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She squeals and jumps off her chair. She launches straight into my arms. Bile rises up my throat. I try to focus my mind, but it’s a losing battle every time. I squeeze my eyes shut and remind myself it’s just my niece, but my body doesn’t know the difference.

Revulsion bubbles in my stomach, making everything sour.

I’m frozen, unable to wrap my arms around Rosalie. After a moment that feels like an eternity, she lets go of me. Her face falls when she sees the look on my face.

“Oh.” She tucks a strand of raven hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry, Uncle.”

“It’s fine,” I mutter.

It absolutely isn’t. There’s a hole in the center of my chest. And I’m the only one who knows I’m bleeding out.

Helena distracts the kids with a story. I stare at the uneaten food on my plate.

I’m not cut out for this. I’m not made for any of this.

I look up to find Emma watching me. Her food sits abandoned on her plate, too. Something about the way she’s looking at me tells me that she gets it. She sees all the broken parts of me. She sees all of my flaws, and her eyes tell me it’s all okay.

The noise in my head fades for a blissful moment.

And then it’s back, louder than ever.

“Excuse me,” I say.

I walk back inside the house.

I don’t want to be in my room right now, so I head to the gym instead. I lift weights, trying to go heavier than I’ve ever done before. The strain of my muscles against my skin makes some of the cuts reopen.

I look at my reflection in the mirror.

I’m bleeding, bruised, haunted.

The noise in my head is louder than ever, louder than my own thoughts. It feels like I’m right back in Afghanistan, when the enemies captured me and left scars that would take more than a lifetime to heal. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel.

There’s just endless darkness.

All of the demons that I try to keep chained in my head have been unleashed. They roam free.

I stagger back to my room a few minutes after midnight.

I immediately notice something is different. The curtains are parted, making moonlight spill across the floor. There’s a sweet quality to the air.

And there’s a slight figure in my bed.

My heart skips a beat.

I close the door behind me and approach the bed cautiously. I walk around it to see that she’s asleep in my bed. Her dark curls cover my pillow.

As if she can feel me watching, she stirs in her sleep and wakes up.

She blinks up at me. “Oh. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

She sits up in bed, and I see that she’s still in that Halloween costume.

“What are you doing here?” My voice is unnaturally cold.

“I...I was waiting for you,” she says. “You said that you wanted to have a word with me.”

“This isn’t a good time, Emma,” I say. “Leave.”

All the voices inside me are roaring at full volume now. They make promises of leaving only when I’m buried deep inside this innocent girl.

My mind and my heart are at war.

It would be so easy to take her, but if I did that, I’m going to ruin her.

“I really don’t understand,” she whispers. “You held me in your arms last night, but you can’t even bring yourself to have a conversation with me now.”

I could tell her the truth. That I’m no good for her. But instead, I remain silent.

“I was worried about you,” she says. “I just wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

She slips the covers off her body and stands before me. The urge to mate this woman is all that remains in my head now. She turns me into a fucking animal.

“One last chance, Emma,” I say. “Leave.”

She takes a step closer. “But I like the things you do to me when I stay.”

Her words become my undoing. The beast inside me takes over. Humankind has undergone hundreds of years of evolution, but this girl reduces me to a caveman.

And there’s only one thought left in my head— breed this woman .

I grab a fistful of her hair and tug it back. She stares up at me with parted lips.

“You don’t know what’s good for you, do you?” I ask. “Because if you did, you would be running for the hills by now. You wouldn’t be waiting in my bedroom wearing a dress I want to rip down the middle.”

She licks her bottom lip as she waits for me to touch her.

“You might be a virgin, but you’re a little slut for it, aren’t you?” I say. “I put my cock inside you one time, and you can’t help but come back for more.”

Her eyelids are heavy. “Klaus, I?—”

I lean down and press my lips against hers. Everything inside me explodes at once. A million fireworks, followed by deafening silence. All that exists is color.

“You don’t know what you do to me, Emma,” I say.

“Then make me understand.” She wears her heart on her sleeve. And she’s so brave about it, like she’s not afraid of getting hurt.

“I’m no good for you,” I say, even as I tug harder on her hair to rake my teeth down her neck. “When I’m done with you, I’m going to leave you in pieces. That’s all I’m capable of. Why don’t you understand that?”

“Because this doesn’t feel like something I should be running from,” she says, shivering in my hold. “It feels pointless to resist it.”

“I didn’t like the way he was looking at you, Emma,” I say, sinking my teeth into her delicate neck. “I didn’t like that he thought he could have what’s mine.”

“Who, Elliot?” she asks. “We were just talking.”

My hand squeezes one of her soft breasts, drawing a moan from her lips.

“I don’t even like hearing another man’s name on your lips,” I say. “Not when I know that your little pussy is wet for me.”

She’s shaking before me now, trembling with need.

“I told you to wear a coat,” I say. “Why didn’t you wear a fucking coat, Emma?”

“Because I didn’t want to,” she says.

“I don’t like other men looking at you,” I say. “You don’t know the thoughts you elicit in men just by existing.”

“What kind of thoughts do I elicit in you ?” she asks.

I press my mouth against her ear. “The kind that should send you running for your life. But for whatever reason, you’re intrigued by my insanity. Maybe it’s what you like most about me.”

I slip my hand inside her corset to cup her full breasts. I toy with her nipple as I watch the rapture play out on her face.

“I like you,” she says, blinking up at me. “I like everything about you, Klaus.”

I pinch her hard nipple, tugging her even closer toward me.

She doesn’t know it yet, but she just signed her fate.