Chapter Fifteen
“I sure did,” Halle said with a smile, feeling pretty pleased with herself as she finished buttoning what was left of the closures on his shirt over her tender breasts. “Oh, are these oatmeal, Molly?”
Viktor was still standing there shocked as Halle dove on the warm cookies and milk. Molly sighed as if she’d just heard the sweetest love story ever and then retreated back to her kitchen.
“Why would you do this, Halle? Do you have any idea how much danger this puts you in?” he said furiously as he did up his pants.
Halle tried to compose herself enough to hide the sliver of hurt that snuck into her heart at his reaction to the news that they were now mated. As a shifter, she knew that even though he was a different species, he would have felt the pull of the mating heat, but she also had to expect that due to the fact that she hadn’t given him a fair warning he would fight it at least a little. After all, she was probably not exactly the type of woman he usually got involved with. But she would just have to show him that she could make him happy.
“I did what fate dictated, Viktor. You are my mate, and I am yours,” she told him softly as she put the cookie down, put her hands on his hips and looked up at him. “I know you feel drawn to me as much as I am to you. This is meant to be. Now Conrad has no claim over me, and we can spend our lives together.”
She could see the wheels turning in his head, but she also saw the worry flare in his eyes when she’d said Conrad’s name. Viktor had known him a lot longer than she had, and his expression had her worried that the douchebag vamp might not give up on owning her as easily as she thought.
Well, both of these vampires would find out right now that she wasn’t the meek little kitten they thought she was. She was a predator in her own right, and she would fight to protect what was hers.
First things first, though, she needed to call her family and let them know that she was now mated. She cringed at the thought that they must have been informed by Conrad that his nemesis had abducted her, but Dori had been insistent that she didn’t call them. Jeepers, they must be thinking the worst of Viktor by now.
But Viktor had also assured her that it was safer to not contact her family right away. If Conrad had gone back to her parents and found out that she had conspired to evade the blood debt purposely, things could end very badly for her father. So it was better that they had not known anything about the situation when she’d first taken off with Viktor.
The two of them also had to register their mating with the Para Council, which would at least keep them safe from Conrad trying to steal her back to force breed her. Well, legally anyway. But she knew just as well as anyone that the coven leader was not the rule abiding citizen he pretended to be. She didn’t want to pull her family into a war, but now if Conrad tried to take her from her mate, then by shifter standards she would be well within her rights to kill in self-defense.
****
Viktor knew his reaction to the fact that she’d just mated him had hurt her feelings, and immediately he felt the need to fix it. But in all the possible outcomes of their having sex, her up and marking him as her mate had never even been one that had crossed his mind. How was it possible that the Universe would be so cruel as to saddle a sweet, beautiful creature like Halle with a baggage-heaped mess like him?
She was so incredibly beautiful, looking up at him with those luminous green eyes. It had been so long since Viktor had felt this alive. So long since he had felt like he had been living at all, really. But he knew Conrad, and if that bastard had wanted Halle before, then the news that his greatest enemy had mated her would only mean that she was in greater danger now than ever.
How in the hell am I going to keep her safe?
The only logical answer was to eliminate Conrad once and for all, and then he would be free to do what he’d been too frightened to do for centuries. He would start his life over.
He leaned down and kissed her, and then he pulled her in close for a hug.
“Okay, love. We need to figure this out because as much as you’d like to hope, Conrad isn’t just going to go away,” he said looking down at her again.
Her beaming smile at his acceptance of their union made his heart trip in his chest. For a vampire as old as he was, who’d thought his heart died long ago, that reaction alone was enough to make him believe in this mating.
“I need to call my parents, and we need to register our mating. At least that way if anything happens, we will be justified in protecting ourselves,” she said, hugging him back.
“You can use the phone in my office to call your parents. I’d take you to them tonight, but I’m afraid Conrad will probably still be having them watched for any sign of you and it wouldn’t be safe. He can’t find you here. I’ve paid a fortune for the wards that keep my home hidden,” he said as he led her to the small office connecting to the study. “I’ll give you some privacy to make your call.”
Viktor left the office, needing to make his own call. He wanted to make sure that he could trust whoever would be registering their mating within the Para Council. The last thing they needed was some random clerk getting paid off by Conrad to “accidentally” shelve their paperwork and leave that bastard an opportunity to legally get Halle back into his custody. He walked over to his favorite chair in the study and the bookshelf directly behind it. There he pulled out an expensive black ledger book and sat down with his cell phone in hand. In the years since he’d been reborn into a world of blood and monsters, there had been plenty of opportunities to lend his skills as a warrior—for a price, of course.
After the first couple of centuries in his new vampire life, he had amassed enough wealth to sustain him indefinitely, so his payment requirements to lend his formidable warrior skills had turned into favors owed. Of which he kept meticulous records. Back in the day, when he was still angry and bitter at what his life had become, he’d used to relish using these favors owed to their full extent.
Taking what his new allies treasured most, watching them crumble at the thought of giving up their most prized possessions. But eventually, even his rage grew weary of the games. Suddenly he found himself offering his assistance to those in dire circumstances not because he wanted a favor owed, but because he found that the buried parts of the man he used to be simply could not stand back and watch terrible things happen to those who did not deserve it.
Of course, for reputation's sake, he would still set the price of his help, but it was a rare thing these days for him to ever cash in these favors. As he looked through the ledger to find the name he was looking for, he thought back to the night when he had collected the debt.
Viktor had been out one night and found a young council Hunter, just barely out of training, surrounded and about to be dinner for a group of rogue vampires. The bargain was struck, and he’d saved him. Now all his years of waiting had paid off because that young Hunter had matured and advanced in his role with the Para Council. This man was now exactly the person who could ensure that their mating paperwork was filed and acknowledged as quickly as possible. He dialed the number written next to the name and waited for the man to answer.
“This is Maleck,” was all the bear on the other end of the phone said in a rumbling, deep drawl.
“Burton Maleck, this is Viktor Krescech, and I am calling in your blood debt owed to me.”
“Fuck,” Burton muttered. “I was wondering when the devil would come for his due. What do you want? If this has anything to do with you kidnapping the Briggs girl, then I can’t help you. Conrad has already reported you to the council.”
“I assumed as much, and this is about Halle Briggs. We need to register our mating with the Para Council, and I need you to make sure that Conrad won’t bury it and attempt to reclaim her by force,” Viktor answered, trying to remain calm.
He’d suspected that Conrad would report him to the Para Council eventually, but given the way that the bastard had manipulated Halle’s family into the blood debt in the first place, Viktor had thought he’d drag his feet on it.
There were a few moments of silence on the other end of the phone. Of course, the shifter was probably trying to figure out which one of the reputed homicidal vampires was lying to him.
“You’re serious,” Burton said carefully. “Halle has mated you, and it was consensual?”
The abrupt laugh that came out of Viktor when he replayed the circumstance of their mating in his head was as much a surprise to himself as it must have been to the man on the other end of the phone.
“Well, she didn’t exactly ask me before she decided to do it. On the other hand, I wasn’t complaining at the time,” he answered honestly. “But I feel the bond as strongly as she does.”
It must have been the correct answer because he could hear the tone in Burton’s voice relax as he laughed as well.
“Yeah well, I have news for you. With shifter females, that’s just the beginning of their bossy tendencies,” Burton said before he paused once more. “You know, Krescech, when you saved my life all those years ago, I truly couldn’t reconcile the man who I’d met with the monster that everyone proclaims you to be. But I’m damned well relieved that a sweet girl like Halle is going to end up with you instead of that bastard, Conrad Dair. I’ll have your paperwork drawn up, but you know that the rest of the council is going to need to see Halle to confirm that you’re mated. You’ll have to bring her in.”
“I know,” Viktor said, trying not to think about how dangerous it would be for them to go to the Para Council building where Conrad no doubt had dozens of spies waiting for them to turn up. “Conrad will be trying to stop us. Can you gather the Council and not tell them who the mating confirmation is for? I don’t trust anyone but you not to leak this to him.”
“I’ll come up with something. Just make sure you have her here at nine tomorrow morning,” Burton said before he hung up.
Now all they had to do was walk past a network of supernatural spies and evade a psychotic megalomaniac who was trying to steal and force mate his new bride. How hard could that be?
Viktor was certain they were going to find out.