Roxy froze. Her hand, which had been resting on the heavy, pearl-inlaid handle of the sanctum door, trembled.
The image of her tiny, beautiful Mer-Prince flashed behind her eyes, the way his little fists used to curl into her hair. An ache ripped through her chest, so profound and agonizing it physically stole the breath from her lungs.
Every biological, maternal instinct she possessed screamed at her to turn around, to hold her baby just one more time.
"I can't," Roxy choked out. She rested her forehead against the cool, hard surface of the door. "Nerissa, if I hold him... if I smell him and feel his little heartbeat against mine... I won't be able to let go. I will stay. And if I stay, my pack on the surface will die. I have to be a Queen right now, not just a mother. I can't see him."
