Chapter 2
TWO
NIK
I’m not sure how much time has passed since we boarded and took aim for the heavens.
Not even sure what country we’re passing over now.
Dimitri has drifted in and out of sleep enough times to lose count, but it must be easy to do when you’re not strangled by a fresh set of chains keeping you in your seat.
The pilots, terrified I might break free again, wouldn’t step foot on the Citation jet until every chain in storage was added for good measure.
I can’t blame them, of course, though something in me doubts any amount can truly keep me confined. Especially now.
I’ve done my best to block out the wolf taking residence in my head, but every now and then, there’s an unmistakeable huff of annoyance.
I despise this, he says with a snarl. We agreed no more chains.
What he doesn’t understand, what my own brother can’t seem to comprehend, is the hell I’d claw through to get her back.
Natalia. My little wolf. Ripped away from me and taken to the one place I swore I’d never go back.
I wish I was oblivious to the horrors that happen at the Vostik estate during each hunt.
How the stench of blood overwhelms every inch of the property.
Pieces of uneaten flesh left to rot on the earth like apple cores tossed to the street.
As much as it sickens me to admit, part of me still thirsts for it.
Hungers for a taste of something more than raw beef. Something … human.
We can get out of these chains and eat the big one, the wolf interrupts.
I glace over at Dimitri, his large arms crossed over his chest and head tilted to one side in sleep.
There was no stopping him from accompanying me, not when he found out what Viktor had done.
“We go,” he said, leaving no room in his thick voice for rebuttal.
He knows what he signed up for. Dimitri knows better than most what my father is capable of.
His loyalty has always been unmeasurable, but I’m not the only reason he’s willing to fight.
Not anymore. Dimitri is here to save her. To do what he couldn’t years ago.
“We don’t eat humans,” I say aloud, earning another huff from my counterpart. It’s odd I’m only hearing him now. I was a teenager the first time I turned, so he’s been in me this whole time essentially dormant.
Dormant? You have blocked me out since our first transformation.
Don’t mistake your own self-loathing for my absence.
I have been with you this entire time. Seen the world through your eyes.
Tasted the human food you insist on torturing me with.
And once a month when I was allowed to finally stretch my legs, they were attached to chains. No. More. Chains.
I smirk and settle in my seat, a crescendo of rattling metal filling the cabin. Another annoyed growl, this time loud enough to vibrate my skull.
You test my patience, human.
“Do all of the cursed have the ability to talk to their wolves?”
Cursed? The wolf snarls. I have given you heightened senses. Wounds that heal. Unmatched strength. You, young Vostik, are hardly cursed.
“Fair enough.” I smirk again and rest my head against the seat, staring up at the small lights leading to the cockpit. “Answer the question: Can my brother and father talk to their wolves too?”
Yes.
The response is quick, fast enough in fact that it leaves more questions careening up my throat like vomit. “How do you know?”
You humans speak only with words, yet we’re the mindless beasts?
He scoffs and continues. A wolf can communicate with all their senses.
A scent. A pair of widened eyes. Barred teeth.
We take note of it all while you wait for a verbal response.
I know because I have seen your father, through your eyes and my own.
His two sides weren’t strangers. No, it is obvious he accepted his other half the moment it manifested, welcoming the wolf and working in unison from an early age.
There’s a reason his role as alpha has remained untested.
Why no pack dares to challenge him. While he may not be the first human to ever embrace their wolf, Vlad Vostik is by far the strongest.
Growing up, I never imagined my father had a second voice in his head like some secret advisor, invisible to the world.
Telling him what to say. To do. Was it the wolf’s decision to slash up my torso, or his?
Would it change things if it was the wolf who decided for him?
No, I don’t think it would. Knowing what I do now, he was a willing participant the entire time. Just as ruthless and vile.
I take a deep breath, letting the chains tighten over my chest and fall back to their rightful place. “And Viktor?”
Your brother ... is another story. Something far worse.
“What do you mean?”
Viktor didn’t just embrace his wolf. It was there from the moment he was born. The moment they were born, really.
I think back on every memory I have of Viktor growing up.
How he rarely spoke, unless it was to himself when he thought no one else was around.
The way he would much rather be alone in his room than play despite my persistence.
Because he never was alone. Not truly. There was another voice in his head.
Something occupying his thoughts. It wasn’t until his first full moon transformation that a different side of him started breaching the surface.
Private staff around our estate began missing shifts.
Claw marks appeared on different parts of the house more frequently—my door the usual victim.
I had my suspicions but my father always insisted it was one of the new wolves in the manor learning to control themselves.
How could I have been so blinded by it all?
Was it ignorance or my love for Viktor shielding me from the truth?
Both, the wolf agrees. Like I said before, you humans aren’t nearly as perceptive.
“Can we stop him?” I ask, disrupting the plane’s interior.
Oh, now we’re a team? Only took thirty years.
Great. I’ve finally learned to tap into the wolf side of myself, and it turns out my wolf is petty.
A stern huff rumbles my ears. You try sitting in the backseat and watch the driver steer into oncoming traffic.
And he has jokes, too.
You’ve managed to miss my best ones blocking me out.
“Enough!” I writhe again, rattling the chains louder this time. “Can we stop Viktor?”
Dimitri rustles in his seat. He opens his eyes and peers up at the small lights rapidly losing luster against the sun emerging through each oval window. “Nikolai? What’s wrong?” he finally asks and glances in my direction.
“Nothing. Just thinking.”
“With him?” he asks and points at his temple.
I nod. It wasn’t easy explaining what happened at Volk.
This out-of-body experience where I watched myself and the wolf lurking in the darkest parts of me, ripping my pack to pieces.
A dream might be the best way to describe it.
One where you wake up and your hands are still stained with the blood of each traitor you sent to the same hell they create during the lunar cycle.
It wasn’t a dream though. I transformed without the power of a full moon.
I did what was always called a myth among my kind.
Except Viktor. There is a long list of words my brother might be.
Conniving. Sadistic. Bloodthirsty. Something he is not, though, is a liar.
“Even if you could shift without the moon, brother—” he had said when I found him stalking my little wolf.
I wanted nothing more than to rip his throat out and let his fluids rain down on every unsuspecting person in that goddamn club.
But his words weren’t merely a threat. They were just a glimpse into what he’s become.
What I’ve fought so hard to achieve myself.
He can shift at will, too. He’s far more dangerous than I’ve ever considered.
And now, I’m not so sure I can stop him.
Wolves do not feel fear. That is the human side of you.
“Answer the fucking question,” I demand, and the stale air inside the plane tightens. “Can we stop him?”
Dimitri stays silent, and I, too, await the wolf’s response.
For the first time since I’ve heard this other voice in my head, there’s something different. Something in his voice that gives me pause.
“What did he say?” Dimitri asks, hunching forward with a hand on each large knee.
I say nothing and repeat the wolf’s words in my head, ignoring the gusty winds shaking the airframe.
The way the pilots coordinate a descent through the clouds on a final approach to my family’s private airfield.
We’re almost there, but that doesn’t matter anymore.
Three words. Three simple fucking words that leave me with nothing but uncertainty.
We will try.