Page 82 of The Mating Frenzy

“Kieran, please don’t go.” She began to cry, her heart tearing apart. Her anchor, her rock, was slipping away beneath her frantic grasp. “How can I survive withoutyou?”

“You can. I would get in your way, be a distraction you cannot afford, Ella-mine.” He smiled, but a tear slipped from the corner of one eye. “I would spend more time making love to you than showing you how to fight. And I lack the ability to train you with these powers. You will be able to do wonderful things. You can destroy evil with the flick of a finger. Or heal injuries. These abilities…they are beyondme.”

“We can learn together.” She was desperate, fighting for any means to keep him at herside.

“I belong to the Winter Kingdom. I made a vow to the Winter King to remain with his family and guard them. It is a vow I cannot break, Ella-mine.”

“Then I’ll go withyou!”

He picked up her hands and kissed them. “That is not why we went on this quest to empower you. I love you. I will always love you,forever.”

“I need you, Kieran. I love you so much. Please, don’t go.” Her voice rose in a hysterical pitch. “Damnit, you’re abandoning me,cat!”

He kissed her passionately, and then released her. Kieran lifted his arms to the sky. Tears streamed down his face. “Take me home,” hechanted.

Hevanished.

For a long while, she remained in the parking lot staring at the space he’d occupied as she sobbed, feeling as if someone had broken her inhalf.

She’d loved him, opened her heart to love Kieran, the wild, free jaguarshifter.

And losthim.