Kieran's POV
I looked at her... I watched her.
Her skin still glowed with the warmth of our touch, lips flushed, eyes burning with a hundred questions and a single plea.
"Take me with you."
It sounded so simple. So gentle. But gods, it shattered something inside me.
She didn't beg. Lorraine never begged. She asked with a kind of quiet defiance, like she already knew I'd say no but hoped, for once, that I'd disappoint her expectations.
I wanted to say yes.
Hell, I wanted her with me. The idea of having Lorraine at my side, sleeping under the moonlight in the same rhythm, hearing her heartbeat as I walked into the darkest battle of my life, it was tempting.
Too tempting.
She calmed the storm in me. She made me want to stay human.
But that's exactly why I couldn't take her.
I turned away, unable to meet her gaze anymore. If I looked too long, I'd fold.
"I can't," I said, my voice hoarse.
