“Stop.”I touch his firm lips with my fingers.“Just stop.I was gone for a while, Rogan.And you’ve only just now come for me.What does that tell you?”
“It tells me you’re mine, Hannah.Mine, and you always will be.No matter where you try to run, I will find you.I will always find you.We’re mates.Fated mates.I know it doesn’t make sense to you, but?—”
“That’s just it.Don’t you see?It doesn’t make sense.None of this.Fated mates are all but unheard of for wolves these days, butyoufind one?And one that’s not your kind?”
“It can happen.”
“Can it?Can it really?”
I don’t know how to explain it without showing him the records from my father, so that’s what I’ll do.
“You need to come with me.”
“Where?”
“To my place.I need to show?—”
“Absolutely not,” he says.“We’re going back.My people need me.They need their alpha, and they need their queen.”
His choice of words isn’t lost on me.“Your people don’t have a queen, Rogan.”
“Enough talking!”He grabs my arm.“We’re going back, and we’re going back now.”
“How?”
“Like this,” he roars, and then his body shimmers, his clothes shredding as he shifts into wolf form.Bones snap, muscles tear, and I’m damned glad the door is closed now.
I don’t know what else to do.
I grab hold of him, hoping like hell my ability to control minds is strong enough to cloud the vision of an entire building, when?—
He jumps into?—
I don’t know what.I know only that we’re cruising through the jelly-like haze I remember from when he rescued me from the demons the first time.
The haze.The plane.
The ether.
Where battle rages.
Where my father is.
My father—the only one who can answer my questions.
And hewillanswer my questions.He will answerevery single one.
We land in the midst of flaming arrows whooshing through the smoky air.I let go of Rogan’s animal pelt and stand straight?—
Just as a demon’s arrow shoots straight at my heart.
7
I’ve been shotby an arrow like this before, and I know what to expect.I have no desire to relive the experience, but before I can duck out of the way, Rogan jumps in front of me, shielding me.
Then he crumples to the ground as the arrow pierces him.
“No!”I kneel, pull out the arrow, and rise.“Who dares to try to kill a vampire princess, stepdaughter to the demon king?Who dares to attack this alpha wolf?Who?Show yourself!”