Ashes of Midnight

If you were mine,” he murmured low under his breath, “I would walk through the fires of hell itself to keep you away from a man like me.

Goddamn you. How can you still make me feel this way after all these years? Damn you for leaving me! And damn you for coming back like this, just when I thought you were gone forever and I might finally be able to forget you.

Leaving you was the last thing I ever wanted to do.” He scowled, his grip holding her tighter, moving her farther into the heated wall of his body. “It was the hardest goddamn thing I’ve ever done. Ever, Claire.

You’ve had our back more than once. We’ve got yours now.

You were the only one, Andre. It’s always been you.

he settled back on the bed with her and wrapped her in his protective embrace, giving her a hundred solemn promises that he was very eager to keep, and loving her with all the reverence and worship of a blood-bonded male who had stared hell in the face and now understood that he was holding heaven in his arms.

Fuck you very much, if you think we’re gonna let you do this on your own, Reichen.

I’m bonded to her, Lucan. I love her. If you want to keep me out of this, you’re going to have to kill me right here and now.

He didn’t care that his voice and hands shook as he brought her closer. He was thoroughly unashamed of the depth of his feeling for this woman.