“Have you ever noticed that however uncomfortable you might have been when you first went to bed—the room too hot or too cold; the pillows not quite right; the mattress lumpy; the sheets scratchy by the time you should get up, your bed has transformed itself into the Platonic ideal of beds? The room is cool, the bed is soft, and the pillow may as well have been God’s Own Headrest. The transformation inevitably happens, of course, when you’re obligated to get up and out, when nothing sounds better than hunkering down in a pile of cool cotton.”

“You're perfect- beautiful, intelligent, intractable in a kind of... attractive way. Headstrong, but a good strategist. An amazing fighter.""But that's not enough?""It's too much. You think I haven't thought about what it might be like to return to my rooms at the end of the night and find you there- to find you in my bed, to have your body and your laugh and your mind? To look across a room and know that you were mine- that *I'd* claimed you. *Me.* Ethan Sullivan. Not the four-hundred-year-old vampire, not the child of Balthasar or the Novitiate of Peter Cadogan. Me. Just me. Just you and me.”

“I'll have you in my bed again, Sentinel. And at my side. That is a promise.”

“Girl, you’re the Sentinel of this House, and you’ve been trained by Catcher and Luc and Ethan. He’s in the training room right now. Get down there and kick his ass!”

“Mallory!" Catcher's voice boomed down the stairs.Mallory fixed her mouth into a tight line and walked me into the kitchen. "Ignore it," she advised. "Much like the bubonic plague, it'll go away if you give it enough time.""Mallory! You weren't finished! Get back in here!"I glanced up the stairway. "You didn't leave him handcuffed to the bed or something, did you?""Jesus, no." I incrementally relaxed, until she continued. "My headboard's a single piece of wood. There's nothing to handcuff him to.”

“He grinned at me, his ridiculously blue eyes tripping my heart. “You say what’s on your mind, don’t you, Parker? I like that.”I rolled my eyes. “You have to stop flirting with me, Shepherd, or we’re never going to get anything done.”“Flirting? You’re the one who’s getting me all riled up.”“Oh, please. You’re all, ‘Here, Lily, have some candy.’ It’s obvious who’s flirting here.”“Then maybe I should kiss you.”

“So you’re now an official member of Enclave Three. You weirdo.”I snorted. “I’m a weirdo? You’re a werewolf.”“I suggest you say that with respect, Parker.”“Or what?”“Or I’ll have to bite you.” His lips widened into a grin of heart-stopping proportions. I guessed itwould have been pretty effective on him in werewolf form, too.”