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Odin wanted to argue, but none of that was wrong. He’d known who Hunter Thorn was, who he’d been, and who the man would become if and when they got back together. The whole reason he’d wanted Hunter to train again was for that very reason. It wasn’t simply to ease his mind and ensure himself that his Huntsman could hold his own in a fight, it was also because he knew as soon as the lock on the door was removed, Hunter wouldn’t shy from one either.
“Frost had you,” Hunter reached up and cupped Odin’s face, “You were trying to come up with a way out, but he had you and you were about to stand down.”
“He was going to hurt you.” Even thinking about it made his palms itch to call back the flames despite the fact the threat was gone.
“So you were ready to give up everything to prevent that? Your title as Dominus, the club, your people, your freedom—He wouldn’t have settled for anything less than everything.”
“I know that.”
“Then—”
“I love you, Hunter,” Odin reminded. “I love you, and I’d do anything for you, even if that means risking myself in the process.” That should be fairly obvious by now, and he was a bit annoyed that he had to explain it. That he was standing here, justifying his actions to the one person who should understand better than anyone else where he’d been coming from and why.
But then Hunter grinned at him deviously, dropping his hand and crossing his arms.
Everything the Huntsman had been telling him all this time came to mind then. He’d been clear from the very start of this when he’d finally agreed to the mating that he wanted a partner, an equal.
He’d just led him into a trap, made him see things from his perspective without even realizing it.
“I’m your Shout,” Odin said, but even to him, it sounded like an excuse.
“And I’m your Whisper,” Hunter stated.
“I had to lock you up just to get you to talk to me in the beginning.”
“First of all, talking was never on your original agenda. Second of all, that was then. I already told you that things are different now. I didn’t come back here because I have nowhere else to go, and I’m not staying because you’re forcing me to. I want to be here, Odin. I want to be with you.”
“If you were even one second slower,” Odin voiced the thing that had been bothering him the most, “one inch off at either side, Isa could have killed you.”
Frost had been distracted by the fireball, most likely reeling from discovering that Hunter did in fact have access to power just like they did. That was the only reason he hadn’t been watching when Hunter had grabbed the blaster. It was also the reason he hadn’t tossed one of those balls of ice at Hunter after he’d been shot too. He’d been surprised by it, his mind unable to process that he’d been bested, his body struggling to keep itself alive as his blood pooled out of the fresh hole in his neck.
If he’d missed that shot or Isa had seen it in time and evaded, Hunter would most likely be the dead one right now.
“We were out of time,” Hunter repeated. “If I didn’t take the chance while I could, Isa would have made good on his threats. You don’t believe there were just the two of them, do you? He had to have had more people waiting nearby. They got scared and scattered the moment his body hit the ground, but we’ll receive a report soon enough that the men you sent to search found them. By the time Vetle made it to us, Isa would have had you crippled and forced him to bend the knee.
“The only person on this planet who hates Frost more than me is you. I would never stand by and watch you surrender to him. I’d do anything for you, too, Odin. Even if that means risking myself.”
He groaned and ran a hand over his face and through his hair. “I hate when you use my own words against me. How is it you seem to remember every single thing I’ve ever said to you?”
“I have to arm myself somehow.” He shrugged, acting all innocent, and Odin gave a warning growl.
“Don’t be cute.”
Hunter sneered, not liking that one bit. “Don’t be gross.”
They stared at one another for a moment, the air seemingly thickening with tension. Sometime between when Odin had trapped Hunter in here and they’d mated, this place had stopped being his room and had started being theirs. The space no longer seemed like a cage. Hunter was right. Things between them were different.
“Isa is dead,” he said solemnly. “Which means there’s no longer a Brumal army out there with your name on their bounty list.”
When he’d exposed Hunter’s existence to Frost at the Octu Gala months ago, he’d had two missions. See how Isa would react when presented with the Huntsman, and ensure that the Huntsman had nowhere else to hide. It’d quickly become apparent that Frost wanted him dead and he wouldn’t be safe on the streets of Ovid. That he’d need Odin from that moment on to just stay alive.
But now that threat was gone. There was nothing left to keep Hunter from realizing this wasn’t the life he wanted. To keep him from walking out that door.
He’d be lying if Odin said he hadn’t thought about that these past weeks, as things between them had seemingly solidified and become stronger than ever. Maybe that was why he hadn’t gone out and joined the search for Isa himself, something he most certainly would have done prior to Hunter Thorn reentering his life.
He would have torn the streets apart searching for him even, unable to rest until he had Frost’s head on a spike and his blood staining his hands. But with Hunter at home, it’d barely been a passing thought, and when it had come, he’d brushed it aside, given into the fear of what ending Isa might mean for the two of them in particular.
Odin may have won the war the second Hunter pulled that trigger, but there was a chance he’d lost something else. Something a lot more important.
