Chapter 46 – NIKOLAI #2
I don't have time for this shit.
The first one makes a mistake, breaking cover too early.
I squeeze the trigger, and he goes down with a hole between his eyes.
The second one is a bit smarter, laying down covering fire as he moves to a better position.
But he's still predictable. I wait for him to reload, then take him out with two shots to the chest.
The remaining three fan out, trying to flank me. On a good day, I could handle them without breaking a sweat. But my back screams in protest as I pivot to track the one circling to my left. My shot goes wide, clipping his shoulder instead of his heart.
Fuck.
A bullet grazes my arm, tearing through the sleeve of my coat. Blood wells immediately, hot and slick. I ignore it, focused on returning fire. The third attacker goes down with a bullet in his throat, gurgling as he clutches at the wound.
Two left. I reload quickly, fingers moving on autopilot. The sun in my eyes makes it hard to spot the fourth attacker until it's almost too late. I feel rather than see him, the slight shift in air pressure as he rushes me from behind.
I spin, the rifle coming up, but I'm too slow.
Pain explodes in my side as his knife finds its mark, sliding between my ribs.
It's not deep—the angle was off—but it's enough to make my vision blur.
I slam the butt of the rifle into his face, feeling his nose collapse under the impact.
He staggers back, and I finish him with a shot to the chest.
One left. Where is he?
The answer comes in the form of a boot to my back, right where Geo's bullets had torn through muscle and bone. The pain is immediate and overwhelming, sending me to my knees. The rifle clatters to the ground beside me.
I try to reach for it, but a heavy foot pins my wrist to the dirt. I look up into the barrel of a shotgun, held by a grinning alpha with a scar running down one cheek.
"Nothing personal," he says, finger tightening on the trigger. "Just business."
I close my eyes. Not in fear, but in fury. To die like this, at the hands of some nameless mercenary, after everything I've survived... it's fucking insulting.
The shot rings out, deafening at this range. But the pain doesn't come.
I open my eyes to see the alpha standing there, a look of surprise frozen on his face. Then his eyes roll back, and he collapses forward, a neat hole drilled dead center through the back of his head.
I roll away from the corpse, scanning the area for this new threat. Friend or foe? The latter is about a thousand times more likely, in my experience.
A figure steps out from behind a collapsed wall, backlit by the sun. I can't make out the face, partially obscured beneath a bandana, just the silhouette—slim, graceful, with hair that catches the light like spun gold.
Raven.
"That's what, three times I've saved your ass now in the past forty-eight hours?" he calls out, voice carrying clearly across the distance between us. "Who's the princess now?"
The smug bastard twirls his pistol once before holstering it with flourish. He approaches slowly, boots kicking up dust with each deliberate step.
I struggle to my feet, refusing to let him see me on my knees. Blood seeps from the knife wound in my side, but I stand tall, shoulders back, chin up. Just like I taught him all those years ago.
Never let them see weakness. Especially not the ones who matter.
"Your timing's improving," I say, forcing my voice to remain steady despite the pain. "Used to be you'd show up after the fight was over, looking pretty while I did all the dirty work."
Raven's laugh is bright and sharp, like broken glass catching sunlight. "And you're as ungrateful as ever. A simple 'thank you for saving my life' would suffice."
"Considering I'm only out here looking for you, let's call it even."
"Geo sent you?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.
My throat burns as I swallow down the truth. "Who else?"
"And he says I'm the clingy one," he mumbles, stopping a few feet away. Those blue eyes sweep over me, cataloging every injury. I see the exact moment he spots the fresh knife wound, the flash of concern quickly masked by practiced indifference.
"You look like shit," he observes, head tilting slightly.
"And you smell like brothel," I counter. It's the truth. He smells like scent maskers and incense, but not anyone else. A fact I only give a shit about because he claims Cosima is his mate, too. "Making good on your promise to our mutual friend?"
Something passes across his face too quickly to read. "Gathering information, as promised. About that, actually?—"
"Save it," I cut him off, pressing a hand to my bleeding side. "We need to get back to the compound."
I'm sure he got what he came for. He always does.
Which means sooner or later, I'll have to deal with Azarel, too. Just haven't decided how yet.
Raven's eyebrows shoot up. "Well, this is new. Since when do you follow orders, Nikolai? Last I checked, you were the one giving them."
"Since that monster is fucking our omega," I snarl, the words escaping before I can stop them.
Raven rips the bandana off his face, revealing his blank expression. "He's what?"
"You heard me," I growl, hoping he doesn't stop to think too long about the 'our omega' part. "They're?—"
"No," Raven says, his hand shooting up to stop me. "I got that, I'm just stuck on the how . He's fucking huge. I mean, his cock must be the size of my forearm, which means his knot would be…"
He trails off, making the imaginary circumference with his hands, and then his eyes get glassy. " Damn , girl."
Of course that's what he's fixated on. Why did I think he'd possibly be a reliable ally?
"Let's just fucking go," I snarl, turning back the way I came.
"You're jealous ," Raven sings out behind me, his boots crunching on the gravel as he follows. "The great Nikolai Vlakov, brought low by the green-eyed monster."
"Shut up," I growl, pressing harder against the knife wound in my side. Fresh blood seeps between my fingers, hot and sticky.
"Or is it the violet-eyed monster?" He catches up to me easily, falling into step beside me like no time has passed at all. Like we're still... whatever we were before. "Come on, admit it. You actually have feelings for her."
I whirl on him, ignoring the way the movement makes my vision swim. "She's my fucking mate."
"And mine," he reminds me.
"Yeah. So it should fucking bother you, too."
He gives an elegant shrug. "Hey, omegas are rare. I always figured if I ever found my scent match, I'd probably be sharing her." His lips curl into that infuriating smirk I remember so well. "And you know me—I've never minded sharing."
"Don't fucking remind me," I mutter.
"This way," Raven calls out, gesturing toward a pile of rubble. "I... borrowed a car. And you're in no shape to walk back."
"I'm fine," I snap, but even I can hear the strain in my voice.
"Sure you are." He leads me around the debris to where a sleek black vehicle sits hidden from the road. "Now let me look at those wounds."
I bat his hands away as he reaches for my coat. "Just drive."
He sighs dramatically but doesn't push it. A miracle in the wasteland. I sink into the passenger seat, trying to ignore how the leather feels cool against my feverish skin.
Wait.
Feverish?
Fuck, that's the last thing I need right now.
Raven slides behind the wheel and starts the engine. The radio crackles to life, some pre-war song I vaguely recognize floating through the speakers. He starts humming along, just like he used to, and I try to be annoyed by it.
I really do.
But my eyes are so heavy...
"No, not like that," I hear myself saying. "You'll strip the gears. Ease into it."
Raven sits beside me in the driver's seat, tongue caught between his teeth in concentration as he wrestles with the stick shift. The engine groans in protest.
"Sorry," he mutters, cheeks flushing. "I've never done this before."
"I know." I reach over, placing my hand over his on the gear shift. "Like this. Feel the rhythm of it..."
His cheeks turn pinker for some reason.
The car hits a bump and I jerk awake. "Brake with your right!" I shout, disoriented.
Raven glances at me, confusion written across his features. "What are you talking about?"
I blink, reality settling back in. The wasteland stretches out around us, barren and familiar. Not the compound's training grounds where I first taught him to drive.
"Nothing," I mutter, turning to stare out the window. "Just a dream."
His humming resumes, but I catch him shooting worried glances at me when he thinks I'm not looking. The radio plays on, some woman singing about paradise lost, and I let the familiar motion of the car lull me back toward unconsciousness.
Just for a moment.
Just until we get back.
Just until I can make sure everyone's in the same place. Some idiot alpha instinct I can't shake.
A thought flickers in the back of my mind that maybe it's because I know I'm not doing too hot, and as much as I fucking hate him, Raven is the only person I trust to take care of Cosima if I'm…
I shake my head.
Fuck that shit. I've survived worse than a few bullet wounds. I'm not going down that easily.
Not when I just found her.
My mate.
Our mate.
The thought follows me into darkness as my eyes drift closed again.