I stalk toward the mass of fur and teeth that is Rogan and the vampire, gripping my pistol.If I can get a good shot, I can take out the vamp without harming Rogan.
I take aim—
You will not, Hannah.
My father’s voice.
I look around.He’s not here.
You will not harm your own kind. Not for him.
Not forhim?He’s my mate.He’s the man I love.He’s everything.My father is the one who led me to him!
“I only do what I must,” I say under my breath.“I amyourdaughter, after all.”
I take aim once more.
55
Ishoot.
Though my bullet doesn’t harm the vamp—it ricochets off his armor as I knew it would—it does startle him enough so that Rogan is able to clamp his wolf jaw around his neck.
I wait…
I wait to hear the snap of the vampire’s neck…
But it doesn’t come.Rogan has more self-control than I ever gave him credit for.Rather than snapping the other’s neck in two, he simply holds steady, keeping the vamp immobile, his teeth scraping against his flesh.
I stuff the gun back in my waistband and take the chance to steal the vamp’s knife.It’s longer and more lethal than Dominic’s.
Nice.
“Rogan!”I yell.
He’s still, his teeth ever ready to plunge into the vampire’s neck.
“He didn’t hurt me, Rogan.Let him go.”
Only a growl from Rogan.
He didn’t hurt me because Rogan jumped between us.
Would he have harmed me?Hell, yeah.He was chiding me, threatening to take my royal blood.
To him, I’m a traitor.
But I’m still my father’s daughter, and my father…
Was he actually speaking to me?Telling me not to shoot this vampire?Or was it simply my imagination?My own blood telling me not to destroy my own kind?
I’ll never know.
“Please, Rogan…” I say.
Rogan finally loosens his jaw, takes his weight off the injured vamp.
“Go,” I tell the vamp.