In that moment, he hated Artemis for her interference. Hated her for forcing him into this life and for giving him a woman he had no choice except to lose. It wasn't right. And for what? Because Apollo had become angry and cursed his own people?
"Bloodlines are so fragile." He didn't realize he'd spoken out loud until Cassandra nodded.
"It explains why you protect Chris the way you do."
She had no idea. He led her down the steps that descended into his rooms. "I have to admit that I'm surprised Apollo hasn't taken better care of his own. Especially considering how important it is."
"Like you, we started out as many and quickly dwindled down to me. Of course it didn't help any that we've been hunted to extinction."
Wulf paused outside his locked door, which had a keypad on the wall next to it.
"Paranoid?" Cassandra asked.
He smiled slightly in wry amusement as he entered the code. "We have a lot of servants who work here during the daylight and they know nothing of me since they can't remember my existence. This way, they don't stumble into my room and scream out that they have an intruder while Chris is at school."
That made perfect sense to her. "What's it like to be so anonymous?"
He opened the door and turned on a dim overhead light. "It's like being invisible sometimes. What's so strange to me is being able to see you and Kat again and not have to reintroduce myself to you."
"But Acheron and Talon remember you too."
"True. Dark-Hunters and Katagaria Were-Hunters can remember me, but I can't be in the physical presence of other Dark-Hunters for long and the Were-Hunters get nervous and cranky whenever I come near them. They don't like the idea of someone being around them who isn't one of their own."
Cassandra looked about as he moved toward his bed. The room was huge. There was a computer station against one wall that reminded her of NASA, right down to the silver Alienware computer on the black contemporary desk.
But what startled her was the large black bed in the far right corner. It was exactly as it had been in her dream. The walls around them were a black marble so shiny that it reflected, but unlike her dreams, Wulf cast no reflection in them now. Nor were there any windows.
On the wall to her left were more portraits and a long, mahogany buffet stood below them. The top of the buffet was littered with hundreds of silver picture frames. A black leather sofa and recliner like the ones upstairs were set before it along with a big-screen TV.
Looking at the myriad of faces from the past, she thought of the woman upstairs in the portrait outside of what was now Kat's room. Wulf had known a lot about her and it made her wonder how much he knew about every face on that wall and buffet. Faces of people who most likely had had little knowledge of him. "Did you have to reintroduce yourself constantly to Isabella?"
He closed and locked the door behind him. "With her it was a little easier. Since she was from a Squire's family, she understood that I was the cursed Dark-Hunter so whenever she met me, she would smile and say, 'You must be Wulf. Nice meeting you again.' "
"So all their spouses know about you?"
"No, just the ones who are from the Squire families. You can't exactly explain to the average human that there's an immortal Viking living in the basement who they won't remember seeing or speaking to. So the ones like Chris's mother never know I exist."
She watched as he sat down and pulled off his boots. The man had exceptionally large feet…
"Chris's mother isn't a Squire?" she asked, trying to distract herself from the fact that those bare feet made her long to see more bare parts of him.
"No. His father met her while she was working at a local diner. He was so in love with her that I didn't interfere."
"Why did they only have Chris?"
He sighed as he placed his boots under his desk. "She couldn't carry children very easily. She had three miscarriages before his birth. Even Chris was born seven weeks premature. Once he was born, I told his father that I didn't want either of them to go through another pregnancy."
She was surprised by that, given how important his lineage was to him. "Did you really?"
He nodded. "How could I ask them to keep doing that? It almost killed her to give birth and the miscarriages always broke her heart."
It was an admirable thing he'd done. She was glad to know he wasn't truly the barbarian she had feared him to be earlier. "You're a good man, Wulf. Most people wouldn't have thought of someone else."
He snorted. "Chris would disagree with you."
"I think Chris would disagree with a signpost."
She was rewarded with a real laugh from him. It was deep and pleasing, and sent a raw shiver through her. She really loved the sound of his accented voice. Oh, don't go there…She had to do something to keep her thoughts off how delectable he was.
"Well," she said, yawning, "I'm tired, barely pregnant, and really could use a good night's sleep." She indicated the closed door behind her. "Bathroom?"
He nodded.
"Okay. I'm going to change and then go to sleep."
"There's a new toothbrush in the medicine cabinet."