Bella would have put up more of a fight, but the pain was so intense that even if the vial held fatal poison, it would be an improvement. In the best case scenario, maybe the red-tinted serum really would help. Reluctantly, she rolled up her sleeve and held out her left arm since it was accustomed to pain, anyway. Ulric's gaze was unexpectedly apologetic, but it darkened when he saw Bella's scars. His Adam’s apple bobbed, but he kept whatever thoughts he had to himself. "I'm sorry, but this has to go directly into her jugular vein." “Of course it does,” Bella muttered. "At least let me hold her,” said Victor. "Fine." Victor pulled Bella onto his lap, and she buried her face in his shirt. His scent was just as comforting as Darian’s, and her apprehension faded with his touch, even though she knew he was only stroking her hair to uncover her neck. She was too exhausted to care if Ulric saw those scars, too. The Alpha’s growl made Bella
Bella woke from the most restful night of sleep she'd had in weeks to the sound of birds chirping out in Clara's garden. She snuggled closer in search of the warm body that had been next to her the entire night only to find his side of the bed empty.She rubbed her eyes and sat up with ease. Victor wasn't just awake, he was gone. His clothes from the day before were at the bottom of a laundry basket on the other end of the room, and his shoes were gone, but those were the only signs he'd been there at all. Before long, she realized the strangest thing. She still wasn't in pain. In fact, she felt even better than she had before her breakdown. Her body didn't ache. Her head wasn't throbbing. Her mind was still clear. The additional doses Victor had given her in the night must have worked. She was still afraid to find out what was in the red serum, and she wasn't crazy about the way it had to be administered, but its potency was unbelievable.She sat up and looked
"What does it mean to be called?" Bella asked, partly out of curiosity and partly because Foster seemed so eager to talk about it. He was a sweet little wolf, if a strange one. More like a pup, really.Foster brightened up again at the question. "Everyone hears Her call eventually. Some just choose not to respond for a while. It's hard to explain, but when they feel it, they just know. If they ever look up at the moon and it feels like the moon is looking back, that's Her. Selene. She usually comes to them in a time of need. For me, it was right after my first shift. I was terrified, and I didn't know what had happened, but she told me everything was going to be alright and led me here." "She spoke to you?" Bella asked hopefully. Aside from that strange detail, his story sounded eerily similar to her experience in the woods."Well, no. Not in words. It was just like her light was soaking through me. I could feel her taking me as her own, comforting me.” He hugged
She was sure there had been dozens if not hundreds of men standing in her place before, and she was also sure she was the only one who’d ever thought of turning him down."Just relax," he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. His voice was almost as calming as his touch. She briefly wondered if he was playing mind games again, but this time, the relaxing effect was organic. "I'm not going to force you to do anything you don't want to. I just need you to hear me out.” “Why?” She shrugged away from his touch. “So you can feed me some line that excuses the fact that you’re using this to move in on your brother’s territory?”He arched an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t believe in soulmates.”She clenched her jaw, fighting back her irritation. She’d already had an emotional meltdown in front of Victor and she wasn’t about to lose her temper in front of him, too. “You know what I meant.” “What you say is always so much more interesting,” he said, studying her fac
"I'm sorry," Bella stammered, hoping Victor wouldn't mistakenly take her shock as a reaction to his scar. That would be the ultimate hypocrisy. “I didn't mean to stare.""It's fine. It doesn't bother me anymore."It used to? The idea that a man like Victor was capable of feeling self-conscious about anything was hard to believe.He reached into a drawer and pulled out a pair of thin, black leather gloves. Bella was transfixed as she watched him pull them on. Every move the man made was deliberate and sensual. She got the feeling he could’ve made taking out the trash look sexy and she resented herself for thinking it. She was also admittedly curious as to how he was going to do what he claimed to be capable of without touching her. She felt a twinge of guilt for being in this room with him and not Darian, but berserker or not, he was gone. He was also the reason she was in this mess. Darian was the one who’d marked her the moment he met her, taking away her ability to
"Her head," Bella groaned."What were you thinking about?" he asked earnestly. The cloth in his hand pressed against her cheek as he held her face, searching her eyes like he was able to see into her already. "Just before it started hurting. I need you to tell me exactly what was in your thoughts.""Jeff," she admitted."What about him?" he pressed.The pain grew sharper. The lights overhead were starting to stretch and distort. "I...""Bella, this is important." His voice was whispered, but the authority in it made her want to push through the pain."About how he hurt me." She felt like she'd broken through a gate as soon as those words came out. The pain intensified, but the pressure eased. Anger and urgency were both there in Victor's gaze as he watched her, like he was torn between the success of his tactics and his personal response to what she was telling him. He took the black cloth between his hands and stretched it out, a somber expression on his face.
Bella bit her lip as she tried to think of all the things she might well be in for in Victor's dungeon. She knew he wouldn't actually hurt her the way Jeff had, so that left boundaries of a different nature to consider. "You mean like sex, don't you?"The surprise on his face made her second guess it. "No. Not that I would be opposed to it," he said with a self-deprecating laugh. "But I'm more referring to other forms of physical contact. I believe the euphoria associated with controlled pain helps to access deeper states of consciousness, but if you're not comfortable with that sort of thing, we'll find another way." "How much pain...?""Even a small amount can be hypnotic in the right context. Set the right mood with a bit of sensory deprivation and the mind plays all sorts of tricks," he said, his voice growing husky as he threaded a strand of her hair through his long fingers. "I don't need to leave a mark to make you writhe."She didn't doubt it. She
"They once did, but it's become rare. All Lycan wolves have a coming-of-age ceremony, but Sebastian and I are the first in the pack to have actually found the mate we saw in our visions. I won't bore you with the history lesson, but suffice it to say, we both thought we had time to sort things out." "You mean time to fight over which one of you would get me?" Victor didn’t answer, but he didn't deny it either. "Your preference would have been a major factor. We would have at least had time to court you properly before you made your choice, if he hadn’t jumped the gun.” "A major factor?" Bella asked incredulously. "Shouldn't it be the factor?" "That isn't the way things are done in the supernatural realm, Bella. Especially not among wolves. The Alpha of the pack always has the deciding vote on all binding agreements, including marriage." “And here I thought werewolves were all about howling at the moon and running around the forest. Who knew your