TWENTY-FIVE
“ Dimitri , poydem ,” Nik says, raising his voice with authority above the noise outside. He pulls me past the other bouncers and those making their way inside, hand still clasped on my wrist. His grip is tight but nothing compared to the fear strangling my throat.
Dimitri nods and unclips the entrance rope, letting it fall to the ground as we pass. He follows directly behind us, his heavy footsteps shuddering the pavement.
“What is happening?” I ask, my question seemingly dying in the clatter of the block. Tears sting my eyes, and my blurring vision only worsens when the paparazzi flashes pictures of the three of us marching to the SUV still parked against the curb. Nikolai and Dimitri say nothing. No, they herd me into the backseat like a fucking child. Despite my struggle, my need for answers, I’m powerless between the two.
I’m forced inside, and Nik enters the back next, ducking his head to clear the roof. In one smooth motion, he slams the door shut, effectively silencing the voices and music plaguing the streets. The SUV tilts to one side when Dimitri lowers himself to the driver’s side.
No one says a word, and despite my panicked breaths breaking the silence, and the camera flashes blinding the interior, there’s a stillness. A lingering quiet at odds with the questions running rampant in my head. I check my phone again, praying to see a response from Courtney. Nothing. Just the small text under my messages showing Read . She saw them. Someone saw them at least. Fear laces my insides, painfully gnawing at each of my organs until my heart is the last to feel the excruciating bite.
“Why won’t you answer me?” I scream.
The engine roars to life and reels as we skid onto the road, the Volk lights disappearing in the rear windows. Dimitri weighs his large foot on the gas, and as I peek over the leather seats, the speedometer veers right like an overflowing pressure gauge. I dig my nails into my palms, surely piercing the first if not many layers of flesh. I remember the way Viktor looked at me, not once but twice tonight. There wasn’t anger in his eyes. No, it was something much worse. It was enjoyment.
“My bike is in the garage at the next light. They’ll be following both of your scents and mine. Wipe down the car with wolfsbane and park it at least two blocks from your apartment.”
Why are they ignoring me? It’s as if my voice is nothing more than background noise muffled behind the closed windows of the car. Am I just thinking it? Lost in the void while the words I wish to ask are trapped behind some impenetrable stone blocking my throat?
“Nikolai? What is going on?” I raise my voice higher, if for nothing else than to hear it for myself. I do, but Nik and Dimitri carry on as if my question is simple radio static.
“If I’m not back by dawn, you go. She needs to be out of the city by tomorrow. Viktor will have trackers looking for her.”
Great. Now he’s talking about me like I’m not fucking here. Questions bubble up my throat like stomach acid. Viktor is sending wolves to track me? Why? What could he possibly want with me?
“Will you fucking say something?” I demand, fresh tears sliding down my cheeks.
Dimitri’s hands tighten over the steering wheel but he stays silent.
“Don’t wait if I’m not back. Promise me,” Nik says, leaving no room in his stern voice for refusal.
Dimitri nods solemnly. “Da. Promise.”
“Nik!” I scream, and he finally turns to face me. The noise of the busy street fills in the quiet as he peers into my eyes, a beautiful glowing gaze locked on mine. The confidence that normally sharpens his features is gone, and in its place is a combination of rage and dread.
“What is happening?” I ask, my voice cracking.
“Stop,” Nik orders, his Russian accent breaking free for the smallest of moments. The SUV slows to a halt near the sidewalk, engine idle vibrating the seats. He continues to stare at me, opening and closing his mouth as if he can’t find the right words.
I cup his cheek with one hand and he closes his eyes, seemingly reveling in the touch like it might be the last time. “Tell me … What is happening?”
A deep breath. A pinched brow. The way his teeth clench in jaw-cracking pressure. These are the things I notice about Nikolai Vostik, now a shell of the man who wanted to take me to Italy. Who danced with me in a way no one else had before. Kissed me so passionately. Now, it’s someone I hardly recognize. There’s something he isn’t telling me. Some secret he can’t hide anymore. Part of me wonders if I even want to know. Maybe feign ignorance and keep this wonderful and unexpected blooming in my chest whenever he’s near. The other part, the more rational side of me, has to know .
“Volk is not just a club.”
A terrifying lump forms in my throat. What is he talking about? Not just a club? Nausea lathers my tongue with acid as stomach bile careens up my esophagus. I rip my hand back, my fingers cooling in an instant. There’s pain in his gaze when I pull away. Pain and an unmistakable fear I’ve never seen from him.
Nik continues, no matter how reluctant he is to do so. His voice is low, close to a rough whisper. “Volk is a hunting ground for our pack.”
Blood rushes through my veins with each ragged heartbeat. Fear casts a pit low in my belly. Fear and disgust. I feel the warmth drain from my face, leaving only the chill of the night air. Hunting grounds. They hunt humans there. They use this club to lure people. People like … me.
Nik glances to the ceiling and rubs his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “Dimitri will protect you until I can get you out of the city. It’s not safe for you here now.”
Fury replaces the terror icing my limbs. He has lied to me about everything. About him. His family. What they are really doing here in Los Angeles. I was stupid enough to believe every word he said. To not ask the right fucking questions because it all seemed so goddamn perfect. Little did I know putting my faith in a monster was really as ridiculous as it sounded on paper. He is every bit the beast I saw chained up in his loft. Only now … he’s somehow worse.
“Safe?” I argue. “Safe from what? Your fucking pack?” My nails bite into my palm when I clench my fists tight. Anger swirls within me.
“From Viktor,” he says, not daring to look me in the eye. “He thinks you are making me weak.” A small, unintended snarl passes through his lips. “That you are creating a weakness within the pack. He’s coming for you, Natalia. He wants to take you next.”
I see the flash of Dimitri’s eyes shifting to me in the rearview, and despite the longing there to say something, to intervene, he doesn’t.
Next? What in the fuck does he mean next? How many people has Viktor taken? Is that why he was trying to grab me when I first got to the club? “What do you mean next?”
Nik lets out another sigh, his sharp jaw line flexing. “There’s a reason she won’t respond to your texts. She isn’t with that guy from the bar. She isn’t home. He’s taken your friend. Viktor has taken Courtney.”
No. No, this can’t be happening. I grab my phone and check the message. Nothing. It’s as blank as it was before. Courtney. My chest squeezes, seeming to collapse in on itself. I can’t breathe. Christ, I can’t do anything but glare at him in disbelief. Viktor has taken her. A fucking werewolf has my best friend, and I am in a car riding away to safety while he’s doing god knows what to her.
“What—” The words fumble in my throat. “What happens to the humans you take?” Revulsion slithers up my arms at just the mention of the horrible things Nik is a part of. God, how could I have been so fucking na?ve? He’s a supernatural monster, and I believed everything he said so easily. Every horror movie I’ve ever seen had it right. Vomit is a wrong breath away from spilling out of my mouth and onto the carpeted floors now. I manage to swallow down what I can.
Nik reaches for my hand but I move closer to the window, shrinking away from him. “I didn’t know he would take her. Please, you have to believe I’d have no part in—”
I cut him off and shriek, “What happens, Nikolai?”
It’s as if I’ve called him something terrible. Nikolai. Not Nik. Not the name I screamed fifteen minutes ago when he had me pinned against the glass of his loft. It’s the name his father had given him. A reminder of the life he was so desperate to leave. For us to leave together.
His brows furrow and his jaw clenches an extra inch. “They are brought back to the den,” he says finally, a certain amount of humanity missing from his voice. “To the Vostik estate for the pack to feed.”
The words I want to yell are punched out of me, the fist of realization slamming right into my sternum. The air in the car disappears in a second like some knob had been twisted to induce suffocation. They have been using the club as a farm to herd people to slaughter. It was all a front. All some sick facade him and his brother cooked up to collect people like cattle. And now, Courtney is next on the menu.
Nik opens the door and pauses, reaching for my hand one last time and stopping when I recoil. I can’t look at him. No, I only stare out of the window at the people walking past, hoping to see my friend amongst the crowded streets.
“I will explain everything when I get back.” The words come out sincere but I have a hard time believing anything this fucking animal has to say. “Dimitri will keep you safe.” He starts to exit the SUV, crouching again to clear the ceiling.
“What are you going to do,” I murmur and glance at him.
There’s a flicker of black in his near golden eyes when he looks at me. The same eyes of the beast he keeps chained and hidden away from the world until I somehow stumbled in the middle of it. Then, his irises return to their normal, glowing color.
“I’m going to get her back.”