Chapter 17
NATALIA
Aslow stream of memories made their way into my mind as consciousness returned to me, my eyes opening to the soft morning light.
Understanding swiftly hit me, and I sat upright on the bed, startling Dante and André who jumped awake at either side of me.
“What happened?”
“Is everything okay?”
They asked in unison while ire and disbelief captured every cell in my body. “I’m going to fucking kill him!” I sprang over André, standing from the bed. “No, I’m going to kill her.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Better yet, I’m going to kill them both!” I raged, ignoring Dante and marching to the door.
I swung it wide open to find a smug Hannes standing on the other side.
“Youuu…”
“I heard you were looking for me.” He smirked naughtily, fully knowing what he had done and proud of it.
“Leave my mate alone, Bitch!”
“Youuu…”
“What did I do?”
“Oh, you both know what you did!” I accused them, and for the first time, Hannes fully repressed a smile. No twitching on lips or anything. “Don’t give me that innocent look. You claimed Star and she claimed you while you were both wolves!”
“Damn, you did?” André asked shocked, but Dante just laughed.
“What, I did? Noooo,” Star’s voice filled with sarcasm. “You mean, like I took over your body while you were unconscious, and slept with my destined mate simply because I knew he belonged to me?”
Oooh, she was going to die.
“How dare you go around doing exactly what I did, and then throwing it in my face?” I demanded, but I was kind of proud of her too.
“Starlight does have a point…” The husky voice was one I was used to by now, but not like this.
What the hell?
The loudest gasp left me, and I fiercely narrowed my eyes at Hannes. “What the hell are you doing in my mind?!”
“It’s not just your mind, Bitch. It’s my mind too. Hannes and I share a pack bond so we can communicate through thought. Especially now that we have claimed each other.”
Interesting… “Whatever.”
Sighing, I turned my attention to the real culprit based on Star’s memories that she had so graciously decided to throw in my face. I mean, share with me. I crossed my arms over my chest.
“And what do you have to say for yourself, mister?”
Hannes crossed his arms over his broad chest too, defying me.
“If I were to speak for my wolf, I would say the Wolf Shifter bond is the strongest, and knowing he and Starlight are mates, it was only a matter of time before it happened. You and I might need time, but they don’t… There was no point in making them suffer.”
His voice turned softer as he spoke of his wolf and Star, kindness exuding from him and deflating me.
Let’s be honest, out of Natasha, Star, and I, Star was the one always horny, so only the Goddess knew how she’d felt seeing Natasha and I get it on with our mates while she waited.
“Fine, you are both forgiven,” I huffed, giving him my back and facing the others.
My steps halted for a moment, feeling a bit unsettled and filled with warmth at the same time. The room in front of me looked the same in all three places I’d been to—New York City, Heart Island, and now Germany.
Anastasia’s voice suddenly echoed in my mind. “I wanted you to find something familiar wherever you went.”
The soft grays, purples, and whites spread through this room too, only the architecture that surrounded this one was absolutely mesmerizing. Honestly, I would need to read a few more books to be sure, but it seemed like a mix between Romanesque, and Gothic.
With the memory of Anastasia, everything else fell to the background and I remembered what was truly important here. Taking a settling breath, I glanced at Hannes again.
His expression immediately sobered, knowing what I was thinking.
“I know you brought me here to protect me and to draw the danger away from New York, but I can’t hide from this. My mother is somewhere out there with those monsters while my father is trying to get her back, and for all I know, they might both have been captured and in danger.”
Dante and André flanked Hannes, joining us.
“You know you called Anastasia and Dresden your mother and father just now, right?” Star gloated and I groaned.
“Natasha’s mother and father, not mine.”
“Sure.”
“Ugh. You are so annoying. You know what I meant.”
Taking a deep breath, I focused on the guys.
“I know you are trying to protect me, but I can’t just hide. I need to prepare, find a way to control—”
“We didn’t bring you here to hide,” Hannes confessed.
“You didn’t?” My eyebrows rose in both surprise and confusion.
“No,” André assured.
“We brought you here to train.” Hannes reached for my neck, caressing it.
“You are right, Natalia. You are more than capable of fighting, and we need to respect your wishes. But as you just said, you also have to be prepared. If we are going to head into a trap, and definitely into an ambush to rescue your mother. That means mastering your powers as both a Vampiress and a Wolf Shifter.”
Something in my chest squeezed as I glanced back at André. He had spoken to them about our conversation, just as he promised. I almost felt tears rushing to my eyes, so I immediately stopped that shit. “You are all going train me?”
“We are…” Dante assured.
“They are going to help. I am going to train you,” Hannes clarified.
The rush to squeal excitedly and jump on Hannes became all-consuming. I wanted to slam him against the door … but then I remembered I didn’t do that shit either.
“What the fuck was that, Star?!” I growled at her with no answer. Only, I felt her amusement in my chest.
She’d actually tried to make me act like her. Who was the bitch now?
Only… I hadn’t fully stopped myself like I thought.
When I glanced at Hannes my arms and legs were wrapping around him. I’d actually jumped the man.
Star was going to die.
His white fur rushed over his skin, and he transformed under me, the Beast taking over his body as a reflex.
Damn it!
“I’m not attacking you,” I complained, receiving a grumble in response when the Beast gripped my waist and lifted me off him.
I guess the grumpy one was Hannes’s beast, not the man.
“Hannes, can’t you talk to your beast or something?” I huffed when he set me on my feet. “He behaved so well in the plane, letting you stay a man and everything.”
“Probably because you were asleep for most of it,” André teased. “No danger then.”
“Truthfully, not even then…” Dante pretended to think about it while stroking his chin. “With her, there’s always danger.”
“Ha, ha.” I rolled my eyes at them, my attention returning to Hannes as I crossed my arms. “So?”
The Beast growled at me. Actually growled, like, well, a beast. The sharp sound clicking and rumbling in the back of his throat scarily. “You jumped me.”
“Star made me. She was happy!” I threw my arms in the air, fully realizing how weird that was.
The Beast didn’t seem to care for the difference.
“Hannes, I don’t know how this works with you and him, but please get it together. I’m not going to hurt you again, I swear it. Vampiress honor.”
André laughed at that, receiving my fiercest glare.
That shut him up really quickly.
When my attention returned to Hannes’s beast, I sighed, rubbing the frustration off my temples.
“Fine, the Beast protects you from me, I get it. Can we please go train now?”
“Definitely, but first, breakfast,” Dante interrupted. “I’m starving.”
Surprisingly, Star fell quiet as we walked the corridors of this impressive palace. I went along, only because I, too, was starving, and I was still ticked off with Hannes’s grumpy beast.
So what? Was he going to block Hannes from me every time I touched him? Was I even going to be able to get close to our third mate without the Beast coming out and running the mood?
I needed to find a way to show him that I wasn’t a threat to Hannes, maybe that way he wouldn’t feel the need to become a shield between us.
Especially because it felt like with me being Natasha’s warrior right now, I was going to be out here at least until I got her mother back and that meant I needed to do double duty.
Natasha would need Hannes’s love when she returned, which might also mean I needed to build that foundation for her…
Challenge accepted.
Vampiress seduction skills activated.
My thoughts waned when a large tapestry came into view before we reached the stairs. It hung over one of the luxurious, jeweled-toned walls with its eccentric and ornately woven style.
The tapestry depicted vines curling throughout from which rare flowers bloomed among a soft forest, but at its center, a family crest was featured. The head of a wolf in the middle of a royal shield, and below it read… ReinheitWolfe.
The Beast stopped next to me, standing tall before it while pride exuded from him unabashedly.
Even though he wasn’t exactly Hannes right now, I liked witnessing the love and pride he had for his heritage. It was special.
After making it down to the great hall, a multitude of steps resounded behind us, and I looked back to see a mini army moving towards the stairs.
Twelve, fully armed guards with authentic medieval swords flanked what appeared to be two people, but it was difficult to see them through the wall of fierce muscle.
With their bodies clad in elegant blue fight suits, they moved in unison, the ReinheitWolfe crest proudly stitched in gold thread onto their chests.
Hannes’s adorable and sexy smile returned when he transformed back into a man, his clothes magically reappearing. The guys faced the approaching mini army, so I did too. Once the twelve men began to descend the staircase, they revealed their charges, making Star gasped.
“It’s the King and Queen! Bow, Bitch. Bow!”
The hell… Did I have to bow? I didn’t exactly know how.
“They are the highest of the Alphas. Can’t you feel their power rolling over us in waves?”
No. Actually, I couldn’t. Weird.