I woke at some point in the middle of the night. Lying in bed, Luke next to me holding my hand, I couldn't help but run back over everything in my mind. Everything that had led us to this surprising turn of events.

"Hey," Luke said. "How are you feeling?"

I rolled onto my side to see him on his side, smiling at me. "I feel good. But I have so many questions."

He grinned. "I figured as much. Go on."

"How can you see the future? You're not psychic or a witch."

"It's a supernatural imprinting thing," he said, brushing his thumb over the back of my hand. "Any supernatural creature, when imprinting on their soulmate, can see things that are yet to be. The males get glimpses of it when they first meet their soulmate. It's like a sneak peek at the future that lies ahead. They can then make an informed decision from there whether to pursue the relationship further or not."

I frowned. "So not all soulmates end up together?"

"I've never known any to not end up together once they've met but the idea behind the males getting the preview of the future is for them to decide if it's what they want. Like I said, I've never known any to refuse their future."

"What if they did?"

"Then they would just continue on as normal, pretending they've never met. However, once soulmates have met, the pull they have towards one another is very difficult to ignore—as you well know. I think even if a male was shown a future he wasn't keen on, his feelings for his soulmate would eventually outweigh any doubts and they would inevitably end up together anyway, but I'm just guessing."

"You said males always get shown the glimpses first...but how does this work for, you know, same sex couples?"

Luke raised an eyebrow. "Our world is very archaic in the way it runs and how it works. There is no room for things like that on an official capacity. All soulmate pairings will be male-female. It's to help drive our species forwards."

I frowned. "But that seems really unfair on same sex couples that are madly in love with each other. Where's their fair shot?"

"But they will have a soulmate of the opposite sex waiting for them somewhere, so are they madly in love, or madly in lust? It all depends on your perspectives."

"There are some rules in this world that are extremely ancient and that need changing. That is one of them."

"I agree, but what can anyone do about it? The Elders are the ones in charge."

"Hmmm," I said, biting my lower lip and pondering over how to change laws. "We'll revisit that another day." I remembered something from the imprint images and then asked, "Why did I see myself growing fur? I thought werewolves could only be born, not made?"

He grinned. "Werewolves can be made but the process is very complex compared to vampires. Vampires can pretty much turn any human but with the werewolf gene, the selection is a lot more...particular. Only a certain type of human can withstand the agony of their first turn. Once the first turn is over, they're fine, but around seventy percent of made werewolves don't make it past that point."

I gasped. "Seventy percent? That's a huge number."

He nodded. "That's why we don't make a habit of turning people unless their purpose as a werewolf outweighs their life as a human."

"How does it happen? How do you turn someone?"

He cleared his throat and said, "It's not like how vampires do it."

I pursed my lips as I thought back over my conversations with Marcus. "I don't think he actually told me how they do it. All he told me was that born vampires are the only vampires that can turn. Made vampires can't make other vampires."

"Ok, so for vampires, it's very simple—the human has to be aware of what is happening. It's not like on TV where they have a sip of blood, their neck is snapped, and then they wake up in transition. Every single turn has to be wanted and accepted."

I nodded. "Yes, he told me that the mind and body have to be in unison with what is going to happen."

"The human has to ingest around a pint of vampire blood—it could be more or less depending on the individual. The general rule is to drink a minimum of ten percent of the amount of blood in their body. Over the next few hours, the vampire blood attacks all of the human cells, literally killing the human one blood cell at a time. Once all the blood cells have been absorbed, they have to drink a minimum of a pint of human blood to reactivate the vampire cells into feeding. Then they are officially a vampire."

I raised an eyebrow. "That's it? No writing in agony, no dying and waking up?"

He chuckled. "You think feeling yourself being absorbed cell by cell isn't painful?"

"I hadn't thought about like that..." I frowned and then said, "But if someone ingests vampire blood to heal themselves, how does that heal them and not turn them?"

"It's all about quantity. If someone drinks say a mouthful, or even a cup of vampire blood, it's not enough to overwhelm the body and start the turning process. Vampire blood cells essentially absorb damaged cells and tissue, that's how the healing works. But when the quantity is ten percent or more of the human blood amount, it overwhelms the human body to the point that it takes control and takes over, turning them."

"Ok, I understand. So how are werewolves made?"

"A werewolf has to bite a human in a very specific place—the jugular vein. We have to bite them in such a way that the toxins in our saliva enter the bloodstream to start the turning process...whilst they bleed out."

I sucked in a sharp breath. "They have to bleed out?"

He nodded. "The toxins in our saliva, once they reach the heart, will spread through the body quite quickly, but if we let them bleed out from the first bite, then the toxins won't have enough time to settle and start their work."

I squeezed my eyes shut and said, "Please don't tell me this is going where I think it's going."

He sighed. "I'm afraid so. We have to heal them from the wound, then repeat the process over and over until the toxins start to do their work."

"And how do you know when that is?"

"When their eyes start to turn yellow."

A violent shiver ran down my spine. "And how long does that take?"

"Around half an hour, give or take."

"And then they die?"

He nodded. "Then the last bite will be the one that lets them bleed out and die. When they wake up, they will immediately start to turn."

My eyes widened. "Wow. That's a really sucky way to die, then to wake up and have to go through a turn?" I shivered. "I'm really concerned that I saw myself growing fur. I don't want to be a werewolf, Luke."

He pulled me in close to him and kissed the end of my nose. "I don't know what that was. I can certainly tell you now that I will not put you through the pain of turning into a werewolf. I don't know what that glimpse was all about but I'm sure we'll see when we're supposed to."

I nodded. "Maybe it was wrong. The glimpses aren't always right, surely?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I've no idea. I've never asked anyone."

"I can't help but keep thinking about this soulmate thing," I said. "My dad, your mum, they said it was Marcus."

Luke pressed his lips together and sighed. "Did they actually use his name?"

I thought back to my dream of Mirabelle. very important to our son is what Luke's dad had said. My heart skipped a beat. I hadn't thought anything of it. I presumed he looked at Marcus as a son. When soulmates find each other, an incredible thing. My life makes so much sense now I've found mine, Mirabelle had said.

I gasped. They were talking about Luke, and I thought they were talking about Marcus. The last conversation I'd had with Dad, I'd thought he was talking about Marcus but now I realised he wasn't.

He looked at me and said, "Don't get caught up in all that witchy business. It's not good. You know who you can trust. He's a good man."

"You know he's a—"

"I know he's immortal," Dad said, nodding. "He's honest, hardworking, and he thinks the world of you. I've seen the way he looks at you, right from the first day you met. He's the one for you, Cat. Your soulmate. There's something about the way you two are together that just screams something special. Don't lose it."

The way I felt at ease around Luke, the fun we had together, how he touched me emotionally, spiritually, right down to the very core of my heart and soul—the answer had been staring me right in the face, but I couldn't see past Marcus.

I glanced up at Luke, water filming over my vision, and let my defences down. In that instant, I felt his pain, the sheer agony he'd lived with day and night watching me be with someone else, cry over someone else, miss someone else. My tears spilled over, cascading down my cheeks.

I cupped his handsome face in my hands and whispered, "I'm so sorry. I didn't know." With a shaky hand, I rested it on his chest, over his heart. His breathing faltered slightly, becoming short and sharp. "Can you ever forgive me for the pain I've caused you?"

He closed his eyes. My heart sank. Had my sheer ignorance and my witch born lust for immortality cost me my soulmate? To my utter amazement, tears started falling, wetting his eyelashes to his skin.

"Luke, don't cry," I whispered, pressing my nose to his. "I'm so sorry."

He tweaked his pink lips up into a smile and finally opened his eyes. His whiskey brown eyes were full of nothing but joy. His soul gleamed back at me, brimming with love and happiness, right through his beautiful windows.

"They're tears of happiness, I promise you that," he said. "You have no idea how many thousands of times I've fantasised about this moment but not one daydream lives up to the reality of it. It is literally a dream come true."

"How can I possibly make this up to you?"

He smiled and took my hands in his. Pressing a gentle kiss to the back of each of them, he said, "You already have, a million times over."

I frowned. "How?"

"By realising this."

I smiled. "I didn't though, did I? I forced you to tell me."

He laughed. "Po-tay-to, po-tar-to."

I giggled. "I hate myself for being so dumb. I'm so sorry. You have no idea how much."

"Hey, less of that," he said, letting go of my hands and placing his hands on my cheeks. "You are anything but dumb. When it comes to vampires and witches, everyone knows the score."

"But I should have been different. I'm supposed to be super woman, remember?"

He chuckled. "With magic, yes. Affairs of the heart, not so much. The main thing is you have realised it, Cat. Don't dwell on the past, you can't change it."

I sighed and said, "No, but perhaps I can change it for others."

"What do you mean?" he asked, his brow furrowing slightly in confusion.

I suddenly felt energised and full of life, like this idea forming in my mind could potentially be the answer to everything. "Cross species relationships are forbidden, yes?"

He nodded.

"Help me understand then how people seem to get away with it?"

He sighed. "It's complicated. The Elder Court have informants and spies everywhere. They know that cross species relations happen, and they know they will never control people's lust, but where they draw the line is marriage, and most importantly children. They will not under any circumstances sanction a marriage, because the natural thing to progress from a marriage is children."

"So your Mum and Dad, are they married?"

"No. They could have a 'human' wedding and be considered legal in the eyes of human law, but they would not be accepted and seen as married in our world because the Elders will not permit it. Any marriage needs their blessing first."

"But there must be children alive who are the product of unmarried cross species relationships?"

He nodded. "There are. I'm one myself. They are, we are, closely watched. If the child poses too much of a threat from day one, it is dealt with immediately. The rest are kept under surveillance, and again, if pose too much of a threat, they are dealt with."

"By dealt with you mean..."

He grabbed my hand and whispered, "Killed, Caitlyn. They eliminate the threat."

I gasped. "How can they kill an innocent baby? Happy little children with nothing but their life ahead of them?"

"They view them as an object, nothing more."

"How have you survived this long?"

He pulled his lips into a thin line. "I have done my utmost to stop attention being drawn to me. I rarely shift and I only show werewolf traits, they know nothing of my other abilities. Ultimately though, I think they know that keeping me alive is the only way to draw my parents back out from hiding. If they kill me, my parents have no reason to return."

"When did your parents go into hiding?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "When I was thirteen or fourteen. My brothers and sisters brought me up after that."

I frowned. "But I thought Mirabelle had been missing for two hundred years? You're one hundred and fifty. If they left when you were thirteen or fourteen, then what happened in between in all those other years?"

He laughed. "It's not like they met and had me straight away. They travelled the world for many years before coming back here to settle down. I wasn't planned either."

"So why did they go when they did? Did the Elder Court not know about you beforehand?"

He shook his head. "They knew I existed, but thought I was nothing more than a regular werewolf. They thought Dad had hooked up with another werewolf. Mum and Dad were very careful about where they went together. Mum usually cloaked herself with an invisibility spell. It was by pure chance that one of their spies happened to pass the house and saw Mum going in carrying a load of laundry without using her hands. They then realised I was the product of a cross species relationship. However, because I never displayed any threat or anything other than normal werewolf behaviour, they have pretty much left me be. I am of little interest to them."

I frowned. "But why? They know what Mirabelle is. They know her power. Surely they suspect some of that is in you?"

"The werewolf gene is the dominant gene of all the supernatural species. They presumed that the werewolf DNA over-rode any vampire or witch DNA, leaving me nothing more than a regular werewolf. I've never displayed anything other so why would they suspect different? They have so many illegitimate children to worry about they can't fuss over one that seems perfectly normal."

"It just seems ridiculous to me. They should view cross species relationships as potential to enhance species and find powers that have never been displayed before. Evolution. Purity in bloodlines does not evolve the species."

He nodded. "I agree but they are frightened of finding power they don't understand or cannot control. If they stick to what they know then they have control at all times."

"But all the soulmates who must be keeping themselves apart, or living in fear of being found, or desperately wanting children but can't...it's not fair. This," I said, motioning my hand between us. "Has been so painful, for both of us, but especially for you, right? Knowing we should be together but not being able to act on it. I knew I had feelings for you, but I didn't know what they were. Now though, now we've realised, or rather, I've realised what we are to each other, we still can't officially be together, can we?"

The slightest tinge of sadness pulled at his mouth. "Our closest friends and family can know, of course, but that's it."

I grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to live like that, and I certainly don't want to have a life without children either because of some ridiculous law that was passed a millennia ago based on fear."

"Children?" he said, lifting an eyebrow. "We haven't even...you know, yet."

I giggled. "Out of all that, you picked out children?"

He rubbed his nose against mine and whispered, "Out of all you just said, children with you is the only thing I truly desire. I couldn't care less about laws or anyone else."

My heart somersaulted. "Unless you want our children to live a life like you have, I need to do something about those laws."

"Do you understand what that means, Caitlyn?"

I nodded. "Of course I do. But with you by my side, I can do anything."

He pulled me in close and pressed a kiss to my forehead. "Then you don't need to do anything about those laws. We need to do something about those laws."

I smiled. "How did I not realise you were so amazing sooner?"

"Better late than never."

I nodded. "Definitely."

We stared at each other for several seconds. My heart raced like crazy. He moved his mouth towards mine and closed his eyes. I grabbed onto his arm to steady myself and closed my eyes, waiting for his kiss.

When his lips met mine with such a tender touch, I shivered. He slid a hand from my cheek and ran it through my hair. He then traced it down my back and pressed me against him. I tightened my grip on his arm and placed my free hand over his heart. The strong steady beat resounded through his chest, grounding me to him.

I opened my mouth, needing a deeper connection. He stroked his tongue against mine, then tangled them together in such a slow, delicious dance, I couldn't help but moan. The hand on my back pushed me further into his delicious body. Our kiss intensified as he gave me everything he could, our fervent want and need for each other taking the kiss from leisurely tender to consuming passion.

My mind filled with stars and wonder, my body simmered with heat, and my soul finally felt full and satiated, at peace and settled. I'd never felt something so amazing, every last fibre within me screamed with ecstasy, as if a war had been won and the heartache over.

The longer we kissed, the more I knew this man had me utterly and completely. There was no one else but him. How could I have not seen this before? What I'd had with Marcus had been nothing but child's play compared to this.

Luke pulled away from me and kissed the top of my nose. "Wow," he whispered.

I nodded, biting my lip as I grinned back up at him. "I could do that all day."

"So could I." He looked at me, love and adoration pouring from his eyes. "You are so beautiful, Caitlyn."

I blushed. "You are just as handsome."

He shook his head. "I'm nothing compared to you."

I grinned. "Shut up and kiss me."

"In a minute," he said, grinning back at me.

I raised an eyebrow. "Erm...ok. Why in a minute?"

"Because you are literally killing me. I need to regain some self-control."

I giggled. "Ok, I'm sorry." I sat up and looked at him with a serious edge to my voice. "In all seriousness though, I can't just jump into bed with you because you've imprinted on me and we're soulmates."

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Wow, I wish you'd have told me that sooner."

My heart skipped a beat and I frowned. "What do you mean?"

Amusement danced through his eyes and he burst out laughing. "I'm joking, Cat. Do you really think that's all I'm interested in?"

I opened my mouth but found myself devoid of words.

"There is absolutely no pressure on you to do anything you're not ready for." He lifted a hand and cupped my cheek. "I mean that. And don't forget, I can now feel what you're feeling and hear what you're thinking. There's no hiding if you're not ready."

"We do get some privacy though, right?"

He laughed. "It's very simple. Just imagine a brick wall or some sort of barrier around your mind. Once you have your powers, it'll come easily to you."

"But until then my thoughts and feelings are at your mercy unless I make a conscious effort to keep you out?"

He grinned and leaned in closer, hovering his delicious lips just in front of mine. "Completely."

I laughed. "That doesn't help at all." I squeezed his hand and said, "Can we just carry on as we are for now? Two people who get on well and enjoy spending time together?"

"Of course," he said. "Any time spent with you is precious to me."

I giggled.

"What?" he said. "That was supposed to be sweet, not funny."

I giggled again. "It's just you using the word 'precious' after you turned into Frodo the other week."

"I did not turn into Frodo."

"Yes, you did."

"Fine, I'll turn back into Frodo right now and show you just how precious you are to me."

The husk in his voice had me melting in an instant. As his smile slowly faded and the glee in his eyes gave way to love and desire, my soul soared with heights of joy I didn't know were possible.