To Love a Shifter: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set (137 page)

“You are what?” I couldn’t believe I had heard him correctly. Surely I hadn’t because I honestly couldn’t see how he was able to say that with a straight face.

          “What you do not know, we are bound to teach. It is our honor, our duty, our privilege. And it has always been so that a Draugar warrior is given the honor to deflower his
skat---
”

          Oh my God, please tell me I didn’t just hear Varthan say something like that so seriously.

          Clearing my throat, I said, “You really believe that?”

          “It has always been so.”

          I shook my head. “You…are you telling me every Draugar warrior took the virginity of their skat and they just…and it happened?”

          “There is no reason why it should not.”

          I took deep breaths. “And you? How many times have you done this…this---” I winced, unable to believe I was having this type of conversation, but even more incredulous at how so stupidly affected I was about it.

          Varthan was a zombie warrior I knew for barely two days, so why the heck did his words hurt so much?

          “Deflowered a
skat
?”

          I nodded unhappily.

          “None in the past three hundred years.”

          “And before that?”

          “Eight.”

          My knees quivered at his answer.
Eight,
I thought dully. He had taken the virginity of eight girls and he expected me to be the ninth, just like that.

          “Didn’t you love any of them?”

          “That is not part of a Draugar’s role,
skat
.” He actually sounded chiding. “We are meant to guard and defend, nothing more than that.” He looked at me and when he sighed, I had a feeling he now fully realized how badly I was taking this.

          “We are warriors,
skat.
And I was not just a warrior in my human life – I was born a Viking myself, like many Draugar are. We do not believe in love. It is an illusion, but I know this is not your belief and I do not ask that you share mine. All I ask is that you allow me to give you the pleasure that I alone, as the Draugar chosen by the Goddess for your protection, can give you. I shall be in your life until the end of your days---”

He stopped speaking.

          My heart almost stopped beating.

          How had I forgotten the fact that he was immortal and I was
not
?

          I said flatly, “Yes, I will die, like – I assume – the previous other
skat
did.”

          He said it just as flatly, “Yes.”

          I kept waiting for him to say something else. Wouldn’t he miss me if I died? I had no idea if I could be immortal like him – even with my so-called powers – but if there was a chance I could be, would he want to spend forever with me? Or was he only counting the years until he was finished playing babysitter to me?

         
Say something,
I wanted to beg him.

          But he didn’t.

          I was being unrealistic. I knew that. Varthan was used to his role. He probably had no emotional attachment to me in any way. All he cared about was his duty to keep me safe – and that was all.

          I should be the same, shouldn’t have even considered that Varthan would be the man…

          I heard myself asking tonelessly, “Did those other
skat
you guarded ever marry?”

          “Yes. They did. After some time.”

          And by the way he said those last words, I sort of got the feeling that he meant when they had gotten past the heartbreak of
not
being able to capture his heart, they had learned to move on.

          God, this stupid Draugar-skat-matchmaking business just kept getting shittier by the minute.

          “Dazzle---”

          Determined to be true to my name, I smiled brightly at him, doing my best to dazzle Varthan with how much I did
not
care about all his revelations. “Well, thanks for enlightening me about this. But one thing I can promise you---”

          Something about my tone made his head snap up and look at me with narrowed eyes.

          “You are
not
going to take my virginity because I have someone else in mind for that.”

****

“I’ve got something to say to you and I don’t want you to get excited.” There was a reason why I was treating my stepmother Pepper like a toddler. That very reason was also why she had been hospitalized for more than a year now, the very same reason why all my money went to taking care of her medical bills.

          Pepper, whose short sandy hair matched her name but had a disposition as sweet as sugar, clapped her hands excitedly like a little girl. “You’re getting married!” At forty-four, Pepper looked ten years younger and was a dead ringer for Meg Ryan. Weak her heart may be, it was still big enough to continue fostering the craziest romantic illusions.

          “I’m only eighteen, Pepper.”

          She brushed that off. “Age doesn’t matter.” She should know. My father had been more than a decade older than her. “But I’m right, aren’t I? This is about a guy, isn’t it?”

          Her intuitiveness never ceased to surprise me. She could be so clueless about a lot of things, normal things that normal people normally worry about. Did she know how much her deluxe suite here in the Thomas of Aquinas Medical Center cost? Did she ever wonder how I had managed to pay her bills all this time? Did she really believe me when I said I wanted to take time off before enrolling in the Florida School of Dance? No, no, and no.

          Pepper had never thought of any of those things. She was the kindest person I had ever known, but I wasn’t blind to her faults. Pepper was used to being taken care of, and in the absence of my father, that responsibility had fallen on my teenage lap.

          It would have been embarrassingly apt to call her “silly” if not for those flashes of wisdom she displayed.

          I took a deep breath. “It’s about a guy, yes---”

          She leaned back against the plump pillows and sighed in satisfaction. “I knew it.”

          “---but it’s not the way you imagine.”

          “That’s what they always say.” She smiled knowingly.

          “
Pepper.
He’s just a friend. Close, but just a friend. He’s going to be around often so I thought it better to introduce him to you. He’s actually on his way here and he’ll be arriving anytime soon.” It was true. It had taken a lot of persuading and arm-twisting to get Varthan to leave my side even for a second, but I had been adamant. I wanted time alone to explain to Pepper about Varthan.

          Which I was going to do…

          Soon…

          Like really soon…

          “Is he your boyfriend?”

          This was the right time to talk about Varthan’s role in my life, which was…

          Pepper raised a brow. “Don’t be shy. Is he your boyfriend?”

          Any moment now, I’d start talking…

          “Dazz?”

          A knock on the door saved me from replying and I answered with ill-concealed relief. “Come in!”

          I was hoping it would be the doctor, but instead it was Varthan.

          Of course it would be him.

          “Oh my,” Pepper gushed loudly, making me flush.

          Varthan walked towards us, a gentle smile on his gorgeous face. There was absolutely nothing on his face that would give even the slightest hint of the fact that we had not spoken a word to each other ever since we arrived in Florida an hour ago.

          I said awkwardly, “Pepper, meet Varthan. Varthan, this is my stepmother, Pepper White.”

          “Mrs. White, I am honored to meet you.”

          “Oh, please. Call me Pepper. Are you Dazzle’s boyfriend?”

          Oh. My. God.

          “Yes,” Varthan answered without missing a beat, his lips curving into a smile.

          That deserved another OMG.

          So…

          Oh. My. God.

          My head snapped to Varthan. If looks could kill, he’d have been down on the floor with all the daggers my eyes were shooting at him. What the heck did he think he was doing? Saying?

          Pepper clapped her hands again. “Oh, how nice this is! I’ve always hoped my future son-in-law would be just like you---”

          I started to choke.
Son-in-law
? “Pepper…”

          “And with your looks and Dazzle’s, I am so sure my grandchild---”

          “
Pepper!
”

          She looked at me cheekily. “Varthan here looks like a one-woman man. So I think this relationship will end up in the altar sooner or later.”

          I groaned. “Pepper, please!”

          She sighed. “You’re still so easily embarrassed by the truth.”

          “PEPPER!”

          Pepper laughed.

          Varthan’s smile widened. “She is easily embarrassed by the truth, is she not?”

          “Oh yes,” Pepper said eagerly. “But it’s really because she’s a perfectionist. She has a tendency to blame herself when things don’t work out according to plan, and she’s paranoid when it comes to people she loves---”

          “I’m no longer sure if you’re insulting or complimenting me.”

Pepper smiled. “---but despite all that, I know I can’t wish for a better daughter.” Her eyes sought Varthan’s. “Where do you live?”