Chapter 6
NATALIA
Locking my senses tightly again so I wouldn’t be assaulted by whatever expected us outside, Dante and I sidestepped the mountain of books still on the floor and stepped out onto the hallway. I had no idea what time it was, but I was positively starving.
“How do you do that?” Dante asked, and his question made me pause.
“Do what?”
“It’s like you’ve placed a shield on your senses.”
“You can feel it?” My eyebrows rose when he nodded.
“Honestly, I’m not quite certain. I just feel more in control of my body, of my emotions somehow.
It’s as if I can feel every one of ‘the parts’ that form me, and I can access them.
Everything feels intense right now, so I just locked certain parts of me not to feel everything fully. ”
I shrugged, but the look of wonder in his eyes said that wasn’t as simple as I made it out to be.
The sound of doors opening and closing around us reached me, and I turned to see my second mate step out of his room.
“Hey, André.”
A crooked grin began to tilt his lips… until he caught the sight of my red strands. His intensifying gaze snapped to Dante, then returned to sweep my outfit, finally settling on my face.
My eyes.
His form tensed yet again, a troubling look crossing his expression before he finally smiled at me, but it seemed controlled. It wasn’t the sexy crooked smile I remembered. The one he freely gifted Natasha.
Was this going to be like this every time he looked at my red eyes? It was like it physically affected him.
The stupid uncomfortable feeling attempted to grip my chest, but I slapped it away from me before it could.
“She looks stunning in black and red, doesn’t she?” Dante asked while curling his fingers tightly around mine. I returned the squeeze.
“She looks stunning in everything…” Stepping closer, André gently kissed my cheek, but there was a certain restraint in his gesture.
“What the fuck is his problem?”
“Can you not be a bitch to him right now?” Star admonished. “He’s adjusting to not seeing Natasha’s blue eyes.”
André’s brows lifted in surprise, and his attention flew to Dante. I realized then that he could hear our thoughts too. For a moment, I’d forgotten about Dante’s shadows linking Natasha’s mind to theirs. Or was it linking my mind to theirs now?
Ugh, why was this so confusing?
“We are all the same person,” Star chided. “But they were never able to hear you or me before.”
“Right.”
“The fire burned through every block,” Dante admitted. “We can hear Starlight now… and Natasha.”
My second mate’s astonishment grew. “You heard Natasha?”
Dante nodded, his thumb caressing my hand. “When Natalia drank from me. She asked her to be gentle and not hurt me.”
A million troubling thoughts seemed to rush through André’s gaze when it focused on me again.
“Don’t look at me that way. I obeyed, didn’t I?” I huffed, dropping Dante’s hand and crossing my arms over my chest. “I’m not going to eat anybody, André. I just got an itch, and I scratched it. It was my first time so…” I shrugged. “You know how that is.”
A heavy breath left him, like the reminder of his first taste of blood wasn’t a pleasant one, but he slowly nodded. “Of course. I know you wouldn’t hurt us, or anyone.” André cleared his throat, instantly fixing his expression.
He regarded me with a mixture of awe and something else… hesitation?
My cheek still tingled from his kiss, but the stupid feeling he created fought to arise again.
“Whatever.”
A larger presence stole my attention to the left, and the second I looked, everything stopped. A larger-than-life, rugged hottie strutted along the hallway toward me.
“Holy shit,” I breathed, my arms falling to my sides as I slowly turned in his direction.
“Mine!”
“Can you stop claiming everything with a penis? We already have two mates.”
Chuckles burst behind me, but I was too entranced by the sexy lumberjack to pay attention to anything else.
“Well, hello darling… Who are you, where did you come from, and how can I get me some?” I asked when he stopped a few steps away, causing a devastatingly adorable smile to capture his entire face, even his sparkling ocean-blue eyes.
Did he always smile like that? If he did, we were in trouble.
“You were saying?”
“Right. But obviously, I was unable to stop myself. I mean, have you seen him?”
“Hey, how are you feeling?” the hunk asked in a quiver-inducing husky voice, interrupting my internal banter and making my nipples instantly tighten.
“Well, certain places are feeling certain things right now, if that’s what you are asking.”
His smile turned dangerous, but he didn’t make a move on me.
Rude.
Returning the sexy smile, I stepped closer, placing my hand on his chest. Only, the instant my fingers touched him, fur burst out of him, his body transforming from human to not-so-human before my eyes.
A gasp escaped my lips when I stepped back, seeing ripples of fur overtake his body like waves, his entire form changing.
His height increased by at least another foot, his broad chest and arms becoming even larger until sharp obsidian claws protruded from his fingers.
His legs bent in the oddest way, just as his head elongated into that of a…
“Werewolf!” I gasped, my heart slamming against my chest from the start.
“Sexy ass Wolf Shifter…” Star hummed.
Wow…
“Damn it, Hannes!” André hissed. “You scared her. Did you really have to turn into the Beast right now?”
The Beast… His words echoed in my mind while I looked at the full Werewolf towering over me. I’d seen him before, I knew him.
Hannes… The name jabbed at the intruding darkness that swayed in the place Natasha occupied, almost capturing her. Fierce guilt and worry seemed to break through the fog, reaching me with the memory of his name.
“Are you okay?” I reached for him again but stopped myself before I could touch him.
I had triggered his shift. I mean, it was a breathtaking, formidable, and shockingly enticing shift, but still. The mere possibility of my touch had done this to him.
“I’m sorry.” I had no idea why it felt like this, why I said that to him, but the light changed in his eyes, and he bowed his head.
“It’s not your fault. You didn’t hurt me on purpose.” His voice transformed too, becoming deeper, raspier, and animalistic, yet it was still sexy and delicious.
I’d never met anyone like him…
Blinking, I tried to understand his words, but the fog strengthened in my mind. What wasn’t my fault?
“Hannes only shifted because his Beast is the only form of his that can fully withstand your fire,” Dante explained. “And we are still unsure whether or not you are in full control of it right now.”
“But he is fine,” André assured. “Vanessa helped him heal after the boathouse—"
“The boathouse?!” I whirled to glance at them, anxiously searching for the part of my mind I was now certain had been blocked from me.
A wave of scorching pain seemed to stir behind the darkness, but the fog kept it restrained. I instantly knew it wasn’t mine. It was Natasha’s… Something horrible had happened to her there.
“What happened in the boathouse?” I asked them, seeing Dante, André, and Hannes suddenly exchange a dreadful glance.
“I can’t remember either…” Star murmured.
“Did I hurt you with my fire?” I turned to Hannes, focusing on him.
“You truly can’t remember?”
When I shook my head at him, their dread deepened.
Whatever was happening, I didn’t like it one bit.
Taking a steadying breath, I straightened my spine. “Maybe you should call the Vampiri Mother again,” I told André, forcing myself not to show the battle within me. “Surely, she will know what’s going on.”
Tension spread along the corridor while our steps echoed against the tense silence; we were on our way to the dining room. Apparently, everyone was gathered there, including our Vampiri Mother.
My gaze roamed Hannes’s majestic werewolf form as he walked before me, becoming a living, breathing barricade for anyone who attempted to approach me—my shield.
Dante and André each took their place at either side of me…
presumably to protect me, even though the biggest threat here appeared to be me and my fire.
“You are not that dangerous, Bitch. Stop flattering yourself. I on the other hand…”
My lips twitched at that, the humor extending to my bodyguards, who chuckled all around me.
Star’s banter was nothing more than an attempt to lessen the tension, especially because the pain that had stirred inside the fog at the mention of the boathouse, was haunting our consciousness.
It didn’t matter how many times it stirred, it was being restrained by the darkness. Even if it weren’t, I’d sooner be caught dead than cry in front of these people. Or whatever that stupid pain wanted me to do.
I wasn’t just any Vampir, I was a Vampiress, and we did not do feelings.
My needy gaze returned to sexy Hannes, and I took my time admiring every inch of his powerful back muscles, narrow waist, hard ass, and massive thighs. Yes, he was covered in fur, but holy hell. His Beast form was magnificent.
“Mother, may I?”
“I’m so glad to see you up and well, Lady Natasha,” the gentleman standing by the double doors immediately expressed with a smile when we turned the corner.
“It’s Natalia. But thank you…”
“Frederick,” he reminded, seeming confused by my response. His unsure gaze went to André who offered him a small smile.
“Natasha is suffering from—”
“I’m not suff—"
“She’s not suffering from anything,” Hannes’s growl corrected, interrupting my own protest.
“Oh, Vampire boy wants to die…” Star growled.
André paused, assessing our glares and hearing Star through our shadow link.
“Going through. She’s going through something called a fractured soul, where the three parts that make her who she is have become their own entity.
This is Natalia, her Vampiri side,” he carefully explained.
“Then there is Star, her Wolf Shifter side, and then there is Natasha… her human side, I suppose.”