Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Viktor
I have been staring at the same border report for forty minutes.
The document is routine, a semi-annual update on the eastern checkpoint shifts.
I have read this same report twice a year, for the last eight years.
I could probably recite it from memory. There is nothing in this document that requires forty minutes of my attention, and yet here I sit, in my study, with my coffee cooling at my elbow and the same paragraph stuck in front of my eyes, because I cannot focus on a single word.
All I can think about is Hazel Novak, the sexy human I want as my bride. I want her underneath me, planting my seed inside of her and my fangs in her neck.
And yet I can do none of this and must instead pretend that we only have a friendly, professional relationship for the good of my daughter.
It is very difficult.
A week has passed since that initial family dinner.
Every night has been spent at my table, with my daughter at my left and my daughter’s nanny at my right, separated from me by six inches of mahogany and an ocean of restraint.
The great dining room is now alive with laughter and energy.
The candelabras have been polished so often they are starting to gleam differently in the firelight.
Madam Petrova is happy with this arrangement and hums to herself in the corridors. The entire household seems to like the new nanny.
And Lily is blooming. My daughter, who two weeks ago barely spoke above a whisper, is now demanding to know what my favorite color is.
(I had to think about it. I have not been asked that question in years.) The Princess volunteers opinions about the soup and tells me about the butterflies in the garden.
Three nights ago, she made a small, dignified speech about how the Cook’s chocolate cake is the best dessert in all of Krovenia.
The playgroup started on Monday. By Friday my daughter was outside, laughing. I could hear the startling sound float through the open window of my study.
Two days ago, at breakfast, Hazel reached across the table to refill Lily’s water glass.
The inside of her wrist brushed mine when she set the pitcher down.
In that moment, my fangs lengthened and I had to grip the arm of my chair through the rest of the meal like a male steering a small boat through a storm. Thankfully neither Lily nor Hazel seemed to notice, but I’m ninety-nine percent certain that Madam Petrovanoticed .
A week ago, I told myself I had this under control. I’ve told myself the rules I would obey. She is your employee. She has a contract. Lily has bonded with Hazel and you cannot jeopardize this relationship. I have repeated these rules every night before dinner and every morning before breakfast.
But the Blood Calling has not lessened. It has worsened.
There is a knock on my door.
My secretary, Cardok, enters with a sealed letter in his hands. He places it on my desk. The wax seal is the Council’s, the pressed crest of three crossed swords stares up at me from the cream-colored paper.
I open it and let out a sigh of annoyance. I have told them multiple times that I will not be doing this again and yet they keep trying to arrange my life for me, as if I were a trained animal.
The Council is calling me to a closed session three weeks from today.
The subject of the session: the matter of the Crown Prince’s continued unmated status and its implications for the succession of House Draven.
Attached is a list of three Krovenian noble females from old bloodlines, all vetted personally by Elder Petra herself.
All from houses with long histories of intermarriage with House Draven.
I know all of these females. None of them have any interest in me.
They consider me dark, quiet and broken.
Any of them would be horrified to learn that they were being forced into an arranged marriage with me.
I set the letter down on my desk and stare at it for a long moment.
I think of Hazel, the lone female who seems to see beyond my off-putting exterior.
She talks to me daily, bringing out conversation from not only my daughter, but from me .
I envision her at my table last night, laughing at something Lily said.
Her hand sliding the silver hair clip into Lily’s curls this morning after breakfast. The look of caring and love in Hazel’s eyes as she gazes at my daughter.
I suspect my female cares for Lily more than she realizes.
I pick up the offending letter and lock it away in my desk drawer.
My tablet chimes.
It is the King.
I tap on the screen and my older brother’s familiar face fills the screen, he is in his own study at the royal castle, his sleeves rolled up the same as mine.
He is the very picture of a busy king in the middle of a working morning.
There is a small smudge of something on his collar that I suspect is baby formula.
He has clearly been holding Alexei recently.
We speak of the small things first, confirming that Claire and Alexei are well and the kingdom is more or less stable.
I learn that Sebastian has gotten into another argument with the captain of the southern forces, which is fine, because Sebastian gets into an argument with the captain of the southern forces roughly every quarter.
Maxim is still refusing to attend formal functions unless forced to. The usual.
Then my brother’s expression shifts. He sets something down on his side of the screen and folds his hands. “Madam Petrova called my housekeeper, who called Claire’s lady’s maid, who told Claire that apparently you are having dinner with your daughter now.”
“Yes,” I agree. “For the last week Lily has been having not only breakfast but dinner with me as well in the great dining room. This is helping Lily greatly. She is now talking much more and seems happier.”
“Good. And I’m now guessing the reason you haven’t told me this is because you are also having breakfast and dinner with your new human nanny.”
I look at my brother on the screen. This is a male who survived this same impossible situation. He took a human into his bed and made the entire Krovenian kingdom bend its knee to her.
“It is the Calling, Nikolai,” I admit. “I did not tell you about this yet because it’s been difficult and I don’t know how to handle it either.”
His face transforms with the quiet, devastating understanding of a male who has been there. “For how long?”
“Since the moment I first met her and scented her in my kitchen. Ten days now.”
He closes his eyes for a beat. When he opens them, he looks like he wants to walk through the screen. “Has the Calling brought down your fangs?”
“They are halfway down now and she is not even in the wing.”
“Have you been hard for her?”
“Yes.”
“Continuously?”
I shrug. “Basically.”
“You sat in this very office and told me the Calling was sacred. That it was not to be tossed away arbitrarily. That if it came to a Krovenian male in this lifetime, it was a gift from the gods and we did not refuse the gods. Do you remember?”
“I remember what I said.”
“Then claim her.”
I admit to him, the one barrier that it has been difficult for even admit to myself this last week. “Elara wasn’t my true mate, but we were best friends. When she died that was terrible for both me and Lilly… I cannot survive losing a true mate.”
“Viktor, you cannot live your life, not choosing love because of fear.”
A growl rumbles in my chest. I exhale and run my fingers through my hair. “She is also my employee and the power imbalance is staggering.”
“I know.”
“She has a contract.”
“I know that too.”
“This human has a life she gave up in Ohio to come here for one year. She did not sign up to be Krovenian nobility. She signed up to be a nanny for a small grieving princess, and she has done that job magnificently. I will not coerce her into something larger than what she came here for. I will not be that male.”
“You and I both know none of these are true barriers. All of this can be talked through. Have you told her any of this?”
“No.”
“Viktor…” he growls.
“I know.”
“Hazel Novak deserves to know what is happening to you. She deserves to make her own choice, not the choice you have made on her behalf. You are deciding for her by hiding it from her. That is the same coercion you are claiming to avoid, in the other direction.”
Dammit, I hate it when he continues to make good points. He’s always been good at this. This is why it is best that he is King.
“I almost lost Claire because I waited. I let my honor and doubt convince me that not speaking was the kinder choice, and it almost cost me everything. Do not make my mistake. Tell her, Viktor.”
Finally, we end the call and I sit in my chair for a long time after the screen goes dark, thinking about what my brother said and understanding the logic. He’s right, it must be done. I will talk to her, now, before it is too late.
Then I stand and find my housekeeper in the corridor outside the breakfast room as she overseees the morning silver inventory. “Madam Petrova.”
“Sire.”
“Where is Miss Novak?”
She does not look up from her ledger. “The princess is currently with her Krovenian tutor in the playroom. Miss Novak is on her morning break.”
“Please ask the nanny to join me in my study at her earliest convenience.”
“Yes, sire.”
Minutes later there is a soft knock on my door.
“Come in.”
Hazel wears a soft pink blouse and dark trousers. Her hair is up in a loose bun, with a few strands escaping at the nape of her neck. She looks like a young woman who has been working all morning and was not expecting to be summoned to her boss’s study before lunch.
“You wanted to see me?”
“Yes. Please. Come in.”
She closes the door behind her with a soft click.