Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 72056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
I widen my eyes. “Oh?”
“Yes.”
“Care to elaborate?”
He clears his throat. “No. Not if you’ll be leaving us.”
“So it won’t change my genes. I’ll still require blood.”
“And you’ll still have excellent vision, musculature, and the ability to control minds.”
“So the only thing that will change is I’m no longer bound to you by blood. I won’t have to come when you call.”
“Correct.”
I could say yes. I’d love to be free from this man. He and I may be father and daughter, but only in the biological sense. We have no love for each other.
But I do love my sister.
And I love Rogan.
Why? Why did he have to bring up Larissa?
No matter which choice I make, I fall.
I fucking fall.
I’ll be a fallen princess.
A princess fallen.
My fate is now sealed.
“All right,” I say. “I’ve made my choice.”
44
I choose you. I choose my father. I choose my sister.
The words are on my tongue, ready, but I don’t say them…and it’s not because I don’t want to.
It’s because I can’t.
I literally can’t.
My voice is gone. It’s fucking gone!
Then, with a whoosh of cold wind, I’m gone as well. Simply gone from my father’s suite at the posh hotel.
Rogan.
I’m with Rogan.
And he’s a wolf.
Elation fills me. He’s alive! Alive and well and in his gorgeous wolf form.
My throat unclenches and I can speak. “Rogan! Where did you come from?”
I look around. Green grass. Birdsong. Cerulean sky with scattered cotton clouds. It’s… It’s that place. That place in the ether…where the demons found us the last time.
Rogan stands before me, naked and majestic. He’s a man now. A beautiful man, his long hair flowing over his bronze shoulders, his green eyes menacing.
“Did you think I would let you make that choice, princess?” he growls. “Did you really think I could let you go?”
“You don’t understand. She’s my sister, Rogan. I can’t choose your side. I can’t. She won’t survive.”
“You’ve survived it.”
“I’m different. I have the blood gene. She doesn’t even know who our father and stepfather truly are. Please.”
He growls again, and for a moment, I see him as his wolf self. He stands before me as a human being, but behind him, the shadow of his wolf is clear. So clear. Is it because he just shifted? Or has it always been there, and I’m only now noticing?
Or maybe it’s this place. This place that seems to materialize when we need it.
“Do you think any of that matters?”
I ball my hands into fists as ire pulses through every cell in my body. “How can it not matter? She’s my sister, Rogan. I can’t condemn her to such a fate.”
“You’re not hearing me, princess. It doesn’t matter. Your sister’s fate doesn’t matter. You and I can both care about it, but in the end, we are bound, Hannah. You and I. Forever. I can’t change that and neither can you.”
His lips come down on mine, and everything—my worries, my concerns, my anger, my rage—fades away. It’s only Rogan and me and our kiss. His lips slide over mine, and when he touches my tongue with his, I remember.
I remember I love him.
I remember I... I...
Love isn't right. Oh, yes, I love him for sure, but no verb exists that accurately describes what I feel for this man. Nothing is intense enough, passionate enough. Love seems so superficial when I consider the depth of emotion I feel for him.
Rogan breaks the kiss and gasps in a breath, holding his side.
I see it then. The wound where he was shot. Where he was shot recently.
I touch it gently, and he winces.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Your touch helps. It soothes me more than any healing balm ever could.”
“Rogan...”
“I didn’t ask for this, Hannah, any more than you did. Did you think I wanted to mate with a vampire?”
“Half vampire,” I remind him.
He rolls his eyes. “Now my allegiance is as distorted as yours is, and like you, I must choose.”
“Then you understand my dilemma.”
“No, damn it!” He grips my shoulders. “I don’t understand your dilemma. Because for me there is no choice.”
“You don’t have a sister to consider,” I gulp out. “You can’t compare your situation to mine.”
“God!” He shakes his head. “I ought to fuck you right now, princess. I ought to fuck you so violently that you’d never think about leaving me again!”
He rips his fingers through his hair, and I swear, I see the wolf behind him.
Except it’s not behind him.
It’s him.
He’s fucking changing, and I swear to God, I’m not sure what he plans to do to me.
Except he’s not changing. A man stands before me. A human form, but inside? Inside, he’s all wolf.
“Come here,” he says, “and don’t you even think about disobeying me.”
I stand my ground. I take orders from no one.
Except I’m not standing my ground.
I’m advancing toward him, closing the short distance between us.