This was about more than lust, more than the fever. There was no way they could have sex and he wouldn’t bite her. It was as deeply ingrained in him as the need to shift was. The need would override everything else.
And once she took his bite, everything would change. They would be mates in the eyes of the law and under the power of the gods. They would be leaders of their pack. It was vital that she understand those things before they went any further.
Camille’s violet eyes searched his face, but he didn’t see doubt there. “Would your pack accept me? Benjamin didn’t seem to think so.”
“Considering you saved my life? Yeah, I think they will.” In fact, he knew they would, since he’d spent the better part of the day going from den to den, speaking with every family. He was relieved when every single one of them asked about his mate.
They were wary of outsiders, certainly, but Camille had scaled a cliff and took down a shooter on her own for their alpha. That sort of thing went a long way to earning trust. The problem was that now he really had to share her.
Viktor smoothed his thumbs over her cheekbones, saying, “Don’t mind Benny. He’s just doing his job.” He sucked in a deep, calming breath through his teeth. “If you take my bite, he’ll accept you.”
He felt the cool touch of her fingertips sliding under the hem of his shirt like a tickling trail of water droplets. He shuddered when she asked, “And what about the Alliance?”
“One of their alphas tried to kill a prospective member,” he replied, voice flat. “They don’t have anything to stand on. Unless they want to come off looking like they sanction what Andreas tried to do, then they’ll let us in.”
Palms met the skin of his stomach next, making the muscles of his abdomen clench reflexively. His cock ached and his instincts were in a whirling rage, but Viktor pushed it all aside to focus on his mate, on the thoughts he could see churning behind her eyes.
“What happens next, then?”
A heavy weight settled on his shoulders the moment he heard his attacker was a cougar shifter, and it had only gotten heavier as the hours passed and the reality of what Alpha Andreas did set in. Viktor knew that only two options lay before them now. Neither of them were free of bloodshed.
“In the unlikeliest scenario, the Alliance will back Andreas and escalate things with the EVP. Teddy will have to bring it to the Congress floor.” Unspoken between them was the specter of the Great War, which impacted so much of their lives, despite the fact that both of them were born decades after its end. “If they choose that route, then it may come to war.”
A representative of the Alliance had attempted to assassinate a political leader — small and relatively unimportant though he was — on EVP soil. That could not go unaddressed.
That was the worst case scenario, but the best case wasn’t much better. Firming his jaw, Viktor broke the news to her in a grim voice. “Far more likely is they won’t back Andreas. If that happens, it will be one on one.”
In the shifter way, the transgression would be met claw for claw, fang for fang: Viktor versus Andreas.
If he won, then Andreas would die and the future of his pack would be left in Viktor’s hands. He could choose to expel them from the Alliance, though he didn’t foresee doing so.
If he lost, then he would die before he ever even got the chance to enjoy matehood, to see his pack flourish.
Viktor tried not to flinch when he watched the blood drain from Camille’s face. Her normally luminous lavender skin paled to an ashen gray when she whispered hoarsely, “You… you would fight him?”
“Yes.”
For a moment, she simply stared at him, uncomprehending, before the slow creep of horror stole across her expression. Her voice broke when she said, “That’s how my father died, Vik.”
Gods, he wished he could take the fear out of her — just pluck it out with his fingers and crush it in his palm. “I know, sweetheart,” he breathed, closing the distance between them to press his lips against her forehead in a hard kiss. “I know.”
Everyone knew what happened to Theron Solbourne. It was in the history books, after all.
Theron Solbourne was Thaddeus’s twin and at the height of his brother’s tyrannical rule, he challenged him for the sovereignty. The citizens of the EVP were terrorized by the shadow Patrol, Thaddeus’s secret arm of the military, and the Five Families who ruled the biggest cities were in open rebellion. At any moment, it looked as though the EVP would explode in a hail of bloodshed.
Though they were identical twins, and despite the fact that Theron was fighting for his mate and his unborn children, he was no match for the sheer, coldhearted ferocity of Thaddeus II. Where Theron still had a measure of love left for the sovereign, his brother had none.
He showed no mercy, no recognition that it was his brother under his claws. Theron died a brutal, bloody death, and left behind a pregnant mate traumatized by his loss.
Viktor couldn’t imagine how it would feel to Camille to know that her mate might find himself in a similar position, though in vastly different circumstances.
“Whatever happens, I will not die, Cam,” he promised her. “This is just a fact of life. Andreas is getting old and he’s let anger make him irrational. If it comes down to a fight between us, I’ll win it.”
Camille’s fingers spasmed on his stomach. Her blunt claws scraped his skin when she whispered, “I can’t lose you, Vik.”
“You won’t.” That he knew with absolute certainty. He had not waited twenty years and come this far to lose her now.
She leaned forward until her lips grazed his cheek. “Then I can handle everything else. I’ll learn what it means to become part of a pack. I’ll follow you anywhere you go. I’ll even stop wearing heels if we move somewhere really rural. I don’t care.” Her breath hitched. “I just can’t watch you die, Vik.”
He wrapped his arms around her and crushed her to his chest. His heart slammed against his ribs as the enormity of the moment hit him all at once. My mate wants me.
She wasn’t just signing up to be with him, but to be part of his pack, to stand by his side as they charted a new course into the future. Relief made his head spin.
“I would never ask you to stop wearing heels,” he said, voice thick with emotion. “Not in a million years, Cam. I like watching you walk in them too much. Though I do think you’d look pretty fucking hot in a pair of hiking boots.”
He felt her smile against his jaw. “Yeah?”
Sliding his arms down, Viktor dared to slip his hands past the lapels of her silk robe. He smoothed his palms over her ribs and down, until he could dig his fingertips into the soft flesh of her lithe hips. “Gods save me,” he muttered, drawing her closer. “Are you not wearing any panties?”
She scraped her fangs against the corner of his jaw. “No.”
Viktor swore he felt all the blood rush past his waistband in one huge rush. Thumbing the bows of her hip bones, he growled, “Wait, you weren’t wearing anything underneath this when that elf was here?”
What was once a gentle scrape became a not-so-gentle nip. “Didn’t know he was coming over, remember?”
Didn’t matter. The possessive beast that lived in his heart only understood that a rival had been very, very close to his vulnerable, alluring mate, and that couldn’t be borne.