I sat with the echo of her footsteps and the lingering ghost of her scent and the cold weight of everything I couldn’t say.
Alice collected Lena’s half-eaten breakfast without comment.She rinsed the plate, dried her hands, and paused beside my chair.
“Be patient,” she said quietly.“She’s worth it.”
I knew that.My wolf had known it the moment he had caught her scent, all those months ago in the lobby of the Hughes Palace Hotel.The moment he had gone silent and then erupted with a need so primal it had nearly split me in half.
I just didn’t know if patience would be enough.
Viktor arrived at noon.He let himself in through the service entrance, his movements unhurried and precise, the economy of motion that came from decades of surviving in a world that killed the careless.Silver threaded through his dark hair.His eyes missed nothing.
“The photographer at the hotel,” he said without preamble, taking a seat across from me in the study.“Not press.Too persistent.Same position for three consecutive mornings.”
“Description.”
“White male, early twenties.Clean-cut.Drives a black sedan, registration comes back to an investment firm in Denver.”Viktor paused.“Probably nothing.But I’ve added a second team to the exterior rotation.”
I filed the information.An investment firm in Denver.Young, clean-cut, photographing the hotel.It could be media.Could be a real estate scout.Could be nothing.
My wolf didn’t think it was nothing.
“The others?”
“Dmitri will arrive at one-thirty.Sokolov and Petrov are driving from the warehouse.”Viktor’s gaze settled on me with the weight of a man choosing his words carefully.“The soldiers will evaluate her.They report to the Pakhan.”
“I know.”
“Do you.”Not a question.Viktor leaned back, the leather chair creaking under his weight.“Three weeks ago you took a beating that would have killed a lesser wolf.You chose a human over your pack’s rules.The Pakhan accepted the marriage because the alternative was losing his Vor.But acceptance and approval are different animals, Rafa.”
The use of my short name softened the warning without blunting it.
“She’ll handle it.”
“She’s human.She doesn’t know what she’s walking into.”
“She doesn’t need to know.She needs to be herself.That’s enough.”
Viktor studied me for a long moment.Whatever he saw in my face satisfied him enough to stand.“I’ll be in the library.”
Dmitri arrived at precisely one-thirty, vibrating with the barely-contained energy that made him either the most useful or the most dangerous man in any room.Younger than me by five years, built like a brick wall, with dark eyes that ran hot.His wolf was always close to the surface, always pressing, always half a heartbeat from breaking through.Where Viktor was the counsel, Dmitri was the blade.
I briefed them in the entry hall while Alice set the dining room.Viktor leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed, the picture of controlled patience.Dmitri paced.
“She’s my wife,” I said.“She’s under my protection.Anyone who disrespects her answers to me.”
Viktor’s silence was assent.Dmitri stopped pacing and looked me dead in the face.
“No one touches the Vor’s mate.”
The word hit me like a fist to the sternum.I hadn’t used it.Hadn’t spoken it aloud since the night I had pushed her away and my wolf had torn me apart from the inside.But Dmitri said it with the certainty of a man stating weather, and my wolf lunged against my ribs with a howl of recognition.
Yes.Mate.Ours.Tell them.
I didn’t correct him.
Sokolov and Petrov arrived at two.Both soldiers, both wolves, both sent by the Pakhan to observe and report.Sokolov was older, gray-jawed, with the flat eyes of a man who had stopped being surprised by anything decades ago.Petrov I had worked with on security detail.Professional.Efficient.Neither man was here to make friends.They were here to form an opinion that would reach the Pakhan’s ears before the night was over.
Lena came downstairs at five past two.
