As I had come to see all too well. “So that’s why you’ve never turned rogue even though you don’t associate with a pack? It’s because of your demon blood and sorcerer magic?”

He nodded. “My demon blood is too strong. While I can shift into a wolf and can have werewolf tendencies at times, it doesn’t rule me. I could spend the rest of my life never seeing another werewolf, and I would never turn rogue.”

I nibbled on my lip, because his werewolf tendencies did rule him to some extent. How he felt about me was one hundred percent driven by his wolf side.

But I didn’t go there. “So that’s why your brother attacked you at your sister’s house. It was simply because he hates you.”

“Yeah. Cameron’s dislike for me runs deep.” He sneered. “Gavin followed suit, even though there was a time when I thought that maybe Gavin and I could—” He shook his head.

“Were your brothers ever kind to you?”

“Cameron never was. Gavin was initially but that stopped long ago.” His expression closed off, like a book snapping shut.

“Do you have any other siblings—half-demon siblings—from your mother’s side?”

“Not that I’m aware of. As far as I know, she hasn’t left the underworld again. Her venture to the fae lands, when she met my father and became impregnated, was her one and only dance outside of Lucifer’s gates.”

“Have you ever been curious to return to the underworld to meet her?”

He smiled humorlessly. “I tried once when I was a teenager and was feeling a bit sorry for myself. It’d been following a rather nasty encounter with my brothers and some other pack kids after school one day. That particular run-in didn’t end well, for me or them. My injuries took several hours to heal, but once they did, I decided to run away to the underworld, thinking maybe I could live with Asuran. But that wasn’t a good idea. I never even saw her. The other demons made sure of that, and it quickly became apparent that the underworld was no better than my pack.” He smirked. “I haven’t tried again to find her.”

He said it all matter-of-factly, as if it were no big deal to be beaten up regularly, bullied, and made to feel so alone that you ran away to the underworld in search of a better life. My heart broke at the thought of a young boy feeling so alone and then trying to reach out to the one parent that he hoped he could perhaps identify with and find a home with. “Is that why you help homeless kids?”

He frowned, and then his gaze found mine. “I suppose it is.”

“It makes sense. On some level, you identify with them.”

He shrugged. “I suppose I do.”

I was quiet for a moment, studying him, and then said, “You’re brave and resilient.”

He didn’t respond, but a golden flare lit his eyes.

My heart cracked, and a feeling gushed into it that felt a lot like . . . admiration, and something deeper. I quickly sat up straighter. “Your father seems to care for you. Why didn’t he put a stop to your brothers’ behavior?”

“He tried.” The hunter shrugged again. He looked away, and that emotion I’d seen in his eyes vanished. “You got a taste of that when he made an appearance at Ocean’s house, but there’s only so much he can do. Cameron and Gavin are headstrong, not surprising since they carry an alpha’s bloodline, and my father can only control them so much. If he completely dominated them, the pack would never respect them, and then his sons would never rise to the top. At best, he was able to stop some of my brothers’ malicious attacks. At worst, he never knew about them.”

“How often did they beat you up?”

“Weekly. Sometimes more if my father was out of town and they knew they could get away with it. But since I heal quickly, he didn’t know about most of them.”

“And you never told him?”

He snorted. “And give my brothers the satisfaction of seeing that they could hurt me? Never.”

“Such hatred.” A bitter taste filled my mouth. Even though Tessa and I had our moments where we fought, I couldn’t imagine treating her that way. She was my sister, my flesh and blood, and even though Gavin and Cameron weren’t the hunter’s full-blooded siblings, they were still his half-brothers. I made a sound of disgust, my mouth twisting in fury. “What assholes.”

The hunter smiled. “You sound almost affronted.”

“I am. It’s bad enough they treated you like that when you were a kid, but it’s even worse that they continue to do it as adults. They should’ve grown out of it by now. Actually, they should’ve realized how wrong they were to treat you that way and apologized years ago. The fact that they’re still doing it—” I shook my head. “It makes me have no respect for them whatsoever.”

His smile spread into a grin. “That makes two of us.”

My nostrils flared as I tried to stomp upon the anger stirring around inside me. A cloud of the hunter’s citrusy cedar scent hit me, sliding through my veins and folding around my senses. It was so strong again and felt as though I’d been wrapped up in the hunter himself. A brief sense of comfort flowed over me, dampening some of my rage.

“Is there anything else you’d like to know about me?” His gaze burned into me again, those amber-hued eyes missing nothing.

My eyebrows shot up. “You’re really willing to answer whatever I want to know?”

“That was the deal, wasn’t it? I give you the full story and you sleep in my bed every night.” That wild look of anticipation danced in his eyes again.

A flush stained my cheeks. Before my breathing could grow completely out of control, I glanced away and forced myself to take a slow, deep breath. “Nothing comes to mind at the moment. Everything finally makes sense now.”

“Shall we train then?”

My heart skipped. “Right. Training.”

I’d completely forgotten that was the entire reason we were here. I glanced at the clock. An hour had passed since we’d first arrived. Evening was just around the corner, and after that, it would be time to go to sleep—with the hunter.

“I suppose we should train.” I made a move to stand, but the hunter’s hand curled around my wrist, his sure grip and warm fingers causing goose pimples to sprout along my skin.

“The training I had in mind doesn’t require standing.”

I rolled my eyes. “If your training is some perverted demon thing in which I stay horizontal, don’t even think—”

He laughed, the sound so sudden I stopped talking. “It’s not, I promise. Sit down, across from me, and close your eyes.”

I eyed him suspiciously.

“I’m not going to pounce on you.” That wicked smile returned. “Yet.”

I sighed and plopped down on the floor across from him as requested, but I didn’t close my eyes. “If I get any hint of you using this training session to wear down my defenses and spring on me—”

He brought a finger to my lips. The abrupt contact of his body touching mine, even if it was only his finger, had me jolting upright, my spine snapping into a straight line.

“When we’re in this room, I promise to only be training you. I won’t cross any boundaries that you don’t want me to.”

His eyes promised that he would uphold that vow, but underneath it, I saw the heat and desire. He would maintain his boundaries as long as I asked him to, but the second I didn’t?

Then all bets were off.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 19

“Keep your eyes closed and feel inside yourself for your forbidden power. Do you feel it?”

“I do.” It swirled up and beckoned me to use it. “I can easily find that ability. It’s the new power that’s eluding me.”

“What do you feel right now from your forbidden magic?”

My forehead puckered. “A bottomless well of strength and sparkling potential. There’s so much.”