forget what you mean to me and just find some replacement?”
He met her gaze. “I’m sorry, Samantha. I believed that if I stayed, I would keep you from your true path.”
He still had not said that he wanted her. Only that he was sorry for hurting her. She covered her mouth with one hand to keep herself from speaking, from crying and against the pain that now clawed at the lining of her throat.
“After the battle, Nagi told me I’d never cross the Way of Souls.”
She recoiled at this horrible lie.
He kept going, as if in a rush now to get it all out. “How could I be your soul mate if I had no soul? How could I stay with you, knowing that?”
She stared a moment, taking in this news. Finally she shook her head in flat denial. “Don’t you believe him!”
That brought the flicker of a smile. “My mother came to me a few days ago, to tell me of Aldara’s marriage. She also told me that she saw Ghost Children cross into the Spirit World. I was wrong. Terribly wrong, and I am here to beg your forgiveness. I never meant to hurt you. I only wanted you safe and happy.”
She reached for him and then held herself back. “Alon?”
“Yes?”
“You said you were protecting me. Was that only because of your promise?”
“No.” He extended his open hand, but his expression was bleak. “At first it was obligation, but then I fell in love with you. I have loved you since the day you offered to bury the Delta Pack. I never expected to find a woman who would try to protect me or one who could see in me something other than a monster.”
“You’re no monster!”
Alon smiled. “Still my fierce little defender. But I wonder if you can forgive me. I wonder if you could ever love me or if I have lost your heart through my mistakes. Please tell me it isn’t too late for us.”
His hand lay open and outstretched. She wanted to take it, wanted to believe him. A touch would tell her what he felt.
“Let me stay with you.”
She took his hand. He enfolded her in his arms and kissed her with a sweet tenderness blended with longing. The guilt and sorrow struck her first, but when their mouths met she experienced the sweet longing he still held for her. She gave over to the sensation of their reunion. At last he pulled back, resting his forehead upon hers.
“I have been as the dead these last few months. It nearly killed me to stay away.”
“I wish you hadn’t,” she admitted. “I needed you so much.”
“Can you ever forgive me?”
She rubbed a hand over his broad, muscular back. “In time.”
He captured her hands and dropped to his knees. “Samantha, I love you with all my heart and soul. Will you honor me by becoming my wife?”
She drew a breath, overwhelmed by the sincerity of his emotions and the fluttering hope he held in his heart. She drew back, breaking the contact, for her thoughts were still too private to share.
“No, Alon, not yet.” The look of pain flashed across his face and pierced her heart, but she continued on. “There is something you don’t know.”
He interrupted her. “We could find a way to be together that wouldn’t threaten you. Blake and Aldara have done so. We could, as well.”
She wanted to tell him he had been wrong about that, that she had delivered the twins. That they were perfect and beautiful and mysterious. But she had to tread cautiously. She did not know how Alon would feel about discovering he was suddenly a father.
“I have to show you something first, and then, if you still wish me for your wife, I would be honored.”
She drew him up and he rose, cautious, uncertain as she led him to the closed door to the nursery. She paused with her hand on the knob and stared into his worried blue eyes.
Alon did not like the conditional acceptance. What was behind this door that she believed might change his mind about her? There was nothing, nothing in this world that could make him love her less. So why then was his heart pumping like a piston and his forehead slick with sweat? Had she found another? Was he there beyond that door?
Samantha pushed open the door with caution, as if something might spring at her as she peeked inside. Alon braced for attack, mentally choreographing his moves, including