There was so much I still didn’t know about her, but one thing had become terrifyingly clear.

If Isabella chose a life without me in it, I was thoroughly fucked.

I’d worship the goddess when she wanted worshipping and spoil the princess until she forgot there had ever been another way to live.

And if she ever wanted a dangerous man on his knees in front of her, I’d go there willingly.

That realization should’ve bothered me.

No one forced Lachlan Byrnes to kneel.

“No one owns you. But anyone who comes for you answers to me.”

“That sounds a little like ownership.”

“You can walk away from me once you’re safe. There’s a difference.”

“I don’t think I mind being yours in that way.”

But we had tonight.

And if tonight was all fate ever gave me with her, I was going to give her everything I had in return.

Every touch.

Every tenderness.

Every bit of love in me, whether I was ready to call it that or not.

I was a man, and she felt like every bad decision I’d ever enjoyed making.

God forgive me for what I’m about to do to the girl praying inside that church.

~Lucian Byrne, Eyes of the Unholy

Her eyes locked onto mine, and I had the insane urge to close the gap, to taste that sass on her lips.

~Captain Kol Vinter, Christmas Cancellation

“My love has no borders, sweetheart,” he said gently. “Wherever you are, wherever you choose to be, I will be at your side.”

~Braxton Thorin, Mission Shift

And when she’d met my eyes—when she’d chosen defiance, chosen provocation—something inside me detonated.

Not romance. Not tenderness.

Claim.

Possession.

A dark, ruthless certainty that she was going to be mine to protect, mine to keep, mine to ruin the world for if I had to. And she had no idea.

~Lucian Byrne, Eyes of the Unholy

“And every selfish part of me wants to take you at your word, bring you home, put you in my bed, and never ask another fucking question about it.”

My heart kicked hard against my ribs.

“Then what’s stopping you?”

“Making sure I don’t become another cage simply because mine feels better than Ciro’s did.”