“What does that mean?” she asked. “What would you expect of me?”

Everything, he thought, but knew that would scare the hell out of her and that he had to go slowly here. “I would expect you to promise to be my life mate. I would turn you. We would marry and I would help you raise Liam.”

“And then?” she prompted when he paused.

Magnus hesitated, and then said, “That depends on whether Lucian and his men catch Abaddon. If they do, and you wish to stay in Canada, I would give up my position with the UK Enforcers and we could purchase a home for us either here in Port Henry or somewhere else, hopefully near immortals who have children so that Liam would have playmates.”

After a hesitation, he continued. “If, however, Abaddon gets away, then I suggest we should probably move to my home in the UK where you and Liam would both be safer. We could, of course, look for a new home there, somewhere near other immortal children of his age. I am sure there must be some.”

“If Abaddon gets away?” Allie asked with a frown. It seemed obvious she hadn’t even considered the possibility that the Enforcers would fail. “Surely they will catch him?”

“Abaddon has escaped before,” he told her. “The first time was over two thousand and seven hundred years ago and the last was just a few years back.”

“He’s been around for that long?” Allie asked with dismay.

Magnus nodded.

Allie looked horrified, but then shook her head. “That wasn’t what I meant by— What would you expect of me after we married and you turned me?” she asked point-blank. “I don’t love you.”

Magnus managed not to react to those words, though he found them surprisingly painful. He knew he shouldn’t. While he might have accepted her as his life mate and had started developing feelings for her that had grown as he’d listened to her tale about her friendship with Stella and how she’d come to be Liam’s mother, she hardly knew anything about him other than how he was turned. And she was mortal. The fact that they were life mates wouldn’t mean as much to her.

Magnus was trying to decide what he could say that wouldn’t scare the hell out of her when she apparently grew impatient and said, “I barely know you. I don’t think I could— I mean, when people marry they’re expected to—”

“I would not expect anything from you that you were not ready to give,” he said when she faltered again, and tried not to feel guilty about the relief that washed over her face. Magnus meant what he said, but he also knew it was meaningless because they were life mates. Life mates were known to have incredible, explosive sex that was so mind-blowing and overwhelming that they passed out at the end of it. They were also said to be insatiable and unable to resist each other once they experienced it. He was counting on that and would have liked to test it now, but Stephanie had warned him not to let Allie experience the passion before he got her promise. So he kept his distance and simply waited.