He almost laughed. Would he ever catch a break?

“Aden.” Victoria’s voice snapped him from his morbid thoughts.

“Of course there’s time for us to talk. The others will be questioning the witch, so we aren’t needed for that.”

Her eyes narrowed, and she raised her chin. “Fine. We’ll talk. Why don’t I start?” She crossed her arms, too. Golden moonlight poured over her, illuminating her flawless skin. Her electric blues pierced him, and those bad-girl lips beckoned him. No wonder the boys wanted him to kiss her first and talk later. Beautiful.

“Tell me about your date with my sister,” she commanded.

Ouch. Should have expected her to start there, he thought. “I wouldn’t call it a date. We talked about possible changes to benefit your people. Like pink being the new black. Then we talked about you.” Or would have, if the goblin hadn’t busted in. “About how much I…love you.” There. He’d said it. Said the words. If ever there was a time to tell her, it was now. He didn’t want her worried or unsure about his feelings. “You’re brave and caring and you see me as an equal, not a hindrance. I just feel better when I’m with you. Better about myself, about everything.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You love me?”

“Yes. I do. I love you,” he repeated. “You don’t have to say it back. I’ll understand if you aren’t there yet.” Yeah, he would understand—but he sure wouldn’t like it.

Her expression softened, and she gazed down at her feet, hands twisting together. There was now a rosy flush to her cheeks. Was she embarrassed by his confession, or had she fed recently? If so, who had she taken from?

Jealousy was a fist inside his chest. You have to get over that, he told himself. She’s a vampire. That’s what she has to do to survive.

“I…I love you, too, Aden.”

Thank God. Every bit of the jealousy drained. She loved him. She really loved him. “Say it again.” No one had ever loved him before. No one.

“I love you, too. So much. You’re strong and loyal and you understand me better than I think I understand myself. So yes, I love you,” she said again.

He would never get tired of those words.

“And because I love you so much,” she said softly, “I have to tell you that the other girls will not allow you to simply talk to them. Or rather, their fathers won’t. You’ll have to romance them. The girls, not their fathers. God, I’m making a mess of this. What I’m trying to say is, there’s no way around it. You have to date them properly.”

“No. I don’t. I can refuse to see them.” Simple as that. He loved her, and she loved him.

Nope, he would never get tired of those words.

“You can’t. I told you. That will cause problems. Violent problems.”

“I don’t care. You’re more important.”

Her lashes rose, and for a moment, there was hope in her eyes. But then she blanked her features, showing him more of that emptiness. Emptiness he despised. “Actually, I’m not. For all intents and purposes, you’re king now. You’re the one who’s important to my people.”

Was that what her father had raised her to believe? That the king was the only one who mattered? Aden wanted to kill the bastard all over again.

Again? As if a second slaying would be possible?

He frowned. “Look, I don’t have a lot of time, Victoria, and I don’t want to waste it arguing with you. Especially now.”

She ran her tongue over her too-sharp teeth. “That’s what I said, but then you said we had—”

“I meant alive,” he interjected. “Not tonight.”

The reminder sobered her. She knew about Elijah’s prediction; she knew his life would end all too soon. “Oh.”

“Your people will need a new king, anyway, and I’ll find them one.” Like Riley, maybe. The vampires were willing to let Aden, a human, lead them. So why not a werewolf—a werewolf they already deferred to? He nodded, liking the thought. A lot. It was a perfect plan, really. Except…once again the thought of giving up the title…angered him, and that made no sense

He forced his mind to center on the matter at hand. He’d fought for this moment; he couldn’t allow himself to become distracted and ruin it. “Like I said, I don’t want to spend what time I have left arguing with you. And I don’t want to spend it being shut out for reasons I don’t understand.”

She stood there, silent, watching him, searching for…what? He didn’t know. Finally, she sighed. “What do you want to know? I’ll talk, I’ll explain.”

“What are you feeling right now? About me dating those other girls?” Caleb laughed. Dude! You sound like a girl, wanting to share your feelings and stuff. Dating 101, Julian told the soul. Sound like a girl and get the girl. Where have you been? I thought you were supposed to be the expert.

Her arms fell to her sides, and she wiped her palms against her thighs. “Well, I’m…furious.”

With him? “You don’t sound furious. You don’t look furious.”

Her chin lifted yet another notch. “I’m bottling my feelings, Stephanie says.”

“So unbottle. You’ll feel better, I promise.” Oh, gag. He must have channeled one of his many doctors.

She shook her head violently, dark hair doing that dancing thing around her shoulders. “That’s too dangerous.”

“For who?”

“You.”

“Try me.” Unless… “The monster inside you…”

Now she gulped, backed two steps away. “What about it?”

“Do you think that monster will hurt me if you unbottle? Is that it?”

“No. I have the wards,” she said, but her tone lacked conviction. “Anyway, I take no chances with my beast. None of us do.”

“So every vampire has a beast?”

“Yes.”

“And over the years, a few vampires have lost control of theirs?” he asked.

“Yes. It’s…awful. The damage is…there are no words to describe the horrors that occur.”

So. One mystery was solved at least. Despite her protest and her assurance, her fear clearly stemmed from what she thought that enigmatic monster would do to him. “Tell me about these beasts. About why you’re so afraid—and why I should be, too.”

Chin, another notch higher. Any more and she’d be staring at the stars. “Are you sure you want to know?”

Because she assumed they wouldn’t be able to be together once he did? Silly girl. There was only one way to prove her wrong. “Yes. I’m sure.”

“Very well, then. We are not shifters, like the wolves. We do not change into another form.” Her tone was cold and flat. “But the monster does come out of us, a separate entity, and the longer that entity is out of our bodies, the more solid its own body becomes. And as its body solidifies, the tether that once leashed it to us withers and dies.”

“Wouldn’t that help you, though? Getting rid of the beast?”

“Help us?” She laughed without humor, and it was not a pretty sound. “No. As it solidifies, it strengthens, and we become targets of what used to be our darker half. They blame us for trapping them inside our bodies, after all. Actually, no one is safe. And you should know, my beast has been pounding at my head since I met you, louder every time we’re together, wanting out.”

Good—and horrifying—to know. But he wasn’t going to let fear stop him from getting through to Victoria, from proving he could handle anything she dished out. Even if that meant acting like Prince Charming and slaying her dragon. Literally.

“Does this beast talk to you?” he asked.

“No. Usually he’s quiet, and he never uses words. Not like you and I do, at least, but he roars sometimes, and when I’m hungry, I can feel his thirst for blood. We’ve been very hungry lately.”

Aden’s mind whirled. How had the vampires obtained these creatures inside them? Most likely, Victoria had been born with hers. She was the product of a vampire union rather than a human transformed by tainted blood like her father and some of his followers had been.

A transformation no one else had been able to make over the years.

Were the beasts why they’d changed—and survived that change—when others over the centuries had not?

“Did I scare you into silence?” Victoria asked coolly.

“Hardly.” They were so much more alike than even he had realized. She knew what it was like to battle noise inside her head. She knew what it was like to fear losing control. “We need to get one thing straight, though.”

She blinked over at him, surprised. He’d never used such a fierce tone with her.

Was he really going to do this? Was he really going to take this route?

She’d helped him accept himself. He would help her do the same. So yes, he was.

“Am I your king?” he demanded to know. For the moment, anyway.

Caleb whooped with excitement. Oh, baby, I am loving this.

Careful or her monster’s gonna eat you, Julian warned. Got the 411 on that, E?

Sorry, I’m blank.

Victoria’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Yes. You know you are.”

“And you have to do whatever I tell you to do? Right?”

“Yes.” The word was gritted, as if pulled through a meat grinder. Clearly, she knew what he planned to say next.

“So, as your king, I command you to unbottle your feelings. Here. Now. Let them out.”

At first, she gave no reaction. Then she said, “You’ll regret that order.” Then, shockingly, she screamed. Long and loud, so loud he was sure his eardrums were bleeding, but he didn’t allow himself to cringe. He didn’t want to discourage her.

When she quieted, she was panting. She scanned her surroundings with wild eyes before marching to a large, round boulder and lifting it in her arms as if it weighed no more than a feather. A second later, that boulder was hurtling through the forest and slamming into a tree trunk. That tree cracked in half, the top falling and slamming into the ground.