Chapter Two
The glass slipped through my fingertips, splashing across his pantleg and giving him a bath for the second time. “Wha— What did you say?”
“I saw the shadow, Daciana, and if that man is after Hope”—his lengthening canines pierced his blush-stained bottom lip—“then I’m not fucking going anywhere. I’m staying by your side and putting that bastard in the ground.”
“Nyx!” I grabbed and yanked him down next to me, making him yelp. “Tell me everything right now. How do you know him? What does he look like? Where is he!”
“Daze.” Something about his voice, and his calloused hands taking mine, quieted me. “I need you to stop for a minute and listen. I’m going to tell you this and you’re going to believe me. Above all, you have to believe me.”
His eyes... Nyx’s eyes were more serious than I’d ever seen them. There was no laughing glint in his light pools. No trickster’s grin on his lips. No trace of the vain clown who shook his ass in my face. This was real, and important.
“Okay,” I said softly. “I’ll listen... and I’ll believe you.”
Nodding slow, he took a deep breath. “You probably didn’t know this, but I had another brother. A twin brother named Ravi.”
My brows popped. A million questions already sprung to my lips, but I silenced them. Something told me I was about to learn plenty about Ravi, and it would break my heart.
“Ravi was strong, so very strong from the day he was born,” Nyx began, still holding tight to my hand. “Not just a strong alpha, but a strong wood wolf. He ripped a thousand-year-old redwood out by the roots when he was only four years old. To say my father was proud would be an understatement.
“Father showered him in love, attention, toys, everything, and I ad-admit I was jealous,” he rasped, voice cracking. “As much as I loved my brother, I hated him too. I used to sabotage and play pranks on him. Anything to dirty the golden boy up, but I never hurt him!”
I started at the cry.
“I swear I never hurt him physically, and I never wanted to. But that day...”
“Yes?” I gently probed when he trailed off. “I’m listening, Nyx, it’s okay.”
He bit his lip hard, nostrils flaring. “That d-day, we went into the woods to play. It was just after our tenth birthday and we’d both gotten toy helicopters. We couldn’t wait to race each other. It was a good day, Daze. There was nothing to be angry, jealous, or mad about that day. I just wanted to hang with my brother.”
“What happened?”
Nyx wasn’t looking at me. He wasn’t looking at anything. “We were almost a mile in when we saw them. The ghosts.”
My brow crumpled. Ghosts?
“They were beautiful,” he whispered. “So happy. So peaceful. The pack was chasing each other through the trees, and we wanted to play too.”
“The pack?” I softly cut in. “Were the ghosts wolves?”
Nyx nodded, his eyes out of focus. “Ravi and I shifted and chased after them—laughing, jumping, running with the pack—we weren’t scared at all. Not for a second. We just knew the ghosts wouldn’t hurt us.”
But something did, or the ghosts of the past wouldn’t be living in his eyes.
“We kept following them... until they ran to him. ” Nyx’s face changed so fast, twisting into a mask of hatred that made me lurch back. “He was just standing there in the middle of the clearing like he was waiting for a bus or something—so casual.
“We saw him, shifted back, and just like that... Ravi started screaming.”
“Screaming?” I croaked. “Did the man attack him?”
“He didn’t lay a finger on him, Daze. He didn’t even move. He just looked at us, and then Ravi was on the ground—screaming and clawing at his chest.” Nyx grabbed his own chest, his claws piercing his shirt and spreading pinpricks of blood on the fabric.
He didn’t seem to notice. “Before I could move— Before I could think, Ravi’s ghost ripped from his chest... and he was gone.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, biting hard on my lip. “His ghost was his soul, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Nyx, I’m so sorry.”
He gave no sign that he heard me. “After he... After what he did to Ravi, he got mad. He rushed and grabbed me—yelling and shaking me for being where I didn’t belong. I tried to fight him off but my body caught fire. It felt like someone poured gasoline down my throat and then tossed a match in after it.
“Everything started going dark. I couldn’t breathe,” he whispered. “I was dying.”
“How did you get away?” I asked, matching his soft tone.
“I didn’t.”
My nose wrinkled. “What? But you said—”
“I didn’t get away, Daze. I was saved... by Ravi.”
“You mean by his ghost?”
He nodded. “The wolf that was his soul attacked him. Ravi went through his chest and the guy freaked out.” Nyx probed the back of his skull. “He dropped me and I must’ve passed out because when I woke up, they were all gone. The man and the ghosts. No one was there except for me and Ravi’s body.”
I found myself rubbing his arm, comforting him like he did me when he pulled me out of my own grave. “That’s horrible, Nyx. I don’t have words.”
“I carried Ravi’s body all the way home. I told them what happened, but they didn’t believe me. Father”—his lips twisted—“convinced himself that I killed Ravi. I took the whole sibling rivalry thing too far, killed my brother, and then was so horrified by what I’d done, my mind snapped and invented a story of ghosts and strange men lurking in the forest.
“He was raging,” Nyx spat. “So insane mad, Mom had to drag him off me.”
I hissed, hating that man more than I did at the start of the story.
“Mom didn’t think that I did it. She couldn’t. She was a healer and could see for herself that there wasn’t a mark on him. No ten-year-old was so sophisticated a killer they could kill someone without leaving a trace. But even though she didn’t blame me, she didn’t believe me either. No one did,” he said, gaze rising to meet mine. “And because of that, Ravi’s killer has walked free and clear for twelve fucking years.”
“Your brother deserved so much better, and so did you.”
He tossed his head. “I didn’t tell you this for sympathy, Daze. I wanted you to know so you’d have no doubt that I’m in this fight with you—one thousand percent. If you trust anything, you can trust that there’s no one alive who wants that soul-stealing bastard in the ground more than me.” His eyes pinned me through. “No one.”
Gazing back, I did what he asked of me. “I believe you.”
“So tell me your plan, Volana. All of it. And include the part where I kill that bastard.”
“Okay,” I replied, giving in to a request that I swore I’d reject when the time came. “But first, tell me about the shadow. Who are they? What do they look like?”
“I never found out his name or where he was from,” Nyx confirmed, deflating my hopes. “I also don’t know what happened to him after that day. All I can say is he’s tall—about six feet. He has dark skin and short, coarse hair that was already turning gray even though he looked like he was in his forties. He had a small scar on his left nostril and the upper corner of his lip. Almost like someone slashed at his face and nicked his nose and lip on the way down.” Nyx swiped his face, miming it. “But that’s it. Everything else about him was as common as it gets. Brown eyes, average looks, not particularly fit.”
“But you’d recognize him if you saw him again,” I pushed.
“Absolutely.”
I fell back on the pillows, gazing up at the vaulted ceilings. “But what are the odds of that? Long before we were chosen, I met and fell in love with Castor. Castor meets Edric who’s trying to save his sister from the council, because said sister discovers the council is rotten and untrustworthy long before the council has a chance to prove it to him the hard way.
“The three of us end up looking for the shadow, but you’ve already seen, faced, and survived him,” I said. “It does feel like fate was pulling us together long before we met on that rock. Maybe if we had come together sooner, Castor... Castor would still...” I trailed off, letting the wish fade away. It didn’t make sense to dwell in dreams and alternative realities.
Yes, Castor died looking for someone that Nyx identified twelve years ago, but there was nothing to do about that now. All I could do was take up Castor’s mission and kill that bastard... before I killed everyone else.
“Makes you wonder about Paxton, Orion, and Badr,” Nyx said, “and how they’re connected to all of this.”
“No it doesn’t. All I’m wondering is what happens now. Between us.”
He scoffed. “I thought that was obvious. What happens now is we call a truce, and go from enemies in this war to allies.” Nyx held out his hand. “Agreed?”
I hesitated, but only for a moment. “Agreed.”
I shook, and then I told him.
***
“W OW. THAT’S JUST.. . wow.”
“You’ve been saying that for the last ten minutes,” I sliced in, following the curve of the hallway around the corner. “Do you want to try another word?”
“Wow.”
Apparently not.
I kept up my end of the bargain and told Nyx my plan for the end of Wolf Nation as we knew it. As a result, he’d been broken for the last ten minutes.
I gave up on him two minutes in, got up, got dressed, and left the infirmary. He trailed after me, keeping up his impressive impression of a broken record.
“Nyx—”
“ Volana! ”
I jerked, nearly crashing into a wall. The mental shout blew the last traces of calm from my system.
“ Volana, are you okay? What happened? Where are you! ”
“ What happened is your buddy Badr buried me alive. Do you still want to choose your little brotherhood over me? What does your wolf say about trying to kill your— ”
Growls roared down the bond, bringing such menace with them it chilled my soul. “ He’s dead! ”
Edric retreated, his fury gone from my mind as quickly as it came. If Badr was still somewhere on the grounds after trying to kill the headmistress, he’d be found.
“My goodness, Volana,” Nyx breathed. “Wow.”
“Alright, stop saying wow,” I snapped. “I know it’s code for ‘ you’ve lost your mind ’ and I’m getting really tired of people calling me crazy. It’s not crazy to kill a bunch of genocidal psychopaths that are hunting down your baby, so I’ll tell you right now, any changes to the plan are not welcome and will not be considered!”
“Whoa, hey.”
Calloused fingers traced my palm, lacing through mine. I jumped again—shocked at the tender touch.
“I didn’t say you were crazy, and I don’t think it either. I’m stuck on how such a tiny, pretty, innocent-looking package can conceal so much homicidal, diabolical rage,” he dropped, matter-of-fact. “And I’m wondering what it says about me that I find that very, very sexy.”
What did he say?
“I mean, look at this semi.”
My gaze dropped unbidden, landing on the clear and impressive bulge straining against his zipper. Heat exploded in my cheeks, and my wolf.
“It probably doesn’t say anything good about me that I’m finding you irresistibly delicious right now. No wonder Paxton calls you yummy.” Nyx was mostly talking to himself and he was still wreaking havoc on my emotions. “Maybe this is why none of my other relationships worked out. Because I like a woman who could slit my throat as easily as she’d suck my dick.”
The door to the headmistress’s office loomed ahead, beckoning me to pick up the pace. My wolf liked where he was going with this. She liked it too much. Therefore, it was time to go.
“All right, well, I’m glad you’re on board. As long as you don’t tell anyone—and I mean no one—what I’ve told you, you and I are good,” I said. “No more fighting. No more back and forth. We’re allies, just like you said.”
“Great,” he replied, shrugging. “So do we do it now, or tonight? If you want candles and shit, then tonight would be better, but if you’re not that bothered, we can head up now.”
I blinked. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Completing our bond. Mating. Fucking,” he replied when I still stared at him blankly. “I gotta say, I vote for now because damn, girl”—he licked his lips, giving me my third jump scare of the morning—“you are so fucking fine and I’m straight tired of pretending I think you’re not. I will have my scoop of cherry sundae now, please and thank you.”
“That’s not—! There isn’t—! No one is having any sundaes!” I shrieked, flushing down to my toes.
He cocked his head. “Why not? We’re allies, right?”
“Allies doesn’t mean we have sex! Since when does that mean sex!?”
“Because we’re not just allies. We’re also fated mates. Only mutual hatred got in our way before. Now that we’re cool, there’s no point waiting.” The man could’ve been talking about us going out for actual ice cream sundaes with how nonchalant he sounded.
“There is a point!” My wolf was banging against my chest, trying to leap out, tackle Nyx, and devour him whole. “I—I—I have a deal with Sunella and the council,” I blurted. “I told them I would mate with one of you guys at the end of each semester. It’s the only way to make them keep up their end.”
“Oh, please. That deal is a sham and we both know it.” Nyx’s brows suddenly popped. “Ooooh, wait. I see what this is. Edric said you were surprisingly prudish about sex. You want me to seduce you.”
“What!”
“Make you feel special and all that. I can do that, I think,” he mused, rubbing the back of his head. “I’ve never had to seduce anyone before. I mean, look at me.” The asshole actually did a little spin. “Everyone wants this.”
“Go away.”
“I’m gone,” he said easily, striding off. “But I’ll be back, and you’ll be on your knees.”
“Who says stuff like that out loud!”
Nyx looked back, golden wolf eyes shining their possession over that wicked, panty-melting smirk. “Game on, baby.”
***