Forever Rowan by Violet Summers

the world. Hell, it had touched his life once, he should have expected that he’d run headlong into it again. He was torn, part of him resentful he hadn’t listened to his initial instincts and stayed the hell away from here. If he’d been thinking straight, he would have suggested rescuing Rowan from somewhere other than Stone’s personal compound. But rationality had been the furthest thing from everyone’s mind when Jenna talked about getting her sisters free of their father. And she’d been right. He may have wanted to bitch that he’d been dragged into this situation kicking and screaming, but he knew better.
    In a fucked-up way, he was glad he’d made the choice to come here. Rowan... he never would have met her had he backed down. He now had an inkling of why Nic had become so quickly devoted to Jenna. There was, indeed, something special about the Stone sisters. In Rowan he was witnessing true courage and selflessness, qualities he’d sworn humans couldn’t possibly possess in such quantities. The woman lying on the sofa was smashing all the bigoted beliefs he’d ever clung to in order to justify his asshole behavior toward them.
    After what seemed like hours, Rowan had still not woken. He needed to talk with her and patience wasn’t his strong suit.
    He crawled to her, kneeling beside the couch. Laying his hand on her, he squeezed her shoulder and gently shook. She sat straight up, a scream of bloody terror ripping through the room. Her eyes were wild as she looked around quickly. Her robe fell off of her shoulder as she finally focused on his face.
    “What the hell?” Aidan fell back as he saw long bloody marks down the back of her shoulder. She quickly pulled up the sleeve and gathered the robe high around her throat. He reached for her, but she bounded off the couch and ran into the bedroom.
    He went after her and when he entered the room she was huddled down next to the mattress. Her shoulders shaking and soft sounds escaped her lips. He didn’t understand the words but they sounded like a prayer.
    Fuckin’ bloody hell, what did they do to her this fucking time? He was on the verge of asking her when she looked up at him. Her face brought him to his knees. This was not the same woman whom only hours before kissed the hell out of him.
    Her warrior spirit, the one that made her aura a brilliant scarlet, was gone from her face. She looked haunted and beaten. The pale skin and trembling shoulders terrified him. He reached for her and she flinched hard, backing into the wall, trying to make herself into a tight ball. She was like a wounded animal backed into a corner, making herself as small as possible.
    “Rowan please,” he cooed, “I won’t hurt you. I promise.”
    She shook her head in denial. “You want to kill me. Kill me because of him.”
    “No, no.” He made his voice soft and gentle. “You are sister to Jenna. I made a promise to Jenna to find you. Do you think I’m capable of hurting you now?”
    Rowan’s arms came around her legs, and she began rocking back and forth. “He can’t be stopped, he can’t be stopped...I didn’t know what he had planned.” Fat tears rolled down her cheeks, ripping his heart. When he moved to get a little closer she put her hands out, warding him away.
    “Don’t...please.” She continued to rock. He felt so fucking useless.
    “Shhhh...shhhhh my muimin . Don’t.” He reached forward to graze her cheek with the tip of his finger. “I’ll only sit here with you, hold your hand. I promise, nothing more.” His hand slipped over hers, which were still holding tightly to her knees. She began to relax and allowed him to take one of her hands in his.
    For hours he sat with her, holding her hand, rubbing his thumb along her wrist, trying to soothe her through touch alone. She refused to meet his eyes, but he didn’t care, her soft moans and silent tears were fading.
    He wanted to kill, his head was splitting in two with the need to change and seek