Page 54 of Princess Redeemed

I could drain him so easily.Drain him and leave him to die, so his true mate can never have him.

But I’m no killer.Not like the rogue vamps who stroll through dirty cities at night feeding from the homeless and leaving their bodies among the trash and refuse.

Still, that’s not the reason I’ll never drain him.

I’ll never drain him because I love him.I love the father of my child, and his child needs him.

I’m not his destiny, and I have to accept that.

I remove my fangs from his flesh and close the wounds with my saliva.

“Rogan,” I whisper in his ear.

“Yes, princess.”

“She’s here, isn’t she?”

“Yes,” he growls.

“Now, do you believe me?”

He doesn’t reply at first, and our previous words tumble into my head.

“We’re not mates, Rogan.We never were.”

“Don’t start with this bullshit again, princess.You’re my mate.I know it instinctively, viscerally.You’re inside me, pulling at me from the inside out.You’re ingrained in my very soul.I smell you everywhere.See you everywhere.Taste you in everything I put in my mouth.You’re me, Hannah.We are each other!”

I place my feet back on the ground and move away from him.

In his face I see so many emotions.

The fear I saw and felt before, and now I understand.He’s fearful of losing me, yet his body and his instinct are telling him he belongs to someone else.

The determination to fight his body and instinct, because he loves me.

And of course, the love itself.The love that I feel as well.No mate can change those feelings, but she will try.

He will succumb.

He will succumb because it’s what nature dictates.

But above all of that is the alpha protectiveness in his soul.The desire to protect his unborn child…and its mother.

“I don’t understand,” he says.“I love you, Hannah.”

“I told you.”I sniff back the tears that threaten to fall and prepare to say the words I’ve already said to him.“It was my father.Or one of his scientists.I don’t know.He fixed it all.Convinced you I was your mate.Even when it doesn’t make sense.None of this.Fated mates are all but unheard of for wolves these days, butyoufind one?And one that’s not your kind?Itnevermade sense, Rogan.”

He inhales deeply, closes his eyes.“But Idohave a fated mate.”

“I know.And she’s here.Somewhere above us.Isn’t she?”

He opens his eyes.“Yes.But I don’t love her.”

I swallow the lump in my throat.“You will.That’s how it works, right?”

“Yes,” he says again quietly.

His cock is still hard as a rock, and he gives it another pull.