She wasn’t kissing him back.

She had to feel the thick arousal pressing against her. The way he had her lifted up, there would be no missing it.

She wasn’t kissing him back.

His mouth eased from hers, just for a moment. “Kiss me back.” Growled words, and not what he’d wanted to say. He’d wanted to say…

Need me. Desire me. Crave me.

The way he craved her.

He put his mouth against hers once more. His tongue swept over her lips. Pushed into her mouth.

And her tongue—yes!—she kissed him back.

Her ni**les tightened against his chest. Her hips arched toward him, and her nails sank into his shoulders.

He liked the sting of pain.

Liked her mouth moving on his even more.

She kissed him with a tentative hunger, as if just discovering her desire again. He would help her to yearn, to need. He would guide her, show her every f**kin’ thing about his body.

About the passion they had together.

Her legs lifted. Wrapped around his hips.

He thrust against her, helpless. Dammit, he wanted in.

She was sucking his tongue. Giving a little moan in the back of her throat. His c**k was so swollen he hurt, and the only relief would come from her. He’d thrust into her, drive as deep as he could go. Her body would remember him. She’d respond just as she had before. “Keira…”

She shoved against him.

Because it was her, he let her go. Alerac eased her to the floor, then he dropped his hold. He stared at her, breath heaving, desire like a red haze before him.

“Wh-what did you call me?” Her breath came as fast as his. Her eyes were wide, filled with passion—and fear.

“Keira.” He said her name deliberately.

Her hands flattened on the wall behind her, as if she needed the support. “That’s…me?”

“Yes.” His Keira. She would be his again. Always. No one would take her from—

“No.” A definite shake of her head. “Don’t call me that, understand? I-I know you think you know me but…” Another fast shake of her head. “I don’t know you. And I don’t remember being her.”

But she was Keira. Lost, but finally found.

“I’m Jane.” Her voice was husky. Arousing. “Jane Smith. That’s the name I chose. The only name I know.” She lifted one trembling hand from the wall. Touched her chest. “That’s me, not K-Keira.”

She was wrong.

“You and Keira…you were…lovers?”

“You and I were lovers.” The words snapped from him.

She flinched.

And he remembered the way she’d run away with the human. The doctor. While Alerac had been bleeding, she’d fled with Heath. Their hands had locked. She’d gone to that rundown building seeking the doctor.

With her memories gone, had Keira turned to another? To that bastard?

His claws burst from his fingertips. “Were you with him?”

She jumped away from that wall. Moved so fast. Vampire fast. And in the next instant, she had half the room between them.

He tried to leash his beast, but the possessive fury filling him was too strong to fight. “Your doctor,” he gritted out. “The man who left you during that vampire attack. Were you with him?”

Her eyes were wide. “If I say yes, what happens?”

Fuck, f**k, f**k!

He whirled for the door.

She grabbed him. Forced him back toward her. “I wasn’t with him.”

He couldn’t see past the fury of the beast.

“I wasn’t, okay? And even if I had been…”

His gaze fixed on her face.

“Why does it matter so much to you? I was here for six months.” Her words broke at the end. “My face was splashed in the paper. I was on the news. A lost woman with no memory.” She licked her lips. “No one came for me. I didn’t matter to anyone.”

Lie.

“You matter more than you know.” But he couldn’t talk to her any more. Couldn’t stand there and inhale her scent. She’d wanted him when they kissed. He’d caught the sweet smell of her desire.

No, he couldn’t stand there, not with his beast so close to the surface. That was why he’d turned for the door.

Why he had to leave.

To protect her, while he still could.

“Don’t try to leave the room. My pack is guarding you, and they won’t let you go.” He pulled from her. Spun around and grabbed the door knob.

“Your eyes…”

That whisper stopped him.

“They always glow. The other wolves—after they transformed—the glow in their eyes faded.”

He nearly smashed the door knob in that instant. “I’m not like the others.” His glow never faded. It couldn’t.

Lorcan had cut out his human eyes. It had taken a very long time for the beast to regenerate new eyes for him. When those eyes had finally come back…

Not the eyes of a man.

And they never would be.

Just as he would never be a man.

He yanked open the door. Then Alerac walked into the sun, leaving his vampire behind before he lost all control.

***

Tracking the traitorous vampires was easy enough. They’d left plenty of blood in their wake.

As the sun rose, Lorcan knew that those bastards would be seeking shelter. Unlike him, they weren’t at full power during the light.

But they didn’t know his secrets. He’d been trading in magic—and even in science—for centuries. He knew that he was destined to become the most powerful vampire to ever walk the earth.

Soon, with the right mix of blood coursing through his veins, he would be unstoppable.

Lorcan approached the house alone. He didn’t need an army. He could fight this battle on his own.

When he reached the door, he knocked lightly.

And then some fool actually just swung the door open.

Lorcan smiled at him. Inhaled. A human. One who carried a familiar scent. Jane. Only that wasn’t her real name. To him, she would always be Keira. “You’ve made a mistake,” he said to the blond human.

The vampires in that house rushed toward him. Attacking with claws and fangs.

Lorcan shoved the human aside. He would deal with him very, very soon.

He slashed out with his own claws. Took the head of one vampire. Disemboweled another. Drained a third. The blood flowed and screams filled the air.