“Do you really think they’ll let you into the Alliance now that they’ve seen proof of you running back to—”
“I think the alphas on the council will make up their own fucking minds on the subject given all the facts available to them,” he snapped. “I think that if you really had the case you wish you did, then you wouldn’t be calling me to shake me up right now. And I think that you can shove this weak intimidation tactic right up your ass, Alpha Andreas.”
“You want intimidation?” Andreas snarled. “If you think I’m going to let you bring elvish poison into the Alliance, you’re dead fucking wrong. Your father didn’t think you were worth the effort of getting rid of, but I’m not him.”
“You’re right,” Viktor coolly replied, “because he’s dead.”
Andreas’s voice dropped into an icy growl. “I’m going to fucking—”
Viktor pulled the phone back from his ear and ended the call. Whatever threat Andreas wanted to deliver wasn’t worth his time. Until he decided to actually work up the guts to challenge Viktor to a fight in the circle, it was all hot air and not worth his time.
Checking the time again, Viktor blanched. He didn’t have time to calm down from the call, nor to overthink things. It was time. Biting his lip, he reached for the controller and, after a moment’s hesitation, hit the call button.
It rang once. Twice. A third time.
Viktor felt the tips of his fingers shift into claws with a familiar burn. The razor sharp tips dug into the tops of his splayed thighs as he watched the screen, unblinking.
On the fifth ring, the feed screen lit up. Call accepted.
Camille appeared and his breath froze in his lungs. Every muscle in his body tightened as all of his focus narrowed into a pinprick — shifting to her.
She sat in an opulently furnished living room swathed in sophisticated shades of gray and deep blue. Perched on the very edge of a velvet couch, his mate sat with her back ramrod straight and her chin set in a stubborn angle.
Camille had changed her clothing since he saw her in the green corridor. Instead of her soft white sundress, she wore a sleek black number with white piping, emphasizing every delicious curve and giving her an austere, sophisticated look.
For a taut moment, they simply sat there, staring at one another on the other side of the feed screen. He wondered if she felt the same way he did — almost surprised that she showed up at all.
Well, if she expects me to back down from a challenge, she doesn’t know shifters well, he thought, a slow grin spreading across his face. We love to chase.
Despite the fact that they were separated by miles, Viktor felt her suspicion, the wariness his grin inspired.
“Well?” Her voice was an icy whip through the speakers. Damn if the sound of it didn’t make him hard even when she was pissed at him. “I’m here. Are you just going to keep looking at me like that, or are you actually going to participate in this farce you’ve strong-armed me into?”
“Can’t I just admire you for a minute?”
“No, you may not.”
Viktor sighed, but it wasn’t an unhappy sound. He didn’t bristle when she snapped at him. Certainly, he would have preferred it if she wasn’t angry with him, but he also felt… comfortable. Nostalgic, even. This was, after all, the place from which they began their relationship.
Chest aching, he leaned back into the cushions. In a soft voice, he asked, “Do you remember when we met, Cam?”
Immediately, her annoyed expression shifted into outright wariness. “That is not what a union negotiation is about, Alpha Hamilton.” Her reply was stiff, uninviting. Nothing about it or her expression encouraged him to continue.
He did anyway.
“We were fourteen,” he murmured, watching her closely, “and I swear, that moment I saw you out in the garden, I thought my heart stopped. You were the prettiest damn thing I’d ever seen.” Viktor pressed his palm against his heart, as if it could help contain the warmth of the memory that glowed there. “And then you told me that if I kept staring at you, you’d be happy to give me a closer look at your claws.”
Camille looked away, her cheeks turning a deep purple that made him want to stroke every inch of her skin. “What about it, Vik? None of that matters now.”
His smile widened. “It matters, sweetheart.”
“Why?”
“Because this thing between you and me — it didn’t start gently. You never liked soft for too long. You always wanted a reason to use your claws, even when you were pleased with me.” Viktor breathed deeply, his chest expanding as if he could take in the scent of her from all the way across the city if only he tried hard enough. “You like a challenge as much as I do, sweetheart.”
He knew that like he knew his own soul, his own strength. Camille hissed and clawed only because she enjoyed the tangle as deeply as he did. She could be soft — oh so, so soft — but only when he worked for it. That dance of chase and play and submission was a siren’s song for a shifter like him, an alpha in the prime of his life who knew, without a shadow of a doubt, what he wanted.
“You forfeited the right to any challenge twenty years ago,” she flatly replied, like she didn’t feel the heat, the tension that drew him to her every second of every day.
“You want to talk about that? Fine. Let’s get it out of the way.” Viktor sat up straight, his hands loosely curled on his thighs. In a hard, matter-of-fact voice, he said, “Cam, we were sixteen. Fuck, you have to know it would have been a shit-show if we ran off together. My dad would have hunted us down and killed you in front of me — and your family would have flayed me alive for even thinking of taking you from them.”
And gods, it still fucking hurt to talk about it. How many times had he relived that night, playing it out over and over again, wondering if he made the right choice?
Shaking his head, Viktor continued, “It wouldn’t have worked. How was I supposed to protect you from my shitty alpha and your family? And even if we could hide out somewhere, what kind of life would it have been for you? For our cubs? I couldn’t do that to you, Cam.”
Camille’s features, beautifully sculpted and so very dear to him, tightened. “You didn’t even think to try,” she accused, voice trembling with decades of hurt, of rage. “You didn’t ask what we could have done. If I recall correctly, you said I don’t want a mate, not, I want to protect you.”
Viktor winced. “I was a stupid kid, Cam. I meant right now, not—”
“You didn’t even consider what it might be like if my family actually approved of you, did you?”
Viktor went very still. “What are you talking about, Cam? Elves weren’t even allowed—”
“Do you know what the pull is, Viktor?”
Chapter Sixteen
Oh gods, it’s never good when she uses my name like that. Icy fear trickled through his veins. “No,” he rasped. “No, I don’t know.”
Camille leaned forward slightly. Her expression was hunting sharp, like everything in her was poised to go for his throat, when she continued, “Of course you don’t. You didn’t even think to ask why I would be so keen on running away with you. Why it mattered that night of all nights.”