Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 72056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Only darkness exists for me now. Darkness… Darkness and the growl that makes the earth beneath me vibrate.
In my mind’s eye I see the end. The beginning and the end. I see my childhood—the good parts of my childhood.
My father—before I knew who he really was—taking me to the movies when Larissa was just a baby. Taking me to the old-fashioned drugstore counter for a root beer float.
The bad parts? They’re not gone. I remember them. I remember his emotional abuse, his nasty comments, his torment. But none of that matters anymore. Only the good things…
The good things… The good things flow through my mind, capture me, take me away, making the bad things meaningless.
I’m drifting now. Still the ground rumbles beneath me, and in some other lifetime, I hear the sounds of battle.
When I open my eyes, I’m above it all. Demons, red eyed and ferocious, battling my wolf.
I want to reach out.
But my body lies limp, the arrow still burning through me.
Until—
I plummet back into my body and suck in a breath. Pain lances through me.
Rogan, his eyes still feral, has yanked the arrow from my breast.
Have the demons gone? I want to ask, but I can’t seem to get my vocal cords in my mouth to work in synchrony.
“Princess.” Rogan’s voice. His not quite human voice. “Stay still. I’m going to stop the bleeding.”
I try to will my lips to move, but still they don’t.
Pressure on my chest. It’s Rogan. Using what’s left of my tattered clothes to try to stop the bleeding.
“Damn it, princess,” he growls. “You will not die on me.”
Can’t die. Don’t want to leave Rogan.
Don’t want to leave…
When I lose consciousness, I welcome the respite.
PRINCESS… Princess…
Rogan’s kisses. Harsh against my body. Harsh and sizzling and powerful. Yes… More… Can’t get enough…
My eyes pop open. No one’s kissing me.
No one is even… Where am I?
I try to sit up—
“Ouch!”
That was a mistake.
“Easy, princess.”
Rogan. Rogan is here.
“Where am I?” To my surprise, the words actually make it out of my mouth.
“No one will find us here,” he says.
“But…where are we?”
I’m in a bed. A pretty comfortable bed. But we’re not back at the casino. This isn’t my suite and it isn’t Rogan’s penthouse.
“I’ve had a security breach,” he says. “We can’t go back to the London.”
I nod. At least I think I do. I’m not quite sure I have full control over my body yet.
“What happened to me?”
“Don’t you remember? You got shot by an arrow while we were fighting the demons.”
Yes. The pain. The burning and scorching sensations. And then… Seeing myself. Seeing Rogan as a wolf, fighting off how many demons?
“How?” I ask.
“I’m not sure myself, princess. It seems when I’m with you, I have abilities I never knew I had.”
“What do you mean?”
“I seem to be able to protect you. I’m one man. One wolf. I shouldn’t have been able to fend off all those demons. But after you got shot…”
“What?”
“Something changed. Again. Like when we were escaping your stepfather the first time. I just knew. I knew you had to be protected at all costs.”
“Because I’m your mate?”
He rubs at his sweaty forehead, his hair sticking to his face. “That’s part of it. That’s the part I understand. But I’m not the first wolf to have a fated mate. I’ve never heard of another being able to do what I’ve done.”
Right. Moving through planes, if that’s indeed what happened.
“How did we get here?”
“I wish I could tell you. I stopped the bleeding and then I brought you back here.”
“You mean you don’t remember?”
“Oh, I remember every second of it. But if I had to do it again? I’m not sure I could.”
Too much. It’s all too much to think about. My eyes flutter closed again.
“That’s it, princess. Rest. You need your strength for what lies ahead.”
27
I’m running…
Not running away from something but running toward something. A voice. A plea. Obstacles seem to pop up in front of me at every step. First a tree and then a small cabin. Another tree.
Still I run.
Hannah!
My sister’s voice. Larissa.
“I’m coming, Larissa! I’m coming!”
Fear pricks up my spine, as if the pine needles I’m jumping over are attacking me, trying to slow me down. I nearly trip over a giant root in my path, but I catch myself and land on my left foot and continue to run, my breath catching.
Larissa.
Richard said he would harm Larissa.
No! No, no, no!
I SHUDDER.
Princess.
Then my eyes shoot open.
Rogan sits next to me, his hand on my shoulder. His touch soothes me. Still, my heart pounds like a bass drum.
“Rogan,” I say. “Richard, my stepfather. The demon king. He’s going to try to harm my sister.”
“He would do that? Do that to your mother?”
“He won’t kill her. He won’t kill me either. But he’s going to do something to her. Perhaps not hurt her physically, but he’s going to—”