AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Now it was a reminder of just how dangerous the man truly was.
He glanced down at the thick metal bracelet on his wrist. A neon line of green flickered through the center every few seconds, indicating it was activated. The locking mechanism was located on the bottom, needing a scan and a code. It was meant to be something that Hunter couldn’t remove on his own.
A gift? More like a collar.
Odin might have saved him the other night, but Hunter had to keep reminding himself about his situation. He wasn’t here because the other man liked him. Odin viewed him as little more than a pet, clearly, and he needed to remember that.
He couldn’t allow himself to fall for the Dominus again.
“Yes,” Corbi answered his question, utterly unaware of the dark turn of his thoughts. “He taught us the rules of the Brumal and trained us in various skills. I have impeccable aim.”
“Was that a dig?” Hunter snorted. “That was a dig.”
“I’ve heard you do as well,” she said, ignoring his comment. “I’ve always wondered…”
She didn’t have to finish that sentence for him to understand where this was going.
“It was an accident,” he told her, but she slightly shook her head.
“Two years into training, I finally hit several moving targets in one training session. Do you know what the Dominus said to me?”
Hunter silently waited for her to continue on her own.
“‘You’re almost as good as a huntsman I once knew’,” she stated. “Almost.”
“Your point?”
“I would never accidentally miss a target,” she replied. “And if I’m only almost as good as you are, it’s safe to assume that neither would you. Something happened that day. I’m going to find out what.”
Hunter felt his breath stuttering in his chest and he tried not to show it, but considering the slight tilt to Corbi’s head, knew it was already too late.
The corner of her mouth tipped up, the look two parts frightening and one part devilish.
Oh yeah, she’d definitely been raised by Odin. Had picked up far too many habits from him.
“You’re enjoying this,” he accused, a bit shocked by that fact. She’d seemed so concerned about Odin, it was unnerving that she could also take pleasure in rattling Hunter’s cage.
In the idea that there was something about the past he was hiding, when that meant there was something else that could bother her precious Dominus.
“I like puzzles,” she told him with a single lift of her left shoulder.
“I see why he keeps you around.”
Her smile widened then, and it was vicious, bright, and both unnerving yet oddly beautiful. “I agree, Hunter.” Just as he was about to take that as a compliment, she added, “I see why he keeps me around, too.”
He rolled his eyes and left the room before he could get sucked into more of her games.
* * *
“Are you going to let me get kidnapped again?” Hunter drawled almost two hours later when he entered the main hall of Club Cherry. He’d spent the better part of his time exploring the above levels, finding that, true to Corbi’s word, most doors opened for him as soon as he brought the bracelet up to the scan pads.
Only one hadn’t, and Loni had explained that it was Odin’s office. No one had access to it except for him and the twins.
“I apologize for my error in judgment, Mr. Thorn,” Loni said.
He made a face at the title but dropped it.
Corbi hadn’t followed him out of the room, but he’d quickly realized the reason why. Loni had been quietly waiting for him at the other end of the hall. She’d fallen into step a single pace behind him the second he’d passed her and had remained there all the while, only speaking when he addressed her with a specific question.
