“But you could turn me, couldn’t you? Then Liam couldn’t read or control me and I wouldn’t lose him.”

“I could,” he allowed slowly, beginning to worry that she would ask him to do just that, no strings attached. If she did, he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t agree. Stephanie had said he had to use the boy to get her to agree to be his life mate, but it just seemed so heartless. She was his life mate—how could he deny her?

“But you’d want me to be your life mate.”

Her words didn’t sound accusing or resentful, and that fact alone almost had him sagging with relief, but he held himself straight and merely nodded.

“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.”