TWENTY-NINE
Nik
I never thought this is where I’d end up. Not in the passenger seat of a Citation six-eighty jet bound for Russia, but going to the homeland to get someone taken from Volk back. The pilots were less than enthused about being dragged out of bed for such a long trip in the middle of the night. Nothing a few extra thousand can’t fix. What do I care? It’s not my money. It’s the pack’s funds fueling the whirling engines during the pre-flight checklist. A pack I will probably not be welcome in after tonight.
While Viktor doing something demented should be expected by now, I’d be lying if I say it didn’t take me by surprise. He’s nipped at my heels since we were kids, desperate to show his worth in any way he could. It didn’t matter, though. Tradition is tradition. I was to be my father’s successor. The next alpha of the largest pack known to exist. The Vostik bloodline. And the day my dad named me heir, I stood next to Vlad Vostik in a room full of wolves kneeling in commitment to the pack. Viktor, however, only glared with contempt. It was the first fucking day I have ever seen jealousy in my brother’s eyes.
Three transport houses around Los Angeles, and not a single sign of Natalia’s friend, Courtney. I tried to get answers from the guards posted out front, and when none were of use, their throats decorated my sharp nails a horrible shade of red. The captives inside were thankful for my unexpected arrival, even if they never let me within a foot of them while running for their lives. I’m sure my intimidating stature and tattoo matching the rest of Club Volk didn’t help much, either. The thing that unsettles me the most, the one thing gnawing at my insides, is that they are innocent. None from the list I myself made and gave strict orders for the stateside pack to follow. These people were different. Wrong place at the wrong time, if I had to guess. And it seems now my brother has forgone any kind of list all together and preys on the easiest targets who stumble into our club.
I pull the chains on the seat around my torso, locking them in place. Doesn’t matter if there’s a full moon or not. The company my father hired has a strict policy no wolf shall be unshackled at any point during the flight. I don’t blame them. What pilot would want their cabin door clawed open while thirty-thousand-feet in the air? I can’t imagine there’d be a line around the corner ready to sign up for that suicide mission.
The steel lock clicks, and in an instant, I’m more confined than the humans I set free tonight. Do you get used to them? Natalia asked me once, peering up at me in the way I find so fucking irresistible. No, I can’t say I ever will. There’s something about being chained up that says you are nothing more than a rabid animal incapable of control. Maybe it’s why I’ve fought like hell to find it. So far, I’m no closer to gaining control over the curse than leaving this fucking pack. But that all changes tonight.
There’s no way I could have predicted her coming into my club. Even through the stench of sweat and enough perfume to drive a wolf’s senses mad, there was something else. I’m not sure what desire smells like, but I knew in an instant this was as close to it as I’d get. Soft skin kissed with the scent of lavender. Beautiful brown hair draping down her shoulders. Curves in all the places I find mouthwatering. My cock throbbed at the sight of her, and even though I tried to look away, to save myself from this terrible ache settling low in my stomach, something kept bringing my gaze back to my newfound prey.
But she wasn’t only my prey. Someone else found her first. Veronica.
Veronica Tate, still out on bail after a night of boozing ended with her totaled Mercedez and a husband never seeing his wife and daughter again. Amazing how easily money thrown on a set of burning cars can put out the fire. I couldn’t help but watch their exchange unfold from a distance. Observing my dobycha with every intent on removing Veronica from this world sooner if I had to. The blond monster gave snide remarks wrapped in some petty, Louboutin bow. I expected it. I heard Veronica’s heartbeat the moment she saw her. It didn’t thump. It pulsed like a predator before they lunge in for the kill. But my little wolf didn’t falter. No, she stood her ground, strong and poised the entire time. Never letting the words I’m guessing she wanted to scream at her escape that gorgeous fucking mouth. While Veronica may have imagined Natalia was no better than the Volk floors she strutted on, I saw something else. A beautiful creature that didn’t give in to fear.
She’s the most intoxicating thing I’ve ever tasted, and while I may be drunk on her, I only thirst for my next drink. The hair I wish to wrap around my fist. The neck I can’t manage to keep my teeth off. Those hazel eyes I see clearly even in the darkest recesses of my mind. God, it’s all I’ve ever been able to think about. Even chained now to this fucking seat, it’s Natalia I see when I close my eyes. And if there’s any reason I’m doing what I am now, it’s her, and I’d do it a hundred times over.
I managed to keep her safe for as long as I could, but Viktor had other plans. If I didn’t knock that drunken man into her, spilling the shot of vodka laced with sedatives, well, I might’ve carried Natalia and Courtney both out of Volk that night. I knew what he was doing when he told Alek to bring down the drink reserved for our VIP. Very important prey. I had to stop Viktor somehow without alerting the entire club what we were up to, and unfortunately for the man I slammed into the bar, I needed a scapegoat.
Maybe this is why Viktor saw his opportunity. His opening to finally gain my father’s favor and take my birthright. I have to hand it to him. He’s more conniving than I give him credit for. What he lacks in humanity, he more than makes up for in reveling in this curse. We were both born with it, but only one of us was truly born for it .
And while I may be ashamed to be a Vostik, of the blood filling my veins, I know deep down it’s the only thing Viktor loves more than the delicious taste of fear. The power. The strength. The animalistic wrath that comes with it. I’ve seen this quality once before. The insatiable look of hunger. Glowing eyes always plotting. It’s the soulless glare of another monster. My father, Vlad Vostik.
“Five minutes before taxi,” the pilot shouts over his shoulder, adjusting the knobs both on the ceiling and the center console of the cockpit. They never look me in the eye. No, they usually glance downward whenever they address me. I’m sure that’s my brother’s doing. He has a habit of scaring the ever-loving shit out of any humans unfortunate enough to cross his path. I can’t blame them.
I nod absentmindedly and give another tug on the chains for good measure, ensuring they are tight enough to keep me in place. Soon, the cockpit door will shut, lock firmly, and the plane will start moving toward the small runway of this uncontrolled airfield, eventually taking a gravity-defying leap into the skies. I’m not sure what will happen when we land at the airport my father built with the permission of the Russian government. There might be some wolves waiting for me if word has gotten out I laid waste to our stateside transport houses. They won’t be able to stop me, though. None of these pups are stupid enough to get in my way.
“Are you …” the pilot says apprehensively, staring only at my feet and the chains at my chest. “Are you locked in?”
I give them another hard pull, showcasing that I can’t break free if I want to. They may be less than enthused to take me on a last-minute trip, but now I’m the one fighting annoyance. We’re wasting time. Time I don’t have if it means getting Courtney back safely. If I can’t … I’m not so sure a piece of Natalia will ever heal. I won’t let it happen, though. This is a risk I’m not willing to take.
The man nods and slides the cockpit door to a close slowly. When the latch finds home, a lock clicks into place. Then another. And finally, the hard click of a dead bolt. The pilot’s heartbeats haven’t eased at all, and unbeknownst to them, I can hear every word of vitriol they spew so effortlessly. Fucking monster is what stands out the most. Natalia didn’t have to say it for me to know what she was thinking when I stepped out of that SUV. I’ve never seen her look at something, at someone with such … disgust. Maybe she is right. Maybe I am nothing more than an apple landing too close to the Vostik family tree. A bloodline of atrocities breeding more unimaginable creatures. And if Viktor has his way. If he ascends to lead this pack as the alpha. God help us all.
“Nikolai!” A voice comes from the tarmac, fighting the building winds in the valley. It’s familiar despite the panic and exhaustion accenting each syllable. “Do not leave.”
The jet door rips open, and Dimitri rushes inside, practically falling to his knees and gasping for breath. He uses the walls to keep upright, fear trampling his face. I try and stand from the seat only for the chains to lose slack and leave me in a tighter and more uncomfortable position than before.
“She’s gone, Nikolai,” he sputters out, drawing a deep breath and continuing, “She left through de window. I should’ve stopped her. I should’ve—”
“ Zamedlyat !” I shout, my once calm heartbeat coursing cursed blood to each of my bound limbs. Veins emerge on my straining arms and wrists. The beast I only feel when the moon is at its peak claws at my insides, ravaging every part that still ticks human. This thing, this monster I’ve kept at bay for so long is begging to be unchained. It howls to be unleashed.
“Where. Is. She?”
Shame tenses his face, and the man I’ve known my whole life, the one person I’ve trusted with mine, can’t even manage to look me in the eyes. “I failed you.” Dimitri kneels and lowers his head, exposing his neck the way we’re taught to yield to the strongest in our pack.
Low, ominous snarls travel up my chest and overpowers the jet engines filling the airfield. It’s the wolf inside me. The animal I swore I’d never be. My entire body constricts, tightening from the pain, the fury … the power.
I writhe against the chains again, this time finding give. There’s only one place she would go. One place Viktor would be bold enough to lure her. Anger surges within me, and after one final thrust, the metal shackles burst into pieces and scatter across the galley. Metal clangs off the walls and windows, ringing like windchimes on a storm-beaten porch.
I stand, immense heat radiating from my skin ready to burst from the seams. Taking a calming breath, I step toward Dimitri and place my palm on his shoulder. He doesn’t flinch. No, he only stiffens, ready to accept death if I so choose. “You could never fail me, moy brat .” My brother.
“I don’t know where she is, Nikolai,” he responds, his voice somehow lowering.
There’s something unnatural building in my chest. It’s nothing like the change I’ve felt during countless full moons. My body doesn’t just twist to give way to the beast, but bends, almost stretches. I am not the wall in its way but the foundation. Two halves becoming whole.
“I do,” I say, fighting the snarl in my throat as small fractures appear along my wrists. I know where he is. Where he’s been this whole time. Viktor anticipated every move. Knew I’d go looking for Courtney at the transport houses, the same buildings I chose across the city. Each of them far enough away from Volk to ever have a missing persons search party come knocking at our doors. He knew exactly what I’d do from the moment he told me Natalia was next on his list. That my pet was getting in the way of the pack. His pack. This was all an elaborate plan. A game to take me out of the picture so I wouldn’t interfere.
“The red room,” I growl. “They’re in the red room.”
Viktor has her. He has taken my Natalia. And now, my brother has to die.