“Are you okay?”

  The voice isn’t Rogan’s. It’s not even human. It’s a growl, but somehow I understand the words.

  I open my eyes, again squinting against the sun.

  Rogan stands over me—in all his gray and silvery magnificence, those greenish gold eyes searing into me.

  Did he just use words? Or did I understand the growl?

  “What… What happened?” I ask, my voice a hoarse whisper.

  Rogan doesn’t reply. He walks away from me, and I close my eyes against the brightness once more. My heart is hammering, and my stomach is finally settling down. My thoughts are still jumbled.

  My stepfather? The demon king?

  In a way, this new fact makes the most sense of any of this mess. I always knew the jerk was evil. I just didn’t know how evil.

  “Rogan,” I eke out.

  No response.

  “Rogan! Help me. He said he’d … My sister… I can’t…”

  Again, no response.

  “Rogan. Please.”

  I force myself to sit up. Where is my purse? My phone? I pat myself down and find my phone in my back pocket. My purse strapped around my body.

  Larissa. I’ve got to call Larissa.

  Except my fingers aren’t working. Am I dreaming? I have a recurring dream where I can’t find the contacts on my phone. Can’t call 911.

  The phone drops from my hand and lands in the grass with a dull thud.

  I rub my forehead. Come on, Hannah. Don’t wimp out. You can do this.

  I inhale⁠—

  My phone appears in front of me…in Victor Rogan’s strong hand.

  Strong human hand.

  I look up and meet his gaze as I take my phone from him. A spark shoots through me as our hands brush.

  Make that a big spark.

  “Princess,” he says, his voice a husky rasp.

  “R-Rogan.”

  “Are you all right?”

  “I think… Durgs… I mean drugs… How did he… I mean… What did he…”

  Words jumble in my head like a cloud made of floating black letters. I can pick out words but I can’t seem to string them together. Will I ever be able to utter a coherent sentence again?

  “Easy.” Rogan moves behind me and massages my shoulders.

  Is this Victor Rogan? Taking care of me? Being…nice?

  “Feels good,” I murmur.

  “This is my fault,” he says. “I shouldn’t have left you alone.”

  “You left me in your penthouse,” I say. At least I try to say it. It comes out more like you lifted pin house.

  “I thought I knew everything about you, princess,” he says. “Turns out I was wrong.”

  “Wrong about what?” I say slowly. Slowly helps. The words sound intelligible.

  “The demon king. I’ve never seen him in person. Hardly anyone has. I had no idea. I know who he is, of course, but I didn’t know his connection to you.”

  “Neither did I.” Again slowly, with enunciation.

  The massaging stops abruptly. I open my mouth to ask him to continue, but⁠—

  He’s in front of me—naked and glorious…and his gorgeous eyes filled with rage.

  “Don’t lie to me, princess.”

  “I’m not. I swear I’m not.”

  “Your pupils are dilating. Did you forget I can tell when you’re lying?”

  My heart is still beating harder than normal, and this isn’t helping. “I’m not lying.”

  He gazes into my eyes. “Care to explain the dilation?”

  “I can’t.” Still slowly. I’m determined to make every word count. “Maybe whatever he drugged me with. I swear to God I didn’t know my stepfather was king of the demons.”

  He narrows his eyes, studies me closely.

  “Staring at me harder isn’t going to change anything. It’s not a fucking lie, Rogan.”

  Finally he pulls back and sits down across from me. My eyesight is returning to normal, and I don’t hate the sight of his naked body.

  I really don’t hate it.

  He stays silent for seconds that seem like hours, until⁠—

  “I believe you.”

  I keep my eyes from popping out of their sockets. “You do?”

  “Yes, Hannah, I do.”

  Hannah. He called me Hannah. And I still love the sound of my name from his full and kissable lips.

  “How did you find me?” I ask. Speaking comes much easier now.

  “I’ll always find you,” he says. “We’re bound together now. As mates.”

  Then he pulls me into his arms and kisses me hard.

  23

  My lips open of their own accord.

  He believes me. He believes me.

  This is huge.

  I still don’t know what his motive is, why he left me alone at his place, how he found me…but he believes me.

  And he called me Hannah.

  This isn’t love. Is it? Not that I’d know, anyway.

  But it’s something—this undeniable pull. Do I believe I’m his fated mate? Not really, but I can’t deny the chemistry between us.

  Or maybe it’s still the drugs King Richard dosed me with.

  Whatever it is, I’m not in any condition to deny him. Hell, I don’t want to deny him.

  I’m going to let him do whatever he wants right here in the grass. I have no clue where we are anyway.

  Doesn’t matter that he may be responsible for a couple vamp murders. Doesn’t matter that I’m bound to give the evidence, if I find it, to my father. Doesn’t matter that my stepfather, the demon king, has ordered me to fabricate said evidence.

  In this moment, I’m Rogan’s and he’s mine.

  And it’s good. It’s really good.

  He slides me into a supine position and hovers above me, our mouths fused. In a flash, he rolls to his side, bringing me with him.

  I’m aware of his nakedness. I’m aware of his hardness.

  I’m aware of him—all of him—and I’m unaware of anything else.

  Our lips slide together, our tongues tangle and clash like two swords, and his cock—his hard cock—pushes against my mound.

  Clothes. I’m still wearing clothes, which kind of sucks.

  I push him away, breaking our hard kiss.

  “Clothes,” I say, panting. “Too many clothes, Rogan.”

  “I can take care of that, princess.”

  My clothes vanish in what seems like an instant. What actually happens is that Rogan strips me, his hands and arms moving like lightning. How he gets the skinny jeans off so deftly is beyond me. They’re like a second skin.

  But he does, and I’m nude, my nipples hard and my pussy wet.

  Ready. Ready for whatever he wants.

  Which better be what I want.

  He stares at me, though. He stares when I want his hands and lips on my body—my ready and willing body.

  “You’re fucking beautiful, princess.”

  I sigh softly.

  Good God! I just sighed like a schoolgirl in love. This is so not me. Hannah Bates doesn’t go all squishy when a guy says she’s beautiful. What the hell’s the matter with me?

  “Fuck me, Rogan,” I say. “Just fuck me.”

  His wolf eyes go rogue then. The starry-eyed guy who’s mesmerized by my looks is gone.

  He may have the form of a magnificent human, but it’s the wolf in him that glares at me now.

  I shudder at the hunger in his eyes, the hunger in his tongue trailing over his bottom lip.

  The hunger that’s so apparent in everything about him.

  “I’ll fuck you, princess. I’ll fuck you into next week.”

  He grabs me, pulls me to him, and lifts me, setting me down onto his hard cock.

  He tunnels through me as if he’s made of fire. I’m wet and ready, but it’s still a burn. A good burn. An amazing burn.

  So much for foreplay.

  But I don’t care. I’m complete in a way I never imagined. Mere minutes ago, I wasn’t sure I’d make it out of the demon’s lair alive.

  Now? I want to live. I want to fuck. I want to be one with Rogan for as long as possible.

  This, like everything else, will eventually end when I find what I’m looking for, but in this moment, I want to breathe in everything about Victor Rogan.

  Everything about the man I⁠—

  “Ah!” The orgasm sneaks up on me quickly, and I quiver as he shoves his cock into me again, again, again…

  Surely his arms will give out.

  Surely he can’t hold me like this much longer.

  But he thrusts. He thrusts and he thrusts and he thrusts as I climax around his cock, squeeze him, milk him.

  “I could fuck you forever,” he rasps out. “Come again for me, princess. Come again.”

  I hurtle into another orgasm before the first one has faded. Every cell in my body jumps, catapults, and I arch my back, my long hair tickling the crack of my ass.

  “Come again,” he roars.

  With each command, I glide into another climax.

  Another, another, another.

  My body is used and sated. Tired and still slightly drugged.

  No way will I⁠—

  “One more, princess. Now!”

  I grit my teeth, grab the back of Rogan’s neck as one more climax twists through me, squeezing every part of me, taking me on the flight of a lifetime.

  I slump against him, our chests rubbing together with perspiration and his hair abrading my hard nipples. My quivering pussy finally slows as I pant against Rogan’s neck.

  “My God,” I say.

  “You’re so fucking hot.” Rogan buries his nose in my hair and inhales. “So fucking hot and so fucking mine.”

  “Mine,” I echo against him.

  “We’re going to figure this out, princess,” he says. “What this is between us.”

  “You said I was your mate,” comes out of my mouth with no prompting.

  “You are. We have to figure out why.”

  “Right. Why.” My eyelids flutter closed.

  Multiple orgasms exhaust me.

  Multiple orgasms plus drugs and fear for my life.

  But I feel no fear now. In Rogan’s arms, I feel nothing but safe. Protected. Cherished.

  “Don’t fall asleep, princess,” Rogan says huskily. “We’re not even close to done.”

  24

  The command in his voice awakens my body once more. Multiple orgasms? Sure, I can pull out a few more.

  For Rogan, I have the libido of a seductress.

  Damn.

  I’m lying on the grass, not exactly sure how I got here, when Rogan crawls on top of me and scorches me with a kiss.

  I melt underneath him, my body seeming to become one with the earth. When my fangs snap downward, I push him away as I shriek from the sharp points stabbing the flesh of my gums.

  And I realize, for the first time, that I didn’t hunger for his blood during that primal fuck.

  Normally my gums itch and tingle as my fangs elongate, but this time? They snapped downward quickly and painfully.

  Something has fluctuated inside me—something feral.

  Rogan may shift into wolf form, but in this moment, I’m no less of an animal than he is. Something rumbles deep in my chest, and⁠—

  In a flash I’m on top of him, my fangs buried in the soft flesh of his neck.

  His blood trickles onto my tongue—the dark and delicious elixir I now crave more than anything—and down my throat, nourishing me, strengthening me.

  Intoxicating me.

  But in a totally good way. With Rogan’s blood, the last bit of the drugs Richard gave me float out of my system as the wolf blood cultivates something new and powerful within me.

  I suck at his neck, taking more of his potent ambrosia.

  And I swear I’m shifting into something. Something more.

  My body doesn’t change, of course. Not physically—at least not in a way that can be visually detected.

  But I do change. I’m stronger now.

  Stronger and—dare I think it?—invincible.

  Somehow Rogan and I made it through the demon’s lair without harm. I thought it was all him, but perhaps it was me as well.

  Perhaps his blood is more than sustenance.

  Perhaps it’s actually⁠—

  “Enough!” Rogan roars, dislodging me from his carotid.

  I bare my fangs at him, knowing they’re dripping with his blood, and growl.

  His eyes heat, and he returns my growl.

  He grabs my hips and sets me down on his hard cock.

  I ride him, then. I ride him hard, ride him fast. I’m full of strength, of power, of fucking brawn and force. I fuck him and fuck him and fuck him—his blood flowing through me—and I jump into another climax.

  Another. Another. Another.

  “Do it, princess,” he growls. “Keep fucking me. Keep coming.”

  His commanding tone is more a groan than words, but I hear him, feel him, as if he’s inside me, making demands that I’m powerless to disobey.

  Only I feel anything but powerless.

  Indeed, I’m powerful.

  Which means…

  Which means I want to obey him. I want to fuck him. I want to be one with him. I want, need, crave his blood.

  And together…

  Together we’re a force to be reckoned with.

  Kaleidoscopic colors burst in front of my mind’s eye as I explode into another unending orgasm.

  I arch my back, moaning his name.

  And I hear mine, in his husky voice, as if it’s part of the breeze blowing over us.

  Hannah. Hannah. Hannah.

  We implode together—as one—and when we’re nothing but one quivering mass still joined, I fall against him, lick the tiny rivers of blood from the open wound on his neck.

  “Hannah,” he groans.

  “Victor,” I reply, also a groan.

  “What the hell is happening?”

  I don’t answer him. I can’t. But I’ve changed this time. Not morphed, like he does, but something inside me has shifted.

  And I can never go back.

  We lie there for… I don’t know how long. I still have no idea where we are, how we even got here.

  And in this clandestine moment, I don’t even care.

  We’re veiled, somehow. Veiled from my father, the vampire king. From my stepfather, the demon king.

  From everyone and anyone who seeks to harm us.

  But—

  I sit up, Rogan’s cock still inside me.

  He opens his eyes.

  “Where are we, Rogan?”

  “I’m not exactly sure,” he says.

  “You brought us here,” I tell him. “You must know.”

  “I don’t. It may be the ether—a place that occupies the same space as our world but on a different dimensional plane. But I don’t know. It’s a legend, but I never believed it.”

  “But how…?”

  His green eyes shine with the brilliance of a thousand emeralds. “I wish I could tell you, princess, but the truth is…I don’t have a fucking clue.”

  I rise, then, and look around. This place is green. So green, and no buildings are in sight.

  A chill skitters along my back. An icy chill, as if shards of glass are spiking into my flesh.

  It’s not my father. It’s not my stepfather.

  But it’s something, and it’s not good. So much for being veiled.

  I turn to Rogan.

  “We need to get out of here. Now.”

  25

  Images begin to appear, as if a hologram is emerging right before our eyes.

  The ground is no longer grassy and green but dark and muddy. The blue sky above us is now black and cloudy, with bolts of lightning shooting through it.

  And we’re no longer alone.

  A crack of thunder crashes through the air. Is it raining? No, not yet.

  I gasp as a flaming arrow whizzes by my cheek, missing me by only an inch.

  A growl rumbles from Rogan’s chest. “The demons. They’re back.”

  “How? We haven’t moved.”

  We’re both naked, though my clothes—or what’s left of them—are still on the ground a couple feet away. Rogan has no clothes. He lost them when he shifted, so now what?

  Will he change again? Take us through whatever kind of gelatin thing we passed through to get us out of here?

  “Rogan, do something!”

  “I don’t know what to do, princess. I don’t know what happened.”

  Another flaming arrow whizzes by us, this one almost hitting Rogan in the shoulder.

  “They’re hiding somewhere.” I cast my gaze around, over both shoulders. Even with my vamp vision, I see no demons.

  But those arrows are coming from somewhere.

  I sensed something. I knew this was happening. I knew we had to get out of here. But what the hell exactly did I perceive?

  “Rogan,” I say, “what if we were here the whole time?”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  A flaming arrow lands in front of us, burning out as its point enters the soft ground.

  “Honestly?” I glance around rapidly. “I have no idea. But we seemed to float through something after you changed. When we were leaving the demon throne.”

  “I was just running like hell.”

  “You didn’t notice?”

  “Sure, I noticed we eventually ended up here. But I was running like hell with you hanging onto me. All I could think about was getting you to safety.”

  I widen my eyes. “That’s it. You did this. Or we did it together.”

  “Princess, I still don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, and though there’s a lull in the arrows at the moment, we need to be moving instead of talking.”

  He’s right, of course. I grab his hand and run away from the arrows.

  “Can you change? Can you change like you did before and get us out of here?”

  “I can’t. I don’t have the strength.”

  “What do you mean? How can you not have the strength?”

  “You took a lot of my blood, princess. It’s going to be a few hours before I can change.”

  My breath is coming in rapid puffs as we continue to run. “Shit. Really?”

  “Yeah, really.”

  “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have⁠—”

 

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