Page 118 of Haunted

“Monica moved to the city,” I continue, ice creeping into my tone. “I can call her and ask if she minds you speaking with her.” I step closer, forcing her to look up to maintain eye contact. “I shouldn’t have to, though. After everything we’ve shared, after the Hunt, after the ceremony and the feast with our benefactors, did you see a single woman who was permanently scarred? No, you did not, because that is the most stringent rule of the Hunt.”

“I—” she starts, then her mouth snaps shut. I can see the internal battle playing out behind those hazel eyes.

“I’ll take you up on that,” she finally says, chin lifting with that stubborn defiance that both infuriates and arouses me. “I need to hear it from her lips, though. No manipulation.”

I nod curtly, both disappointed and offended by her continued suspicion. The woman I’ve claimed, the one who surrendered so beautifully to me, still thinks I might be capable of selling human beings after everything.

“Fine,” I say, voice tight with fury. “You’ll have your proof.” I swallow hard. “Do you want to know the thing I’m most scared of, Mira?”

Mira nods in reply.

“The thing that terrifies me more than any enemy I’ve ever faced is this—us.” My voice cracksdespite my efforts to maintain control. “I believed I was incapable of love. Thought it was beaten out of me years ago, that it was a weakness I couldn’t afford.”

I take a step toward her, then stop, unsure if I have the right to close the distance anymore.

“You changed that. You’ve become my entire world, Mira. Not my obsession or my possession—my world. And I don’t know what the fuck that makes me now. Monsters can’t love, so why do I love you?”

The words tear from my throat like they’re being ripped from my soul.

A single tear escapes from Mira’s eye, trailing down her cheek like liquid silver. Without thinking, I close the distance between us and press my lips to that tear, tasting the salt of her pain on my tongue.

“Xavier...” Her voice breaks on my name.

“I’ll always protect you,” I whisper against her skin, my lips still touching her cheek. “You and the people you love. Cora, your family, anyone who matters to you—they’re under my protection now. That’s all that matters.”

I pull back to look into her eyes, seeing the war raging behind them. Her hands tremble as she reaches up to touch my face, her fingers ghosting across my jaw like she’s afraid I might disappear.

“How can you say that’s all that matters?” Her voice is barely audible. “How can I reconcile loving someone who...”

She can’t finish the sentence. Can’t bring herself to say the words that would make it real.

“Someone who kills?” I finish for her, my voice hollow. “Someone who destroys lives for profit?”

She flinches but doesn’t pull away from my touch. Her internal struggle is evident in her features. This woman is falling in love with me, but battling against every moral principle she has ever held.

“I don’t know how to love a monster,” she whispers, tears now flowing freely down both cheeks.

"Then don't." The words grate my throat. "Don't try to make me into what I'm not. I am exactly what I told you—a killer, a criminal, someone who operates in darkness."

I cup her face in my hands, forcing her to meet my eyes.

“But I’m also the man who would burn this entire city to the ground before I let anyone hurt you. I’m the man who would die before I let harm come to anyone you care about.”

Her breath hitches, caught between a sob. “That doesn’t make it right, Xavier.”

“No,” I agree. “It doesn’t. But it’s the only truth I can give you.”

The silence stretches between us like a chasm I don’t know how to cross. Mira stands frozen beside my desk, her eyes locked on mine. She doesn’t move closer, doesn’t reach for me like she has so many times before.

She stares, and that stare is killing me more effectively than any bullet ever could.

Her face is a battlefield of emotions—love warring with revulsion, desire fighting moral outrage.I can practically see her mind cataloging every touch we’ve shared, every tender moment, every whispered confession, and weighing them against the monster I’ve revealed myself to be.

Fear claws at my chest with razor-sharp talons. Real fear, the kind I haven’t felt since I was a child hiding from my father’s fists. This isn’t the calculated concern of a business deal gone wrong or the strategic wariness of facing armed enemies. This is pure terror that the one person who matters might look at me and decide I’m irredeemable.

I have her for a year. The contract is signed, and legally, she belongs to me whether she wants to or not. But standing here watching her process the full scope of what I am, I realize how meaningless that paper is.

I could command her presence, her compliance, even her pleasure. But if I don’t win her heart—if she can’t love the monster along with the man—then I have nothing at all.

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