Page 57 of The Stolen Bride

No reaction.

Should I offer another kiss? A sure-fire guarantee he’d wake up.

No, no more promised kisses. Only spontaneous ones. But not right now, when I desperately required a bath, a toothbrush and industrial strength toothpaste. But yes, I craved another kiss. The guy revved my motor, and I could deny it no more. Since Benjamin’s betrayal, I’d beenrelationship shy, but looking back, I understood my former fiancé did me a huge favor by leaving me for Kami. Our marriage would’ve crumbled at some point. I would’ve remained on edge, and he would’ve continued to be blamey, nothing ever his fault, always mine. Honestly, he had demanded too much while giving too little.

Viktor gave as much as he took and then some, and he didn’t nitpick the small stuff. I didn’t feel as if I walked on eggshells around him.

On the surface, however, he seemed to share Benjamin’s worse trait: a desire for another woman. But Viktor didn’t really want Valkara. I knew he didn’t. He just wasn’t aware of it yet.

“Wake up because I said so,” I told him, continuing to pet his face. “I’m hungry.” The words slipped out without thought, and I realized they were true. “I’m famished, actually. Ravenous. Do you know what I crave more than anything?”

He jolted with a roar, his eyes popping open.

Grinning from ear to ear, I pumped my fist toward the caved-in ceiling. “I did it! I woke you without making promises. I’m a miracle worker!”

“What do you crave?” he asked, perfectly at ease, as if we’d been in the middle of a conversation. His gaze slid over me as he grazed the pad of his thumb along the pulse in my throat, igniting flutters in my belly. “Is it me? It’s me, isn’t it?”

I marveled at the sight of him. He was just so relaxed. So sane. No hint of feralness. No trace of any kind of upset. This was a side of Viktor I had only experienced in glimpses.

“Maybe, baby,” I replied. “Oops. I’m not supposed to call you baby.”

His eyes crinkled at the corners. “I protested the endearment only because I liked it so much.”

“If that’s true, you like a lot of things too much,” I retorted with a tone as dry as the desert.

A slow lifting of his lips suggested he might be about to smile… My chest clenched and my breath hitched. Yes! He did. He smiled, and it lit his entire face.

“What’s even happening right now?” I gasped out.

I remained dazed as he brought my hand to that indulgent smile and kissed my knuckles. “I’m embracing my good mood. You are my firebrand. The best firebrand in the history of firebrands. Am I saying firebrand too much? You are immortal, beautiful, and scary fierce. And my firebrand. You will not die, so I won’t lose you and become a shifter. Firebrand.”

I detected a note of superiority in his expression, as if he truly believed his words. “So you accept it now? You’re done fighting my importance to you?”

“Ja. I do. I am.” In his sprawled position, the Hungarian berserker king was relaxation itself, and oh, it looked amazing on him. His eyes did that hooded thing, and when he ran his bottom lip between his teeth… hello, romance novel hero!

This seemed almost too good to be true. There had to be a catch. “You telling me you won’t heed the Valkara’s warning to kill me before I supposedly kill you?” Which I could maybe, kinda, sorta do now. I’d raged out. Shredded powerful shifters with abandon. Although, I felt no different today. Didn’t feel any kind of beast, griffin or otherwise, prowling around inside my head.

His smile dimmed, and I nearly whimpered, already mourning its loss. “She made a mistake. That’s the onlyexplanation. You won’t harm me. I’m the only one able to calm you from your rage.” His statement filled the airwaves, echoing within my mind. “You will never betray me. Never wish to leave me.” His confidence intensified with each new sentence. “Not just for the greater good, but for me specifically.”

Oh, no, no, no. We weren’t going there. He had a firebrand, but I did not. Nope. Not me. “I was surprised to see you, is all. It startled me from my anger.”

“Try again. Sentinels in a rage-trance do not get startled. They don’t feel a thing.”

Stubbornness kicked in. I opened my mouth to deliver a very reasonable explanation for the incident, but came up blank. I went with the ridiculous instead. “Well, for all we know, I’m the most powerful berserkatrix in the history of ever.” And with that, how could I not fully accept what I was? An immortal-ish warrior, capable of unleashing untold fury upon my enemies–and others, if I wasn’t careful.

Although Viktor could certainly hold his own. A fact that thrilled me. “We should go. Deco might send a new hunting party after us.” Surely the shifter king had learned of Viktor’s recovery by now.

“Ja, we will go. Now that you’re able to heal, we’ll risk the traps and air strikes and head to the turul fortress to finish this war.” Viktor kissed my brow, shocking me. He stood and helped me to my feet. “There’s a hot spring nearby, and it’s on our way.”

I clasped his hand, and all but dragged him toward the building’s exit. “How far is the spring?”

“Just over the ridge.”

So close! We walked outside, entering the wintry, gray terrain, and I shivered.

“You have questions about the memories you viewed, I’m sure,” Viktor said.

So many. “Let’s start with the woman.”

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