When he was perched in front of her, eyebrows raised in silent question, Selma reached out and grabbed his strong jaw in one hand. Her fingers closed around his warm, soft skin covered in the reddish-black scales, and the difference to her own pale color momentarily paused the slew of words from spilling from her lips. He was beautiful, even like this.

Selma let her eyes roam over his face, taking in the pain in his fully black eyes, the strength in his brow, the sharpness of his features, and the coiled elegance of his black horns. Further down, his body stretched and dipped over hard muscle in just the right way. He was all male, and so incredibly beautiful.

“Selma—”

His exasperated tone and the dismissive look on his face made her anger return full-force.

“No, you listen to me—I’m done with being told I don’t know my own thoughts and feelings. Done. Yeah, we had sex, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know the difference between a hormone high and what my heart is telling me.

“I love you. Through all the horrors and all the confusion, you’re the only one who’s been truly there for me since this all started. Stop trying to take that away from me because you have issues.

“And this strange new power that’s popped up to make everything even more complicated? It’s because you loved me enough to let me go—you showed me what true love really means, and I…

“Don’t ask me to pretend like that doesn’t matter. I have been afraid to be taken and forced and used all my life. With you, I am finally free. You see me for who I truly am, what I truly am. How could I not love you?”

Her chest heaved and her cheeks burned with the remnants of her frustration, and she felt more like she’d been in a battle than declared her love.

Kain looked as if she’d struck him, his lips slightly parted. He didn’t say anything—just stared at her with something that looked a whole lot like fear painted over his strong features.

Fear. He was afraid of her.

She understood. His mother, the woman who was supposed to love him more than anything else in this world, had shunned him, and in the black depths of his eyes she saw his soul-deep terror to let himself believe in her words—because if he did and she left him like his mother had, it would destroy him.

Selma moved even before she felt her heart clench with agonizing sympathy. She wrapped her arms around Kain’s brutish body and buried her face in his neck, pressing her naked form against his in an attempt to give the comfort every ounce of her was aching to provide him.