Her tongue snaked out and licked over her lower lip. He knew she understood his meaning because her fangs started to grow.

“The battle’s coming. You have to be strong.” A strength she’d get from him. He eased back and offered his hand. “Come with me.”

But she was shaking her head. “This isn’t your place, wolf.”

A stiffness fil ed his chest. Pain.

“It’s mine.” She grabbed his hand. “So you come with me.” Then she led him away from the vampires and wolves. Led him up a spiral staircase and into a room without windows. A room that smel ed of her.

Before the door closed, he had her in his arms.

Five minutes.

Not even that. Not now.

His lips took hers. Jace thrust his tongue inside her mouth. She kissed him back with no hesitation, even though the scent of fear stil hovered on her skin. He stroked her with his tongue, caressed with his lips, but the scent remained. Jaw clenching, he lifted his head. “Stop.”

Her lashes rose, and she blinked at him. “Why?”

“Because you fear me.” He stalked away from her. It was either step away or pounce, and he wanted to show her that he could have restraint. It won’t last long.

They were in an apartment of sorts. A leather couch. A TV. Bookshelves. Then toward the right…a bed. A big, four-poster.

Morgan, in that bed…

An image too tempting to resist. Let the demon wait. The vamps and wolves could keep him…entertained.

He reached for Morgan’s hand. Entwined his fingers with hers and led her to the bed. She sat down on the edge of the mattress and stared up at him. “I can’t figure you out, wolf.”

“You’ve tasted my life.” Now he truly knew what that meant. “How can I possibly have secrets from you?” He lowered onto his knees and positioned his body between her spread legs. Then Jace tilted his head and offered his throat. “Drink.” The ultimate pose of submission. For her, only her.

She’d nearly traded her life for his. Louis, we’ll name our first son after you

—because you fucking saved my ass.

If he’d gone too far, taken too much from her…

Her eyes seemed so wide as she gazed at him.

“Don’t fear me,” he’d meant the words as a plea but they came out sounding like an order. Dammit. He cleared his throat. “It won’t happen again. I give you my word it—”

“You were already pul ing back before Louis dislocated your shoulders.”

He blinked.

“You kept your control. And the blood—it was freely given.”

She wasn’t drinking from him. Why the hel not?

Her hand slid down his shirt. Pressed against his heart. His chest was bare. After the shift and the fury, the wolves had dressed in their back up jeans, but most hadn’t bothered with shirts. Her touch seemed to burn right through his flesh.

She stared down at her hand. At his chest. “What separates the man from the beast?”

Morgan asked softly.

He forced his jaw to unlock. “There is no separation.”

Her hand dipped lower. Found the snap of his jeans. “When you’re a wolf,” her voice grew huskier, “do you stil have the mind of a man? Some stories say no. Others say yes.”

The zipper hissed down. “It’s…both.” Man and beast.

Her fingers curled around his aroused flesh. “How do you see me then? As prey?”

“No.” The wolf had only wanted to protect her. As did the man. Her thumb slid over the head of his arousal. “As what?” Her eyes held his.

“As everything.” Because that was what she’d become. Had it started that long ago night? Started with bloody tears and culminated when he’d taken her flesh?

Didn’t matter. To him, she was…al . Everything.

“Good answer,” she whispered as she leaned forward. “Very, very good.” Her fangs sank into him—not in his throat, but at the curve of his shoulder. The exact place he’d marked her for their wolf claiming. She was—she was claiming him . Pleasure exploded through Jace at her bite. White-hot, pulsing. Inside, his wolf howled even as Jace wrapped his arms around Morgan and held tight.

They tumbled back on the bed. Her mouth stayed on him. He shoved off her jeans.

She hadn’t bothered with underwear. Good. That made things so much easier. Her tongue swiped over the smal wound she’d made on his flesh. He shuddered against her. “Oh, damn…” His head rose, and he stared down at her. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his life.

No way would he be heading into hel without having her once more. Jace thrust into her in one long, hard drive. Her gasp fil ed his ears, made him al the wilder, as her legs wrapped around him. Morgan arched her body and met him, thrust for thrust.

Faster, faster.

Their eyes held. Their breaths heaved out.

Her body was tight and slick, and Jace’s thin control slipped away with every sensual move of her body.

He took her mouth even as he took her body.

Nothing was as good as this.

Her sex clenched around him when she came, and he felt the ripples of her release al along the length of his cock. Stil he thrust. Deeper. As far as he could go—

“My turn,” Morgan whispered.

In the next instant, Jace was on his back, and she rose above him. Then she rode him, her movements as wild as his, and he knew, he knew he’d never find anyone else like her. He heaved up and took her breast in his mouth. The nipple was pink and sweet, and he scored her flesh with his teeth.

They both liked to bite.

This time, when she came, he erupted with her. Pleasure had him going nearly blind. He held onto her as tightly as he could.

The drumming of his heartbeat fil ed his ears. Morgan gasped his name, and he was pretty sure he’d shouted hers.

The pleasure faded slowly. The ravenous need met, they stared at each other.

Jace realized this moment was important, but damned if he knew what he should say to her.Morgan didn’t climb off him. She stayed there, and her pale skin seemed to shine.

From the pleasure? His blood?

“If we keep this up,” she final y said as her hands slid over his chest. “You could get me pregnant.”

That was the plan. Or it had been. To have a child with a vampire’s immortality and a wolf’s brutal strength. A child to rule them al .

But now…

Was that ever really the true plan? Or just an excuse he’d made to have her?

“Could you love a child that was part vampire?”

I already love her mother. I have for years. Instead of answering her, he asked,

“Could you ever love an animal?”

She blinked. Now her fingers rose and traced just under his jaw. “I don’t see an animal.”

The woman could break him.

Fuck, how had this become confession time? “Hel ’s waiting.” As much as he wanted to ignore the devil at the door, he couldn’t. Slowly, he eased away from her body. He rose, snagged his jeans, and dressed. His eyes couldn’t seem to stay off her. She climbed from the bed. Didn’t dress, but did grab his arm. “I’m not letting you go in alone.”

His body iced. “That wasn’t the deal.” He knew. He’d been the one to go to the Council and lay out the scheme. “I’m the one who goes in, who closes that bitch from the inside. You were the one who was supposed to—”

But she gave a sad shake of her head, interrupting him, and confessed, “I was the one who was supposed to betray you and make sure that the doorway closed with you trapped inside.”

Chapter Six

Sonofabitch. He’d wondered…and had known that the vampires gave in too easily to his demands. “Let me guess—Devon’s plan?”

“Devon hates wolves.” A faint shrug lifted her shoulders. “He told the others I would go in as an assassin. Fool you, take your blood, and get strong enough to close the door.”

His claws were out. “So why are you confessing to me? Seems like one fine plan.”

And he’d been such a blind fool. Wanting her, needing her so much, and she would have just—

“Because it was never my plan.” Her gaze locked on him. “But maybe those memories haven’t come to you yet.”

What? “I only saw you change Paul.” He’d seen it, like a living nightmare in his head. Her, running into that al ey. Finding the bloody mess that was Paul, with stab wounds al over his body and a knife shoved into his throat.

He’d wanted to live…

“When we find that doorway,” she told him, voice calm, “I am going in with you—and we’re both coming out. That’s the new deal.”

He swal owed. “Why?”

“Because I won’t let you face hel alone.” Now her expression changed. Softened.

“And if I need to, I’l haul your ass out myself. I just found you, wolf, and I’m not about to lose you.”His fingers slid under the thick weight of her hair as he tilted her head back.

“You won’t.” He kissed her. Long, hard, hot. Kissed her and wanted her again. Soon…

soon he’d have her forever.

If he managed to survive the night.

***

The vamps and the wolves hadn’t kil ed each other. Morgan thought that was a good sign. Wel , mostly good.

When she and Jace re-entered the great room, the wolves were stil lined up on the left, and the vamps were glaring on the right. The vamps seemed a bit cockier now, probably because they were gaining strength from the setting sun.

Two of the wolves held the now conscious demon. The guy’s face was broken and bloody, so it looked like the wolves had been enjoying some play time. Louis raised a brow. “Al better now?”

Jace growled at him.

But, actual y, yes, she was better. One hundred percent better. Power seemed to pulse in her veins. If this rush would come to her each time that she and Jace exchanged blood, then she’d make sure they exchanged every day for the rest of her life. Since she planned to spend al of her days and nights with him, an exchange wouldn’t be a hardship at al .

Her blood would enable him to live longer. Human mates who sipped from their vampire lovers could stay young and strong as long as they had that blood supply.

She’d make sure Jace fed wel and often.

“You’re feeding a dog?” The demon spat blood on the ground at Jace’s feet.

“Vampire, don’t you know better than to—”

Jace lunged and grabbed the demon around his throat. “I’m going to slice you open.”

The demon just laughed. “I’ve been in hell, asshole. You can’t do anything to me that hasn’t already been done.”

And Morgan hesitated. The demon had a point.

“We’l see.” Jace didn’t seem worried. “Once I slice off your hands and crack open your rib cage, we’l find out if you feel like talking then.”

But the demon shook his head. “Been there, done that. Why do you think we’re al coming out? This world…” His red eyes flew around the room. “It’s life. We’re coming, and we’re taking it over, and you can’t stop us.”

“We’l shut your damn door,” Jace promised, “and you’l stay in your cage.”

More laughter. “Not if you can’t find it.”

“You’l talk,” Jace promised. Then he glanced back at Morgan. “You don’t…want to see this.” But she read his eyes and understood. Don’t watch me do this. He would torture. He would push and push and push…because he wanted to save her. Save his people.

But sometimes, there was just too much darkness, too much of a price, to be paid for some actions.

“There’s another way.” A better way because her gut told her that the demon wasn’t bul shitting. He wouldn’t break. What can we do that hell hasn’t done?

Jace stil ed.

Morgan spared a swift glance for the vampires. Men. Women. Their gazes were determined, their bodies tense. They understood what she meant. They were ready.

She licked her lips and offered, “We can drink from him.”

The demon’s bel ow shook the mansion, and she knew that they had the bastard.

You won’t talk. Fine. “We don’t need you to talk,” she said as she crept closer to him.

“We just need you to bleed.”

Time to sample the demon’s memories.

Jace blocked her path. “This is a shitty plan.”

She smiled at him. “It’s a plan that wil work. You know we pul memories with the bite.”

“Yeah, but just what else wil happen when you bite him? You ever had demon blood?”

No. “Never had the pleasure,” she said and saw the demon tense.

“It could be poison. It could fry you from the inside out. It could—”

“I’d never had werewolf blood until I tasted you.”

That stopped him. Only for a moment. “Yeah, princess, but we al know that once you go wolf, you don’t go back.”

And there, when she shouldn’t have, when it was the wrong time and the wrong place, she laughed.

Jace froze. Then he squeezed his eyes shut. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?” What was her wolf talking about now?

His eyes opened and a muscle flexed along his jaw. “You aren’t tasting him.” He pointed to the vamps behind them. “One of those assholes can do it. They can all do it.

But not you.”

He pul ed her close. “I don’t want you having memories of hel .”