I will claim her, and I will protect her, and any who become her enemy? I will destroy.

You may be some fearsome creature, but I'm her daddy. You hurt her, there aren't enough stone walls to keep me away from you and prevent me from mounting your head on a pike. You think you're a mean sonovabitch? Next to a father who's listening to his little girl cry, you're nothing more than pottery.

She woke to Terak's claws raking through her hair and her body deliciously sore, well-used in the best sense.

Do I seem one who will not defend myself? You are her father, so I will make myself clear. Any who seek her harm I will kill. I will rip into them with claw and teeth and separate skin from bone from heart. An enemy, a friends, from within either of our Clans - it does not matter.

He was gargoyle. Tonight, his mate would learn exactly what that meant.