Page 117 of Deviant Need

“I killed him.”

Her blue eyes snap to mine, wide. “What⁠—”

“He had it coming.”

She closes her eyes briefly, says something I can’t hear, and drops her hand. “Was he the one that stabbed you?”

I don’t say anything. Just hold her gaze until she gets it.

She gasps, stands up, and grips my shoulders. “I’m so sorry. I failed you by not stopping him sooner. You didn’t deserve anything Roman did to you. I’m glad he’s gone. You always deserved better than what he gave you, and I should have made sure you got it.”

I nod, shrugging a little, and give her an awkward pat on the arm because I don’t really know what else to do.

“Stop touching me,” I say, pulling back. “I don’t need you to try to comfort me or make me feel better. All I care about is him waking up.”

“Mikhail—”

“I said stop.”

She touches my chin gently, then seems to realize I’m not great at being comforted and backs off. I glance over at Daniil. He’s still too pale, blood loss making his skin look gray.

“I need to ask you something,” she says suddenly.

I give her a look, already bracing myself.

“It’s not going to be fair to you, I know that. But I need to ask it anyway.”

“What is it?”

She takes a breath and meets my eyes. “I need you to hide your relationship with Daniil from the outside world. Your brothers and close friends can know, but outside the family it stays private. No public acknowledgment.”

No…

She puts up her hands before I can say anything. “I’m not doing it for selfish reasons, I promise. But because of who he is, because of his connection to the Nozares family, it complicates everything. People are going to be watching us more closely now. Looking for weaknesses. It doesn’t have to be forever, just until everything settles and we figure out what this means for the family.”

My jaw clenches tight as I stare at her.

“I know it’s not fair,” she continues. “I know you shouldn’t have to hide. But right now, with everything that’s happened, with Roman dead, we need to be careful. For both of your safety.” She pauses. “I’m sorry for everything. For lying to him. For not protecting you better from Roman. For all of it.”

“You don’t have to say sorry.”

“I do.”

“No, you don’t,” I say firmly. “We can keep it quiet for now. But I’m not doing it forever. He doesn’t deserve that. And when he wakes up, he deserves to know the whole truth about what happened to him. About who he really is. I don’t want to hear any of it unless he’s with me, awake and able to decide for himself what he wants to do with the information.”

She looks at me for a long moment, then nods. “That’s fair. When he wakes up, I’ll tell him everything.”

The door opens before I can respond. The nurse walks in and shoots me a look when she sees me in the bed with him, but she doesn’t say anything, just moves to check the monitors and examine the IV bags hanging beside the bed.

“What happened to him earlier?” I ask.

She pauses, checking something on one of the machines before turning to face us. “He went into hypovolemic shock from the blood loss. His blood pressure crashed, and his organs weren’t getting enough oxygen. We had to give him emergency transfusions and fluids to stabilize him. He’s stable now.”

“When will he wake up?” mother asks, her voice tight with worry.

The nurse adjusts one of the IV lines and glances at the monitor displaying his brain activity. “We’re weaning him off the sedation now to allow him to wake naturally. His brain was deprived of oxygen for a period of time, and we won’t know if there are any deficits until he regains consciousness and we can evaluate his neurological function. His scans look hopeful, but we need to wait and see, Miss Avrorina.”

“Wait,” I say, and the nurse turns back, looking at me.