Chapter 23 The Hunter
THE HUNTER
KHARON: THE NIGHT BEFORE THE INITIATION MASSACRE
An agonizing headache throbbed in my skull. I breathed harshly as I focused on Alexis’s sleeping form and not Augustus’s pain.
Moonlight gently kissed her delicate features.
It was quiet in the bedroom. The spring storm had died down hours ago, the rain finally stopping.
Everyone in the villa was sleeping.
Everyone but me.
I rubbed at my mouth where there was no longer a mark—our marriage bond was making us more powerful—I’d never healed so quickly before.
I used to think the bond, the increased Chthonic power, was everything I’d ever wanted.
Now I loathed it.
It was the reason Alexis didn’t trust me, the reason her intriguing eyes became guarded in my presence.
Even amongst Spartans, Alexis was special.
A few hours ago, I’d crawled to her, fully prepared to die so she could be free of me.
But she hadn’t done it.
Instead, Alexis had saved me, her fingers glowing with pure bright light, like she was the sun itself. I’d never seen anything like it.
She was giving us another chance. It was everything I could have ever dreamed of—nervous energy turned my stomach—the pressure was immense.
I couldn’t afford to fuck this up. Not again.
So here I was, standing over her, watching her sleep, holding a black-and-white rose that I’d hand cut from the garden because it reminded me of her eyes.
The groundskeeper was going to murder me.
You need to stop stalking her.
Knowing something was technically wrong was one thing, but actually stopping the behavior was another.
Alexis discarded the roses I left on her pillow every night, but she still bothered to pick them up. She touched them. She looked at them. She gave them attention, and that had to mean something.
I still had a chance.
If she didn’t care at all, she wouldn’t bother to look at them. She’d just ignore them.
I can still win her over.
Mine. My woman. Mine.
The primitive part of my brain had latched onto Alexis Hert, and it couldn’t let her go. I needed to watch her sleep just like I needed air.
Augustus understood the obsession.
We both felt the pull.
I needed to know that she was safe, especially at night. My protective instincts were screaming at me that it was the most dangerous time of day. She was unguarded. Anyone could sneak up and attack her, and there would be no way to react in time.
But when I watched her, no one could hurt her because they’d have to get through me and my hounds first.
I was her shadow. The monster that stood behind her.
Augustus said Helen told him that people who loved each other gave each other space when they needed it.
Those people sounded like actual idiots.
I wanted to crawl under Alexis’s skin and learn everything about her. I yearned to hear every thought she ever had. I needed to ask why she slept with her calculator on her pillow next to her head, and how she came to have a pet echidna.
It physically hurt to be parted from her.
Mine. Mine. Mine, the voice chanted in my head.
Maybe I’d spent too many hours in the forest hunting prey; maybe I was born messed up; maybe my parents’ lack of affection had broken something inside of me; maybe it was just how I was.
Space was not something I could give Alexis. Ever.
Pink bedding rustled as the object of my every desire sighed heavily in her sleep, an errant curl blowing off her lips.
Stop being a coward. Do it.
I stepped out of the shadows and leaned over Alexis.
Her face twisted as she whimpered in her sleep.
I wish I could take away your pain.
This time, I had another gift besides the roses. Perhaps they weren’t flashy enough for her, weren’t enough of a statement of what she meant to me.
It was time to do more.
I pulled the long glittering strand out of my pocket and carefully draped it around her neck. The strand of priceless blue diamonds danced in the moonlight. Gently, I hooked the fastener.
Alexis mumbled, turning her head to the side—I held my breath—she pursed her lips together and made an agonized sound, but didn’t wake.
She hadn’t had a nightmare this bad since she’d fought the Titans.
What’s wrong, carissima?
I traced my fingers gently over the row of glittering gems.
Dark possessiveness filled my chest.
My woman.
The rare blue diamond was the official stone of the House of Artemis. Our vaults were overflowing with them, and since the jewel matched my eyes, it was the only type I ever wore.
Seeing my stones around Alexis’s neck made something primal and unhealthy rear up inside of me, even more so than usual.
Augustus could give her calculators and books. He understood her love of academia in a way I never could.
I was a simpler man.
Diamonds, roses, weapons, and blood were my love language.
Amor gignit amorem.
I laid the black-and-white rose next to her pillow, hoping it was true that love begets love.
Augustus’s headache abruptly stopped as I stepped back into the shadows.
I barely noticed the lack of pain because nothing in life compared to the agony of of my unrequited love for Alexis.