He needed to call the fire department after this.
Alex entered Nikolai’s space and had to tilt his head back to look up at Nikolai. It would have been laughable if it weren’t for the scars that raked over Alex’s skin, proof that he was scrappy. This was a shifter that had survived.
“You aren’t quite what I thought you’d be,” Alex stated. He blew out a breath, letting it cascade over Nikolai’s exposed neck as if to remind him how vulnerable he was at this angle.
“Well, you’re a lot more than I thought you’d be—like alive, for one thing. As far as I knew, my father never had any more children. One son was more than good enough for him.”
Alex grinned. It was nothing like Nikolai’s toothy grin, but a show of teeth from one animal to another. His head cocked to the side and he walked his fingers up Nikolai’s chest. Nikolai growled and snatched Alex’s hand. His grip was crushing. Bones popped, and Nikolai caught the faintest cringe cross Alex’s face.
“You think you’re going to come in here and steal my title because my father’s blood flows through your veins…”
Alex’s laughter interrupted him. Nikolai looked down at the man before him, one brow raised.
“Oh, I don’t have our father’s blood. I have his animal.”
It took a moment for his words to sink in. This was no sibling of Nikolai’s, but a creature his father had made. The scars crossing his skin and the lack of resemblance suddenly made sense. His father had screwed up and attacked a human, perhaps near the end of his life. He’d done his best to hide it from the Pack, but here was the evidence.
His father had never been sound of mind. Nikolai should have known it. He should have seen the signs. Instead, he’d followed and tried to be the son the older bear had wanted.
“You’re insane,” Nikolai breathed. “Just because he changed you doesn’t make him your father. We aren’t brothers.”
“Aren’t we? He made both of us. The only difference is that I was chosen. You were an accident he could never fix.”
His words were gas, spurring the spark inside Nikolai to become a balefire. His bear tried to push at his skin from the inside. His entire body ached, muscles contracting and bones protesting, but he held back if only to show his control. Nikolai was not his father. He was better man.
He was a shifter who would lead his Pack.
The sound of a panther’s whimper broke his concentration. Brigid wrestled with the big cat, her arms wrapped around Monica’s neck so that Monica’s paws only swiped empty air. His resolve fractured. The bear erupted with a deafening roar.
Alex smiled and leapt back. Nikolai’s bear pressed forward. It unfurled from his body like something out of a horror movie, patches of fur growing in as his jaw cracked and lengthened. The enemy bear threw its head back and let out a howling sound that grew into a husky roar. Unlike his human form, he was a massive bear. It was evidence of what his father had done, leaving behind another grizzly in the world.
Except this one had fumbled through the change on his own. Nikolai wanted to feel bad for the man, but as they clashed it was hard to feel anything other than fury. Monica’s whimper turned into a growl. Her own roar filled the air, more powerful than anything he’d ever heard from another feline shifter.
Brigid’s grunts of pain filled his ears as he brought his paw down on Alex. Claws raked over thick fur, but Nikolai found purchase. They pierced flesh and the scent of blood filled the air. Just as Nikolai thought he was winning, Alex ducked and rammed his shoulder into Nikolai’s chest.
Air fled his lungs and his feet left the ground. He grunted and snarled. Alex shoved him back but didn’t close the space between them. Nikolai’s mind spun. He wondered why the man hadn’t pressed his advantage, then he realized why.
There’d been no formal challenge. Alex wanted to win this the right way. He would do it with the rest of the Pack watching, show them the man they followed wasn’t bear enough to defeat him.
Nikolai’s chest tightened. His bear roared with indignation. They would not let this accident best them. But, the enemy shifter backed away. He fell to all four paws and ambled away. Nikolai felt the urge to chase him down, tackle him to the ground, and rip his throat out, but a black form moved to stand in front of his knees.
He looked down to find Monica watching him. Her eyes were not accusing, not shameful. Her presence only told him to wait. Slowly, he calmed and came back to himself. There was more than one way to defeat this wild shifter.
Alex’s bear shuddered. His form wavered, muscles filled with tremors until he began to shrink. The sight turned Nikolai’s stomach. He was forcing the change too quickly. It should have hurt. His bear should have howled with pain. Instead, that twisted grin was still on his face. It was a mockery of Nikolai’s own grin.
Alex let out a grunt that turned into a sigh as the rest of his form cracked back into a human shape. “I’ll be back. It will be a party.”
With a wink, Alex turned back to his car. The man was naked now, not caring in the least that he was exposed to the night. The swagger in his step was…overmuch, in Nikolai’s opinion. Alex and his car disappeared into the night while Monica leaned against Nikolai’s leg. The other shifters left, but not before Brigid made eye contact.
Nikolai couldn’t decipher the look in her gaze, the set in her jaw speaking volumes he couldn’t understand. She got into her own car, the bonfires she and the others had lit still flickering around them, and drove off. He scowled at the mess, both his lawn and his Pack.
“What do I do now? How do I make this right?” He looked down at Monica, the sleek feline. She let out a rough sound that was most likely the panther’s attempt at a meow. That wasn’t quite the answer he’d wanted. “Want to come back inside? Maybe have a beer?”
She purred and turned back toward his house. While she was shifting back into her human form and getting dressed, Nikolai doused the fires in his lawn and found a sheet of plywood to cover the window for the night. While he worked to clean the mess, Monica pilfered the fridge, the sound of clinking bottles like music to his ears. She appeared with two cold beers, prying the caps off with her bare hand.
Shifter strength was good for something, he thought.
He took a long swig before turning back to the window and the plywood in his hands. His back was to her when he heard her small gasp.
“Why isn’t this in the trash?” she shouted.
He spun to see that she’d found the rolled plastic-wrap painting. A smile drifted across his face, even after the night’s events.
“There’s no way in hell that I’d throw it out. That’s a piece of art by a popular artist.”
She snorted. It was cute, the sound, even if it made his heart clench. The way she quickly turned away from the piece made him wonder if she doubted her skill. It would be a waste of negative energy to shoulder such doubt when he could see that she was talented.
“I want to preserve it and hang it on the wall. What’s the best way to do that?”
“Good gravy, boy. If you’re hanging it, this is the last time I’m coming over here.” Even though her words were mean to herself, he caught a glimpse of pride on her face. It was the way her lips fought against a smile, the way her cheeks rose and darkened.
The urge to pull her to him was overwhelming. His body demanded her, every inch of her body pressed against his, but there was still glass all over the floor. The bear rumbled in his ears. It begged for her, too, but he swallowed and went in search of a broom and dustpan.
“Resin,” Monica said once he returned. “I’d use resin to solidify and protect the painting.”
“I thought as much. That’s going to be one very big painting once I’m done.”
Monica laughed. There was a secret look on her face, but she turned away to keep exploring his home. He liked her presence, the way she turned everything over and inspected every inch of his life. The shelves were empty save for a few books. A leather couch with built-in cupholders sat against the
far wall.
It was, rather obviously, a bachelor pad. Even so, Monica seemed to fall into it seamlessly. She collapsed onto the leather couch, plopping her beer into the plastic cup holder. Across the room, their eyes met, and an electrical spark zinged through Nikolai’s body. His breath came short, and he felt a tug in his core. He stumbled away from the broken window.
At first, he considered their meeting a stroke of fate. This whirlwind of a shifter woman had blown into his life, inciting joy and strength at every turn, even in such an unstable time for Nikolai. Slowly, the gears turned, and things clicked into place. This was no act of fate, but a match made by someone he thought should hate him.
Monica’s eyes slid to him once more, watching him stand awkwardly in the middle of his own living room, and he knew he owed Nessa a world of thanks. The urge to hold onto Monica, to grip her while he waited for the world to stop spinning around him, was overwhelming. Instead, he dropped to his knees before her.
Slowly, as if asking for permission, he touched her denim-clad knees. His fingers grazed bare skin through the frayed rips. Monica swallowed, pulling her lower lip into her mouth, and nodded. His hands slid up her thighs in response.
“I’m going to take care of this situation,” Nikolai said. “After tonight, you should probably stay away for a few days. Maybe a month, just to make sure all of this has blown over.”
Suddenly, she gripped his hand. Her eyes were no longer clouded with lust but piercing as they pinned him. “I’m not a mouse of a woman like Lia. I can handle myself.”
How did he tell her that he didn’t know what he’d do if she got hurt? His bear thrashed at the very idea. If she got caught in the chaos of his pack and got hurt, he would find a side of himself that was ugly. No one would be safe. Not even his own Pack. For her, he’d gladly destroy the world.
“How can I thank you for tonight?”
The heat of their bodies seemed to intensify. The air between them singed his skin, and he found himself aching for more. He wanted to lose himself in the inferno that was Monica. The blaze between them was undeniable. It was a thing he’d never known with any woman. It could have been the distance they always put between each other. The swell of constant denial that allowed their lust to grow exponentially.
There were other options, but Nikolai wasn’t ready to consider them. All he knew was the feel of her muscled thighs beneath his hands and the way her breath hitched as he stroked them.
“You could throw away that painting, for one.”
“Never,” he whispered.
Chapter Ten
His breath fell over her exposed skin. Monica swallowed her rising moan, tamping down her desire. What she wanted with Oscar was never going to work, she reminded herself. The vision she’d held onto for so long—it was a lie.
Now, Nikolai knelt before her. He laid himself at her feet as if she were a queen, looking up at her with what was perhaps a mirror image of what she felt churning through herself. Her stomach tightened under the gaze of those light, piercing eyes, and she found herself saying something unexpected.
“I could think of another way for you to thank me.” Her voice was a husky whisper. The sound of it surprised her, far more enticing than she’d thought herself to be.
She inched closer to the edge of the seat, widening her knees. Nikolai’s nostrils flared as he took in the exposed scent. The desire that gripped her was evident, moisture gathering between her legs and filling the air between them with musk. Nikolai’s hands slid behind her. His fingers curled into the waistband of her jeans, making her breath catch. The sensation of skin on skin caught her off guard.
When was the last time anyone had touched her? Shifters were almost always pack animals. So few were comfortable living on their own, and Monica wasn’t one of them. Her Pack had turned out for Pilar when asked, but Monica wanted to be strong. She never wanted to ask for help, never wanted to ask for company. She hadn’t wanted them, or Oscar, to see her as anything but perfect.
And yet, Nikolai answered her request with zeal. She could find no hesitation in his actions. Her own fingers fumbled with the buttons of her jeans while he tugged at her waistband. He growled as they fumbled with the too tight jeans, all too eager to please her.
Her legs free of the constraint, she reached for his unbound hair. Her fingers threaded through the pale gold tresses. For a moment, she considered clenching her fist, holding him at her mercy, but she let go. There was no powerplay between them, no need to prove herself capable of fighting back.
Nikolai leaned into her touch, as if it were the gentle caress of a lover and not a fighting instinct. Her stomach flipped. With his toothy grin, he yanked her forward. His hands ran up the curving length of her waist while his head dipped. His nose rubbed over the fabric of her underwear. The barrier was there, and yet she still let out a moan.
Her knees went weak. Pleasure curled around her core, pooling like molten gold. Nikolai pulled back, his hands wrapping around her knees so that his fingertips grazed the soft interior of the joint. Monica wanted to writhe on the couch. She barely kept herself from arching into him.
He was teasing her, toying with her. His fingertips ran from that small, sensitive place and down her calves. Her body felt electric. Each cell was a receptor for Nikolai’s touch, flaring like fireflies in her skin.
Slowly—excruciatingly—Nikolai reached for her panties. He tugged them down her hips and over her legs until there was nothing between them. Before he ducked his head, he took a deep breath of the musky air and grinned up at her. When his tongue flicked her folds, she cried out.
No one had ever touched her like this. She’d had lovers over the course of her life, but they’d always been concerned with their own pleasure. This was a whole new experience. For a moment, she felt ashamed of asking him to do such a thing, but when he growled and groaned into her as if he savored the taste, she immediately craved more.
Nikolai’s grip on her was near bruising, but the pain mingled with the golden pool of pleasure inside her. When his tongue finally delved between her folds, pleasure exploded through her. It spiked in every direction until her fingertips tingled and her toes curled. Monica arched into him. Her knees tightened on his shoulders.
His tongue made lazy circles over the most sensitive part of her before dropping low. He entered her while his nose nudged the top of her folds. At first, Monica tried to hold back her scream. Once she realized they were well and truly alone, she let it out. Her moans filled the room and prompted Nikolai to move faster.
His tongue pushed in and out of her before sliding up the expanse of her folds. One hand snaked around her back to pull her closer while the other slipped between her legs. He was skilled, his fingers working inside her while his tongue teased the most sensitive part of her.
Monica’s pleasure was growing, no longer just spiking through her. It grew into a heavy weight between her legs, one that made her back arch and her breath catch. She knew she would come any minute. She wanted to find the words to tell him to fuck her, but she couldn’t find her voice.
She gripped his hair and screamed his name as she came. His tongue kept working, teasing her orgasm to new heights with each stroke. At first, she wasn’t sure she could handle it. Monica thought her body might burst from the force of it all. The orgasm slammed into her, crashing and consuming everything she’d ever been. In the end, aftershocks tingled to her toes, making them twitch and curl.
Nikolai sat back on his haunches, but never stopped touching her. His hands moved, as if they weren’t finished exploring the dark tones of her skin. She let herself fall back, exhausted and sated. This was not how she expected the night to go, but it was still a very good night.
When she finally managed to find herself, she sat up. “I’m sorry you didn’t…”
Nikolai’s brow shot upward at her unfinished statement. The scent of her orgasm filled the air between them. It was heavy and heady. Monica tried to speak with her hands, waving them with no effec
t. The words still couldn’t find their way into the space between them.
Finally, Nikolai caught on and laughed. Picking himself up from the floor, he leaned over her until their breath mingled. “I was thanking you properly.” His voice was a deep growl that rumbled through her to her core, stirring up things she’d thought settled. “I was more than happy to serve.”
She found nothing to say. When she thought he might lean in and kiss her, he pulled back. He scratched at the beard growing along his chin and marched away. He didn’t swagger like the fool of a bear from earlier. Nikolai marched with purpose, feet slamming the floor to announce his presence.
“Excuse me,” he said with his back to her. “I’m going to wash my beard really quick. I’ll be back.”
Monica was left alone and pants-less. Slowly, she pulled her knees together and looked at the room. While Nikolai had been there, she’d felt comfortable. His presence pulled at her and she had a hard time fighting against it. Now that he was gone, she felt alone and vulnerable. For so long, she’d held onto the idea that she’d be the mate of the shifter who’d saved her. Now that she’d sacrificed that idea, she found herself questioning what she was doing.
Was this a fling? There was no denying what they felt, but she didn’t know if her heart was in it. Monica wasn’t even sure she knew how to put her heart into anything other than her art.
She didn’t know what to do with herself, what to say when he came back, or what this even meant. Her head spun. Distantly, she heard the rush of water in the bathroom sink and the splash of it as he cleaned his beard of what they’d done.
Confused, she pulled her pants back on and grabbed her shoes. She needed time to sort out her thoughts and figure out what she wanted. What they’d done had felt good, but she didn’t know how to move beyond that.
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