The memory of Aliana lying bloodied on the road after the accident involving Cillian's car the night he had first met her struck Gavriel differently now.
On that fateful night, she had been nothing more than a passing stranger, a fragile human woman he had pulled from the jaws of death against his very nature.
He had operated on a rare, unexplainable impulse at that time.
But looking at her now, he could no longer bear the thought of her experiencing a single moment of pain.
He did not know precisely when she had crossed the threshold from a stranger into the only person who mattered in his long, solitary existence. He didn't understand why… but he saw no way to undo it.
The shift had occurred, and he was forever changed, bound by a fierce concern for her safety.
Ivan, who had been observing the man carefully, noticed the subtle softening in his demeanor as he spoke of his woman.
