Chapter Twelve
Back at the castle that evening, Treffon sent word that he was busy reviewing security procedures for the pack, but would see Violet in the morning.
She spent a restless night, tossing and turning and replaying scenes of their lovemaking in her head again and again.
There was a knock on the door, far too early, and then Treffon bustled in to her room.
She sat up, hiding a yawn behind her hand.
“Sometimes when people knock, they wait for the other person to say ‘come in’ before they barrel through the door,” she said reproachfully.
“Such people are not responsible for your safety. You did not answer quickly enough and I feared that you had come to harm.” Treffon smiled politely.
Violet kicked the covers off and gave an unladylike snort of disbelief.
“Or you just wanted to see me in my nightie.” She was wearing a lacy white nightgown that barely skimmed her thighs.
“That was an unexpected bonus.” Now his smile grew sensual, and his gaze roved over her body. She felt a rush of moisture between her thighs. Actually, it wasn’t so bad that he wanted to see her in her night-clothes, was it? She loved how sexy he made her feel.
“I came to offer to show you the grounds, but there is no hurry.” He raised his eyebrows. “We could take our time.”
She inclined her head towards the other side of the room, where Dorcas slept in a separate bed concealed by sweeping curtains.
“Ahem. I am sharing a room with my great-aunt.” And right now, she really wished she wasn’t.
“Oh, don’t mind me!” Dorcas yelled out from behind the curtains.
Violet gasped in outrage. “That’s it! You need to go,” she said to Treffon furiously. “I will meet you for breakfast after I get dressed. And you, Dorcas, you should be ashamed! You’re supposed to be a good influence on me!”
She thought she heard Dorcas mutter, “Good luck with that.”
Treffon left, laughing quietly. It wasn’t until after he’d left that she realized this was the first time she’d seen him really laughing; it was something of a miracle to get him even to crack a genuine smile.
After breakfast, she left Dorcas behind with strict instructions – which she was sure her great-aunt would ignore – not to cheat at cards.
Then she and Treffon climbed into a small mini-hovercraft, and they glided out to the far edge of the pack property.
Their craft set down next to what looked like a small village set among the twisting spiral trees. Rows of neat cabins built of the planet’s red-black wood were set amongst the curling tree trunks, with gravel paths running between them. There was a larger building, long and low with a sloped roof, that Violet guessed was a schoolhouse or town hall. But everything was eerily quiet, and when she peered in through the windows of the nearest little house, she saw that it was abandoned.
“What a beautiful little town! But where is everybody?”
“Nobody lives here. It is one of the places where we stage war games,” Treffon said. “However, do not be alarmed. I have instructed my men not to stage any surprise attacks while you are with me. Since you do not seem to enjoy that kind of training.”
Violet looked at him in astonishment. “Would they normally?”
“Of course. On my orders.”
“So you can’t even take a nice relaxing walk without someone jumping on you and trying to kill you?” She was appalled.
He looked confused. “A nice…walk? Where nothing happens? And you just walk?”
She gestured at the otherworldly village with its twisting trees hung with flowering vines. “It’s beautiful here! It should be enjoyed.”
“I suppose.” He didn’t look convinced.
“Here. Humor me. Sit down on the grass.” He complied, and she kneeled down next to him. “I’d tell you to close your eyes, but you’d probably suspect me of trying to murder you,” she said.
He laughed at that. “That is not a concern of mine.”
“Er…thank you? Because you think I couldn’t, or I wouldn’t?”
“Take your pick.” He closed his eyes. “Now what?”
She fought the overwhelming urge to kiss his sensual lips.
“You can if you want to,” he said.
“I can what?”
“Kiss me.”
“Are you reading my mind somehow?” she said, scandalized.
“If I did, what would I see there?”
Treffon passionately kissing her neck… Plunging into her body…
“You would see me still being really annoyed that you assigned one of your own men to stalk me. Okay. We’re going to just sit here for a minute, and just…be in the moment. Feel the sunshine and the breeze. Listen to the whisper of the wind rushing through the grass.”
They sat there in silence for what felt like a long, long time.
Finally, Treffon said, “Interesting.” And he opened his eyes and looked at her. “Not entirely unpleasant. But I suspect that is due to your presence. When I am with you, I feel as if I am seeing and experiencing things through new eyes.”
Longing washed through her, and sorrow at the fear of impending loss.
“I need to talk to you about something,” she said. “My feelings for you. I’m trying not to like you. I’m trying not to want you. But I think I’m failing. I think about you all the time. And that worries me.”
“I see,” he said, staring into the forest.
“Maybe I should stay somewhere else and avoid you altogether?”
His thick brows drew together in a frown. “I would not like that. I want you to be close to me. I…I must keep you safe. Our investigation so far is running into what you humans call a deceased finish.”
She thought for a second. “A dead end?”
“Yes. We have attempted to trace the source of the computer threat on Earth, and have come up with nothing. As for the exploding cab, there had been death threats against XiXiXi, the person who jumped in ahead of you, because he was in the practice of selling counterfeit merchandise, so it is possible that he was indeed the target. And we have not been able to trace the origin of the explosive device.”
“I see. I still kind of feel like the cab attack was meant for me, though. It seems awfully coincidental.”
“I agree.” He reached out and took her hand in his. “That is why I wish to keep you close to me.”
She gave him a sidelong glance. “Do your feelings for me worry you?”
He shrugged, with a sad twist of a smile. “No.” At her hurt look, he said, “Because I have trained myself for my entire life, more than a hundred of your Earth years, to crush my feelings into the dirt. You humans call it ‘compartmentalizing’. I cannot explain it except to say that I do not allow myself to feel my feelings.”
“That sounds…lonely,” Violet said, a surge of compassion rushing through her. He had so much weight on his shoulders, always having to put his pack’s needs ahead of his own.
“It is how I have survived, how I continue to do my duty.” He sighed. “Let us speak of other things. Tell me about yourself, and your life on Earth.”
“Well, I grew up in New Jersey. My parents were schoolteachers who died in a car crash when I was in my teens.”
She blinked hard as she said it, but she’d finally gotten to the point where she could talk about it without crying.
“I am very sorry. My parents passed away also. I was not very close with them when they were alive.”
“I have heard that your father was…” She tried to come up with a diplomatic way to say it. “A very stern leader.”
Treffon barked out a harsh laugh, with a world of bitterness and pain in it. He picked up a stone from the ground and squeezed it in his fist. “He was an evil savage who brought our pack to the brink of death with his constant warmongering. My brothers died because of his brutal training regime. And my mother did nothing to protect them. He started an unnecessary war with the Wor-Lans at the worst possible time, after our numbers had been so greatly depleted by the cyborgs. My mother died in battle as a result. Madok’s true mate was also killed, which is why he and his family hate the Wor-Lans so much.”
He’d squeezed the stone so hard that it shattered into pieces. His hand was bleeding, and he didn’t seem to notice.
“If my father had not been killed by the Wor-Lans, I would have issued a death challenge myself. I should have done so years before, but I feared that I would cause a civil war within our pack and weaken us further. That was a mistake on my part; nothing would have been worse than his rule.”
Violet felt as if her breath had been stolen away. “Oh my God. I can’t even imagine. ” She wanted to weep for what Treffon had endured. His father, the man who should have protected his children at all costs, had been a murdering bastard.
Yes, she’d lost her parents young, but at least in the too-short time she’d had them, she’d known that she was loved.
“Treffon…I’m sorry.” She reached out to take his hand, but he pulled it away.
His face had gone dark. “I did not mean to tell you all of that,” he said. “I will take you back to the castle now.”
Violet felt as if a door that had just started to open had now slammed shut in her face with a resounding clang. He was so far away from her now, he might as well have been on the other side of the galaxy.
She followed him back to his mini-hover in silence.