Author: Pepper Winters

My past had gone forever.

My future was fucking bright and clean.

Birds chirped.

Love swelled.

Blissful happiness filled my heart.

I opened my eyes.

Zel was halfway out of bed, clutching her abdomen where fresh stitches held her together. Panic covered her face with damp sweat while her eyes were wild with terror. “Don’t. Stop it! Don’t hurt him!”

I raced to catch her before she passed out and fell flat on her face. “Zel, no!”

Holding my son in one arm, I pushed the woman I was going to marry back into bed and brought the sheet up over her shuddering body. Her face was ashen, waxy with stress.

My heart hadn’t known such love. I’d never believed I could feel so fucking happy.

I stood numbly, drinking in how much I loved her. How much she’d given me.

She snatched Vasily from my arms, hugging him close. Tears glassed her eyes.

“Goddammit, Roan. You almost gave me a fucking heart attack.” She curved her body around Vasily. He began to cry under her fierce embrace.

His wails were music to my ears because there was nothing else. No orders. No rush of conditioning.

All there was were the harsh shrieks of my son and the ragged pants of the woman I adored.

I felt like fucking laughing.

Livid tears spilled down her cheeks. “What the hell were you doing? My God. Can I never trust you? Will you never be free?” Her body shook as shock took over. “How can we raise them together if you can’t ever be around them? What hope is there? What—”

It wasn’t fair that she was so distraught and I was walking on air.

Grabbing her chin, I jerked her mouth up and kissed her. I kissed her like I’d always wanted to. With my entire soul.

I didn’t have to fight anything. I didn’t have to watch my thoughts or guard myself against her touch.

It was fucking heaven.

Twenty-eight years and I’d finally found what I’d always wanted.

Happiness.

Her lips froze beneath mine. I tasted salt from her tears and sorrow from her tongue. Pulling away, I murmured, “Don’t cry.”

Her eyes widened as she rocked a screaming Vasily. “Don’t cry? If I can’t cry over the fact I love a man who can’t be around his children what can I cry about? It’s hopeless. Everything—it’s over.”

My stomach twisted at the desolation in her voice.

“I can’t do this anymore. I can’t live in fear that I’ll find you’ve ransacked the nursery or stolen our children’s lives. I want you gone—”

The dagger went straight through my heart. There was no conditioning to wade through or fog of anger. Everything affected me a hundred times stronger. A thousand times deeper.

It was like exposing myself to a whole new existence where the sun burned my skin, tears dissolved my will, and Zel’s sadness ripped out my heart with claws.

“Don’t. It’s over, dobycha. It’s over.”

She sniffed, dropping her eyes. “I know it’s over. It has to be.” A sob escaped her lips.

Something monumental had happened. Something I never dreamed was possible. And instead of celebrating she was trying to cut me out of her life.

I’m not letting you go. Ever.

Prying one of her arms from around Vasily's shoulders, I tugged her hand toward me.

Her lips popped open. She fought me. “Let me go. Stop it.” Her eyes narrowed. “Take your hands off me, Operative Fox.”

I paused, tensing for a wave of conditioning, so used to obeying all my life.

Nothing.

Heavenly nothing.

Blessed fucking nothing.

No rush of orders.

No crush of commands.

No debilitating need to kill.

I smiled and unwound her tight fingers. “You said you trusted me. Trust me one last time.” My voice even sounded different. Less gruff. Less bound to a past I’d always run from.

Zel froze, then let her hand go slack. She never took her eyes off me as I very carefully laid her hand on my forearm.

I looked up, drowning in her emerald gaze. “What do you see?”

She shook her head. “I don’t understand. What are you trying to do?”

I removed her hand and put it against my chest, directly over my heart. Her body tensed, feeling the racing beat beneath her fingertips. Her fear surrounded me but slowly a trace of hope filled her eyes.

“What do you feel?” I murmured.

She gasped, twitching her fingers against my chest. Her touch sent boomerangs of aliveness and heat through me. Branding me. Making me hers. Always hers.

“You’re different.” Cocking her head, she narrowed her eyes. “What happened? What’s changed? I don’t understand.”

I laughed, feeling weightless.

Guiding her hand up my chest, I shivered as her gentle touch came up my throat and tangled with Clara’s silver star around my neck. Her face spasmed with grief before I brought her fingers up and up, until her entire palm cupped my scarred cheek.

I never let her touch my scar.

I hated it.

It was hotwired to my conditioning.

It ruled my life for so long.

Dropping my fingers from hers, I whispered, “What do you sense?”

The hope she’d nursed exploded into her entire body. Vasily stopped crying and a brilliant smile lit her tear-streaked face. “It’s gone?”

My heart expanded until I couldn’t breathe. My legs wobbled in sheer gratefulness.

“Oh, my God. Roan… it’s true?”

Shivers captured my skin sending goosebumps and every emotion that had been muted all my life over my skin. Love exploded my heart. I nodded. “It’s gone. All of it. Every last bit.”

Her hand clutched my cheek harder, dropped to cup my chin. “Are you sure?” Her eyes danced with hope and hesitation.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to dance. I couldn’t stand still with the joy frothing in my stomach. “Positive. Every bad thing inside. Every fucked-up need to obey. Every mind-twisting command is gone. It’s disappeared.”

She went from ashen to fucking glowing. Fresh tears filled her eyes, but this time they beamed with happiness. “You’re free?”

I laughed, stepping backward.

Every movement was lighter.

My vision brighter.

“I’m free.”

“I’m normal.”

I’m a father.

My eyes wrenched wide and I spun around. I was a father and I was free. I’d never thought I could have so much.

Striding to the cot, I scooped up Vera in her pretty pink cap. Her round eyes opened, locking onto mine.

Blue to white. I fell madly in love.

My heart expanded to include a little girl I’d lost. A little girl I’d gained. And a son and woman I belonged to.

“Hello, Vera,” I whispered.

The little girl yawned, her tiny lips stretching wide. She squirmed in her blankets. I knew right then and there things would be okay.

I brought her to my lips and pressed a kiss on her forehead.

She was mine.

She was my new chance.

My future was bright and safe.

Vasily had broken my curse.

Six weeks later, once Zel had healed enough to return home and the twins were safely absconded in their nursery, I planned a special evening just for the two of us.

While Zel was upstairs kissing the twins and telling them stories of a big sister they’d never meet, I decorated the lounge in a gazillion candles. I ordered a banquet of finger foods and delicious entrees and laid large sheepskins on the floor beside the roaring fire.

Tonight, I was going to make love to my woman.

For the first time.

Every time I thought about how different my life had become, I would stop and lose myself in memories. It felt as if I’d lived my entire life in shadows. Listening to conversations under water, and experiencing joy down a long tunnel with no light. Every since my conditioning broke, I hadn’t stopped touching.

I barely put the twins down.

Zel couldn’t walk past me without running her hands over my back or trailing fingertips through my hair. We hadn’t had sex since the birth, but we’d never been so intimate. So in tune.

I’d never been so fucking happy.

Tonight I planned on seducing a woman for the first time in my life. I’d never bought candles or sourced romantic music. I’d never ordered food based on their aphrodisiac qualities.

Vasily and Vera had given me a brand new world to explore and indulge, and I didn’t want to miss a second.

My heart raced at the thought of taking Zel. Of worshipping her with everything I could. I wanted to know what it would be like to hug her and hold her tight with none of the shit I’d lived with.

There would be no past or Ghosts or terror.

There would only be love and lust and hunger.

“Wow, you’ve been busy,” Zel’s voice sounded behind me.

I spun to face her, never getting used to the way my love for her sucker-punched me the gut. “Shit, I wanted to have all of this ready before you came down.”

I still hadn’t presented the food how I wanted. And the statue I’d made her hadn’t been covered. Damn it.

I moved to hide it, but Zel sucked in a gasp.

“Oh, my God. Did you make that?” She drifted forward, absorbed by the half metre statue I’d done over the course of several nights. The conditioning might have broken, but I still struggled to sleep in the dark.

After a lifetime of sleeping during the day—those patterns hadn’t changed overnight.

“Do you like it?” Nervousness scattered down my spine.

Her gaze landed on mine, full of awe. “Do I like it? How can you ask me that? I love it. I more than love it. Roan…it’s perfect.”

My heart hurt as she stroked the bronze artwork with a shaky fingertip.

I let some of who I’d been return, but I did it willingly. I had the choice. I embraced the hunter side of me as I stalked toward the woman I would spend the rest of my life with.

I’d made it for her. A complex blend of her and me. Our beginning and our future. I wanted her to see how much I cared for her. How much I belonged to her and how much she was mine. All mine. For fucking ever.

It wasn’t a clear-cut design, more tribal than certain shapes. Masculine and feminine lines showed a sea-froth full of horses. Five in total with Russian names engraved in their manes.

Clara. Roan. Hazel. Vasily and Vera.

Five points of paradise. Amongst the crashing waves, weaving in with the galloping legs were stars—a million glittering stars inlaid with silver.

Stars for Clara.

Zel sniffed, twisting to face me. “You couldn’t have made a more perfect piece.” Her hands landed on my chest.

I jolted with pleasure, still amazed how much her touch resonated through my every cell.

Her eyes lit with worry. “Are you okay?” She swallowed, her gaze darting all over me. “You aren’t regressing, are you?”

The fear at the thought doused all my lust in an icy wash. I hoped to God that never fucking happened. I couldn’t stomach the thought of living with the conditioning again.

I’d have a brain transplant first. I could never go back.

Shaking my head, I dropped my mouth to hers. She kissed me sweetly, innocently, still slightly afraid.

Pulling away, I murmured, “No. I jumped because I’ll never get used to you touching me. It makes me come alive. It makes me want you so fucking much.”

A blush coloured her cheeks.

I kissed her, nipping at her lower lip. “Touch me again.”

Zel obeyed. Her hands came up and landed on the buttons of my white shirt. Slowly, she unbuttoned it. The room filled with throbbing tension, cracking between us. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her and groaned as she pushed aside the material and placed her hands on my chest.

My cock swelled.

My vision popped with bright lights.