Chapter Ten
By all the Gods, this woman is trying to drive me mad!
Viktor could clearly see that Halle was enjoying teasing him and any other man would’ve just taken her up against the nearest wall by now, but there was just something about her that drove his protective instincts to a place they hadn’t gone in an eternity, not since his wife and son had been alive.
That thought in itself should’ve been enough to have him running the other way. He’d been alone for so long that the idea of having someone to actually care about again was terrifying. He had made so many enemies over the years, and the last thing he ever wanted to do was to give them a weakness to exploit. He also never wanted to feel the kind of loss again that came with taking a chance on loving someone, only to be disappointed by fate.
No. He would endure this torture and leave her be. A nice girl like Halle deserved a nice, simple life, with a mate and children. All he had to do was resist the temptation for a few days until he found her somewhere safe to hide out, and then he would finally go and deal with Conrad himself. That bastard would no longer be playing games with innocent peoples’ lives. That would be his gift to Halle.
****
Dori sat in the living room of her mom’s place in front of the viewing crystal with a big bowl of popcorn and a frown on her face.
It had been days of Halle flirting her ass off and leaving subtle innuendos for Viktor to take advantage of. The truth was, Dori was damned proud of her girl. For someone who had little to no dating history, she was going at that man like the classiest of call girls, strutting her stuff all over that house. But the male was the most stubborn ass Dori had ever encountered. Of course, being the enlightened individual she was, she knew that he was resisting Halle out of some sense of honor and protection towards the girl, which only made him more likable—if you were into that kind of thing.
Damned honorable males, how dare he mess with my timetable!
Dori knew that Halle’s fragile sense of feminine pride could only last so long when she was getting rebuffed left and right. She’d put money on the fact that the little shifter would have already beat feet home if her cat hadn’t confirmed that Viktor was indeed her true mate—even if that would have meant ending up dealing with Conrad on her own or not.
But luckily for all of them, now that Halle’s cat had scented her mate, the tenacious little beastie wouldn’t accept no for an answer.
So, how would they break this surprisingly chivalrous villain’s rock hard control? Well, since the subtle sexual invitation wasn’t working, Dori had to reach back into her bag of tricks for motivating the opposite sex, and she was pretty sure she’d found the perfect thing.
As soon as she watched Viktor excused himself out of the study to go make a call and see if Gerald was making any progress with Halle’s relocation, Dori popped into sight beside Halle.
“Goddess, Dori! You scared the crap out of me again,” Halle whispered furiously. “It’s been days, and this isn’t working. I’m not sure I can do this.”
Dori felt the oddest uncomfortable flutter in her chest region as she watched Halle’s lower lip quiver and her eyes begin to well up with tears. She could have sworn she almost felt the need to hug her—she must have been PMS’ing or something as she certainly wasn’t one of those “touchy feely” fairies.
Halle took a minute to no doubt absorb the invaluable lesson that she’d just given her. The girl wiped at her huge green eyes, and when they flashed in defiance Dori knew she was ready for another crack at it.
“Viktor is just trying to do what he thinks is best for you, but I know exactly what will break him.”
“What?”
“Bare ass and a challenge, my girl. He’s got a solid lock on his self-control against your flirting, but if you flash a little more skin and then challenge his manhood? Well, honey, I haven’t met an alpha male yet who will let that invitation go. Plus—the sex will be super-hot,” she said with a wink right before she left in a poof of magic.
****
Pandora arrived home and almost landed on top of her mother in the living room, now eating her bowl of popcorn.
“Hey, that’s mine. I busted my ass putting that in the microwave!” she said as she snatched the bowl away with a hoot of victory.
“Honestly, darling, no wonder there’s a rumor going around that you were raised by demon wolves.”
They both settled in on the couch in front of the viewing crystal to see if Halle would take her advice. When the little shifter got a determined look on her face and ran upstairs to change into another one of Viktor’s shirts that she’d pilfered, Dori knew the fireworks were about to commence.
“Ooh, she’s going for it.” Her mother squealed in delight and clapped her hands. “Honestly, this is so much more exciting than reality TV!”
“This better work because they’re running out of time,” Dori said as she felt that tingling of her magic deep down in her chest. She closed her eyes and quickly checked on the internal timeline she had for Viktor and Halle.
“What in the hell was that?” her mom asked, with a freaked-out tone in her voice.
“What?” Dori said in a distracted voice, and when she opened her eyes again her mother was staring over her shoulder at her wings like she’d never seen them before.
“What were you just doing? Your wings were glowing and vibrating. I’ve never heard of fairy wings ever doing that.”
Glowing and vibrating? Dori had no idea there were physical manifestations when she used the deepest of her magic, but then again, she’d never done it in front of anyone before. One of these days, Pandora was going to have to push her mom to tell her more about who her father was. She still had no idea who or what he had been.
Every time she brought it up, her mom quickly shut the conversation down. But things were getting weird, and maybe if she knew what kind of power her father had possessed, she’d be able to master her own magic better. That and maybe her mother could stop worrying that she’d burn out and fade away every time Dori got lazy and manifested a Starbucks latte instead of driving to the mall.