Chapter 18 Nico
NICO
The next morning, I woke up and found my neck and chest covered in hickeys. I looked like a high schooler after a horny night out with his girl. I wasn’t ashamed of them; I saw them as badges of pride. They were physical symbols of how much Maddy had wanted me.
Maddy was already up, doing some of her laundry when I got downstairs. “Hey, sexy,” I said as I walked up behind her.
“Morning. Are you all rested?”
I grinned at her. “Barely. I’m heading down the street to Luis’s place to see the guys. I’ll be back in a little while. I texted Mateo, and he’ll be outside mowing the yard. He’ll watch the place while I’m gone.”
“Okay. See you in a little bit.”
I kissed her and left. As soon as the door was closed, my wolf wanted me to go back to her.
After the night before, I’d expected Maddy to be more chipper, but she’d seemed a little down.
My wolf wanted me to go check on her, but that would have seemed overbearing.
At least, that’s what I thought it would seem like.
I walked down to Luis’s house. Everyone else was already there. It was a little weird, especially for Sebastian, who didn’t enjoy getting out of bed before ten every morning. As I walked in, the first thing I heard was Sebastian himself.
“Oh shit! Did you get into a fight with a vacuum cleaner?” He ran up to me and pulled my collar down, revealing more of the marks Maddy had left on me.
I slapped his hand away and straightened my shirt. “Get the hell off me.”
“Good lord, man. What did she do to you?” Felipe asked.
I grinned at them. “You boys wouldn’t understand. Gotta get hair on your balls first. Once that happens for you, come on over and talk. Daddy Nico will explain the birds and the bees then.”
“Ha,” Luis said dryly. “Can we get started?”
“Yeah, sure.”
We sat and discussed the security measures for our neighborhood. Things seemed pretty buttoned-up, and I didn’t think there was anything more we could do. Luis updated me with the info he was researching, but he didn’t have a lot.
“I have a call out to a buddy of mine. He’s a retired cop from Tampa. He lives in New Smyrna now, but he still has contacts. He’s trying to look into Maddy’s grandfather and stuff. Won’t know anything for a few days.”
I sighed. “Okay. We can only do so much, I guess.”
“Speaking of doing,” Sebastian said, nodding at my neck again. “Seems like Maddy’s starting to connect with her wolf, maybe? Looks like she’s getting…aggressive. Even if she can’t shift, maybe she’s, like, becoming one with that part of herself.”
“I’ve actually thought about that,” I said.
“And what did you think?” Felipe asked.
I tapped my finger on my knee. “I think maybe it’s because she’s been around us so much.”
“Huh?” Sebastian looked confused.
“Dude, wolves are pack creatures. There’s a reason shifters live in communes and neighborhoods like ours. We thrive on being around others of our kind. She’s been living with us for almost a month. That, plus the fact that we’re fated mates, could mean the wolf is trying to break free.”
“So does that mean she might actually become a shifter if you guys complete the mating bond?”
My mind drifted back to the night before.
I’d never had sex like that before. We’d both been so free and aggressive.
Open. Wanting. We could have done anything to each other and we would have loved it.
I remembered her riding me, her back against my chest. I’d been in the midst of losing my mind in lust, and I’d contemplated giving her my bite right then and there.
I’d even picked out the spot. An area right between her shoulder blades.
Her skin had been sweaty and the muscles flexing.
I could almost taste her. I’d tamped down that instinct.
I wanted to claim her, but we couldn’t jump to that stage yet.
It was something that needed to be discussed.
A decision that big couldn’t be made at the drop of a hat.
Plus, even though I didn’t think Javi was right, I didn’t want to put Maddy or others into even more danger.
As hellbent as Javi and his crew were to kill her, if her dormant wolf actually did wake up…
I didn’t want to think what they’d do to go after her.
I shook my head and shrugged. “I don’t know, honestly. All I know is that anything might happen. Maybe nothing will, maybe she does become a shifter. I’m not ready to cross that bridge yet.”
The conversation shifted to more banal things. Sports, cars, food, all the stuff we usually talked about when we were together. With nothing important left to talk about, I said my goodbyes and headed back home.
I walked and breathed in the humid Florida air. It was a beautiful day, and even after everything that had happened with Javi, I couldn’t help but think things would work out okay. I waved to Mateo as I walked up the path. He wiped sweat from his forehead and waved back. “Hey, brother.”
“Hey. Is Maddy all good?”
Mateo nodded and grinned. “She’s fine. I checked on her once. Have fun in there.”
I frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He shook his head and started loading the mower back into my garage. “Not what you think.”
Without another word, I unlocked the door and went inside.
As soon as I stepped into the kitchen, I understood what he’d meant.
It wasn’t some dirty joke, it was a cryptic warning.
It was just like one of my brothers to leave me hanging, then stand back and watch the fun.
Instead of finding Maddy, my mother was waiting for me in the kitchen.
“Uh…hey.”
“Hello, Nico,” Mom said as she thumbed through a magazine.
“Where’s Maddy?” I glanced around and didn’t see her.
Mom nodded toward the stairs. “Said she had a headache. Went for a nap.”
Turning on my heel, I headed straight toward the stairs to go check on her. I only made it three steps before Mom called to me. “Nico, I need to speak with you.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before turning around. “About what, Mother?”
“Don’t ‘mother’ me. Come sit down.”
This was not going to be good. I knew how these talks went.
I’d had them my entire life. When I was a kid, it was about school, rules, and picking on my brothers.
Now that I was older, it was always general life things.
My shop, the pack, when I was going to settle down with a mate.
It was never fun, and I had the feeling this might be the least fun talk yet.
Not wanting to fight, I walked over and sat on the stool across from her.
Mom closed her magazine and folded her hands on the table. “I don’t want to sound rude, but something seems to be off about Maddy.”
I gritted my teeth but stayed calm. “What do you mean? Off how?”
She lifted her hands an inch and flopped them back down.
“I’m not totally sure. It seems like she’s struggling with something internally.
Not her injuries or things like that, something up here,” she said, and tapped her temple.
“She was whispering to herself. She seemed frustrated and exhausted. Finally, she excused herself with that excuse of having a headache.” Mom twisted a ring on her finger, a tic she’d had as long as I’d been alive.
It meant she was worried. “Nico.” She glanced around, as though someone might hear. “Have you ever smelled Maddy?”
I stiffened at the mention of it. It was something that was so slight, even the other guys hadn’t really noticed it until I pointed it out to them.
Mom had always had an incredible sense of smell, though.
Stronger than almost anyone else I’d ever known.
I should have realized she would have noticed it. I stayed silent, letting her go on.
“Something just seems…off. That’s the only thing I can say about it.”
It made me feel bad that out of our entire family and all my friends, my mother was one of the only ones out of the loop. That being the case, I still didn’t need her pressuring me or Maddy, or trying to pry into our lives.
“Mom, everything is fine.”
“Nico, I don’t think it is.”
“I said, everything is fine.” My voice got louder, and I was one step away from being angry.
She seemed to get the hint. She grabbed her magazine and stood. “Okay. I had to tell you what I thought. I can’t do more than that.” She walked to the door and opened it, then she turned to look back at me. “Be careful, Nico.”
Without another word, she walked out, closing the door behind her. I let out a heavy sigh and rubbed my face. That had been more stressful than it needed to be.
Maddy was still upstairs sleeping, so I went to check on her. I found her on her bed, not asleep, a hand to her forehead. I stepped over and sat on the bed, putting a hand on her thigh. “Are you okay?” I asked.
Maddy shook her head. “The voice.”
“Huh?”
“The voice in my head. It’s getting louder.”
She’d mentioned it before, but I wanted to make sure it was what I thought it was. It was probably like the link I had to my wolf. We shared and passed emotions and feelings back and forth to each other, not words, really. If it was something else I wanted to help her. “Can you describe it to me?”
Maddy shook her head. “It’s like this tickling at the back of my mind.
A whispery voice that isn’t mine.” She huffed in irritation.
“I keep calling it a voice, but it’s strong emotions that sort of push me in directions and mess up my head.
It’s hard to concentrate.” She put a hand on either side of her head.
“It’s like there’s pressure building in my head. ”
That wasn’t anything I’d ever experienced before.
Maybe it was her dormant wolf recognizing its mate.
Wolves became very emotional and insistent when they found their fated mate.
It might be acting out because it can’t be claimed like it wanted to be.
They could even turn feral if the mating bond wasn’t enacted in a timely manner.
Could a dormant wolf become feral? It made me more desperate to find out about Edemas’s descendants. I needed answers to help Maddy.
I slid in close to her and pulled her body into my arms. “We’ll figure all this out,” I whispered.
Maddy dug her fingers into my arm. “I’m scared, Nico.”
I tightened my embrace. “Don’t be afraid. I’m here and I’ve got you.”
We sat together for almost thirty minutes, enjoying the silence and darkness.
Finally, I heard her breathing grow deep and heavy.
I eased her off my lap and nestled her head onto a pillow.
She was so exhausted that she didn’t even stir as I moved her.
Leaving her to rest, I went to my home office and called Luis.
“I’m on the road, what do you need?”
“On the road?” I asked.
“Yeah, got a lead I need to run down.”
“Anything you need to tell me?”
“Not yet. Trying to figure all this stuff out about Maddy, too soon to say anything.”
“Speaking of, she’s not doing well. Her wolf is being…
I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s like it’s trying to break through or something.
It’s making her miserable. Headaches and voices.
Honestly, if someone didn’t know what was happening, they’d think she had schizophrenia or something. I’m worried as hell about her.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll find you some answers. I’m not going to let you down.”
After getting off the phone with Luis, I called my dad. I needed all the advice I could get.
“Hey, boy. Your mom came home a little irritated after visiting.”
I rolled my eyes. “Dad, I feel bad about that, but I’ve got bigger things going on.”
He seemed to hear the worry in my voice and dropped it. “What’s wrong?”
It took a few minutes, but I explained what was going on with Maddy. By the time I was done, I was more worried than before I started talking.
Dad took a deep breath and sighed. “I have to be honest, I’ve never witnessed or even heard of a dormant wolf.
You and I both know that half-breeds are pretty taboo, but they still happen quite a bit.
Even they can shift, though. Her shifter blood is pretty diluted, but the bloodline she comes from may be part of the cause.
Edemas and his entire line before him were the strongest and most powerful shifters to ever live.
It would make sense that an…uh…anomaly like the Hollander line would maybe cause some weird things down the genetic trail. ”
“Does that mean things will get better or worse?”
“I can’t even begin to guess. Edemas was the strongest of all his family, all the way back to the beginning.
He was drunk with power, crazy with it. Son, I don’t want to scare you, but that blood is in Maddy.
Even if it is diluted, her wolf will be incredibly strong.
Now that it’s been recognized by its mate, it’s probably fighting for dominance.
It’s like a caged animal gnashing its teeth to be free.
A caged dog will tear its mouth to bloody shreds trying to rip its way out of a prison.
Who the hell knows what will happen whenever that creature is finally set loose. ”
Dad’s words echoed across my mind. The warning from Javi was still crystal-clear. He’d warned me things would get out of hand. That I had no idea what I was getting into.
I wondered if there was some truth to what he’d said.