"I'm sorry," Bella stammered, hoping Victor wouldn't mistakenly take her shock as a reaction to his scar. That would be the ultimate hypocrisy. “I didn't mean to stare.""It's fine. It doesn't bother me anymore."It used to? The idea that a man like Victor was capable of feeling self-conscious about anything was hard to believe.He reached into a drawer and pulled out a pair of thin, black leather gloves. Bella was transfixed as she watched him pull them on. Every move the man made was deliberate and sensual. She got the feeling he could’ve made taking out the trash look sexy and she resented herself for thinking it. She was also admittedly curious as to how he was going to do what he claimed to be capable of without touching her. She felt a twinge of guilt for being in this room with him and not Darian, but berserker or not, he was gone. He was also the reason she was in this mess. Darian was the one who’d marked her the moment he met her, taking away her ability to
"Her head," Bella groaned."What were you thinking about?" he asked earnestly. The cloth in his hand pressed against her cheek as he held her face, searching her eyes like he was able to see into her already. "Just before it started hurting. I need you to tell me exactly what was in your thoughts.""Jeff," she admitted."What about him?" he pressed.The pain grew sharper. The lights overhead were starting to stretch and distort. "I...""Bella, this is important." His voice was whispered, but the authority in it made her want to push through the pain."About how he hurt me." She felt like she'd broken through a gate as soon as those words came out. The pain intensified, but the pressure eased. Anger and urgency were both there in Victor's gaze as he watched her, like he was torn between the success of his tactics and his personal response to what she was telling him. He took the black cloth between his hands and stretched it out, a somber expression on his face.
Bella bit her lip as she tried to think of all the things she might well be in for in Victor's dungeon. She knew he wouldn't actually hurt her the way Jeff had, so that left boundaries of a different nature to consider. "You mean like sex, don't you?"The surprise on his face made her second guess it. "No. Not that I would be opposed to it," he said with a self-deprecating laugh. "But I'm more referring to other forms of physical contact. I believe the euphoria associated with controlled pain helps to access deeper states of consciousness, but if you're not comfortable with that sort of thing, we'll find another way." "How much pain...?""Even a small amount can be hypnotic in the right context. Set the right mood with a bit of sensory deprivation and the mind plays all sorts of tricks," he said, his voice growing husky as he threaded a strand of her hair through his long fingers. "I don't need to leave a mark to make you writhe."She didn't doubt it. She
"They once did, but it's become rare. All Lycan wolves have a coming-of-age ceremony, but Sebastian and I are the first in the pack to have actually found the mate we saw in our visions. I won't bore you with the history lesson, but suffice it to say, we both thought we had time to sort things out." "You mean time to fight over which one of you would get me?" Victor didn’t answer, but he didn't deny it either. "Your preference would have been a major factor. We would have at least had time to court you properly before you made your choice, if he hadn’t jumped the gun.” "A major factor?" Bella asked incredulously. "Shouldn't it be the factor?" "That isn't the way things are done in the supernatural realm, Bella. Especially not among wolves. The Alpha of the pack always has the deciding vote on all binding agreements, including marriage." “And here I thought werewolves were all about howling at the moon and running around the forest. Who knew your
"No," Bella said, trying to tune him out amid the rush of blood in her head. "That's just—please stop, Victor."“It’s getting weak, isn't it?" He murmured. Something about his words told her he wasn't talking to her. Not that she could answer, anyway. The pain was no longer a weak hum, it was a full-on roar.“I said stop!” she seethed. Victor stared at her in shock. She waited for him to hit her the way Jeff had the one time she’d ever made the mistake of raising her voice to him, but he didn’t. Instead, he said, “Alright.”“I’m sorry.”“Don’t be,” he murmured. “I saw an opportunity and I went for it. It was rash. I’m the one who’s sorry.”“You really think I’m sick because of Jeff?” she asked shakily. “Because he uses it to control me, even from afar?”“I’ve seen it before,” he answered sympathetically. She hugged herself. The blanket was doing nothing to keep her warm when the chill was coming from the inside. She’d convinced herself that running from Jeff wou
"Get off me," Bella said hoarsely. Her voice echoed in reality, but she couldn't make the image in front of her go away. She couldn't breathe from Mr. Alderdice's weight on top of her. "Stop, it hurts..." A horrible snarl broke Bella out of the vision. Victor was holding her again, trembling with rage. He must have realized that his outburst had startled her and gathered her closer to his chest. He rocked her gently, whispering his apologies. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, baby." Bella thought he was still apologizing for his snarl and wrapped her arms around his neck to snuggle closer as the vision faded. Victor's arms chased away the dread. "It's okay. I'm not afraid of you anymore." Darian, on the other hand... Victor let out a deep, ragged breath and squeezed her even tighter. "That's enough questioning for tonight. I saw all I needed to see."Saw? "Can you keep holding me? I'm tired." Bella yawned. The sense of wonderment with ever
Bella turned to Darian, seething. "You should be ashamed of yourself," she spat. Her words staggered him for a moment. A moment was all she had to diffuse the situation if the house was going to still be standing by the time all was said and done. "You talk like you own me or something, even though all you've done since that night my whole world came undone is disappear. So you saved me in the woods. I'm grateful for that, but I've spent this past week knowing that if your friends found your body somewhere, I was going to have to live with the fact that it was my fault for the rest of my life." Tears were streaming down her face, despite her best efforts. The salt mingled with the metallic scent of Victor's blood that was so much stronger than it should have been. The scent and the sight of it on his lips was making it hard to stay focused. Darian looked like he was about to argue, so she preempted him. “Let me finish. I know it wasn't your fault that you had to
Bella tried to force the door open, but it wouldn’t budge, so she started pounding on it. “Darian! Darian!” He ignored her, and she waited for the sounds of another fight. None came, which could only mean something even worse. There was no window in that room, and she was sure that was why Darian had chosen it. Bella took out her phone and started texting Victor furiously. No reply. “Fuck!” she seethed, throwing her phone down on the bed. Her scrawny self stood no chance at breaking the door down, but she tried anyway. She finally gave up from exhaustion when she broke the chair she had tried to use as a battering ram. And then she remembered she had the Internet. Bella took out her phone, connected to the Lodge Wi-Fi, and started searching for tutorials on how to break down a locked door. The video she found suggested a screwdriver, so she searched the room and finally found one of those steel rods used for putting togethe