Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
It was all too much.
Elijah.
Margaret.
Echo marched across the luxurious bedroom to the large window that looked out toward the river. Her birth mother was on the other side of it. She had no idea her life was about to change. Once again.
What if she hates me on sight?
Echo squeezed her eyes closed, feeling tears burn behind her lids.
Tears were so unlike her, and yet she’d cried more in the last few days …
It was because of him.
And as if she’d conjured him, the door clicked open behind her. His scent hit her, as well as the whisper of his feelings.
Concern. Determination.
Tenderness.
Emotion stung her nose, but Echo didn’t turn to him.
When his heat hit her and he pressed his strong, hard chest against her back, sliding his arms around her waist to rest his chin against her temple … she didn’t shrug Elijah off. But it took everything within her not to melt into his embrace.
“You barely ate anything,” he murmured quietly.
Echo didn’t respond. She wasn’t sure she could.
“I sense how nervous you are. How sad. How afraid.” His lips brushed her temple as his voice grew gruff with feeling. “I wish I could take all of it away. I hate that you feel so alone when I’m standing right here.”
“It’s just the mating, Elijah,” she replied tonelessly. “If you took a minute to really consider me … you’d recognize this—me—is not what you want.”
His body tensed and she felt a swell of his anger push against her senses. “How very fucking patronizing of you, love.”
“Elijah—”
“I have lived on this planet as long as you. I might not have been raised by a psycho, but I’ve met my fair share of dark beings across my travels. I’m not some naive human. And I’m not perfect.” He sighed heavily. “I’ve used people. I … I started the band with another bloke. Mac was talented, but he had a drug problem, so I cut him off just before the band got signed. We left him behind. He’s an addict living in social housing, probably cursing the day I was born. And why shouldn’t he? I left Mac behind for my own ambitions, not wanting to get dragged down by his problems. Not very honorable.”
She heard the pain in his voice. His guilt.
See?
Good.
“Don’t you understand? I’m like your friend. I will only drag you down. You should cut me loose.”
Instead, his grip tightened, and his lips brushed her ear. “You are not a monster.”
She sucked in a breath. How did he …
“You are not just a vampire. You are a woman. My woman. I think I claimed you from the moment we locked eyes in that bar. And I think you claimed me right back.”
“It’s just physical—”
“No, it’s bloody not,” he growled, making her shiver with want and emotions too deep to ponder. “You are strong and the fiercest family Odette could ask for. You found out the man you thought of as a father betrayed you, was a real monster, and you did not make excuses for him. Despite his power, despite the very real danger to your life, despite the love you once held for him, you defied him to save your sister. And you could have walked away after that. Taken Odette and fled. But you’re still here … fighting to protect the world from him. You can lie and say it’s just for Odette, and to pay your debt to me … but I know the truth. You’re here because you don’t want anyone else to suffer at William’s hands. The way you’ve suffered.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks and this time, Echo didn’t bother to stop them.
“I am in awe of you. I want you. Not because of some fucking mating bond the fates devised … but because I’ve never met a woman like you. You make me want to be a better man.”
Shocked, Echo turned in his arms.
Elijah stared down at her, eyes gold with emotion and sincerity. “I can’t make you stop seeing yourself as a monster, and it scares the hell out of me. Because I’m afraid of what you’ll do for this redemption you think you must seek. And I’m afraid that meeting your mother could go badly … and that it’ll take you away from me. I’m terrified … because I know no matter what I say, it is up to you to realize that you’re not a monster. That you are a good woman who bad things happened to.”
“I believed him.” She voiced the pain buried deep inside her. “I believed in his righteousness and was complicit in his evil because of it.”
Elijah cupped her face tenderly, his thumbs swiping at her free-falling tears. “It is only human to love our parents. And he was a father to you for a long time, Echo. It takes courage beyond imagination to walk away from a bond like that. My brave, brave love. I wish …” He rested his forehead against hers. “I wish you could see you the way I see you. I wish … I wish that bastard hadn’t made you afraid to believe in people again.”