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But that kindness had only managed to tie him tighter to Odin, the forbidden son.
“What are you thinking about?” Odin asked, but his tone had a teasing lilt that said he had some ideas. “Do you remember the last time we were in here together?”
Hunter nodded his head, not trusting his voice at that moment.
“I pretended not to understand how intergalactic travel worked, and you spent an hour explaining it to me in great detail,” Odin said fondly. “I had the servants deliver snacks—you were healthier then than you are now, but you were still too skinny.”
“You let me pack the extras and bring them home to my sister.” She’d been delighted, one of the few times she’d sung the Brumal’s praises and hadn’t chastised Hunter for his job.
“You bumped your knee against mine under the table,” Odin continued. “I pretended not to notice, and you left it there. I remember thinking about how bad you were at concealing your feelings.”
Odin had used his powers then, too, only a little, warming the spot where they’d touched, making Hunter feel like he was being gently kissed by the sun.
“Was it a lie?” Odin asked then, and the easy bubble Hunter had somehow slipped into popped.
His hands tightened on the sides of Odin’s suit jacket, and he braced himself for another fight. Another argument he knew he could never win.
Surprisingly, Odin hushed him, rubbed his chin against the top of Hunter’s head, and sent more of that heat stroking into him. “Answer the question, Huntsman. This time,” he hesitated as if unsure of his following words, before, “I’ll believe you.”
Hunter dropped his head against the wall to give himself some room to meet Odin’s gaze. He searched his eyes, but it seemed like the other man was being honest. And…he was probably a fool, but he wanted to buy that. Wanted to at least be heard where this was concerned, even if Odin never believed the rest of the story.
Even if he continued to hate him for the gunshot scar he had on his arm.
“I liked you,” Hunter practically breathed the sentence out, as if he’d been holding that one comment in all his life and was finally ready to be rid of it. “I liked you so much, Snow. It wasn’t pretend. You didn’t imagine it. If I’d had my way, I would have asked you to meet with me that day to confess.”
He probably shouldn’t have brought that up, but now that they were having an actual conversation about it, he was willing to push his luck. One last attempt to get the truth out there, after this, if Odin still refused to listen, he’d give up.
He’d give up, put all lovesick thoughts of the younger Dominus behind a closed door in his mind, and he’d throw away the key.
One last try because he was desperate or stupid or both. Probably both.
Odin’s mouth turned into a thin line, but he didn’t interrupt as Hunter continued.
“I came home from work and found my sister was gone. I thought she was with friends, but when morning came, and she hadn’t returned, I realized something was wrong. I was on my way here to beg you for help finding her when Isa stopped me.”
“He’d taken her?” He still didn’t sound convinced, but he was wavering, Hunter could tell.
It was undoubtedly something Isa would do, and they both knew it.
“He showed me a video of Meg tied up. She was blindfolded, but her lip was split and bruised. He was clear. If I didn’t kill you, he would kill her. After what happened in the woods…I tried to sneak back to the mansion, thinking for sure that was where she was being kept.”
“She wasn’t?”
“I don’t know.” He squeezed his eyes shut, but the image he’d seen that day was still crystal clear in his mind. “I got a text message before I made it, had to be less than fifteen minutes after what happened between us. It was of her dead body. He’d shot her in the head.”
He blew out a breath and forced himself to meet Odin’s gaze once more. “You aren’t the only one who lost everything that day, Snow. I hate him too.”
“You ran.”
“From the both of you. Back in Hohum, when I heard there was a Dominus after me, I thought you were him. I was expecting Isa to come and finish the job.”
“I miscalculated,” Odin admitted. “I thought Isa would be upset that you were with me. That it would piss him off that you’d gotten away from him. He trusted you with a massive job.”
“I botched it,” Hunter reminded.
“Yes, and he isn’t a fan of failure. It makes him look bad. I figured seeing you again might make him want you. I wanted to rattle him. Show him that I’d taken what was his, the same way he stole from me.”
“You weren’t entirely mistaken.” He wasn’t sure if he should say this or not, but…What could it hurt at this point? “The two of you…You were….”
