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)
“How? How could you not expect to love me?”
“Your kind doesn’t mate, princess.”
“Your kind doesn’t either. Not usually.”
“No. Not usually. But it’s in our DNA. We know it when it happens, and I know, without a doubt, that you’re my mate.”
“What happened with the others, then? The ones you loved?”
“The one I loved, princess. There was only one.”
Only one? His admission should make me feel better, but it doesn’t. Jealousy spears me in the heart.
Damn. When did I become this woman? This woman who can’t deal with her lover’s exes?
Images invade my mind… Rogan kissing another, fucking another, tasting another.
My heart pounds like a drum inside my chest. Ka-boom, ka-boom, ka-boom…
I inhale, try to find relaxation.
Yeah, not going to happen.
“Tell me,” I say. “Please.”
“She’s in my pack. Her name is Denise.”
Denise. What a stupid name.
Except it’s a perfectly fine name. God, what is with me?
“We were high school sweethearts,” he continues, “and we talked about staying together and starting a family, but then I was called to lead the pack as an alpha.”
“So? Doesn’t an alpha get to have a love life?”
“Of course, but Denise didn’t want that kind of life. She knew I’d constantly be in danger and that my first loyalty would be to the pack.”
I swallow. “Your first loyalty?”
“Yes.”
“Then what kind of loyalty do you have to me?”
“You’re my mate. It’s different.”
“Different how?”
“My loyalty is to you above all else, as yours is to me.”
There's no choice for either of us.
There never was.
“Oh my God…”
“What?” he asks.
“You didn’t end it. Denise did.”
“Yes,” he says.
“So…if you hadn’t been called to lead your pack, you’d still be with her.”
“No,” he says, “I wouldn’t.”
“But—”
“Don’t you see, Hannah? You’re my mate. You. Not Denise. Not anyone else. You. If Denise and I had stayed together, I’d have left her when I found you.”
I drop my mouth open. “But you loved her.”
“I did.”
“And you would have left a woman you loved for a woman you didn’t love?”
“But I do love you, princess.”
“You do now. You didn’t at first.”
“True. But mating is for life. It’s a bond beyond love, beyond the heart. So yes, I would have ended it with Denise when I met you.”
“What if you had kids?”
“What does it matter? I don’t. I’m no longer with Denise.”
“But she ended it. You didn’t.”
“It’s all a part of the fate, princess. Fate had other plans for me, and on some level, Denise knew that, so she ended it.”
“You just said she ended it because—”
“For God’s sake!” He rubs at his forehead. “Yes, that’s the reason she gave me, and she probably thought it was true at the time. I’m telling you fate had other plans for me. Fate knew Denise was not my destiny, so fate intervened. I don’t have kids with her. I no longer love her. I love you, Hannah. You, vampire princess. And may God help me.”
He pulls me into his body and crushes his lips to mine.
47
I love you, Hannah. You, vampire princess. And may God help me.
Rogan’s kiss is angry, but it’s a good anger. A hungry anger. He drugs me with his lips, his tongue, and I melt into him, let him consume me.
Again we seem to be of one body, and though it’s frightening, it is at the same time exhilarating.
I inhale—his lupine scent of spice and musk infuses every part of me. I’m wet. So wet and ready and ripe. My nipples are hard and wanting, and my flesh is tingling as sparks skitter over me.
And still we kiss…
We kiss as if it’s the end of the world, as if our lives will end at any moment and this is our last chance to touch each other.
Rogan cups my cheeks, holds my face, and I caress his muscular shoulders.
We kiss and we kiss and we kiss, until—
He breaks away, gasps in a breath. “My God, you’re beautiful.” His green eyes glow as he looks at me, and I see such passion, such devotion, in his stare.
No one has ever looked at me this way.
And no one ever will again.
I understand now. I understand what he means when he says we are mates, that there was never any choice.
“If only we could stay here,” I say softly. “Stay here and not be drawn into the middle of some ridiculous war between our people.”
“We can’t,” he says. “But for now, we can at least pretend.”
His lips come back down on mine, and I open for his kiss, even more intense than the last one.
In a flash, we’re naked, lying on the grass, and Rogan’s face is between my legs as he sucks at me as if it’s his last supper. I grab his head and grind into him, and before I know it, I’m releasing in a frenzy of pure pleasure.
“I will demolish you, princess,” Rogan says after kissing my thigh. “I will make you see that you’re mine. Feel that you’re mine. Understand in your heart and soul that you’re mine.”