Victor gave a short laugh. "I pointed out it was mortals who took my Marion so why
should I care if they suffered, and he asked if I would blame all for what one church
official did? If so, didn't it mean that her family had every right to blame me and
everyone of our kind for the loss of their mother and wife."
He shrugged. "I went hunting with him for this rogue, then another and another… It's
been my only real purpose since then."
"And your son?" Elvi asked, wondering where he came in.
Victor sighed. "After the first hunt, I went to see Vincent. I hadn't seen him or anyone
else but Lucian since Marion's death." Remembered pain flashed briefly in his eyes.
"Vincent looks so like his mother. He has my coloring and build but her smile and eyes
and… I couldn't bear to look at him. It hurt too much," he admitted, then added
shamefaced, "I left as soon as I could and have seen him as little as possible since."
"You must have loved her deeply," Elvi murmured.
"She saved my soul," Victor said simply. "The loneliness was maddening and I was very
close to going rogue myself when we met. Her arrival in my life was a blessing." He
turned to stare deep into her eyes and added, "As is yours."
Elvi's pulled back slightly on the bed, feeling blind‐sided by his words. "Mine?"
Victor nodded. "Some are never so lucky even once. I never thought I would be lucky
enough to be blessed twice. But Elvi, you too are my lifemate."
"Calm down," Mabel said firmly. "Elvi, you have to calm down."
"But he thinks I'm his lifemate," Elvi squawked, pacing from one end of the restaurant
office to the other. "We hardly know each other and he's talking about forever and—
I'm not ready for this," she cried with dismay.
"You looked pretty ready to me in the car," Teddy commented and Elvi turned a glare
on her old friend.
After Victor had made his announcement that she was his lifemate, she'd just lain
there staring at him for the longest time, then she got up without a word and left the
room.
The moment the door closed behind her, she'd broken into a run, flying down the
stairs and out of the house in her wrinkled skirt and blouse, headed straight for Bella
Black's and Mabel. She was halfway to the restaurant when Teddy's cruiser pulled into
a driveway in front of her, forcing her to a halt. Seeing her running down the street
" like a mad thing" as he'd put it, he'd stopped to be sure she was all right, but when all
he could get out of her was incoherent ranting about lifemates, Teddy had done the
sensible thing. He'd ushered her into his car and drove her to the restaurant. Mabel
had taken one look at Elvi's face and ushered her into the office, only to be followed
there by both Teddy and DJ.
"Listen to me," Mabel took her by the arms and turned her physically away from their
old friend. "DJ has explained this all to me. I can help."
Elvi nodded. "Help."
"Yes," she said calmly, then took a breath and said, "Immortals can read everyone,
often even other immortals unless they're much more powerful. They can also be read
by other older and stronger immortals."
"Victor explained all that," Elvi muttered. "But how does that make me his lifemate?"
"He must not be able to read you," Mabel said simply.
Elvi just stared at her, her mind returning to the garage and his concentrating on her,
attempting to read her. He'd said he couldn't. He'd also said the night she caught him
outside Mabel's door that Mabel was DJ's lifemate because he couldn't read her. Elvi
simply hadn't put the two things together.
"Marion was his lifemate," Elvi protested. "He loves her."
"And Harry was your husband and you love him," Mabel said reasonably. "So what?
The human heart is big enough to love more than one in a lifetime."
That was true enough, she supposed, but… "What if it's just a fluke that he can't read
me?"
"There are other signs too," Mabel assured her. "Like the fact that he's eating again."
Elvi waved that away as ridiculous. "They're all eating. Even DJ."
The sandy‐haired man swallowed the bite of chimi‐changa in his mouth and said,
"That's because Mabel's my lifemate."
"Well, what about the others?" Elvi asked. "Edward, Harper, and Alessandro are all
eating too."
"Yes," DJ admitted. "We're a bit concerned about that. And they're all still here as well,
which suggests they can't read you either or they'd have left by now."
"Are you saying she could be a lifemate for any one of those four men?" Teddy asked