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 itnotmatter?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?”
“Halfvampire,” 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.”