To this day, she couldn’t get the sight of him lying dead in her flat out of her mind. But that was nothing compared to the kills The League had forced her to make after that.

Every time she’d taken a life, she’d lost more of her soul.

She wasn’t like the ones Dancer ran with who didn’t flinch at death. She couldn’t stand it. And the last thing she wanted was to leave Dancer wounded and on his own.

Hauk paused as he saw in her hazel green eyes her reticence to desert him. Her concern for him made his heart ache. No one had ever hesitated to put him in harm’s way before. And for the first time in his life, he was beginning to understand his friends and their devotion to their spouses. Why they were so willing to risk everything to make them happy.

That rancid fear in the gut of returning to an existence where you lived without their smiles lighting up the innocuous moments that made up any given day…

He totally understood Nykyrian’s words to him before he’d left for this hell-bent quest. Why his friend preferred the mad chaos of his current life over the peace in his past.

Gods, how he wanted that with her.

But it could never be.

“I won’t be harmed, Sumi. I promise.”

She narrowed her eyes on him. “Don’t make me have to come back here and kick your hulking ass. I am a trained assassin, you know?”

He smiled at her anger. She was a fierce little mouse, indeed. “I know.”

When he started away, she grabbed his shirt and pulled him back toward her. He thought they were under attack again, until she buried her hand in his braids and led his lips to hers.

Fire erupted through his entire body as he tasted her warmth for the first time, and her tongue teased his. His head spun at the sweetest tenderness he’d ever known. Growling in the back of his throat, he deepened the kiss, taking great care not to hurt her with his fangs or strength. His head swam with pleasure that left him ragged and wanting before her. Exposed.

Completely pliant.

Sumi trembled as he enveloped her in his arms and pressed her fully against his hard body. Her breasts were flush to his chest. She ran her hands over his hard, sculpted ribs to his muscular back, taking care not to brush against his wound. He was absolutely humongous. Harder than steel. Fierce. And hotter than hell. For a male who’d never been kissed before, he was incredible at it.

His breathing ragged, he nipped at her lips with his fangs before he finally pulled back to stare down at her. “You shouldn’t have done that.”