ALARIC
Emili fell asleep in my arms in that hotel room, and I stayed awake. Not because of the curse, which for now slept just like she did. Not because of the threat of vampires or loose demons or the disaster waiting for me when I returned. I stayed awake because the last time I held a woman like this, she never woke up.
Lena.
Her name was still a wound I refused to touch. Like a badly set bone that aches when the weather changes. Months could pass without me thinking of her, and then something would bring it all back: a scent, a laugh, a child crying in the street.
She had been my mate. My fated one. The Moon Goddess placed her in my path when we were both seventeen, and the bond sealed with the force of lightning splitting my chest open. I didn’t choose to love her. I loved her bec
