Chapter 12
Havali
“I don’t… That’s not…”
His female was dithering. Almost refusing to admit what he knew to be true.
“You cannot hide it from me,” he said, resting his arm on the column over her head, leaning over her, taking in a deep breath of her enticing scent. “So many people have told you how beautiful you are tonight, and every time, you look so uneasy.”
Scarlet lowered her eyes. Something in his chest ached for her to speak. To tell him the whole of her truth. To give him all of her.
“Is it because of your beauty contests? You feel you are being judged and ranked again? Or do you not believe their words?”
“It’s not that,” she mumbled.
“Tell me.”
“Havali, I…” She lifted her head, but her voice stopped. Almost like she was surprised by how close they had become. It would take very little effort for him to claim her lips. To finally get a proper taste of his female.
His fangs ached with the need to plunge them into her soft skin. So soft. So easily broken. He could see the pulsing of her blood in her veins right at the surface of her neck. Tempting him in. Begging for his bite.
“Tell me,” he demanded. Softer this time, but with far more force.
“I know, I’m beautiful,” she finally mumbled, her face burning red. “That sounds so vain, doesn’t it? But it’s something I’ve been told all my life. It’s not a surprise. It doesn’t mean anything to me. Which sounds terrible.”
“It sounds honest,” he chuckled. “You are beautiful. And you do know it. That is no crime. It means you see yourself clearly. But it’s not what you want to hear from people.”
She shook her head. The no motion. “I don’t mind hearing it.
Not anymore. Not like I used to. But sometimes, it seems like that’s all people see.
I don’t get complimented on my work very often.
And pretty privilege is a thing, sure, but so is pretty oppression.
There are guys who think I owe them my time or attention and refuse to take no as an answer. ”
Havali’s eyes narrowed as anger rose in his throat, only not escaping as a growl by power of will. “Who are these that think this? Point them out to me.”
Scarlet shook her head, giving him a soft smile. “Actually, it wasn’t anyone on Turv. I mean, people remarked on it, but none of the males ever made me feel uncomfortable. And that’s incredible!”
That did not at all ease his anger. “Do human males make you uncomfortable?”
She bit her lips, eyes turning away.
“Your own males make you feel this way? Make you feel as if you owe them your beauty?”
She remained silent.
“Scarlet, tell me,” he ordered, absolutely no mercy in his tone.
She sighed, wrapping her arms around herself. Defending herself. “What does it matter? He’s on Earth. He can’t get to me here.”
“Who?”
“Havali-”
“Tell me this male’s name and what he did to make you relieved that there are entire galaxies between the two of you.”
She gnawed on her bottom lip for a moment. He had the urge to pull it out and do that himself. No one should taste her skin but himself.
“Scarlet.”
“Tony. Tony Fletcher,” she admitted softly. “He’s a guy I knew in nursing school.”
Havali growled just at hearing her speak his name. Not because another male’s name dared come from her lips – he wasn’t quite that gone – but only because of the tremble of fear that went through her body when she spoke it.
“He, erm, he was stalking me,” she rushed to say, as though that made the words better.
“He tried to hunt you?” Havali asked, his voice sharp and outraged. “Your people are cannibalistic?’
“What?” She blinked at him, confused. “No, not… Not stalking like hunting prey. I mean… Well, actually, that’s not entirely wrong, now that I think about it.
Stalking is when someone becomes obsessed with you.
Beyond reason. Beyond safety. He would follow me around everywhere I went.
He knew my class schedule and where I went for lunch each day and when I would get back to my dorm.
He would just gather as much information as he could about me.
Like, he couldn’t not know where I was and what I was doing. ”
Havali’s heart skipped a beat in his chest. Because that was what he was doing.
Scarlet continued, oblivious to his sudden inner turmoil. “He would leave me notes in my mailbox telling me how pretty I was that day and how much he loved me and how beautiful our babies would be.”
Havali was going to be sick. Those were thoughts he had all the time. Baby was the human term for pups, and he often imagined Scarlet rounded with his young. He adored her. He was obsessed with her and needed to know where she was and that she was safe.
Just like the male that put that fearful look in her eyes.
“It just kept getting worse from there,” she whispered, covering her racing heart with both hands.
“He started leaving me gifts. Bringing flowers to my classes and putting them on my desk. And I don’t even know how he knew where I sat, it’s not like we had a seating chart, and he didn't have those classes with me. And the classes we did have? He wouldn’t stop looking at me.
Sending me notes. Telling me all the things he wanted to do with me. ”
Havali was a terrible male. Awful. Horrible. Despicable. He was no different. He was a stalker. A crime amongst human females he hadn’t even recognized.
“Then, he started getting violent,” she whispered, stilling his heart.
“He would see me talking to guys in class and he'd get mad. They were just friends, but that didn't matter. He’d accuse me of trying to cheat on him or call me a worthless whore who was probably spreading my legs for them. It was like, he was so obsessed with me, he couldn’t conceive of a universe where everyone didn't want to fuck me and, since I owed my beauty to everyone, of course I was going to fuck them back.”
Havali’s gut turned sour. Thankfully, not because he had this in common with the male, but only because he could see what was happening.
This wasn’t love or desire or the eagerness of a male trying to catch a female’s eye.
This was a dark, dirty obsession. Possession. Anger. This wasn’t a male who loved a female. This was a male who wanted to own and control a female. She was incidental to his feelings. She could have been anyone. Her personality didn't matter.
What mattered was the ownership. The control. The fear he put in her.
And that was confirmed when she said-
“I would get so afraid to leave my dorm. I started doing all my classes online, only showing up for tests or clinical skills if I had to. Every time I turned around, he was there. I would get back to my room and find some gift from him in front of it. One day, when I opened it, it was a dead rat. I stopped opening them after that.”
Havali didn't know what a rat was, but just the idea of someone giving her a dead anything was disturbing in and of itself. Which, he supposed, was the intention. Because that wasn’t a gift, it was a threat.
“Why did you not tell someone of authority?”
“I did!” She protested immediately, a strange desperation in her voice. “I went to the school security and student resources and even the police.”
“And they did nothing?” He couldn’t stop his growl this time.
“They couldn’t do anything,” she murmured, holding herself tighter. “They kept saying he hadn’t done anything wrong. He wasn’t hurting me. Being creepy isn’t a crime.”
“Did they want him to hurt you first?”
“They can’t punish a crime that hasn’t happened yet,” she said dully, like she was repeating something they had told her.
And he felt such exquisite rage. What kind of males would not protect their females from this? What kind of law system was built with no means of action in place for protecting their people before they were harmed?
“This male, what happened to him?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?! He wasn’t stopped?”
Scarlet shook her head. “I just dealt with it until I graduated.
I was very careful to make sure he didn't find out where I would be working, and I moved far away. I guess it worked because I didn't hear from him again. Or maybe he just didn't have time to find me yet. It’s a moot point now, of course. He’s certainly not finding me here.”
She said it like it was a good thing, but Havali was only angrier. She should not have had to escape to an entirely different galaxy to get freedom from obsession.
Was he still looking for her on Earth? If they got permission to go there, would he be waiting for her again?
He growled, a smile forming.
He dearly hoped so.
He wanted this male to come after his female.
He wanted him to dare to try. He would drain him dry and enjoy feeling his body go limp and cold as he lost all his blood.
All the while forcing him to look at Scarlet and know that he died for her safety.
That his life meant so little that the universe would be just a bit better off without him in it.
“Havali?”
Scarlet’s soft voice drew his attention back to the present, and away from how good it would feel to destroy her enemies for her.
Her hand hovered over his chest. Not quite touching him, her fingers shaking a bit, as the indecision of touching him or not wavered in her mind.
He solved that problem by taking hold of that hovering hand and placing it right over his heart, the organ pumping hard with the desire to do violence to anyone who would put such a frightened look on his female’s pretty face.
“You are safe, Scarlet.” He repeated words he had just said, more emphatically now.
She smiled weakly. “I know. He can’t get to me anymore.”
He shook his head firmly. “I don’t mean because of distance. He could be standing here in this room with you right now, and you would still be completely safe from him. I would never allow this male to stalk and torment you.”
She stared up at him. The look in her eyes was odd as she searched his eyes.
“Why?” She breathed. “Because you desire me?”
A grin pulled at his lips. “I do, but that is not why. I would protect you regardless.”