An hour later, Mina stared at the glass in front of her, peering into the blood red liquid like it held the answers to the universe. God, if it were only that easy.

She lifted the crystal goblet to her lips and took a long sip.

"So what now, daughter?"

Mina stiffened at the sound of the male voice behind her and turned to face Rene, who stood a few feet away with a half-smile on his wrinkled face. He either didn't sense her "leave me alone" vibe, or opted to ignore it, choosing to lower his massive body into the seat beside her.

He plucked the wine glass from her unresisting fingers and sniffed the contents.

"An American wine?" he said. "I didn't know we had any in France. Missing home?"

Damn him and his unerring nose. "I don't know what you’re talking about. I'm a citizen of the world. I have no home.”

He took a sip of the wine and scrunched his nose. "Why are you still here, anyway?" he asked with a lazy insouciance that was maddening.

She snagged her glass back from him with a frown. "Where should I be rushing off to?" she asked, taking a long sip of California merlot.

She knew she was being churlish, and it was petty after all he'd risked standing by her, but despite their victory today, she felt broken inside.

"Have you spoken to my nephew and shared the good news?"

She shook her head and shoved aside the stab of guilt that came along with his question.

"Not yet."

She should've called Etienne the second she left the Council, but the very thought of talking to him with Dan so close was unbearable. She was one gust away from disintegrating into a million pieces and that would be the thing that would send her over the edge.

"Chicken shit."

She winced at Rene's words, but nodded in wordless agreement as she toyed with the stem of the glass.

"You're right."

"I think you owe him and the others a call, at the very least."

Given that the three of them had risked their lives for her, that was an understatement. "If I do, will you leave me be for a while?" she asked, meeting his all too perceptive, gray gaze.

"Not until you tell me what's going on in that stubborn heart of yours."

His voice had lost the teasing edge he so often used with her, and she wasn't sure she liked the change.

She let out a long, pent-up breath.

“It’s too hard. It hurts too much..." Her voice trailed off.

"What? To love?" he finished for her as she tried to think of how to categorize what Dan was to her.

Even those words felt too small to explain it, but she nodded miserably. "Yes."

“And why is that?”

"Because the more time I spend with him, the more I'll care. And the more I care, the harder it will be when we have to part."

She hated this. She felt so exposed. So vulnerable. But Rene had risked so much to stand for her. She could hardly shut him out now.

"We aren't right for each other. Like a pair of mismatched shoes. He's human. And I'm not interested in watching him die, Rene." She scowled at him then, using her thumbnail to scrape at a spot of dried up soup stuck to the bar in front of her.

"Right. Which brings me back to what I said before." He reached out and took her chin in his hand, tugging her head until she met his challenging gaze. "You're a chicken. And until you decide that's no way to live, you're going to continue missing out on the things that really matter in life."

Anger shot through her, as deep and swift as the arrow that went through her that last night she was with Dan, and she pushed her stool back and leapt to her feet. "You have no right--"

"You think I'm judging you, but I'm not," he broke in with a slash of his hand through the air. "I was exactly like you. Going through life, a bachelor, making sure that if I interacted with others, it was all surface. Nothing that meant anything. Not really." His laser-like eyes went soft and his lips twitched into a half-smile. "And then my Cecilia came. You want to talk about wrong for each other? We were total opposites. She was as sweet as I was salty. She taught children and volunteered at her church while I was busy screwing and looking for the next juicy battle. But you know what? None of it mattered even a little. Once I fell, I fell hard. And had she lived, we'd still be together."

Taya's heart ached as her foster father described the woman she'd never had the chance to meet.

"Why didn't you die when she passed? Any other shifter would."

"Ah, but I'm not any other shifter am I? I'm the oldest dragon, and the others needed me, needed my example. So I hung on. I could've shut down. Ended it all. Hell, I almost did, a thousand times. But I endured the loss, pain and loneliness even during those days and nights when I thought those demons would engulf my soul and end me. Then Etienne came along and breathed new life into me. You followed years later, and I had a purpose again."

His solemn expression and the way truth rang in his voice as he spoke sent a rush of wistfulness through her, bordering on envy.

"How do you get yourself to risk it…caring like that again? What if something happens to one of us? Doesn't it terrify you?"

He cocked his head to the side and considered her question for a long moment before answering.

"No. What terrifies me is the thought of going back to the way I was before Cecilia. Before you, and Etienne. Alone, with a hole in me that I didn't have the tools to fill. It was an empty existence. If I lost one of you now, I would be broken. But I would thank god for every single moment I ever got to spend with people I loved, because each one was a gift."

Mina stared at him, stunned into utter silence. Could that possibly be? She only had to tune in to the warm, soft glow around him to see the truth of his words. Fact or not, he believed what he was saying, and that alone floored her.

"How do you do it? Give over such power to another person willingly? The power to break your heart?"

"Who ever said it was willingly?" he said with a laugh. "I wouldn't change it for the world, but the first time I loved, it was the last thing I wanted. I fought it tooth and nail. The funny part, dear daughter, is that you still think you have a choice."

His words rang in her head like a church bell, true, and clear, and her hands began to shake.

He was right. She loved Dan and nothing--not time or distance or death--would change that. And here she was sitting in some seedy Paris bar wasting what precious time she could have with Dan.

If he still wanted her.

She leapt to her feet and grabbed her coat, bending low to press a kiss to Rene's weathered face.

"I love you, old one. But I've got to go!"