Page 46 of His Winter Wonderland

“You’d be surprised.”

“You have an inner animal. This is different. My darkness isn’t a separate entity. It’s me. It’s just the darker side of me.”

“All vamps have a darker side. It’s what comes through when you’re in a battle.”

“It seems you’ve studied up on vampires.”

“I’ve battled more than a few in my life. It’s always good to know your enemy.”

Ouch.

“Vamps aren’t the only ones who have darkness in them,” she told him. “Everyone has darkness in them. Some just have more than others. There’s no such thing as a perfect person.”

“Yeah, my darkness is worse. My darkness is part of the reason I was cursed here. It’s also the reason you hate me.” Correct me. Say you don’t hate me.

“We’re getting off track,” she replied. “How were you able to finally tame your darkness in dreamland?”

“Before, I was always a passenger in my dreams. The darkness was in charge. I could never tell it what to do. I didn’t want to. I was always in agreement with what it was doing. Until I wasn’t. And that’s when I realized it wouldn’t listen to me. The first half of the dream, I fought as hard as I could to break free and become the one in control again. It wasn’t until the second half that I was able to do it. But it didn’t happen the way I thought. I broke free of my darkness entirely. I became a separate entity and I had to battle it out with my darkness to finally tame it. It wasn’t until it was dormant once again that I was able to see things clearly. Once I controlled that angry side of me, I was able to see the big picture. The shadowy figured disappeared and I was able to see you.”

He raised his head from the wall and turned to face Winter. “After I got rid of all the anger, hatred and my lust for revenge, I was able to see you. I was able to see my mate.” Rhen wiped his eyes. Fuck. She’s seeing me cry.

“The black lines have left your face,” she told him. “Your claws have retracted. So have your fangs.”

Rhen stared down at his hands. She was right. He shoved his hands into his pockets and stared down at her hardwood floors. “I’m sorry you had to see me like that.”

“I’m glad I got to see it.”

He lifted his head. “Why? Because it solidifies your reason to stay away from me?”

“No. Because it lets me know that you’re stronger than the darkness inside of you.”

Say what? “You really mean that?”

“Would I have said it if I hadn’t?”

Rhen grinned. “No. You always say what you mean.”

“Not all the time. But, most of the time. It took me years to learn to control the darkness in me. Even now, she’s sometimes hard to control. So, I understand your situation. I’m glad you told me your side of the story about our dreams. I never knew you saw me as someone from your past.”

Rhen nodded. “I would’ve told you earlier, if you didn’t try to set me on fire every time I came by.”

Winter smiled. Damn, that smile always did something to him. “Sorry, not sorry.”

“You know, a friend once told me that in relationships, communication is key.”

“Did you kill that someone for saying something so mushy?”

Rhen laughed. “Nah, I killed him for scratching up my last snow-bike. But, before I killed him, he used to say some insightful shit.”

“I guess he’d come in handy right now. If he was alive, he could help me talk you out of killing Kaede.”

“Let’s talk about them later. I want to keep chatting about us.”

“No. We need to focus on Kaede and Sinclair.”

“But Rhen and Winter still got things to talk about. Right?”

She appeared deep in thought for a moment. “After we save Sin and Kaede from their first full moon issues, we can think about talking about us.”