"More than I wanted to. That wolf blood gave you strength I've never seen."

  Wolf blood. Rogan. "Is he all right? Rogan?"

  My father scoffs. "He's fine. He shifted back when he lost consciousness. Last I saw, he was lying naked behind his resort."

  "Great. Just great."

  "He'll be taken care of. He has people, as you know. My concern is you."

  "Since when—" A fit of coughing overtakes me.

  "Easy. Breathe."

  I can't breathe when I'm about to upchuck my lungs.

  A few seconds later, I get hold of the coughing. I clear my throat. "What the hell did you give me?"

  "Nothing that will do any lasting harm, Hannah. You're my daughter."

  Right. Whatever. I clear my throat again. "What's going on?"

  "Tell me what you've found," he says.

  Damn it all. I can't lie to him. "Rogan," I say. "Rogan killed the two vamps. But he⁠—"

  "As I suspected."

  "But he didn't cut out their hearts, Dad. He swears he didn't."

  "I see. And you believe him?"

  "I do."

  And only now do I realize the truth of my words. The evidence may seem to incriminate him, but I believe him. I believe him because...

  I believe him because he told me so. I believe him because he said he killed them to protect me, because they were aligned with demons.

  I believe him because...I love him.

  Oh. My. God. I love Victor Rogan. I fucking love him.

  "I see."

  A needle... My father's face goes blurry again. Then⁠—

  "No!" he roars. "Don't give her any more!"

  Jelly brain again. My father's voice is not quite his own.

  "Get out of here, the fucking lot of you!" Then, "Easy, Hannah. Easy. Stay with me."

  "I'm with you..."

  Except I'm not. Not really. I'm somewhere in ether space, running toward Rogan. Except I can't find him.

  Where are you, Rogan? Victor? Where are you?

  Then a sharp poke in my neck, and my mind slowly clears.

  "I had to give you something to counteract the drug," Dad says.

  "What the hell are you dosing me with? Stop it! Stop it right fucking now!"

  "It's done. The others are gone."

  "The others? The others who thought it was just fine to give me more drugs?"

  "They'll be dealt with."

  Dealt with. For God's sake...

  "What's going on? What happened to Rogan?"

  "I don't know. I don't know who shot him⁠—"

  "He was shot?" My heart races. No. Please. Not Rogan. Not the man I love.

  "He was. Didn't you hear the shot?"

  "No, I⁠—"

  I was running. Adrenaline—and wolf blood—was surging through my veins. I was running from him. Running from my love, when he needed me. But I turned, I was going to go back...

  "They probably used a silencer," Dad says. “Still, you should have been able to hear it. Is he okay?”

  "I haven't heard."

  I sit up, and my head goes into jelly again. "I have to go to him. He needs me."

  "You're not in any condition to leave here."

  "Where are we?"

  "At The Wolfe Premiere. I booked a suite."

  "So we're still in Vegas."

  "Yes. I had no choice but to come.” His brow is furrowed. “Things have gotten worse. The lycans have..."

  "Have what? The lycans have what?"

  "They've allied with the demon empire, Hannah. With Richard."

  I shake my head. No. Just no. Rogan would never do that. Rogan would⁠—

  "It's time to choose a side, Hannah," my father says, his dark brown eyes staring into mine.

  "A side?" I swallow the lump in my throat.

  How can I choose a side? I'm bound by blood to obey the vampire king.

  Or am I?

  If I'm truly Rogan's mate, has my allegiance changed? Maybe I didn't have to tell my father about Rogan killing the vamps. Maybe I did it out of habit.

  I don't voice these questions, though. I simply wait for my father to reply.

  And when he does, my jaw drops.

  40

  We're going to war.

  It's time to choose a side, Hannah.

  A side?

  My jaw. Dropped.

  Did I just hear my father right?

  "Say it again," I prompt. "I won't believe it until you say it again."

  "We're going to war."

  Jelly brain. Curse this damned jelly brain!

  War? How exactly do we go to war? We live among humans, follow their laws...

  Mom? Larissa? How does this affect them?

  "Hannah, are you listening to me?"

  "Yes, Dad, yes. I just don't understand..."

  "Not war in the traditional sense. It will be fought underground."

  "Underground?"

  "Not literally. We have spaces within spaces. In the supernatural realm."

  God, just kill me now. A soft and subtle death. Easy and painless. Please.

  But my jaw drops again...and I remember. I remember escaping the demons with Rogan, how we were suddenly somewhere else. He called it a different plane. The ether. Or did I call it that? Doesn't matter. We escaped into a different place altogether. Is this what my father's talking about?

  It was a peaceful place. A beautiful place... But the demons eventually found us there. Or we were transferred to a different place.

  "What is your choice, Hannah?"

  Choice. That word again. "Do I truly have a choice?"

  "Your blood binds you to me. To your king. But you've reached the age of consent in the vampire world."

  "Wait. There's an age of consent?"

  "Yes. Twenty-five years."

  "So...you're telling me that for the last couple years I could have told you to fuck off?"

  "Not exactly."

  "What the hell do you mean then?" Damn. If only my head would stop throbbing. If only my brain would compute...

  "You're still bound by blood. But if you choose to renounce your blood, you can do so. There is a way."

  "You mean I can fight for the lycans?"

  "If you so choose." His voice is low, solemn. And kind of—dare I think it?—sad.

  He wants me to choose him. He wants me to choose my blood over my mate—except not my mate. Vamps don't have fated mates. Neither do humans, and I'm half human.

  Blood... It all comes down to blood. But Rogan—mate or not—is also part of my blood. I thirst for his blood, draw strength from it. His blood nourishes me in a way my own doesn't, in a way my own could never. In a way no other blood could.

  My father wants me to choose my blood over the man I love—the man I love whose fate I don't even know. Rogan was shot. He could be dead. But what is "my blood?" Is it my own? My father's? Or is it Rogan's, which satiates me more than anything ever has?

  Rogan. He's not dead. I'd feel it if he were. I have no idea how I know, but I know it. Rogan is not dead...and he needs me. I'm in no condition to go to him, but I must. I must find a way.

  I must fight the drugs in my system and go to him.

  And so my choice has been made. It was never a choice to begin with. I've never purported to have any semblance of loyalty to my vampire lineage. For the first eighteen years of my life, I didn't even know vamps existed. And my human side? I love my mother and my sister, but Rogan is my future.

  "Hannah?"

  I meet my father's gaze. "I've chosen."

  He clears his throat. "Rogan."

  "I have to, Dad. I have to go to him. It was never a choice."

  He's silent for a moment. Then⁠—

  "You've ultimately chosen Richard over me then, Hannah. And may whatever God there is have mercy on your soul."

  41

  “You’re wrong,” I tell my father. “I have not chosen Richard. I’ve chosen Rogan. I’ve chosen my⁠—”

  My mate.

  I don’t say the words. Will my father even understand what I mean? He drinks the blood of young vampire studs, of unsuspecting humans, and then uses mind control so they don’t remember.

  My father has never tasted the blood of an alpha wolf…

  “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life,” my father says. “A lot. Your mother, though it led to you and your sisters. But I hurt her deeply, and I have regrets. What I did to her drove her to Richard.”

  I widen my eyes. Is my father truly taking responsibility for his past actions? I never thought I’d see the day.

  “I can’t help who I am, Hannah. I’m a vampire. I’m a vampire who is attracted solely to men. I tried to rebel against both my heritage and my sexual orientation, and I did so with your mother. She was so beautiful—she still is—and so intelligent. Tall and graceful and full of vigor.”

  Vigor? Not a word I’ve ever used to describe my mother.

  “But I broke her,” he continues. “Me. My selfishness and my greed. I broke the only woman who ever meant anything to me. Other than you and your sister, of course.”

  Of course. Did he add Larissa and me to that confession as an afterthought? Any other time, I’d be convinced he did, but now?

  The look on his face—his handsome and sculpted face—is sheer regret. Sheer dejection.

  I’ve seen the look before—in the mirror. My God, I look so much like this man, this vampire. Sometimes I’m not sure my human side exists anymore.

  “My mother was vigorous?” I ask.

  My mother has never seemed anything other than resigned to me. Resigned to her fate. Once Richard entered her life, she abandoned Larissa and me emotionally. She lit up when Richard gave her the attention my father never did, but she lost all feelings for her daughters.

  And later? She stopped lighting up for Richard.

  She just stopped lighting up.

  “She was a force to be reckoned with,” Dad says. “So wild and spirited. Her beauty wasn’t just on the outside. It shone through every part of her. She had a good heart, and she felt things. That’s what drew me to her more than her beauty and intelligence, even. She could feel, and we shared that in common.”

  Jaw. Drop.

  My father is describing a woman I don’t know. She was a good mother before Richard. She was emotionally available for Larissa and me—me especially, as Larissa was Dad’s favorite and he emotionally mistreated me.

  It took years for me to figure out why.

  He was projecting his own self-hatred onto me—the child who resembled him, and the child who ultimately inherited his vampire blood.

  But my mother…

  I don’t recognize the woman my father describes. The woman I know has little emotion, good or bad. The woman I know is…numb.

  “Richard was calculating,” Dad continues. “He knew who I was, and he knew I had broken your mother. So he went in for the kill just when she was on the rebound and ripe for the picking.”

  “You never marry the rebound guy,” I say, more to myself than to my father. Then, “What did he hope to gain? He claims he loves her.”

  “I believe he does in his way.” My father sighs. “It’s a common misconception that demons are incapable of love. Good, evil, love, hate… There are no absolutes in this world or any other, Hannah. As for what he hoped to gain?” He closes his eyes. “I believe he’s gaining it now.”

  “Gaining what now? You’re talking in riddles, Dad.”

  “I believe I’ve underestimated many people in my circle lately.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question.”

  “But it does. I made a choice—something I can’t share with you—that has led us here.”

  “The choice to marry Mom, you mean?”

  “No. You already know about that choice, and you know what it has cost your mother.”

  I nod, anger rising in me. “All this time… All this time, you knew who and what Richard was. Why didn’t you intervene, for God’s sake? You could have saved her! You could have saved us all!”

  “I set certain events in motion. That’s true. But I have no power to save anyone but myself, Hannah. Same as you.”

  I shake my head. “What the hell are you trying to tell me?”

  “I’m telling you that things aren’t always the way they seem. However, you’ve made your choice. If you’re certain, here is what you must do to renounce your blood ties to your king.”

  42

  “Wait,” I say.

  My father’s eyebrows rise, and a look of—is it hope?—crosses his face.

  “Good. You’ve changed your mind,” he says.

  Right. Not in this lifetime. But I have a question—an important one.

  “I will go to Rogan,” I say. “A choice no longer exists for me. But first, I need you to answer a question.”

  “I have no desire to answer a question from the enemy, even if the enemy is my daughter.”

  “You certainly don’t have to, but I’m asking. I’m asking not as your enemy but as your daughter. As the daughter who’s done your bidding these last years. Please.”

  His features soften when I use the word please. This may be the first time I’ve used it with my father.

  “All right,” he says. “What is your question?”

  “When you first sent me here, to Las Vegas, you said something about Rogan. You said, ‘he’ll jump through all kinds of hoops to get to you.’ What did you mean by that, Dad?”

  He doesn’t respond. In fact, he moves away from me.

  Yeah, I definitely made the right choice.

  But he’s not getting off that easily.

  “Answer me,” I command. “Tell me what that meant.”

  “Tell me why you’re asking,” he says.

  “That’s not part of our deal.”

  “There is no deal between us, Hannah.”

  “There is. You said you’d answer a question.”

  “I did. I did not specify which question I would answer.”

  “This is a simple question, Dad. I only want you to explain what you meant when you said those words.”

  He twists his lips, and just when I think he’s not going to respond⁠—

  “I know what alpha wolves like, Hannah. They like strong, independent, and intelligent women. They don’t want submissive women because they’re responsible to their pack. They need women who can take care of themselves, and though their instinct to protect their women is strong—and they’ll do so at the expense of their own lives if they must—they’re attracted to women who can protect themselves. Women who fill up a room with their presence. Women who don’t shrink from adversity.”

  “And that’s me, you think?”

  “Are you denying it?”

  “No.”

  My father knows who and what I am. He knows how much I hate being bound by my blood to come at his command. He knows I’m exactly the kind of woman he described.

  But his response is too easy.

  And I don’t buy it.

  It’s the only answer he’ll give me, though, so I don’t bother trying to debate the issue. I know only this—Rogan thinks I’m his mate. Knows I’m his mate.

  The first ever wolf to mate with a non-wolf.

  Do all wolves truly want strong women, as my father claims? I don’t know. I can ask Rogan...if I can find him.

  If he’s still alive...

  He’ll jump through all kinds of hoops to get to you.

  No. I don’t buy it. I don’t buy my father’s explanation at all.

  I’m far from the only strong and assertive woman in Las Vegas, yet Rogan was drawn to me. Only me.

  My father knows more than he’s saying, and now that I’ve chosen to renounce my vampire blood, I’ll get no more of an explanation from him. It’s a waste of time to try.

  “All right,” I say. “Tell me what I need to do to break the blood tie to you.”

  “You can’t do it here. We have to go to Chicago. To my office.”

  “For God’s sake. Are you kidding me?”

  “No, Hannah, I’m not kidding you. You’ll have to cut yourself with the sacred blade, and I didn’t bother bringing it with me here to Las Vegas.”

  “Can’t you...consecrate another blade or something?”

  He shakes his head. “You really know nothing of your vampire side, do you?”

  “I never wanted to. Knowing I had to be at your beck and call is enough.”

  “All vampires are at my beck and call, Hannah. Did you ever stop to think why I choose you for such important tasks?”

  “Yeah. To punish me. To drive me insane.”

  He shakes his head again. “I choose you because you’re the smartest person I know. You have the intelligence of your mother and you have my shrewdness and cunning. And Hannah, there’s something else you’re forgetting.”

  “I’m forgetting nothing, Dad. I want out.”

  “You’ve made that clear, and I won’t stop you. But you realize, then, that when I die, the council will take your sister as monarch to the Brotherhood.”

  A brick hits my gut, knocks the breath from me. “What?”

  “What did you think? That the vampire heir could leave to join the enemy and there would be no consequences?”

  Oh God Oh God Oh God.

  No. Just no.

  “Why? Why didn’t you make that clear when you said I could renounce my blood?”

  “It would have been made clear to you in Chicago, during the ritual.”

  He has me. He has me and he knows it.

  I won’t forsake my sister.

  But I won’t forsake Rogan either.

  Blood. Blood versus mate. Blood versus love. Sister versus mate. Sister versus lover.

  Where does my loyalty lie? I thought it lay with Rogan, but now...Larissa...

  A choice no longer exists for me.

  My father knew I still had a choice when I uttered those words only seconds ago.

  I close my eyes, try to clear my mind...

  And then I'm falling...

  Falling...

  Into nothingness.

  43

  Lover or sister?

  Sister or lover?

  Can I live with myself if I condemn my little sister to the vampire life? She doesn’t even carry the blood gene.

 

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