She chuckled sadly, looking at her belly. “Victor never promised me companionship or love, so I don’t know why I ever expected it. But once the pregnancy hormones kicked in, I started craving his attention. It’s a werewolf thing; we get very needy when we’re expecting. And I thought he might at least change his ways a bit once the little one came. That he might actually spend some of his days at home. And believing that I was competing with a man, that he needed something I couldn’t give him, was comforting in a way.”
She finally looked back up at me, then reached forward, tucking a piece of my hair behind my ear, a comforting purr sounding in her chest.
“I went into his office one morning a few days ago. I couldn’t sleep, and I was overcome with the urge to snoop. He’s always so secretive, you know. And when I saw he was still logged on to his computer, it felt like I finally had a chance to figure out what was keeping him away. I clicked open the first tab and saw… and saw…”
Her next breath shuddered, and she pointed her chin up towards the security camera in the corner.
“He was here, doing… well, what he’s never done with me… all over the place. With you. I couldn’t stop myself; it was like walking along tracks and freezing as a train barrels straight towards you. For hours, you two went at it, and it was beautiful and loving and… and…”
“Beautiful” and “loving” were two words I’d never use to describe my relationship with Victor, but the grass was always greener, wasn’t it?
She reached into her purse and pulled out a tissue, blowing into it. “He’s never showed me an ounce of that kind of affection.And it’s so silly, because he never told me he would! But I was jealous, and irrationally, all I could see was some witch whore—”
She stopped herself when I flinched. “I don’t think you’re a whore anymore, I was just upset. But regardless, I saw the woman who was taking the father of my son away from him and it was killing me. My maternal instincts kicked in, and I found a way to loop the cameras so Victor wouldn’t know I was here, and then decided to come and confront you. To finally let loose everything I’ve wanted to say to Victor ever since he abandoned me on our honeymoon. I even have a check ready to go, hoping that I could bribe into leaving so Victor might finally be a husband to me.”
Her eyes then zeroed in on my bond mark, and I quickly brought my hair over to cover it. “But you’re his mate. Why didn’t he just tell me? I would have understood. I mean, I still don’t understand why he hid you to begin with, but…”
“To protect me,” I said, regurgitating the lie he’d told me nearly every day since he’d taken me. “He told me that if anyone knew he had a mate, I’d become a target for his enemies.” My fingers ran over the divot in my arm. “And I guess he wasn’t completely wrong about that.”
“Oh Sage, Kain was a monster. He may have been my cousin, but I wasn’t sad in the slightest when he died. I’m so sorry.”
I closed my eyes, trying to block out the memory of him forcing his knot inside me, ripping my skin. His teeth on my flesh…
“And Victor… you mean he doesn’t even let you talk to your family?”
Tears returned to my eyes, spilling over immediately. “I don’t have a phone, a computer, my cauldron… I don’t even have a pair of pants or shoes. He controls everything.”
A growl overtook the comforting purr in her chest, and she began to rub her belly again. “This is unacceptable. I will talkto him about it this morning, before he leaves. It’s against the Halcyon Convention for anyone to be treated this way. You’re not a prisoner!”
My hands shot forward to grab hers so quickly I accidentally scared Ember again, and he leapt off my lap. “You can’t, there’s no hope in reasoning with him! The last person who spoke in my defense…” I trailed off, the smell of Tailer’s blood still fresh in my mind.
Seven months ago I was in the middle of a particularly bad spell, crying nonstop, and Tailer had entered to see if I was okay. He comforted me until Victor could get here, and when he suggested maybe letting me take a walk outside every once in while, Victor replied by way of ripping out his throat.
“Sage, I’m his wife and I’m carrying his child. He wouldn’t hurt me.”
“And I’m his mate. Hasn’t stopped him yet.”
She tilted her head, giving me a sympathetic sigh. “I suppose you’re right.”
With great effort she found the momentum to get off the couch and then asked where the bathroom was, and while she was peeing, I tried to get my thoughts in order.
Thinking about his wife—hispregnantwife— being with me in this place was so strange and painful. Who exactly was the other woman in this scenario?
Or why did we even have to think in those terms, since the only one who had betrayed us was Victor?
When she returned, she started to gather her things, and I got up to meet her.
“Can you just… let my parents know I’m alive? I hate that they must think I’m dead. I’m their only child; they don’t have anyone else.”
The tip of her tongue came through her lips and she looked up in thought. “I can do you a million times better. How about I get you a phone?”
My eyes widened and I began to shake. “Oh… oh no, Victor would find out. He watches me constantly. I don’t know where I could even hide it…”
She walked—well, waddled—as she thought, looking up at the cameras. “I’m not without my own resources, you know. Right now, the footage is on a loop. As far as Victor knows, you’re still sitting on that couch, reading a book. What if I promised you that from three to four a.m. every day, I could do the same?”
A whole hour of phone use every day?
I immediately began plotting. There was an outlet behind the TV console that wasn’t visible unless you moved it. I could fit the phone behind there, and he’d never know. I could call my parents, Nellie… I could look up information again, watch stupid videos, download that candy matching game again, feel normal.
