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“I’m surprised you’re still breathing,” Isa said then, reaching out to trail the tip of a finger down the length of Hunter’s throat to the center of his chest. Everywhere he touched, he left a layer of frost in his wake, seemingly pleased with every sharp gasp of pain Hunter made. “Although, I suppose I shouldn’t be. I told my men that if you died, they die with you. I see they took heed. But,” he stepped closer and planted his full palm against Hunter’s stomach, “make no mistake. You are going to die today.”
The cold blasted through him, three times more painful than any of the punches he’d received, forcing him to scream as it froze him from the inside out. Hunter fought against his binds now, desperate to get away from the excruciating pain. It was a good thing he couldn’t see, because there was little doubt that his skin was starting to blister and blacken, and that wasn’t something he needed to witness. This was already horrendous enough as it was.
“I’m going to deliver your mutilated corpse to his doorstep,” Isa told him, words somehow being heard even through Hunter’s cries. “He’ll see what happens when he doesn’t choose me. He’ll see that I’m the only choice left. You almost got in the way the last time and I thought I’d taken care of it then, but clearly, I’d been mistaken. I should have shot you instead of bothering with that failed plan.”
What? Was he admitting the reason he’d chosen Hunter for the job was because he’d known about his crush on Odin? Of course that was it, but hearing him say it out loud…Hunter wanted to ask but couldn’t, and another wave of ice traveled up his arms, tingling and burning.
This was all Isa Frost’s fault. All of it. The animosity between Hunter and Odin, why he’d been on the run all this time. And now Meg…He’d done something to Meg, he had to have, there was no other way to explain why she’d turned on Hunter like this. The last he’d even seen her was right before he’d passed out in the hovercar. Here he was about to die and she was nowhere to be found.
She hadn’t even bothered sticking around to watch the show.
Did she care so little about him?
“Odin’s going to forget all about you,” Isa switched tactics, clearly annoyed by Hunter’s lack of response. “You know that, don’t you? You’re nothing but a pretty little plaything to him, a means to piss me off. He doesn’t actually care for you at all.”
That was a lie. While it was true Hunter had no idea just how much Odin did care for him, he knew that he did, on some level at least. He wasn’t sure when he’d started to trust that, but he did. He meant more to Odin than Isa was making it sound, whether that was because he was the only known Whisper on the planet or not. And even if it was, that didn’t really matter.
Not when Hunter was going to be an ice statue in a few minutes.
What he wouldn’t give for a hit of that heat Odin could give off. The warm, comforting balm he applied whenever he felt Hunter get nervous, or when he was pumping deep inside of him and close to orgasm. If he were here, he’d chase Isa’s frost away with ease, smooth over the burns, and set Hunter alight in a different, delicious way.
He could recall it so vividly, he could almost feel it now, spreading through him, starting from the center of his chest, branching outwards like tiny ropes of fire dipped in gasoline, touching every icy spot inside and melting it until—
“What the hell is going on?” Isa’s shocked tone snapped Hunter out of it, and at first, he thought the man had stopped using his power.
The dread that hit him the second he registered that wasn’t the case chased away any comforting feeling he’d been able to drudge up with memories of Odin. The ice encased him anew, and he ground his teeth together to keep the screams from starting up again.
Isa pulled his hand away and stood there, but with Hunter’s swollen eyes, he couldn’t make out what he was doing other than hovering.
After a lengthy moment of nothing but silence, he tried his voice a second time, clearing and wetting his throat before finally being able to rasp out in a barely audible tone, “What?”
“How did you do that?” Isa asked, and Hunter got the sense he was inspecting him, searching for signs of something not there. “You…That’s not possible. You’re not a Shout. A Shout would have fought back and exposed himself a long time ago.”
He hated himself for it, but he jerked away when Isa reached for him, a show of weakness he’d been trying so hard not to give. But even as badly injured and out of it as he currently was, Hunter could process the danger here. A danger that was several billion times worse than it’d been a minute ago when Isa’s only goal had been to kill him and dump his body.
He’d been thinking about Odin and his heat and…The power Isa had been forcing into him had dissipated and warmed away. Since Odin wasn’t here to have done it, that only meant one thing.
There’d been a note of power transfer in the books Hunter had read during his travels, but it wasn’t common and therefore not overly documented. Apparently, some mated pairs were able to do it, the Whisper gaining access to part of the abilities the Shout had. Hunter had forgotten all about it. If that’s really what had just happened, his body must have instinctually done it in order to survive.
Isa grabbed him by the chin and forced his head up, searching his gaze before his eyes traveled to Hunter’s pursed lips. He ran his thumb over the bottom one, collecting blood and saliva from the crack there, and then pulled back, staring down at his finger.
“Don’t,” Hunter said it but was too late. He watched in horror as Isa stuck his thumb into his mouth and sucked.
Frost groaned, the sound low and primal, sending warning bells clanging inside of Hunter so loudly that he went back to struggling, this time harder, practically tearing strips of skin off his wrists as he tugged uselessly at the rope. Instinct told him to run, overriding any sense of logic or reason he would have otherwise had. That part of him, the part that was a mated Whisper, screamed about the danger.
If only he’d remembered what he’d read and had known there was as chance he could call on Odin’s power, he would have been smarter and not used it.
Hunter had given himself away.
Again.
“It makes sense now,” Isa said, his voice completely different from how it’d been up until this point. “Unless…Does he know?” He took Hunter’s chin a second time, tipping his head back and forth so he could inspect his neck, the rise of his shoulders. Without warning, he dropped down to his knees and forced Hunter’s legs apart, not bothering to mind his broken leg while doing so. “I can’t find any bite marks.”
That was because there weren’t any to find. Odin didn’t bite him and tear into him like he was meat. Hunter had read stories about vicious Shouts that preferred to do it that way, but typically those cases were ones where the Whisper was forced into a mating.
The fact that Isa was looking for a bite though…
Hunter made a sound of alarm and tried to pull away, managing to move an inch or so before Isa was standing once more.
