Prisoner of Night (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #16.5)

by J.R. Ward

Chalen the Conqueror’s century-old stronghold in the New World. Either that or a Disney antagonist had jumped out of a movie to get away from all the damn singing and set up shop in this sweaty forest to kick puppies and scare children.

All of Chalen’s guards and staff had their larynxes removed.

Chalen had come out of the Bloodletter’s war camp centuries before, honed by that sadistic fighter into a killing machine who was efficient only when he had to be. Otherwise, it was well-known that he preferred agony over any manner of quick dispatch—