Chapter 29
Mine
Phillip
Vdidn’t seem to know what her soft smiles and raspy laughter did to me, especially aimed at a man like Sloan.
The way she shyly tucked hair behind her ear, or how the young Hunter’s cheeks reddened in both embarrassment and coy interest any time Sloan paid her any small compliment at all was fire in my lungs.
Mostly, it was how V so easily bestowed her gentle, entreating countenance to a man I knew was worthy of it that wedged actual weight inside my chest.
But she was young. Too young, some would argue, for me to lock down and keep for myself. She hadn’t lived much life, and she hadn’t been permitted to move freely or act the way she wanted. She’d barely scraped the surface of living, and of course her feelings would change.
I mean, look at that damn wolf.
Months ago, she was Nigel’s faithful girlfriend. Then things changed. Her feelings faded. Her desire for him vanished like water on a hot summer day, and the two parted ways.
Sure, I had a little something to do with it, but even I wasn’t good enough to destroy true love. It was laughable to think how with some wolf, one not the least bit worthy of her, I’d fall into the trap of jealousy.
But Sloan was different. He was a man worthy of her time. He wouldn’t lead her astray or take advantage of her. He could understand the life she led and empathize. More so, Sloan was unrelentingly clever and kind. He’d protect her. He’d do right by her.
I, on the other hand, was far more jaded than most.
After Giselle’s death, I promised never to love again; never to be torn apart by love like losing her had done to me.
For decades, she was my reason for living and why I fought to keep going despite having every reason not to.
And the minute she was gone, nothing mattered anymore.
No one could take her place, and the void she left inside my heart was as vast as the ocean.
In truth, I initially developed the serum to put an end to the torture of a love lost and heart broken apart, never to mend.
Without the one person who understood and loved me for several decades, I couldn’t imagine a future.
I wandered through life, an empty shell—a perfect killing machine employed by the same people who sent my precious Giselle to her death.
Sloan came into my life when I was ready to give everything up, and he offered to help create the serum. The clever bastard knew just what to do and say to get the truth out of me.
It was one of his abilities, I was convinced.
After hearing the truth, Sloan’s only stipulation to assist with creating the serum was that instead of death, I used my pain and the vast void of Giselle’s absence to take on the Organization.
So, even though he insisted I was owed the credit, Sloan was the first to suggest we take on the Organization. It was Sloan who put forward the idea that we could do more damage from within. But he, to this very day, claimed it was initially my story that convinced him to do anything at all.
Because it was his story, too.
Unlike me, however, Sloan didn’t discourage love or romance.
He argued it was love that gave us the power to fight and do better; that it was love and only love that would save us from succumbing to evil-doing.
Bloody Buddha, that one, but I couldn’t exactly argue he was wrong.
I wasn’t as idealistic as he was, but I could appreciate the unfaltering hope he maintained.
For this reason, there was no better man than Sloan for V, if she was ever to choose him.
In all honesty, if I’d been a better man—I wasn’t—I’d do what I could to drive her into the other Hunter’s arms. To encourage the union because V was likely to be the happiest with someone like Sloan.
Yet, it didn’t seem to matter when my eyes followed her every movement, the heart of a greedy man eating away at my thoughts, and every one of my emotions tied directly with hers.
I wanted nothing more than to lay claim to her and mark my name all over her body; to drown her in my scent and never let any other man or woman catch sight of her wonderous beauty and captivating spirit.
Possessive, me. Really?
It’d been so long since I’d felt anything close to it that I didn’t immediately recognize the feeling until Sloan chuckled at something V said and touched her hand with a gentleness she’d argue I was incapable of.
Anger burned like the fires of Hell in my throat, and I clenched my hand into a fist to keep from reaching out and smacking the offensive hand away. Then, for two hours, I was subjected to the torture of their intimate conversation.
Possessive didn’t seem a strong enough word for what I felt sitting there, party to their happy laughter.
Sloan was kind and generous, a real compassionate person, but he’d never smiled at another person the way he did with V in all the time I’d known him.
Sloan didn’t waste time on people he didn’t find interesting, and he didn’t engage women or men in long conversations without a motive. Often, in the hopes of obtaining something necessary for a mission and not for his own personal gain.
Not even Kris, his partner, inspired the smile he gave V.
Foremost, the usually aloof Hunter’s look of captivation and determination to be near the feisty Hunter, to go as far as to suggest a date as a prize to the winner of our bet, put me on edge.
It took me off guard at first, because while polite, Sloan rarely pursued personal entanglements with other Hunters—and especially not ones who spelled tragedy the way V did.
She was an enigma like we were. Branded from birth.
Another reminder of the cruelty of the Organization and what we fought against that would most likely claim our lives one day.
And V was still fairly untrained and vulnerable.
She’d put whoever stood by her side in danger, and that person may one day be forced to make a choice between saving themselves or her.
Unfortunately, she was both our most powerful weapon and greatest weakness. Now even more so with magic involved.
Hence why I couldn’t utter it to Sloan.
I wanted to confirm what she could do before I put it out there. Cassius didn’t necessarily have a reason to lie, and not while under the influence of the Truth Cuff, but I wouldn’t take chances where V was concerned.
Even without all that, to get involved with her made us a target to anyone who wanted her abilities for themselves. And like myself, Sloan’s main priority was self-preservation. For most Hunters it was.
At our level, it was the only thing that kept us alive.
Rarely did protecting anyone matter when their life was forfeit the minute the Organization deemed it so.
Unless told to rescue survivors at any cost, our priority was to carry out the initial objective.
As a tool to the Organization, we didn’t get to argue.
It was every Hunter for themselves, and the sole reason very few at our level took on partners.
He and I, if given the choice, would choose to save ourselves instead of the other person.
At least, at one time, that was true. Now I wasn’t so sure. V changed a lot of things, and lately I’d been completely devoted to protecting her at all costs, even if it meant laying down my life to make it happen. It wasn’t normal, and I struggled to put a meaning to it.
Love.
I’d blacklisted the word since I lost Giselle.
Love was complicated without the risk of life or death.
So understandably, many of us top-level Hunters chose casual sexual relationships over more serious romantic entanglements.
It made it easier to end things and not assign words if I didn’t want to.
But V had been different in every way from the start.
Just like her grandmother was.
When Rose announced her engagement, to a human no less, Hunters all over the Organization reacted in pure astonishment.
She’d not only fallen in love, but with someone who couldn’t even properly protect themselves.
Plenty judged her for the decision. Not that she cared about what anyone else had to say.
Knowing Rose, anyone who had the balls to say it to her face got the middle finger and a punch to the gut.
Rose walked her own path and followed her own rules. She never answered to anyone. Her wisdom and clever thinking inspired an entire generation of Hunters. Rose faced everything head-on and with strong determination, and it wasn’t surprising V carried the same strong light Rose did.
When it was clear the mission she’d been assigned to do outside of her retirement was a trap, Rose didn’t hesitate.
Instead, the retired Hunter made plans to counter and keep her granddaughter safe.
Rose took on the challenge and didn’t let anything I tried to say dissuade her.
She was decided and no one would convince her to run.
God, I revered that woman.
But love was complicated in every form it took.
What I knew about Sloan was that while open to romance, he didn’t actively pursue it.
In the past, Sloan entertained casual relationships, but nothing more.
He and Kris were more like siblings than anything.
Not that it mattered. Kris was married to the job and our secret mission to overthrow the Organization.
Honestly, so was Sloan.
He’d lost a loved one, but never said how or when. The sad memory of them swam in his eyes every time love was brought up, but Sloan was better at disguising his pain than most.
Ironically, V had said the very same thing Sloan once uttered to me fifty years prior, after a particularly rough night experimenting with the serum.