Shadow Alpha by Carole Mortimer

was enough to make anyone feel violent. The depression was also understandable when she had lost a baby just weeks ago. The hallucinations he was less sure of, but after witnessing Kat’s nightmare earlier, maybe that was easily explained too.
    But still, something didn’t add up. Not the heavy medication Kat had been on, the clinic, the restraints, or the hatred she now bore towards Sergei.
    And until it did, Dair intended on keeping Kat safe. From herself—and him—if necessary.
    “My marriage to Sergei was a sham.”
    Dair gave her a sharp glance; it was all he dared do when they were traveling along this narrow track. “I don’t think anyone ever thought that it was a love match between the two of you, but you seemed to have managed together for the past five years, until—until this setback.”
    Setback?
    Dair believed that this was a setback?
    Discovering your husband, even one you weren’t in love with, was having an affair was surely bad enough, but finding out that it wasn’t an affair at all, that the woman on the other end of the phone was actually Sergei’s legal wife, was a lot more than a setback !

Chapter 7
    Somehow Sergei had forgotten to mention his previous marriage eight years ago to a Las Vegas showgirl, to his father, Kat, or anyone else. A previous marriage that made his marriage to Kat completely illegal. Null and void. Non-existent.
    And still Sergei had tried to talk himself out of it, promising to divorce the other woman, and then the two of them could go away somewhere and have another quiet marriage ceremony without anyone else ever being the wiser.
    It had been when Kat refused that things had really gotten nasty.
    The end result had been the loss of the baby she had waited five long years to conceive.
    Followed by Sergei ‘confessing’ to his father—he’d really had little choice after Kat was admitted to the hospital and barely lived through the miscarriage. Ivan’s response had been anger towards his son, impatience with Kat for making such a fuss, and his insistence that the two of them would marry.
    When Kat had again refused, Sergei and Ivan had come up with the idea of putting her in the clinic until she did agreed. Sergei’s only reason for coming to visit her at the clinic every morning had been to see if she had changed her mind yet. Her answer had always been no. Followed by Sergei’s assertion that she would be staying there until she did.
    Kat would never have changed her mind, couldn’t bear to even be in the same room as Sergei anymore.
    And she couldn’t tell anyone any of that. Not without causing an all-out war between the Markovic and Orlov families.
    Her ‘marriage’ was over, she had lost the baby she loved; Kat couldn’t bear the thought of being responsible for any more bloodshed.
    She couldn’t tell Dair the truth either. If she did then he would have no choice but to tell Gregori. As it was, Dair knew far too much already about the way Sergei had behaved towards her, if not the reason for it.
    “Sorry about that.” She turned to smile at Dair. “I didn’t mean to say that out loud. I think it must be that the meds are still in my system. I’m finding it a little difficult to concentrate.”
    “It will take a couple of days, probably.” He nodded.
    Her smile became wistful as she heard and saw Dair’s relief at the explanation; it seemed that even warriors—especially warriors?—felt uncomfortable when confronted by a woman’s emotions.
    Kat had grown up with just her father and Gregori, and while she had been indulged personal emotions were a luxury Dimitri didn’t allow, even for family. Sergei and Ivan were made of the same stuff. It was unfair of her to expect that Dair, who was after all a member of the Montgomery family, would be any different from any of those four men.
    She—
    Kat completely lost that train of thought as Lucien Wynter’s island home came into view.  
    Built of rose-cream marble, it looked like a Greek temple