Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 65167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
My child. Must think of my child.
My child will not be the son of a killer.
My child will be the son of an alpha lycan and a vampire princess.
I turn my back on Richard and meet Rogan’s gaze. “Take me out of here. Please.”
He touches my cheek, and the tenderness in his caress nearly melts me. So much of me feels so much of him. How can it all be a lie?
“Princess,” he says, “I would if I could.”
I jerk away from him, and his hand falls back to his side.
“I told you,” he continues, “that I know very little about the ether. And I sure as hell don’t know how to get out of here.”
I rub my hands over my forehead. Outside the walls, the demons are laughing, howling, making noises I have no description for.
“A portal,” I say, remembering. “There’s a portal in your bedroom closet. At the penthouse.”
“Princess—”
“It’s got to be here somewhere, Rogan. We just have to find it.”
25
Victor
Hannah grabs my hand.
How do I tell her there’s no portal? That I don’t know what she’s talking about?
I must do something—must get Hannah and my child out of this place before she does what the demons want her to do and kills her stepfather.
She won’t be able to live with herself.
She thinks she will, but she won’t.
I need to get her to safety, and then I must return to the war—which is where this asshole demon king should be as well.
No wonder the demons want to mutiny.
I have more power in wolf form, so—
I open my mouth, let out a human howl as my jaw snaps.
I’m used to the change, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an agonizing process.
I clutch my chest as searing pain courses through my body. My bones crack and shift beneath my skin and contort into different shapes. My fingers shorten while my nails sharpen into claws. My jaw extends, and my teeth become razor sharp. My muscles morph from human to canine.
Inside me, my internal organs shift, stretching while at the same time shortening. My heartbeat quickens, accelerating to an inhuman rhythm. My lungs expand, yearning for the taste of the night air. My gut twists and churns, becoming carnivore instead of omnivore.
Then the nose.
The worst and most painful part. Always. No matter how many times I shift.
My human nose twists and elongates as the bones shifts beneath the skin. Everything inside me stretches, tugs, and then…
The wolf’s senses are on high alert.
He hears everything. The slightest whisper.
And here, in the demon king’s lair, he hears the demons who are near. Their plot.
He growls at his mate, and she wraps her arms around him, climbing onto his back.
Mate. Must protect mate. Must protect child.
The wolf lunges, but not at the demon king.
He lunges away from him, away from this place, away from—
And it works.
It’s the meadow. Green and grassy and airy. The ether. But not the ether where a war is going on. This is the ether that belongs only to the wolf and his mate.
The wolf shifts, snapping back to human form more quickly than usual.
The pain. The torture. The snapping and cracking.
I breathe, bear the pain with strength and conviction.
I must protect my mate. My mate who’s carrying my child.
Hannah cups my cheek, wipes sweat from my forehead. “Rogan?”
“I’m okay. I just…” My breath comes in rapid puffs. Changing so quickly is hard on me. Hard on both my bodies.
But then I gaze at her, my blood still dripping from her lips, her dark eyes staring into mine.
“Victor—”
“Don’t talk.” I grip her shoulders, bring my nose close to her mouth, inhale.
I still have my canine sense of smell after such a quick change, and her scent…
God, her scent…
It’s warmth and comfort and sex and rawness.
It’s human.
It’s vampire.
It’s everything. Everything to me.
“Fuck, princess. Do you have any idea what you do to me?”
Our mouths are now only inches apart, and while I long to kiss her, I don’t want this moment between us to end.
I close my eyes, inhale again. The wildness of her. Of my blood in her. Of my child in her.
“Mate,” I growl. “You’re my mate, princess.”
She pushes me away. “Stop it. Just stop it.”
“I won’t stop. You’re mine, princess. And that little prince you’re carrying? He’s mine too. My child. And you’re my mate.”
“Rogan, listen to me. None of it is true. Not a word of it. My father. He—”
“Enough!” I roar.
I grab her and crush our mouths together.
26
Rogan’s kiss is feral and powerful, and I succumb to it, but just as quickly—
He rips his mouth from mine.
His green irises swirl, just as they do before the change.
But he doesn’t change, and the anger flows from him. It’s thick in the air, almost visible in its intensity.
“You drank from another wolf,” he grits out.
I swallow down my fear. I’m not afraid of Rogan, though he’s truly menacing in this moment.