<p>With a wedge at last driven between Mat and Dougie Carmichael, courtesy of Nikolai Petrovic&#39;s expert manipulations, the brothers must each accept their new path forward: Dougie, a perfect slave, sweet and obedient and loving. Mat, a tightly reined dog, snarling and snapping but never allowed to bite.</p><p>Unfortunately, no transformation, however well planned, is without its growing pains. Mat&#39;s leash is so tight it&#39;s choking him. Dougie is tormented by a little voice inside his head-a fragment of his former self-that he cannot silence.</p><p>And Nikolai&#39;s most difficult tests for the brothers are still to come.</p><p>The critical question isn&#39;t whether they can pass those tests, but whether they even want to. Without each other to lean on and live for, a bleak future has become bleaker still. But Nikolai&#39;s too good to let his slaves slip through his fingers-by death or by despair.</p>