Chapter Eleven
Four days went by, and Viktor was beginning to worry that his self-control wouldn’t hold out much longer. Gerald and Molly still hadn’t found a safe haven to stash Halle that Conrad’s goons didn't have access to. It seemed as though the Coven Master wanted her back something fierce, as he’d spared no expense in bribing all manner of beings to be on the lookout for the runaway leopard shifter. Conrad had put a five-million-dollar bounty out on each of them, and while Halle’s was extremely specific about her being intact and unharmed, the price on Viktor’s head was dead or alive.
How touching.
Regardless, it had meant that the last four days had been spent in close quarters, neither of them able to leave the safety of his warded home. Molly had brought some clothes for Halle to wear, but the vexing female still spent most of her time looking delectable in his shirts, and though he had no proof, in his mind she wore nothing else underneath. They spent their time playing games, reading and watching movies, but he could see that her inner cat was beginning to get twitchy to go for a run. He’d caught her more than once standing in front of the large window in the library, staring longingly at the woods behind the house. Viktor couldn’t stop himself from sending Gerald to the witches to purchase extended warding that would protect the forest behind them. It would cost him a small fortune, but something in him needed to take care of this woman, no matter the cost.
Halle had fallen in love with his library, and they sat and talked for hours about their favorite books, but she was constantly touching him and flirting with him. In a bid to distract himself from her physically, he decided he’d have to do something he normally didn’t do since she’d already told him so much about her own life. He’d have to talk to her about himself.
“So,” he began as he settled himself in the chair beside her, “you’d said that you have an older brother. Is he mated yet?”
“Nah, Tavin is a hopeless romantic, much to my dad’s frustration.” She smiled as she spoke of her brother, and it was clear she was quite fond of him. “He refuses to mate any females in the pard, or anyone else my parents have suggested. He’s convinced that the perfect woman is out there, just waiting for him.”
“And how about you?” he asked softly. “Do you believe in the perfect mating?”
Halle paused for a moment, and this was the first time that Viktor got the feeling that she was censoring her thoughts with him, and he didn’t care for it at all. He wanted to know exactly what she was thinking and feeling. Perhaps it would make him feel less confused about the nature of his own odd feelings since she had arrived in his life.
“I think I do,” she finally answered. “I mean, I know a lot of people get lonely and settle for someone who they think they can love, or that they know will be a good partner. But I’d rather be alone than not be with the one who makes my heart sing. My cat will settle for nothing less.”
“I was married once, before I was turned,” he said quietly, not making eye contact with Halle. He was scared at what her face would reveal in regard to his news. If she was jealous, then it would seem his attraction was reciprocated and he would have no more excuses to fight it. Even worse, if she didn’t seem to care at all, he was afraid the disappointment would crush him.
So much for not letting anyone in.
“Oh.”
Viktor silently thanked the gods when he dared a peek and saw the spark of anger that lit up her shifter’s eyes before she got her emotions under control.
“What happened to her … after—after you turned?”
He knew in his head he would have to tell her the story of his turning when he’d opened this line of conversation, but thinking it and telling it were two very different things. Would she judge him and hate him after this, just like everyone else did?
“I was plucked from the battlefield and kept for many years as a blood slave by my creator. When she finally feared that I was getting too old to keep her sexual interest, she turned me. I had endured so many horrors within the coven and my hatred had grown so much, that as soon as I’d woken in my new life I destroyed her and her people in my bloodlust and anger.”
“Did you go back for your family?”
“I had become the monster every mortal feared.” He finally looked up and was surprised to see the tenderness in her face. “I couldn’t risk harming them, and things were so different back then. My wife had been told I’d been killed in battle, and she had remarried to provide for our son.”
“That must have hurt you.”
“I could not blame her for it.” Viktor hadn’t thought about his wife Lelaina for centuries. It had been so long since both she and his son had passed. “The Roman empire was a harsh place for a woman without the protection of a strong man. We had married young, just like most did. I was fond of Lelaina and I loved my son, but I was content they would be taken care of in my absence.”
“I can understand that I guess.”
“I was filled with such rage that I was unable to control, I spent years tracking the last of Melisandre’s coven. I was unfit to be around any living being, especially mortals.”
He couldn’t hide the shame in his confession.
“Of course you were enraged. It was awful what was done to you, Viktor. What was taken from you could never be forgiven.” Halle reached out and placed her hand on his arm, causing him to look up at her once again.
“Do not mistake me, Halle.” His pride was pushing him to tell her everything, whether it was self-sabotaging or not. “I’ve done all the horrible things in my life that others whisper about me. Terrible, unforgivable things. My soul will never be rid of their taint.”
She just stared into his eyes, her stubbornness matching his own.
“The fact that you just told me that shows me exactly what type of man you are now Viktor. No one is without sin, but it’s how you choose to live your life now and the man you’ve become that matters to me.”
He was stunned at her words. Deep inside Viktor had been certain that confessing his past to Halle would be the thing that had her fleeing him in disgust. How did she have so much faith in him? He’d spent so many years believing he had no future, that his sins had condemned him, that when he was presented with the possibility of one—he’d been left speechless.