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

her back.”
    Mitch looked grim as he held his mate in his arms and comforted her as she cried. “This is your mission. Tell us what you need, and we’ll do it.”
    The fact that Mitch was giving up control meant everything to him. The lion shifter was their leader, but he knew Ben needed this. He needed to be the one to give the orders to save his mate. “There’s something you need to know.” He looked each of his friends in the eyes to let them know how important what he said next was. “Jacqi’s pregnant.”
    There was no need to say anything else as Ben turned to leave the basement. He was going to kill Percival with his bare hands if he had hurt a hair on his mate’s head. His wolf let out a growl, signaling he agreed.

Chapter 14
     
    Edmund felt joy surge through his body when he slammed Jacqueline against the wall and heard her cry out. The scent of old blood and despair coming from the cell smelled like home to him as he took a deep breath. This was what he lived for, proving how superior he was to the pathetic humans that thought they were the top of the food chain.
    “You think you’re so smart, don’t you?” he told his daughter. “I’ve been watching you for days. I know what you have been up to. The stench of Enforcer Sullivan rolling off you proves that. Did you think I was dumb enough to believe you were there because they forced you to be? Did Enforcer Sullivan force you into his bed as well?”
    Edmund knew the answers to all of his questions, just as he knew the mating mark on Jacqueline’s neck meant that Benjamin would suffer. It was the only reason he had taken his daughter with him rather than killing her on the spot for betraying him. Her death would have been a nice parting gift to let the other enforcers know he could get to them anytime he wanted. Instead, he had decided to take her with him. Any excuse to make the enforcers suffer for derailing his plans was worth delaying her death in his opinion.
    “Nothing to say for yourself?” he taunted. Edmund loved seeing Jacqueline squirm. He smelled the fear rolling off her in waves. “Okay, if you don’t want to talk about that, then let’s talk about what you did to my rogues.” He lost the playful act and snarled in his daughter’s face.
    His rogues were dropping like flies. Shifters didn’t normally get sick, but his seemed to, and it all had started right after his own daughter had run off with his prisoner. At first, it seemed like they were all suffering from the flu, which was supposed to be impossible for their kind. After a few days, their temperatures started climbing nonstop until his rogues had literally roasted to death from the inside out. The only thing the shifters had in common was that they had all received the last round of the rogue serum about six months ago. That put the blame squarely on his daughter’s shoulders.
    “How long have you been planning on betraying me?” Edmund let the growl rumble deep in his chest as he stared at Jacqueline. “I don’t know whether to kill you or congratulate you. No one has ever gotten the best of me, but you did. I never suspected the child I raised as my own would turn her back on me.”
    Jacqueline gasped, and Edmund grinned. Now he had her attention. “I’m not going to kill you for betraying me. Yet…” He let the word hang before continuing. “You look just like her, you know? You both have the same frightened expressions. The last time I saw that look on your mother’s face was when I was tearing her baby from her stomach.” Edmund held up his hands, letting his claws click together. “I delivered you with my own two hands after I found out the bitch had planned on betraying me. Her punishment was seeing her daughter in my arms and knowing that I was going to raise her as my own as the life slowly left her eyes.”
    “You’re a monster!” Jacqueline shouted and spat in his face.
    Edmund backhanded her across the cheek and laughed when he heard her head bounce off the wall behind her. “I never said I wasn’t. I never pretended to be anything else, but I can’t say the same for you.”
    “What did my mother do to you that was so bad? No one deserves to have their child ripped from them.”
    Jacqueline was crying now, and Edmund had to clench his hands into fists to keep from raking his claws across her throat to shut her up. The one thing he hated more than humans was a sniveling crier. Crying was a sign of weakness, and it wasn’t