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that you weren’t harmed.” He swallowed hard. “It’s killing me that I can’t be around to protect you.”
    “You’ll soon have a wife to protect and look after. Don’t worry about me.”
    Aric dropped his head into his large hands. “Don’t.”
    My eyes burned. I bit my bottom lip to hold back my sorrow. “Don’t what? It’s the truth.”
    He angled his chin toward me. “Don’t remind me of what I have to do. If this goddamn war hadn’t broken out I never would have left you.” He paused as the first of my tears trickled down my cheeks. He never could stand to see me cry. I wiped my tears irritably with my hand. He reached for it and linked our fingers. We both stiffened as a surge of heat spread across my body.
    Instead of loosening his grasp, he squeezed my hand tighter. The haunting pain hardening his expression seeped into his hoarse tone. “I meant what I told you at Koda and Shayna’s wedding, sweetness. You’re the one I want to spend my life with.”
    My other hand covered the back of his. “Do you have any idea how much it hurts me to hear your words, knowing you’ll soon spend your life with another?” He wouldn’t answer. I slowly slipped away from him and moved closer to the fireplace, crossing my arms over my chest. His silence and the bitter aroma of his sadness made me think he easily sensed my pain. Still, I continued, releasing the dam on everything I’d wanted to tell him. “I get that a union of two purebloods guarantees a were child. I get that your kind has been decimated and needs to reproduce in order to stop the Tribe and any other superevil that threatens our world. I get all that, Aric—I do. But it doesn’t comfort me when I’m alone at night without you.” I turned to him then. “Nor will it comfort me the remainder of my days. You shouldn’t be here, wolf.”
    Aric rose from the couch, his jaw clenched. “I’m forced into a corner, Celia. My animal instincts roar to me to come out fighting, but my commitment to my pack keeps me in place.” He lowered his head. “I don’t sleep anymore. And I haven’t known happiness since the day I left your arms. I don’t expect your forgiveness nor do I deserve it for what I’ve done to you and to us. Just know that I hurt along with you, that I suffer without you, and that I’ll love you forever.”
    Aric’s thick boots marched across my small living room and into the kitchen. He grabbed his jacket without bothering to put it on, then walked out of the house, disappearing into the darkness.

CHAPTER 4
    The next morning greeted me with bright sunlight streaming through my large kitchen window and naughty Catholic schoolgirls pounding on my door.
    “Are you going to let us in or what?” Liz wailed, following more obnoxious knocking.
    It was their way of saying, “Good morning, Celia. My, don’t you look beautiful today. May we come in and shower you with our cheery dispositions and love so that you may forget your hideous and sleepless night?” I placed my mixing bowl on the counter and padded to the door. I let them in only because if I ignored them, they had an annoying habit of watching me through the windows like a bunch of Peeping Toms.
    I returned to the kitchen and removed a tray of sticky buns from the oven. They were sweet and stuffed with cream cheese—and they were Aric’s favorite. We used to eat them together in bed.
    Maria sat on the kitchen counter, watching me with her dark eyes narrowed. Supposedly, she was quite a skilled businesswoman. When she wasn’t entertaining Misha with her leather whip and her collection of masks, she attended company meetings and advised him on his financial affairs. I wasn’t familiar with her savvy side—only her sadistic bitchy one. She wrinkled her nose at me before speaking in her thick Brazilian accent. “What are dose?”
    “Sticky buns.”
    Maria scoffed, tossing back her waist-length cinnamon hair. She had the same golden skin tone I did and