Her heart and soul had already spoken. They wouldn’t let Lucas go.

I’ll never turn her away, Clyde. She’s my mate. I’ll protect her till my dying breath. I’ll even swallow my pride and ask a favor as momentous as the one I just asked of a man who has done nothing but try to drive a wedge between her and myself.

I made the decision. I want you more than I want heaven, more than I want to be an angel. I love you more than who I was created to be.

He would give up his wings and heaven for her, a woman he loved but would never truly belong to him, a woman he could never keep. He’d fall and be banished from the only home he’d ever known, but he could never give her up. He’d keep her, enjoy her and love her as long as he could.

And the more he gazed at her, the more he felt a twinge of something he couldn’t quite describe, an unknown surge that bubbled inside him from the first moment he’d caught sight of her, and it wouldn’t release him.

I can’t let it happen. I can’t risk it. I have to protect you, and I will. With every breath in me, I will.