Chapter 309: Rear Entrance and Distant Memories

Vivian’s POV

It surprised me how remarkably calm he sounded inside my head. No wild growl, no loud bark. Just clear, steady, and sharp. It was smart of him to use the mind link between us, just in case someone downstairs was listening in on our conversation.

No, I sent the quiet thought back to him immediately through the bond.

But the absolute truth was, I was not entirely sure if I meant physically or emotionally.

And I really was not sure which one of those hurt me more tonight.

Zahliver’s mental voice suddenly slammed straight into my mind like a whip crack. "Vivian. My only warning. What the hell were you doing down there alone with him!? What if he had physically hurt you while I was fast asleep upstairs? And why on earth didn’t you wake me up if you needed something, instead of sneaking off in the middle of the night like that?"

It was not just the volume of his mental yelling that rattled my nerves it was how cold and unnervingly calm his physical face looked while he was doing it, his voice roaring like thunder inside my head. That specific kind of contained fury... it was so much worse than if he had simply been screaming out loud in the room.

I winced at the intensity of his tone, but I let him continue venting. I knew the clear difference by now he was not actually mad at me, he was thoroughly terrified for my safety.

"If I hadn’t felt your sudden wave of fear, Vivian, anything terrible could have happened down there! What if he" His broad chest rose and fell rapidly as if he could not pull enough air into his lungs, his large fists clenching and unclenching tightly at his sides.

"And himhim! The way he acted toward you, the smooth way he spokeI am going to rip his damn head right off his neck"

Okay... maybe giving him endless space to vent his anger was not my best decision after all.

"Hey, hey," I said gently out loud, doing my absolute best to calm his raging beast down. I stood up on the carpet and carefully set Frank the hedgehog down onto the mattress beside me.

"And that damn hedgehog!" Zahliver’s glowing blue eyes flicked over to the tiny, spiky ball. "You brought him into our bed again! You know he loves to wedge himself right between our bodies and jab me with his needles!"

"Oh, don’t be so dramatic, my love," I murmured softly. "It was only one "

"Three separate times," he snapped back instantly.

I let out a soft sigh. "I am so sorry I didn’t wake you up, but I really thought Joshua wasn’t even at home tonight. I just wanted to go down and check on something in the kitchen. And I am completely fine, see?" I placed both of my hands on his rigid, muscular shoulders, feeling the intense tension radiate straight through his physical frame. A low, dangerous growl brewed deep in his broad chest, heavy and threatening.

"Breathe, Zahliver. Please, just look at me." I cupped both sides of his warm face with my hands, gently forcing his electric blue eyes to meet mine. "If you let out a loud growl right now, he might hear you from downstairs. And if he hears you, he will know exactly why you are mad. He will know it was all about me being alone in the dark with him. That you are deeply suspicious of his motives. So just... take a breath for me."

There was a long, heavy beat in the room where he did not move a single muscle. For a second, I genuinely wondered if he had even heard my words. But then his strong arms dropped down from their tight defensive position, and instead of the vicious growl I was bracing for, he took a slow, steadying breath of air into his lungs.

I let out a long breath of my own in relief.

He stepped forward without warning and suddenly pulled me straight down onto the bed with him. Luckily, he was gentle enough in his movements that Frank did not go flying across the room, though the spiky hedgehog immediately made a quiet break for it, scurrying over to Zahliver’s pillow like he owned the entire place.

Zahliver muttered something dark under his breath about waking up with sharp needles stuck in his hand, reaching under the soft pillow with a grumpy grumble. His full attention shifted right back to me, and he leaned over my body, bracing one heavy arm on either side of my shoulders, his physical weight wonderfully comforting without crushing me.

"Don’t ever do that again," he said, his voice dropping low and strained. "If you need anything next time, even if I am literally bleeding out in a deep coma, just..."

"Try to wake you up for a simple cup of warm green tea?" I arched a playful brow up at him.

A small, crooked grin tugged at the corner of his lips. "Yeah. Even then. Especially then."

"Okay."

He still did not let go of my body. He just lay there watching my face closely, as if he were actively making sure I was really there in his arms. "You don’t usually get up wandering around in the middle of the night."

I gave a casual shrug against the sheets. "It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time."

We stayed like that for a long while, quietly talking back and forth through our shared mental bond in the dark room. Eventually, I could no longer hold back the burning question that had been gnawing relentlessly at my thoughts ever since we left the kitchen.

"What did he mean down there, when he said old habits die hard?"

Zahliver’s muscular body went completely stiff around me. I tilted my head up slightly, watching him go dead still in the dark. His blue gaze had turned distant and cold, staring off into old memories.

"Back when we used to... conquer lands together or claim new territories for our pack, if a plan specifically required two of us to execute, he had to be involved even though physical fighting was never really his strength. Our absolute favorite strategy back then was for me to charge right in through the frontthe obvious, direct threat." He paused, his jaw tightening.

"And what about him?"

"He always came in from the back," Zahliver said quietly into my mind.

I swallowed hard past the sudden lump in my throat. "Unexpected," I finished the dark thought for him.

The terrifying implications behind those words made my skin crawl with ice.

As my heavy eyes finally began to grow heavy with exhaustion, one last lingering thought drifted gently into my mind right before deep sleep pulled me under for the night.

Joshua did not talk the way he usually did tonight.

His tone, his facial expressions... they were simply not his own.

It felt as if I had been talking to someone else entirely in that dark kitchen.