Chapter 24 Nico
NICO
Iclenched my jaw so hard as I went back upstairs that I was afraid my teeth might crack.
I’d never been so pissed off in my life.
I stomped through the kitchen and out into the backyard.
There were still about twenty people here, drinking, eating, laughing.
I had no patience for any of that at the moment.
“Okay!” I shouted, getting everyone’s attention. “Out. Everybody out.”
The crowd silenced, my brothers all looked confused. No one moved, which only made me angrier. “I said out!” My voice boomed out like a grenade. “Everyone but Mom and Dad. Get the fuck out.”
The crowd started moving, everyone quickly putting their glasses and plates down and heading toward the door. Dad was with Mom, whispering questions to her. I was happy to see that Mom looked abashed. She knew what I was mad about and looked worried.
My brother Diego walked up to me before leaving. “What the hell, Nico?”
I glared at him. “Not now, Diego. Not. Fucking. Now.” I hissed the words through gritted teeth.
Diego lifted his hands in surrender. “Got it. Got it. Point taken.”
My eyes locked on Mom while the last few people trickled out. Once the back door was closed, I was free to express my rage. “What is wrong with you?” I asked her.
Her jaw dropped. “Nico? What’s going on here?”
My voice rose an octave. “I said, what is wrong with you?”
She crossed her arms and shook her head. “I was looking out for my boy. That’s all.”
Dad sighed and rubbed at his face. “Julia, what did you do?”
Mom swept a hand toward the house. “Carlos, that girl in there is a human. Nico can’t be allowed to mate with a human. There won’t ever be an alpha to take over the pack. You know that. Everyone does. I was the only one who seemed willing to say anything.”
“I can be with whomever I want, Mother. I’m a grown man. I’m the alpha. I am in charge of my own life.”
Mom shook her head. “No, Nico. It feels that way, I know. You are still my and your father’s son. You have a duty to the pack. I only told Maddy the truth. I couldn’t let her get her hopes up that there could be more with you. There can’t be. Don’t you see that? She can’t—”
“She’s my fated mate!” I bellowed in rage. “Stop talking about her like that.”
Mom’s face went pale, and Dad stepped over and put a hand on my shoulder to calm me down. “Son, easy. Take a breath,” he murmured in my ear.
Mom took two steps toward me and pointed a finger at my chest. “No. I won’t have you lying to us to keep shacking up with some girl. Humans and shifters can’t be fated. You know that. Stop lying. You’re being a child, Nico.”
Dad, finally letting his anger show, turned to her and held up his hand. “Julia, would you stop? Jesus, just stop for a second.”
“You can’t actually be on his side? Carlos, you know what’s at stake here! The future of the Lorenzo pack.”
Dad sighed and looked at me. “I think it’s time you tell your mother everything.”
“Everything what? Oh my God, is she pregnant? Is that what’s happened?”
“Julia,” Dad hissed, “I love you with all my heart, but will you please—and I say this from a place of utmost love—please shut up for one second?”
Mom gasped and put a hand to her mouth, but she stopped talking.
Dad patted me on the back. “She’ll understand once she hears.”
I took a breath and nodded. Calming myself, I unfurled my fists. “Mom? Do you remember all the old stories about Edemas?”
Her brow furrowed in confusion. “The Werewolf King? Yes, why?”
“The stories said that when he and his family were slaughtered by the other side of the royal family and his subjects, the entire bloodline was wiped out, correct?”
“Nico, these are scary stories we tell little shifters at Halloween. What does this have to do with that girl in there?”
“A secondary legend tells that he was able to spirit away two of his descendants. Two babies who were full werewolves like he was. They were alphas, too. Two strong blood links to the Hollander line.”
Mom sighed and shook her head. “I’d heard that once or twice, you still aren’t—”
“The stories are all true, Mom. Edemas did get two children out before the assassinations. They passed their genes down through the years. The new royal family has been searching for and killing any child that came from those descendants. That is who Maddy is,” I said, pointing back toward the house.
Mom froze, glancing from me to Dad and back again. “What are you saying?”
Dad took a step toward her, putting his hands out in a pleading gesture. “What he’s saying is true, Julia. Maddy is a descendant of Edemas. She is a shifter, but the blood became so diluted over the centuries that her wolf is dormant. It’s locked inside her, unable to come out.”
“What about Javi? How does he factor into this?” she asked, still looking like she didn’t completely believe us.
“Javi’s family came to America when Dad was a kid. They came from Europe. We think Javi and his entire pack are under the royals’ direct control. They are here, in this country, to hunt down and kill anyone who might be a descendant of Edemas.
“Javi’s crew was seconds from killing her.
Her father died saving her mother, and then her mom had to give her away the day she was born to try and keep her safe.
She died not long afterward. There’s a bullseye painted on Maddy’s forehead, and she has enough to deal with without the mother of the man she loves talking to her like she’s a piece of shit.
” I was breathing heavily by the time I finished talking.
My mother looked at my father. “Is this all true?”
Dad nodded. “It is. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll know it too. You’ve surely caught some of her scent. She’s not human, not completely. The stories are true, and that means the danger is as well.”
Mom put a hand to her mouth and looked at the house, tears welling in her eyes. “Nico, I didn’t know. I thought—”
“You thought I was thinking with my crotch and not my head?” I was still pissed at her and wasn’t ready to be forgiving just yet.
“No, it’s just…I’m sorry.”
“Nope. Don’t apologize to me. You’ll need to apologize to Maddy. And it better be some real groveling-type shit. Kiss her toes, do her laundry, whatever the hell she needs.”
“Yes, yes, I promise. I’m sorry, I have to ask, how do we plan on keeping her safe? You can intimidate Javi all you want, but if this royal family is real and they are after her, nothing will stop them. Even if Javi ends up dead, they won’t stop.”
“We know,” I said. “Maddy’s uncle is still alive, and he told us about another legend.
Apparently, Edemas left behind a vial of his blood.
If Maddy or any descendant was to drink that blood, the werewolf line would return.
That’s what terrifies the royals—the kings of old would be back.
He’s going to help us find this secret vault.
Once that vial of blood is destroyed, we think the royals will back off.
Kenneth is going to contact us again within the month. ”
Mom’s look of shame and humiliation had given way to worry. “I don’t feel good about you all going on some manhunt for some vial that may or may not actually exist. Especially when you don’t know where it is. How are you even going to go about finding it?”
Dad raised an eyebrow. “She has a point, Nico. Do you have any leads on this blood?”
I nodded. “Kenneth has been researching it for decades. Basically ever since his dad, Maddy’s grandpa, died.
He and Luis have been in contact through secure emails and texts on burner phones.
He’s got some info. We aren’t certain, but all the old legends say Edemas had his seat of power somewhere in Norway.
The odds of the vault and the blood being in that country are pretty high.
Luis is making connections. He and Kenneth are both trying to make inroads over there.
We won’t make any type of move until we’re at least ninety percent certain. ”
Mom nodded and glanced back up at the house, then laughed humorlessly. “Nico, I’m sorry. I don’t…I never should have been that way with Maddy. Whether she was a shifter or not, human or not, that’s not the way I want to be. I don’t know what came over me.”
“Well, you’re not wrong,” I said. “You can make it up to her later.”
If she’d been hoping I’d say, ‘I forgive you,’ she was mistaken with how this would go. She had a long way to go with Maddy first before I’d be able to say those words.
She must have realized it and nodded sadly.
She and Dad left, leaving me standing in the backyard alone.
I was itching to go for a run, but I couldn’t leave Maddy alone.
Besides, she might wake up at any time. I spent the next thirty minutes picking up all the paper plates, beer cans, plastic cups, and trash my guests had left behind.
I would normally have been irritated, but I hadn’t really given anyone the chance to dispose of their trash.
I chastised myself for how I’d reacted. I’d need to apologize to everyone at some point.
Once the yard was cleaned up, I headed inside to check on Maddy. When I opened the door to the guest bedroom, she was already awake. She was lying on her back, reading on her phone. She glanced over at me. “Hey. Is everyone still upstairs?”
I shook my head. “All gone.”
“Ugh.” She flopped her arms down on the bed. “All your friends and family are gonna think I’m some stuck-up bitch. I’m always shutting myself away whenever there’s a get-together.”
I sat with her and pulled her upper body onto my lap. “They understand. You’ve gone through a ton of stuff. No reason to worry about what other people think anyway. You’ve got enough to deal with.”
“I guess you’re right. It still feels kinda antisocial.”
“How did you sleep?”
“It was weird,” Maddy said. “I had the strangest dream.”
“Oh yeah? What about?”
“The moon. It was like I was connected to it. The whole dream was me walking through a forest or something, and I was looking up at the full moon. I could feel the light of it on my skin and it made my entire body tingle. There was a link between me and it. It wasn’t like anything I’d ever felt before.
For a little while, it didn’t even seem like a dream.
It was like I was lucid.” She shook her head.
“I can’t figure out what it means. Maybe it doesn’t mean anything at all. ”
Hearing her talk about her dream brought back memories of the stories my father had told us as kids.
How Edemas and his ancestors had become more powerful as the moon grew full.
When the full moon was out, they were basically living gods, nearly unbeatable in battle.
It made me wonder how strong Maddy could be if she became a full werewolf like her forefathers.
I needed to get my mind off that subject.
“So…Mom knows.”
Maddy turned and looked at me. “She knows what?”
I nodded. “All of it. I chewed her ass pretty good. I’d be expecting an apology at any time.”
“Oh, jeez. I hate that you had to do that.”
“Don’t be sorry. She’s the one who should be sorry, and she is.”
Maddy curled into me. “Well, I’m glad she knows. It still doesn’t make me happy that she thought so little of me for being human.”
I sighed, understanding exactly what she meant. “Mom’s a traditionalist. Not always cool, but hopefully, we can show her a better way. I don’t want my mom to think that just because someone’s human, they can’t be in her family. Like, what if one of my younger brothers falls for a human?”
“I’m still more human than wolf, though.”
I leaned down and kissed her neck, moving my lips higher until I was close to her earlobe. I could feel her body reacting to me. “I could put a little more wolf in you,” I joked, my voice barely above a whisper.
Maddy burst out laughing. “Oh really? Could you?” Her laughter turned to moans as I took her earlobe in my mouth and sucked gently.
She slid her hand onto my lap and kneaded the fabric of my pants, making my cock hard in an instant.
My own hands drifted across her body, sliding across the mounds of her breasts, across her stomach, and sliding over her ass.
Maddy started tugging at my belt, and in less than a minute, we were naked on the bed, our lips and tongues exploring each other’s bodies.
I lifted her hips and slid under her. With her legs straddling my head, I slipped my tongue into her wet pussy.
Maddy groaned and arched her back while I flicked the tip of my tongue across her clit.
Lowering her head, Maddy took my cock into her mouth, the warm, slick wetness of her tongue sliding and wiggling across the head and shaft.
I sucked in a breath, laying my head back as she worked me.
Her head slid up and down as she fucked my cock with her mouth.
She sucked the head. It was like she was devouring me in the most amazing way.
I came to my senses and put my lips around her clit and sucked while sliding a finger inside her.
She sighed, my throbbing flesh still in her mouth, and nothing had ever sounded so erotic in my life.
I clutched her ass with my free hand, pulling her closer and sucking on her clit, engorging it with blood.
I could hear her breathing getting heavier as she ground her pussy into my face.
She pulled my cock out of her mouth. “Make me come, Nico. Make me come.”
Not wanting to disappoint her, I slid my tongue into her pussy, fucking her with it as I rubbed her clit with my thumb.
I moved faster. She started to tremble, and I could feel her getting close.
As she neared her climax, her mouth worked even harder and faster on me.
There was a building pleasure deep in my pelvis, just beneath my balls.
I couldn’t help myself, thrusting my hips in time with her mouth.
I slammed my tongue into her one final time, and she jerked and spasmed against me.
Maddy moaned in pleasure, even as she continued to suck me off.
I laid my head back, enjoying the next few moments.
She added her hand and sucked the tip while her fingers stroked the length of me.
A few seconds later, my eyes bulged, and I gritted my teeth.
My fingers dug into the sheets as I erupted.
The orgasm was exploded through me. Maddy continued stroking me as I shivered in pleasure beneath her.