Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
NATALIE
Chains are slapped to Nik’s hands and feet, and once he is secured enough to their liking, they escort him to the back of one of the white sedans and shove him inside. He doesn’t fight. Doesn’t shift in protest. It’s almost as if he was expecting this.
Dimitri and Alexey are next to be bound, clear zip ties clasped around their wrists and rifles urging them to a car at the opposite end.
They do as the soldiers say, Dimitri refusing to speak, while Alexey can’t stop himself from muttering curses in Russian the entire way.
When their leader gets to me, there’s a set of chains in one palm, and in the other, more zip ties.
He glances from me to the chains, the zip ties, and back to me. Uncertainty settles on his brow.
“As-tu tourné,” he says, nostrils flaring as he sniffs the air. More soldiers fall in behind him, and a dozen bright red dots decorate my shirt.
Okay. No pressure, Natalie. There’s only fifteen guns aimed at you, and a man you can’t understand asking the questions.
Peering from one side of the tarmac to the next, I land on Nik in the backseat of their car, his golden eyes trained on me more precisely than their rifles.
I swallow the harsh lump taking residence in my throat and try to speak but the words are little more than a whisper. “I—I can’t speak French.”
He rolls his eyes and scoffs. “Ave you turn.”
Ave you turn? What does that even mean? My stomach drops as the soldiers take another step toward me, fingers outlining each trigger. Ave you turn. Ave you turn. I don’t know what the hell he’s even asking me.
“Ave. You. Turn?” he screams it now, startling my gaze to the cement.
“I don’t know what you’re saying …” I say, eyes closing while I wait for a gunshot to shudder the airfield. Of course, this is how I’d die, at some uncharted airport in France by a pack with a score to settle.
A deafening thump rings in my ears, the pace quickening with each heartbeat.
It’s not coming from me, though. The sound is coming from the backseat of the white car in the distance.
It’s Nik. And I know if he turns now, if he kills all these soldiers to protect me, we lose our one chance at stopping his father. I can’t let that happen.
“When,” the leader says slowly, doing his best to articulate the word. “Bitten.”
He knows. I think they all do. Maybe that’s why they’re giving me far more attention than they did Alexey or Dimitri.
“Yesterday,” I force out, saliva lathering the back of my tongue. The red dots on my chest grow larger as they close in. My hands tremble above my head, and a noticeable swell of nausea careens up my neck.
He lifts his hand and halts their advance. Rifles stow one at a time, and after passing off the chains to the soldier closest to him, he steps forward and fastens a set of ties around my wrists.
The leader mutters something in French, helps me to my feet, and walks me to the same backseat as Nik. It isn’t until after I sit down that I notice the thick black lines shooting up his forearms and neck like lightning.
“French, huh?” I say, hoping to soothe the animal boiling inside him. The cracks in his skin start to heal, hiding the thick brown fur beneath his tattooed forearms. “Just how many languages can you speak?”
Nik draws in a calming breath and the sedan interior drops a few degrees below scorching. I don’t mind it. “Six. But French is obviously the one I’m the worst at,” he says with a subtle smirk and raises his chained hands for show.
I nod, pursing my lips to keep the novel-sized list of questions I want to ask from coming out all at once.
“Your abilities will reach their peak the first time you turn,” he says, seeming to sense my unease. “That’s why they wanted to know when you were bitten.”
I sigh. “Because then I’d be dangerous.”
Nik places his hand on mine, and how the ties don’t melt off from the intense heat radiating from him is beyond me. “You’ve always been dangerous. Maybe it’s just time for the rest of the world to see it, too.”
I stare down at the floorboards, fighting back a grin.
I don’t have to look in the rear-view mirror to know my cheeks are bright red, just like I don’t need a wolf’s hearing to know he’s telling the truth.
He broke into his family’s compound and killed members of his own pack to save me.
Was even willing to kill his own brother had Viktor not yielded.
This is what he’s always meant when he called me dangerous.
His home. His birthright. His life. He’d sacrifice it all for me, and god, I have no doubt in my mind that I’d do the same.
Two soldiers lower themselves to the front seats without a word and follow the other cars away from the airfield.
In the distance, a series of lights block out the stars from what I can only assume is the Duval den.
I don’t know how big this pack really is, but after the way they swarmed us at the airfield, I think it’s safe to say Nikolai chose them for a reason.
He said we needed numbers, and so far, they haven’t disappointed.
Even if it meant him held at gunpoint and chained up in the back of their car.
“I need to tell you something, Natalia,” Nik says, his features softening. “The reason this pack wants me dead.”
One of the men in front peers over his shoulder but turns around with disinterest. I’m not sure if he can’t understand Nik or couldn’t care less what he has to say.
“The Vostik bloodline is the oldest of the cursed. Throughout the years, my family has made it a point to turn those with power in different parts of the world for control. The Duval’s were once considered royalty in France, and after they were turned, they quickly rose to be the second strongest pack known to our kind. ”
Nik takes a breath and continues, “This created tension between Clément and my father, who sees himself as the one true alpha above all others. Disagreements about the survival of our kind turned into arguments, and to my father, his leadership was being challenged by a pack he considered beneath him. He wanted Duval out of the picture, but there was no telling how the other packs might react to this kind of betrayal. Vlad needed a way to be sure the Duvals would always swear loyalty to him and the Vostik alphas that followed in his footsteps. If he could combine the two families, he would force Clément’s hand. ”
I stare at him in disbelief, every word like a cruel gut punch ripping away what’s left of the air from my lungs. “Combine the families how?”
He exhales a heavy breath and glances in my direction. There’s a noticeable amount of concern in each glowing eye, as if he knows what he says next will change everything. “By forcing me to marry the heiress to the Duval pack. Clément’s daughter.”