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by Alison Aimes
Trouble was, she had no idea how long he would allow it to last.
Her Alpha’s pants were still undone, his knot deep inside her, but it was already shrinking, and she knew the end of this peaceful moment was coming soon. Already the tension within him was coiling anew, the buzz of his aggression vibrating against her skin.
“I wish I was as strong as you.” Then she could prove to him that he could rely on her.
“You are.” With a grunt, Nikolai stretched beneath her, his chiseled chest muscles rippling like a giant polar beast. His knot disappeared, leaving only his semi-hard cock inside, more than enough to keep her channel stretched wide.
She held her breath, expecting him to pick her up and set her aside.
Instead, he simply shifted her on his lap into a more comfortable position and settled back down.
“But I’m glad you’re not as physically strong. What in the hells use would you have for me otherwise?” He picked up her hand and she could tell he was only partly teasing. “All that power in these delicate, beautiful palms.” He traced the length of her fingers with his own. “It’s an extraordinary thing. And easily exploited.” His chest puffed out. “Luckily, I’m here to protect you.”
“Protect me? Aren’t you the one who made my life such a mess?” Now it was her who was only partly teasing.
He raised an eyebrow. “Would you have been happy contracted to the eldest Verish son?”
“No.” She didn’t hesitate. The thought of those mandibles sent a shiver down her spine. “But that wasn’t my intent. I was planning on getting away. I was close. I’d stolen some funds and convinced one of the beta servants to help me and Kaiya. I had planned to leave within the week.”
“I know.”
“What?” She went to pull her hand from his, but he was too fast. His palm trapped hers easily within his.
“Why do you think I moved when I did?” His expression turned disapproving. “Do you honestly think you would have made it without being caught and dragged back, punished, and made an example of?” He shook his head. “No way was I allowing that.”
“What about the contract with the Verish family?”
“No way was I allowing that either.” His fangs flashed. “You’re mine.”
Again, her world shifted. So many of her earlier perceptions had been wrong. She’d been so certain when he’d come for her at the Brotherhood meeting place that he was there to destroy her. Instead, he’d been intent on saving her. His version of saving, of course.
“What if I’d made it and escaped? Would you have still come for me then?”
“Yes.” His heated stare bore into her. “There is nothing in this universe that would keep me from you. Nowhere I wouldn’t go to find you.”
Before, his words would have scared her, confirming for her that he would go to any lengths to possess her gift, but she was listening with new ears now and she heard more than his ruthless determination. She heard devotion, too. Felt his need for her churning restlessly along the fated-mate bond.
She might be his pawn, but she was his salvation too.
She just didn’t know which impulse would prove stronger in the end.
She wasn’t sure he did, either.
“You wouldn’t have made it.” His verdict on her inability to escape yanked her back to the present.
She pursed her lips in exasperation, but the fact was, he was likely right. She’d been so desperate, locked in her small rooms, she’d been willing to risk almost anything.
“You would never have rediscovered your gift, either. It took our bonding to do that.”
She nodded. He was right about that too.
She hadn’t realized until this moment how desperate and foolish her dream of escape had been. She’d found more of herself here than she ever would have if she’d run.
Nikolai placed his finger under her chin, tipping her face up. “None of that was meant to upset you. It’s an ugly universe. I’ve seen it at its worst. The strong prey on the weak, the good get chewed up and spit out. Only the fiercest and most brutal survive, and those under their protection.”
His anger and need to protect rumbled through the fated-mate bond.
“What’s wrong, Alpha?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he ran his thumb along her lower lip. “I will never allow the ugliness to touch you. Hurt you. Tarnish you.” He drew in a shuddered breath. “I will burn this fucking galaxy down before I let anything happen to you.”
“Nikolai.” Leaning forward, she feathered kisses along his neck and collarbone. “You saved me when I didn’t know I needed saving.” She took a deep breath. “Let me help you now. Let me try again for the vision you need. I should have done it before, and I’m sorry I didn’t, but I can fix this. If I can see the rotation Olan killed your mother and Kuril and set fire to the outpost, we can share the vision with the Brotherhood. We can end this before anyone else gets hurt.”
Piercing eyes bore into her. “No.”
She reared back. It was the last thing she’d expected him to say.
“I don’t understand. You said before my vision was the key to saving your family, to securing all you wanted.”
His gaze searched hers. “I’m not so sure that’s true anymore.”
The hairs on the back of her nape rose. “You’re not making sense.” Was he rejecting her gift?
“I don’t have enough information yet to make sense. When I know more, you will, too.”
“But my vision may be able to give you the clarity you need. You said so yourself.”
His expression hardened. “I have given you a command, omega. You will obey it.”
Anger rippled through her. “I thought we’d gotten beyond that.”
“We will never get beyond me doing what it takes to keep you safe.”
Confusion replaced animosity. His words were hard, but the concern surging through the fated-mate bond was unmistakable. “I thought everything rested on me having that vision.”
“I thought so too.” Regret thickened his voice. “I was so sure I knew how this would all play out. Now, I might be the one getting played.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s simple. Your visions might not be the key to solving my current problems.” He added nothing more.
“You promised you wouldn’t shut me out, and yet that’s exactly what it feels like is happening here.” Was he giving up her ability to give him what he needed? Had he grown tired of waiting and moved on?
“Someone else is helping Lundin. I don’t know who yet.”
“Someone else?” She sat up straighter. “You mean someone else in the Brotherhood? Who?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” He watched her closely. Too closely. She got the sense he was looking for something. Wariness beat along the fated-mate bond.
“I wasn’t privy to much of my father’s doings.” She did her best to be helpful. “But beyond attempts to gain the favors of the Verish and the Kuril families, I never noticed any particular alliances. I often heard my mother complaining to her servants that my father had somehow managed to irritate or alienate most of the Brotherhood members. He was more isolated than she thought he should be.”
“Someone seems to see that as an advantage.”
“Maybe, but I don’t see what this has to do with me trying to have another vision.”
His comms beeped.
His body went hard beneath hers. “I have to go. Some guests have arrived that I need to question.”
He lifted her off him and set her on her feet. Unfolding, he rose until he loomed above.
Cold once more, it took a few tries to retie her dress. He’d already laced up his pants and donned his leather and fur pelt by the time her stare rose to his.
He was back to business-like and unreachable.
She gathered her courage. “I know you are the Alpha and that you hold tremendous responsibility. I know you need to take care of whatever threat is coming, but I d
on’t understand why you are dismissing my help. Our bond only makes us both stronger.”
“You, maybe. I’m not so sure about myself.”
The dismissal sliced deep. Did he really see her as a hindrance?
A muscle jumped in his jaw. “It’s on me that Alexi’s lying in the med cot. It’s on me that this second enemy was able to strike without me knowing.”
“That’s not true. You’re not alone in this.” The same words he said to her that had made such a difference. “I’m here. I can help.”
“I don’t want it.”
The wound inside her chest bled.
She hadn’t realized until this moment how badly she’d wanted to be needed by him.
“I see.”
“I doubt you do. This is going to get uglier before it gets better. War is coming, the full extent of the player involved still to be determined, and you’re at the center of it all. I can’t afford to be weak. I can’t afford to be anything but focused.” His expression hardened. “My guards will take you to my private quarters. You can shower, rest, sleep. If I’m not back before you get restless, you have my permission to work in your greenhouse. That’s it. No deviation from those two areas.”
His command was unmistakable.
“Yes, Alpha.” He was closing her out, though he’d promised he wouldn’t.
All her life she’d been sidelined. Devalued. Overlooked. He’d made her feel different. Like she could matter. Until she proved a disappointment, failing to give him the vision he needed most. No wonder he didn’t need her anymore. An omega was only as valuable as her usefulness to her Alpha made her . . .a direct quote from her mother.
“No deviating from the rules.” Nikolai’s hand gripped her chin. “Got it?”
“Yes.”
“I’m going to be busy for the next little while. I expect you to behave.”
“Yes, Alpha.” She gathered her tattered pride around her. “Where will you be?”
“Entertaining the arriving guests.” The menace in his tone was so great she shivered anew. “I hope for both of our sakes I don’t find what I think I will.”
32
Dahlia paced the length of Nikolai’s bedroom. No fast task. As decadent and sleek as the rest of his compound, his private quarters were huge and done in the same dark, sensual colors and textures that reminded her of him.
Except he wasn’t here, and the space was too big and cold without him in it.
Shivering, she turned and headed toward the wall of windows that stretched across two-thirds of the space. The view of the glittering mountains above and the spectacular crystal city below was also stunning but wasted on her now.
His words kept echoing in her head.
I hope for both of our sakes that I don’t find what I think I will.
What could he possibly mean by that?
The chill at the base of her spine told her it couldn’t be good.
She’d had a shower, dinner, a nap, and changed into a white dress she’d hoped would remind her of snow, sledding, and a happier moment. It hadn’t worked. She was still restless and weighed down with dread.
She wasn’t sure she’d even want to see Nikolai if he showed up right now.
He’d hurt her with his casual dismissal of the bond between them as something that weakened rather than strengthen him. He’d seemed so content these last few rotations. Lighter, too, as if the darkness in him was receding. He’d said such sweet things to her about how pleased he was with her.
She’d honestly begun to believe they could build something extraordinary between them.
But it had all begun to fall apart when Alexi was shot. Like a switch flipped, Nikolai had drawn in on himself, pulling back from the very fated-mate bond he had forced on her in the first place.
She didn’t know why he’d retreated, but she did know she missed him. She missed the soothing force of his power and strength. She missed his lust and need and adoration. She missed his faith and the steady rush of his formidable will.
Especially now, when she needed it more than ever.
She swiveled back in the other direction and her gaze fell on the sleek comms unit built into the panel by his bed.
Her fingers flexed, as they had every time she’d passed it.
He hadn’t said anything about not using it, but he hadn’t exactly said she could.
She’d asked the four guards stationed at her door, but they’d had no answer for her. The guards had offered to get her more food or drink, take her to the greenhouse, or fetch her a book, but that was the extent of the options they’d been allowed to offer.
They barely spoke to her beyond that. Masked from the nose down, it was hard to tell much about them, anyway. Since they’d never given her their names, she’d numbered them to keep track. Guard Two and Three were apologetic, shrugging when she tried to speak to them and mumbling something about orders. Guard One was the head guard and the least friendly. With spiky hair and a scar bisecting his eyebrow, he and Four, a bald male with a golden ring through his horn, reacted to each attempt at conversation as a transgression they intended to report to Nikolai later on.
Her suggestion that they contact their Alpha directly to ask about the comms had been met with hard expressions and the response that “the Alpha Lord Skolov was currently indisposed and could not be interrupted.”
She’d asked to speak with Maxheim, Damien, and the doc and had gotten a similar answer.
Fortunately, Anya had reached out to her through her comms to say she was in the same position—under guard and restricted to her private quarters. Unlike Dahlia, though, she’d had word from the doctor that Alexi was doing better. He was still unconscious, but the doctor was far more confident today that the Skolov male would survive.
But Nikolai wasn’t with Alexi. Neither were Maxheim nor Damien. Anya couldn’t reach any of them.
So where were they?
Dahlia paced the length of the room once more.
Nikolai’s restrictions didn’t bother her too much. She was used to being by herself and having her movements curtailed, but the growing length of Nikolai’s absence gnawed at her, as did the suspicion and fury that kept bursting along the fated-mate bond despite Nikolai’s attempts to keep it from her.
Something was wrong.
She looked down at her wrists. Was it her imagination or did the bands there look fainter than they had before?
She needed guidance.
Decision made, she launched herself at the comms panel.
Her fingers flew over the keypad. Either out of arrogance, a lack of faith in her intelligence, or—and she really hoped this was the case—because he was fine with her using it, Nikolai had typed in the comms access code several times with her in the room.
She dialed the only other creature she cared about in this universe who might be able to advise her.
She held her breath.
Her mother’s beautiful face appeared on the screen, but she looked different. Her usually elaborate coiffure was tilted slightly to the side, her makeup around the eyes smudged.
“Dahlia?” There was no mistaking the surprise in the prime omega’s eyes. “You’re not dead.”
“What? No, of course not.” Dahlia plopped down on the bed. This was not the greeting she’d expected.
“Thank the gods.” Her mother appeared to recover quickly from her shock, relief playing across her features. “I thought he’d killed you, too.”
“Prime omega, please slow down. I have no idea what you’re saying.” But the dread that had been growing in her all evening was now a boulder in her stomach.
“Kaiya is dead. My Alpha Lord Olan is missing.” Her mother’s voice was a low tremble. “I fear he is murdered as well. All at the hands of your Alpha.”
“What? No.”
“He hates us all.” The prime omega clutched at the cloth in her hand and Dahlia realized it was clothing and that she was haphazardly stuffing it into a travel bag. “I am terrified he’s coming f
or me next. Or you.”
“Prime omega, stop!” Dahlia clutched at the necklace Nikolai had returned to her as if that would somehow keep her afloat.
The female stilled, likely because Dahlia had never used such a sharp tone with her before.
“Kaiya is not dead, prime omega. She’s free.”
“Free?” Anger, then pity, flitted across her mother’s face and the hair at the back of Dahlia’s neck prickled. “She’s not free. She’s been murdered. As I predicted.”
“No.” Dahlia stood up so fast she grew dizzy.
“Yes. Her body was found by Olan’s men. She’d been beaten, shot. Her body set on fire. Like what happened fifteen years ago to Naytalia Skolov.”
“No!” Nikolai would have known. He would have told her. Unless . . . could that be what he was so upset about?
“I told you that you couldn’t trust Nikolai Skolov.” Her mother’s voice had risen to shrill. “I told you all he wanted was revenge. He hates us. He lied to you.”
“No. Stop saying such things. It can’t be true. I . . . I need to speak with Nikolai.”
“To hear what? More lies? Of course, he’s not going to tell you.”
“Stop. Nikolai wouldn’t hurt Kaiya. He wouldn’t.” Dahlia’s fingers pressed against the links of her necklace, searching for an anchor. Anything to numb the pain.
Kaiya could not be dead.
“Then who killed your sister? And where is Alpha Lundin?” The prime omega was back to pulling clothing off hangers and stuffing them into her bag. “No one else but Nikolai Skolov would dare to attack a family protected by the Brotherhood. His thirst for revenge has maddened him. He will bring the Brotherhood down on us all.”
“Alpha Lundin is missing?” Dahlia tried to think past the anguish threatening to pull her under.
“I told you before.” Her mother’s shout echoed down the comms. “Can’t you keep up? Your father never came home from his last outing. He never called. No one can reach him.” She clutched the fabric in her hand to her chest, her voice breaking. “He has never spent a night away from me.”