Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
NIK
“Breathe, Natalia,” I plead, my hands raised defensively.
She doesn’t. Fuck, I don’t even think she blinks. She jumps from the cot and backs herself in the nearest corner, wide, furious eyes glaring from me to Dimitri.
“When?” she screams, her voice cracking.
We nearly died for her—
“Enough,” I snarl, silencing the wolf and earning a confused glance from her. She grabs the closest thing within reach, a desk lamp, and rips the cord from its socket. Hoisting it above her head, she aims the light fixture at me like a mallot.
I step closer, lifting my arms in surrender. “The red moon. That’s when you’ll turn.”
The blood drains from her face, then, she lowers the makeshift weapon and hugs the lamp to her chest. Disbelief knits her brows together first. Mourning comes next. Finally, a hint of anger sharper than my shifted claws.
“She take news better than I expected,” Dimitri says, his thick accent missing a few syllables.
Thanks, moy brat. You’re really helping here.
I chance another step forward, inching closer as her entire world unravels one uncomfortable string at a time. “You won’t be alone, Natalia. I’ll make sure you’re safe.”
She scoffs, her voice reaching for the scaffolding near the ceiling. “Oh, great! Not only am I going to turn into a monster, but there will be witnesses! How in the fuck am I supposed to feel better about that, Nikolai?”
The distance between us seems impossibly large now, a sea no one, not even a person in the good graces of the gods can pass. I move forward anyway. Welcoming whatever punishment she will inflict if it means I’m close enough to catch her should her legs give out.
I’m with the big one, my wolf says matter of factly. Most pups don’t handle the news well when turned unwillingly.
“Stop fucking talking!” I shout and tilt my head to the side.
Natalia drops the lamp to the floor. Then, she holds her palm out to keep me at a distance. Her glare intensifies. “You’re talking to him, aren’t you?”
She knows. I’m not sure how, but she seems to understand I’m no longer flying solo in the thoughts department. Maybe Viktor told her, or worse, maybe she was unfortunate enough to be around him when his two halves were in the middle of a conversation.
I nod and take another step forward. “Yes.”
Her mouth hangs open, and one brow arches. “The monster that tried to eat me in your loft, that’s who you are talking to?”
I wasn’t trying to eat her, the wolf growls. She wouldn’t be standing here if I were.
“He says he wasn’t trying to eat you,” I say, my voice lacking conviction.
I don’t know what to believe right now. I wasn’t there.
It isn’t some memory I can recall. The images when the wolf takes over during a full moon were always muddied.
Pieces of them missing at times. And there’s no way in hell I’d be able to know what his true intentions were, but I can only hope my companion wouldn’t lie to me.
I might disagree with your choices, young Vostik, but I have never lied.
Natalia narrows her eyes, the fire I find so irresistible burning hot in each brown iris. She glances behind me to Dimitri. “Are you buying this?”
Dimitri shrugs. “You did look hungry, Nikolai …”
The big one is too human to understand the nature of our kind, my wolf says, and although I can’t see him, I imagine he’s rolling his eyes.
The scent of her, the one you can’t control yourself for five minutes to stop smelling, it is unique.
Why do you think you’re so drawn to her?
It isn’t as simple as attraction. I’ve told you before, wolves rely on more than their sight.
Confusion settles in Natalia’s features as the wolf continues in my head. “Has he been doing this a lot?”
“More than usual,” Dimitri mutters and sits back at the table, folding his arms across his chest.
I sensed what you did the first night you met her, only it was the difference between looking at the moon through a magnifying glass and a telescope.
Had you let me in sooner, maybe you would’ve detected it, too.
I saw your mate for what she is, and when a wolf finds something they spend their entire life searching for, they must imprint at any cost.
I open my mouth and close it just as quick.
How am I supposed to tell her this? Will she even believe me?
It’s undeniable that after the full moon, I found it impossible not to spend every waking moment desperate for her.
Willing to sacrifice anything to keep her nearby.
I told her she was dangerous once, but I don’t think I even grasped the full picture.
Her scent isn’t just alluring. It’s primal.
And an imprint isn’t something that can be undone.
Replicated. It’s a promise, and my wolf knew it from the moment he saw her.
“What did he say?” she asks, lowering her arm.
A dry laugh escapes me. “It’s … kind of difficult to explain.”
Natalia gives a laugh of her own, one filled with annoyance. “Okay, so what was he doing then? Breaking out of the chains to come say hi?”
Wolves don’t waste their time with such trivial greetings.
I block him out and take the final step between us, reveling in how the scent masks the oil-driven machines around us.
There’s only her, and the smell produces a calm I haven’t felt in far too long.
She doesn’t move. She doesn’t try and stop me.
Natalia just peers upward, eyes a shade brighter than they were the last time I saw her.
“I don’t want to keep things from you. Not again. Not ever.”
She bites her lower lip as if bracing for the impact of what I say next. A deep, shaky breath raises her chest. There’s hesitation, enough to notice the small lines tensing her brow. “So, don’t.”
It’s not every day you tell the girl you’ve fallen for that she’s your fate.
A wolf should be so lucky to find that person in the first place.
Somehow, my father’s assignment to secure food for the pack ultimately led me to the one person that’d give me the strength to abandon my birthright.
It might be the only thing I can ever thank him for.
I bring my hand to the side of her face, thumb grazing her cheek. She doesn’t shy away from it. Doesn’t flinch. No, she invites the touch, her skin rivaling the heat coming from my own. Gods, do I want to kiss her. Wrap my arms around her like chains and throw away the fucking key.
I clear my throat, eyes fixed on her partially open lips. “I’ve imprinted on you …”
She glances down in contemplation for a moment, then returns her confused gaze to mine. “What does that mean?”
“It means—” I start but get cut off by a familiar voice at the factory entrance.
“It means your pack is on its way here, and we need to go!”
Alexey stumbles through the doors, knocking over everything in his path.
He holds an arm to his side, bright red blood trickling through his fingertips.
When he leans his back against a pillar, the pain is evident in his face.
“I don’t think you heard me. We go.” Alexey tilts his head to the front doors. “We go now!”