Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Viktor
H azel sleeps in the armchair across from me.
She has been beside me for over twenty hours.
Lily finally sleeps peacefully in the small bed between us too. Her cheeks are pink in the normal way and her breathing is even.
The relief is bone-deep. I had not let myself name how afraid I was.
For weeks I had been watching for this. The Krovenian childhood fever does not warn you, it simply arrives.
My own fever came when I was five. My mother sat at my bedside for four days without sleeping, and on the third day the physician spoke quietly to my father in the corridor.
I remember being very hot and very tired and dreaming that I was running across a wide field and could not reach the other side.
Nikolai’s came earlier than mine, at four. His was mild. He was up and demanding breakfast by the second morning. He has always been the easier brother. Sebastian’s was harder than Nikolai’s but easier than mine.
Lily’s came at four, like Nikolai’s. She is through it after twelve hours. Thank the gods.
Then I look at Hazel again. My beautiful mate.
Her hair is long and flowing over her shoulders, her features somehow more exquisite at rest. She did not leave.
I had braced myself, the moment the physician said the words, for Hazel to step gracefully back and let the staff take over.
That is what nannies do, in my world. The royal physician arrives, a nurse is positioned in the adjoining room, the family withdraws.
The nanny offers comfort but does not stay through the long hours of the sickbed. That is not her job.
But Hazel rolled up her sleeves, wrung out the first cloth and sat down and did not get up except to change her clothes once.
And every time she leaned forward to press a fresh cool cloth to Lily’s small forehead, I saw what was in her face.
Love. For my daughter. Real, deep, unguarded love. And I saw it when she looked at me too.
My female loves us. She has not said it yet, but I know it to be true.
This human is the best of her species. She is brave and generous. Hazel walked into my kitchen at midnight in pajamas with a clay mask on her face, and the gods rewrote my entire life in that single breath. I am the luckiest male alive.
Yesterday morning I laid it all out for her. She understands the Blood Calling I had braced myself for her to recoil, pack her bags and tell me she would be flying back to Ohio in the morning.
She did not.
She had been about to respond when Madam Petrova knocked on the door. Then came Lily’s bedside vigil. And through all those hours, even with all of it weighing on her, I could still occasionally scent her arousal for me. Even in the worst of it, she was not afraid of me.
I think she has not been scared off. I think, possibly, she has already chosen me.
I stand and move quietly to her side and crouch in front of her chair. My arms slide beneath her knees and back, and I lift her carefully out of the chair.
She mumbles something against my shoulder that is not a word.
I carry her toward the door of the nursery.
Madam Petrova is in the corridor, in a fresh dark dress with her hair pinned up neatly, as if she has already been awake for some hours.
The morning light from the high windows falls across her white braid.
Her face is calm. “Sire, you have not slept in a day. Neither has she. The princess has come through. The nurse will sit with her. Cook is preparing a soft meal for when she wakes. The household will manage. I will look in on your daughter every hour myself.”
I dip my head. “Thank you, Madam Petrova.”
“Of course, sire.”
I turn left, towards my own suite. I cannot take her back to her own room, it is too late for that.
Sleeping in a bed without her scent for the last ten days and it has not gone well.
I need her beside me, her breath in my lungs, the slow weight of her against my body when I close my eyes, or I will not sleep at all.
My bedroom is dim. The heavy dark curtains are still drawn from when I left yesterday. The fire in the hearth has died to embers. The room smells of cedar and the faint trace of the bath oil I use.
I lay her gently on my large bed, and pull the covers over her, on the side I never sleep on. Elara and I did not share a room, she had her own suite down the hallway. But Blood Calling pairs always share a room and a bed, due to the blood and scent exchange of the pairing.
I climb onto the bed beside her, fully clothed, on top of the coverlet. I do not undress or slide under the covers. Whatever she chooses to be to me, she has not yet chosen it out loud, and I will not crowd her in her sleep. Sleep, I tell myself. Only sleep.
I wake to gold afternoon light slanting around the edges of the curtains.
Hazel is curled against my side.
At some point in the last several hours, she has tucked herself into me without waking.
Her cheek is pressed against my shoulder.
Her hand is open over my heart. One of her legs has hooked across one of mine.
Her hair has fallen across the front of my shirt.
She is breathing slowly, evenly, deeply asleep.
I do not move. I lie still and let myself feel her weight against me. The warmth of her and the smell of her hair under my chin.
Hazel stirs. Her breath catches. “I’m in your room…How long have we been asleep?” she questions.
“Hours. Eight or nine, I think.”
“Is Lily?—”
“She is fine. Madam Petrova assured me that the staff could care for her now, and that you and I were to leave and rest for as long as we needed.”
Hazel exhales and sinks back against my chest. She does not move away from me.
“Is it okay that you are in my bedroom? Does this make you uncomfortable?”
“No. No, I like it here.”
“Good, because I’m hoping you might consider this your room too.”
She grins.
I move over, so fast I know I startle her because she not used to how fast a Krovenian can move. Now I am on top of her and she is beneath me. “Can I lay against you in this position, or does this feel too soon for you? I want your full consent before I move any further.”
She places both of her hands against the fabric on my chest. “I love this. I’ve wanted you this close, touching me, for a long time now.”
The scent of her arousal causes my cock to lengthen and leak in my pants.
I look down at her in the gold afternoon light, and I say the words that have been locked inside of me but need to be spoken.
I have told her everything and she has not left.
We spent the night caring for Lily together.
It is time for me to tell her the truth of my feelings.
She needs to know that what I feel for her isn’t simply a biological pull, but a full mating.
I want her because not only do I think she’s the sexiest female in the world, but also the one whom I will love, forever.
She’s honest, loyal, works hard and cares for others. “I love you, Hazel.”
She grabs onto my hand. “Oh, Viktor. I love you too. I realized it last night, watching you with Lily. Well, I think it’s been building since literally that first night we met in the kitchen, but last night, while we were both reading, it really struck me that this was how I felt.”
“I have never said those words to another being, Hazel, besides my daughter.”
She gives me a watery smile. “You are my first, too.”
And then I realize, in a slow rolling thud, that I have never kissed anyone and Hazel’s lips are full and highly kissable.
The Blood Calling has been making Hazel’s lips a beacon for two weeks.
Her throat too. Two laser points of pure desire that I have been trying very hard not to look at directly.
She is watching my face. “Viktor?”
“I have not done this before.”
She blinks. “Done what?”
“Kissed anyone.”
Her lips part slightly. “Oh…You have never?—”
“There was no reason to. Without the Calling, Krovenians do not…we do not need it. There is no pull. I have never kissed any female in my life.”
She licks her lips. “Oh wow.”
“I want to. Now.”
“Please.”
I bend my head and brush my mouth across hers. Her lips are softer than anything I have ever felt in my life. I pull back slightly and look at her face.
“Viktor.”
This time I kiss her properly. Her mouth opens under mine and the whole world narrows to the heat of her mouth and the soft slide of her lips and the small sound she makes in the back of her throat. My hand slides into her hair and I cradle the back of her head. I kiss her deeper.
Her hands come up to my chest again and grip my shirt.
Then her arms reach up and she pulls me closer.
I pull her against me, every inch, until I can feel the whole length of her against the whole length of me.
She wiggles her hips against my hard cock and I have to focus, forcing myself to not come so soon in my pants.
The kiss goes on. My fangs lengthen and I am careful with them, very careful to not cut her. The ache of them is its own pleasure.
Her tongue finds mine. My whole body locks. I kiss her like a male who has been starving and did not know it.
We kiss for a very long time. Eventually we break apart, panting, foreheads pressed together.
She laughs, very softly. “That was your first kiss?”
“Yes.”
“Viktor, you’re a natural.”
“I have been thinking about it for almost two weeks, female.” I kiss her again, softer this time, a small kiss at the corner of her mouth. Then her temple and the spot below her ear where I have wanted to put my mouth since we met.
I lie by her side, holding her in my arms.
Finally, she speaks again, “I want this, Viktor. I want everything you offered me yesterday morning in the study. I want it.”
I prop myself up on one elbow so I can look at her properly. “You are sure.”
“I am sure.”