Chapter 28

Mihai leaves shortly after our conversation, but he leaves with the promise that he will return within the hour and this time, he will bring me down for dinner. No more eating alone in my room. No more locked doors and impossible relationships. He promised me that i can have a life here, a life that i want, so long as i stay within the grounds of the mansion and follow his rules.

If following some small meaningless rules means that i can have a life of freedom instead of one of confinement, then bring it on.

Part of me is till shocked that he would ever consider giving me freedom, but he said if he wanted to be to one day be here by my own choice, he had to make some room for me to be who i am. For me to be myself.

He also promised me a laptop and a phone, so I'll still have some contact with the outside world, even if it is limited to just my family.

But, should i contact my family? Sure i can let them know i am safe, but I'd also have to tell them that i can never come back to them. I'd have to tell them that the council they work for wants me dead. I wonder how they’ll react to that.

No one just leaves the hunter council and gets away with it, so they can’t lay down their weapons and refuse to fight, not that i think they would. My father’s one belief in life is that the Nati are all vermin, and they should be exterminated. No exceptions. It is why we have never seen eye to eye.

Maybe he and my brothers will side with the hunter council, especially once they learn that i have been branded.

I've never been particularly close with my family anyway, even before i was kidnapped. I wanted to be a writer, they wanted me to kill for a living. We could never agree, and i was always the one in the wrong, never my dad or my brothers.

Mihai walks back into the room just as i pull on the fluffy socks i got out earlier, a smile covering the bottom half of his face.

“I hope you like pasta.” He says, holding out his hand for me to take.

I smile back at him, placing my hand in his and allowing him to lift me onto my feet, “yeah, pasta is one of my favourite things to eat.” I don’t let go of his hand right away, instead I pull him closer, planting a soft kiss on his cheek, “thank you for taking care of me, Mihai.”

He looks down at me, his smile growing larger, “that’s the first time you’ve said my name.”

I frown, but then laugh, knowing that he’s probably right, “we might have gotten off to a rocky start but that doesn’t mean that this can’t work.” I say, pulling him towards the door, “but if I don’t get some food in me soon, you’ll be a hunter short.”

He laughs, leading me to out of the room, three guards following us. “Don’t mind them.” He says, nothing my shaken nerves. “They’re just here to make sure you are safe, I’ve assigned them to look after you.”

My smile falls, “I don’t need anyone to look after me, I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

He looks at me out of the corner of his eye, “don’t take it that way, Mae, now that I know the hunter council are after you I made some adjustments to security.” He grabs my chin, lifting it so my eyes meet his, “I just want you to be safe.”

How can I argue with him when he says it like that?

I can take care of any hunter who comes for me myself, but it would be nice to have back up, they won’t just send one at a time, they’ll send a team of them, and whilst I can hold my own in a fight; I’m no good against six or seven people at once.

“Fine.” I say with a sigh, “But I still want to go for my runs alone.”

“They’ll be so far away you won’t even notice they’re following you.” Mihai says, his smile returning.

He releases my chin and walks us both towards the stairs my eyes widening when I notice Jarlen stood at the bottom, waiting for us.

“Why is your brother here?” I ask, looking between them.

“He wanted to join us for dinner, I didn’t think you’d mind, he told me you’d already met.” Says Mihai, watching my every step as we decend the stairs. “Is it a problem? I can tell him to leave.”

“It’s fine.” I quickly say, “I just expected it to be the two of us.”

Jarlen pulls me to him when I reach the hall, spinning me around and planting a kiss on the back of my hand, “thank you for allowing me to join you, little miss.”

I look at Mihai panicked, thinking that he’ll tear Jarlen’s heart out for touching me, but instead he is smiling and shaking his head like his brother made some kind of joke.

“Guys, this is nice and all, but I’m starving.” I say, my cheeks heating when my stomach growls loudly, clearly agreeing.

I pull my hand out of Jarlen’s and take Mihai’s instead, allowing him to lead me into a small dining room, a table for six already set up with three plates, cups and all the things we will need to have our meal.

Mihai sits at the heat of the table and Jarlen sits on his right, so naturally I take the only other seat that’s prepared, the one on his left. Jarlen smiles at me from across the table and so does Mihai, and it strikes me that they very much look the same, in many ways. Mihai is older, and he has more scars, but that doesn’t make him any less attractive, in fact, it makes him more attractive.

“How old are you?” I ask, not sure which I am asking, or if I’m asking both.

Either way, I want to know the answer.