~ Lucian’s POV

The firelight flickered close to where we lay down, its warm glow doing little to ease the chill creeping into my chest. The whole place blurred together as my thoughts drifted into the dangerous territory I fought so hard to avoid. Bella.

She would ask again soon. I could feel it coming like an inevitable storm on the horizon. Bella never let go of her promises, and this one wasn’t any different. She wanted to know the truth about her origins, about where she came from, about the family she never knew.

And I was the one who took them from her.

I closed my eyes, gripping...