lit up at her news. “Great.” He stood rubbing his palms together. “I want you working around the clock to turn him. Nothing else matters but making him mine. Those council bastards won’t know what hit them when they find out I have one of their precious enforcers in my back pocket.”
    She let out a breath when he passed, only to have it turn into a muffled scream when he gripped her arm, squeezing hard as he leaned down and whispered in her ear.
    “If you mess this up, Jacqueline, I swear I will kill you with my bare hands. That will be after I let my guards have you for a few days. By the time they’re through with you, you will be begging for my hands to wrap around your throat.”
    With that last menacing statement, her father casually strolled out of the room with his hands in his pockets as though he hadn’t just threatened his own daughter with rape and murder just to keep her in line. Jacqueline walked over and slumped into her chair and laid her head on her desk. She balled her fists in her lap to keep them from shaking. Her father was a cruel, brutal man, and she knew she had to get away from him or she would eventually die. She had no doubts the man would follow through on his threats if he felt she was no longer useful to him. She was his daughter, but that meant nothing to Edmund Percival. To him, she was just another tool he had at his