“Nothing can fill you up,” she stated.“Nope,” he agreed again.“You won’t let it.”“Barrel’s got a hole in the bottom, buddy, everything leaks out no matter how much you pour in.”She was silent a moment then she whispered, “Right.”She turned to the door and his hand gripped his bourbon so hard he had to focus everything on loosening his grip or the glass would shatter.Before she opened it, she turned back. “You don’t know, Cal, you have no idea.You’ve shut yourself up for so long in this fucking house with your tragic memories, you have no idea what’s about to walk out your door. Kate, Keira and me, we could have plugged that hole. We could have filled you so full, you’d be bursting. We would have loved that chance. We’d have given it everything we had, no matter the time that slid by, graduations, weddings, grandbabies, you’d have been a part of us and we’d have given everything we had to keep youso full, you’d be bursting.”Cal didn’t reply.“Joe,” she whispered, “you let me walk out this door, you’ll lose your chance.”Cal didn’t move.Vi waited.Cal stayed seated.”

“Let me get this thing straight, Inigo--we had SCRAPS for dinner? I'M in YOUR fantasy and the best you can come up with is SCRAPS?" She turned toward the door then. "You have no chance of winning my heart.”

“I’d swap with Amelia if I was you. So she doesn’t have to sit beside him.”“What about you?”“Who would you rather he sat next to, me or your sister? Move.”“I’ve a better idea,” he whispered back. “How about I swap with you and make out like I have to tel Aaron something, and then you could cal Amelia over to you like you have something important to tel her. The lights wil go out, and Amelia won’t bother switching back.”“Evans, that is a fabulous idea.”“Rivers, I know.”

“On Chesil Beach he could have called out to Florence, he could have gone after her. He did not know, or would not have cared to know, that as she ran away from him, certain in her distress that she was about to lose him, she had never loved him more, or more hopelessly, and that the sound of his voice, would have been a deliverance, and she would have turned back.”

“He had been alone in the world and empty for so long. But she filled him full, and so he believed everything that had been taken out of him might have been for a purpose. To clear space for something better.”

“Then he snarled at her. “You are not leaving me.”It was an order, and she didn’t have to follow anyone’s orders. That was part of being Omega instead of a regular werewolf – who might have had a snowball’s chance in hell of being a proper mate.“You need someone stronger,” Anna told him again. “So you wouldn’t have to hide when you’re hurt. So you could trust your mate to take care of herself and help, damn it, instead of having to protect me from whatever you are hiding.” She hated crying. Tears were weaknesses that could be exploited and they never solved a damned thing. Sobs gathered in her chest like a rushing tide and she needed to get away from him before she broke.Instead of fighting his grip, she tried to slide out of it. “I need to go,” she said to his chest. “I need–”His mouth closed over hers, hot and hungry, warming her mouth as his body warmed her body.“Me,” Charles said, his voice dark and gravelly as if it had traveled up from the bottom of the earth, his eyes a bright gold. “You need me.”