Page 62 of Hunter

Viktor shot him a hard glare.

“I’ll take that as a no.”

“Where is she?”

“Upstairs. She needs to rest. I want her to eat something and get a good night’s sleep before we go tomorrow.”

“The witch?”

“Yes. The witch. Ilsbeth.”

“Friend or foe?”

“Foe. Definitely foe. But she saved you and Willa. So off we go.”

“She’s got a long history of riding the fence. Demons. You play with fire, you get burned.”

“And burned she did. Dimitri almost lost his beast. She did that.”

“Bargained for black magick. There’s always a price.”

“It could’ve killed him.”

“He must have some game in the bedroom to drive a witch like her to do something so batshit crazy.”

“She liked the D.” Hunter shrugged and smiled. “I don’t know. Maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh. It could’ve been more than that, but we all know the score. Including her. Wolves can only mate with wolves. Sometimes a hybrid. But never a witch. Or a human or vampire for that matter. It’s just our nature. If we’re going to breed, which we choose to do when we want, we have to have shifter blood.”

“And your girl?”

Hellfire. “She’s special.”

“Do you care to share why?” A wry smile tugged on Viktor’s lips.

“It’s not my place to tell you.”

“So that’s how it’s gonna be?” Viktor’s gaze went to the ceiling, the sound of footsteps above. “She’ll tell me eventually. I’ve had her blood.”

“That’s all you’re ever going to get,” Hunter growled. The thought of anyone hurting Willa spiked his ire.

“I thought you wolves liked to share,” Viktor countered.

“Yeah, well. Not me.” In truth, Hunter hadn’t considered it but as long as they remained unmated, sharing her with another, even for her pleasure, simply wasn’t an option.

“Pity. She is lovely.”

“Vik. I just got done marking her. It wasn’t exactly very well thought out. It just kind of happened. Can you cut me a break?”

“Perhaps. Depends on the secret.”

“All I can tell you is that the price on her head still stands. The demons will come for her again through these assholes.”

“Demon issues can be solved by demons.”

Hunter stopped mid-slice of the cheese and set the knife down on the counter, turning toward the vampire. “Do not summon a demon. I’m fucking serious, Vik. We will handle this. Ilsbeth…”

“Ilsbeth deals with demons. We don’t even know if she’s clean or what the hell is happening with her.”

“We’ll find out soon enough. Tonight food. Sleep. She’s had a rough go of it.” Julian. “What happened in the jungle…”