His heart clenched at the thought of leaving Monica in Oscar’s hands, as if she were some sort of possession. His breath shuddered, lips quivering. The bear roared with a wild vengeance. Okay, perhaps it wasn’t just an infatuation that had him returning to Monica over and over again. The bear dug its claws into Nikolai’s soul, pushing deeper and deeper. He shouldered the pain with a grimace.
He could tell himself lies all day, but the bear would always remind him of the truth. What he really wanted was to keep Monica out of the mess he’d created. The thought of bringing her into this, of allowing Alex anywhere near her, terrified him. The bear dug deeper and deeper. A sharp panic consumed both of them when he thought of Alex stepping anywhere near Monica.
***
Her panther writhed beneath her skin. It had been a few days since Monica let her out, and Oscar hadn’t called a Pack meeting in a few days. Usually, Monica would have waited for the run after the Pack meeting to shift, but she could feel her skin starting to ache. Her joints hurt with the effort of holding the beast inside.
Huffing a sigh, she yanked the headphones from her ears and tossed aside the paintbrush that she’d been holding. She flexed her fingers and tried to will the beast back down. When she closed her eyes, she could envision its tail flicking with annoyance. The beast wanted out. It wanted to run.
And, Monica knew which direction it would run.
With a groan, she let her head fall onto the table, uncaring of the paint splattered across it. The panther missed Nikolai. Monica told herself he was busy, that he would call when he wasn’t busy. Part of her was afraid she’d turned him off with her last joke. Once he realized he probably wasn’t getting laid, he’d given up. That was the only reason that made any sense.
Then again, he had a mess on his hands. His pack was falling prey to a charlatan. The worm slipped into Nikolai’s pack and whispered things that made them revolt. He was poison in the water.
“Well, you’re a talented little kitty,” a familiar voice said.
Monica shot up from her seat. Her brushes clattered to the floor while her heart hammered. Alex grinned from the open garage door. She cursed herself for the giant weak point. Anyone could walk right into her studio whenever they wanted. She found herself wishing it’d been Red or Jorge. At least then, she would have been able to pick a fight to release some of the pent-up frustration inside her.
Picking a fight with Alex seemed like a bad idea. The grin on his face seemed hungry, as if he might eat her alive. She shuddered.
“It stinks of chemicals in here, but I can still smell my brother above it all. His scent is all over you.”
Monica opened her mouth, but quickly closed it again. She’d showered since seeing Nikolai, several times in fact. She shouldn’t smell like him at all.
“Here’s the deal,” Alex began. He pushed off the door frame and sauntered forward. His swagger filled the empty space, making him seem bigger than he actually was. When he was within touching distance, he reached and grabbed her chin. His touch was delicate but controlling, giving her no room to move away. “I need to show my brother why I was meant to lead and not him. You’re going to help me do that.”
Insults rose to her lips, but she pressed them shut. This was not the time to mouth off.
“How about you bring that little kitty out to play and come with me? Nikolai is going to have his hands full here soon, so he won’t have time to play with you like I will.”
So, she thought, this was a kidnapping attempt. She was flattered that Alex thought she meant that much to Nikolai. It put her relationship with the Alpha bear into perspective. Maybe he hadn’t called her back, but she still meant enough to him for this guy to try to kidnap her.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Monica said. She was part of Oscar Torres’ Pack. There was no way this packless shifter was going to make her do anything she didn’t want. Her core quaked at the thought of the repercussions, but she was willing to face them.
Her hand slid across the table behind her. Her cellphone was there, somewhere, she just had to find it before Alex saw what she was doing.
His grin warped into a snarl. The hand on her chin tightened, nails biting into her skin. She couldn’t back away. There was no way to wrench herself from his grip. If she could dial any Pack number, she could get help. At least, she hoped she could. Her Pack hadn’t exactly shown her any love lately. Would they leave her to die for meddling in the affairs of other packs?
Red and Jorge would say that was what she deserved.
Her heart plummeted.
Monica couldn’t rely on her Pack. She had to figure this out on her own. Her years on Oscar’s Pack might not have held much in the way of love and affection, but it did teach her to be strong. She slid one foot back, giving herself a stronger stance. Alex wasn’t going to bully her into a corner.
“Do you think I’m playing around? I have a pack at stake here. Now, shift.” His words were threaded with the power of an Alpha. He dominated her with it, making her panther twist and writhe in pain.
Her whole body screamed in agony as she fought against it. The sound of her teeth grinding in her ears returned, nearly drowning out the thunder of her heart. This shifter would not best her. She refused to be brought low by him. In her heart, she knew she was stronger than him. It was more than bodily power, more than the magic he tried to use against her.
She had willpower. It was what helped her survive the first years after the change, what helped her throw herself into her art. Hell, it was what allowed her to turn her back on her own Alpha and help Lia. Monica was so much more than just a lowly shifter.
“Shift, damn it!” Alex tried again, screaming with whatever power he could muster.
This time, it did nothing. Monica stared up into the wild man’s face with defiance. His growl should have terrified her. It should have made her stomach churn and her pulse race, but she was finished with him. Monica would be the mate of an Alpha and nothing less. What made this man think he could bully her?
“Get out of my studio,” she said, calmly.
Alex still gripped her chin. She could feel small beads of blood welling on her skin from where his nails pierced the flesh. The pain was refreshing, helping to further clear her mind. She let out a breath, feeling her heart grow steady.
Her panther thought of Nikolai. The Alpha bear would have been proud of her. Would Oscar have been proud? Perhaps only in the sense that she was his Pack, and she proved his Pack was strong. Nikolai would have kissed her silly for her show of strength. The thought warmed her.
“What are you smiling for?”
Monica hadn’t realized she was smiling. She hadn’t even realized when she stopped grinding her teeth. It felt good, she thought, to finally come into herself. Her gaze moved past Alex. She could hear his triumphant sound, as if he thought she couldn’t look him in the eye anymore. Instead of failing at the dominance fight, Monica was distracted by her art.
Each piece held glimpses of the uncertain woman she’d been. Excitement poured through her. Monica had found a new part of herself, and she couldn’t wait to see what it would create.
“You’re smiling again. What do you have to smile about?”
She looked back to him, unflinching when her eyes met his. “The fact that I’m stronger than you. Always have been. Always will be.”
This wasn’t working out as he planned. She could tell from the fury that warped his face. His hand snapped back, only to strike. Monica slid out of his reach. His claws raked through the painting she’d been working on. It sucked to be set back on a commission, but she could start again as long as she survived this encounter.
“You’re not actually Nikolai’s brother,” Monica told him. “You’re a mistake made by his father. You aren’t his heir, but a little dickhead that happened into some power.”
Alex whipped toward her, his growl filling the air.
Monica needed to be smart about this before he trashed her entire studio. S
he didn’t have the time to re-paint all of her current commissions and money was tight enough as it was. Trying to be smart, she darted toward the open door. Alex wouldn’t hurt her out in the open, not in her little cul-de-sac. Before she could make it onto the street, Alex snatched her wrist.
He spun her around. Monica tried to fight against his grip, but she was too weak. Even with her shifter strength, she was no match for the strength of a man. It was frustrating, but she knew how to win. She was smarter than him, more patient. Alex was a firecracker, ready to go off at any moment. He thought the world should bow at his feet. He knew nothing about working for his place in life.
Monica had fought to survive. She’d struggled to make ends meet, in her human life and her shifter life. She glanced up, at the rolls of canvas strapped to the ceiling. They rested on a pair of flimsy wooden beams. There was a rope tied to the end of one roll so that she could pull it down without having to find her ladder. A smile touched her lips when she realized her plan.
“There you go again! What do you have to smile about? Whatever. You’re coming with me.” He tugged her along, but she dug in her heels.
Her panther pressed close to the surface, lending its power to Monica’s plan. She felt the hand behind her back rippling with that tingling, sleeping limb feeling. Moments later, claws pressed into her palm when she flexed her fingers.
“I said, let’s go!”
This time, she stopped fighting back and let him yank her toward him. She lashed out with her clawed hand and raked it over his face. He howled with pain, rearing back to cover the wounds with his hands. The neighbors had to have heard that.
She jumped toward the rope hanging from the ceiling and pulled with all her strength. It came crashing down just as she jumped away. The heavy roll hit Alex on the head, taking him to the floor with it. Monica used the moment to run.
Chapter Fifteen
Nikolai strolled down the street Caz had mentioned, hands in his pockets. He scanned the crowds for signs of his shifters. The process of rousting them from the strip of territory they had claimed was taking all day. He was getting tired of it.
Earlier, he’d found one shifter. The man had been leaning against a whitewashed stucco wall like a gangster. Nikolai had caught him immediately, not bothering to be civil even though they were in public. Before the shifter could run, Nikolai grabbed him by the ear and used the power of his voice to command him to go home.
One shifter down.
How many more had Alex pulled from Nikolai’s Pack? He scratched the back of his neck and tried to make a mental count. Brigid hadn’t defected, even if Nikolai wanted nothing more than to lump her dumb ass in with them. That left about three more shifters under Alex’s influence.
Yet, he couldn’t find a trace of them anywhere on the street. He was about to call Caz and tell him where he could shove his prank when a thought dawned on him. Caz wouldn’t screw with Nikolai. The two of them went way back, and they understood each other’s power. No, Caz’s warning hadn’t been faked.
If anything, Nikolai was starting to wonder if this wasn’t a distraction. His heart thumped inside his chest. His first thought was of Monica. He shook his head. Alex didn’t know where she lived. How could he?
What else could the deranged shifter have planned? Nikolai didn’t think Alex was the kind of guy to have anything up his sleeve. He wasn’t that bright. If anything, he was driven by the greed of his bear. While normally solitary creatures, bear shifters hoarded power like dragons of myth hoarded gold. The greatest form of power was becoming an Alpha.
Alex wanted that power. Or, at least, that was what Nikolai first assumed. He scowled, trying to think harder. Instead of scouring the street, he turned on his heel and made his way back to his truck. Alex was playing a different game. He might have wanted power, but it wouldn’t be the same kind of power the Alpha bears coveted. So far, Alex had found power in chaos.
The shifter his father had created through violence, because that was the only way to create a shifter, was now addicted to it. Violence and chaos was the power Alex’s bear drank. Nikolai threw himself back into his truck and raced out of Monterey, his heart racing wildly.
***
Monica watched, the heat singeing the tiny hairs on her cheeks. Her feet were glued to the spot as the world slowly tipped sideways. Nikolai’s house was on fire, crumbling to the ground with crashing sounds.
She’d thought she was running to safety. On instinct alone, she’d run all the way to Nikolai’s house. Instead of finding his open arms, she found a blazing inferno. Flames licked at the now black walls of the home he’d pleasured her in. They burst from the window he’d covered with a sheet of plywood.
Little by little, it crumbled beneath the consuming blaze.
It almost looked like the fire had climbed down the nearby hill, consuming the forest as if it were a natural wild-fire. Her heart flipped in her chest. This was no natural fire, she thought. This had been set on purpose.
Finally, her feet unglued from the ground. Her world tilted this way and that as she ran forward. The fire singed the tips of her hair. People shouted behind her, but Monica was focused on one thing.
Nikolai.
Fear chilled her from the inside out. She thought of him trapped inside, unable to escape. The fire was reaching toward the sky, arching from open windows as if to proclaim its conquest. It wouldn’t take Nikolai. Not if her life depended on it. Wood cracked and groaned before falling to the ground in a burst of flames.
Monica staggered back, instinctively throwing her hands over her face. How was she ever going to get inside? It seemed as though most of the house had already collapsed. There was no way anyone inside could have survived.
No, she refused to believe that.
Nikolai would hold onto life. He would fight to live, to return to her the same way she was fighting to get to him.
Gathering her resolve, she threw down her arms and moved to leap into the inferno. Just as she stepped forward, a set of arms wrapped around her middle. Both feet left the ground and the world spun until she was facing away from the fire. There was the sound of cracking and the boom of another fallen beam.
The man gripping her hissed in pain as they moved away from the conflagration Monica wanted to fight, but the voice behind her made her freeze.
“Nikolai?” she whispered.
“Might I ask you what you thought you were doing? This isn’t the next prank is it?” His voice wavered, unsure and even a little scared.
Her feet touched the ground, and she spun to face him. His lips were thin with worry, brows drawn together as he looked upon her. Hands ran over her arms, making sure she was in one piece. Before she could stop herself, she threw her arms around his neck. She buried her face in his neck, breathing in his scent even if it was now a bit smoky. Singed skin tickled her nose and she grimaced.
“You’re hurt.”
Nikolai only held her tighter. Monica wanted to pull back and check his wounds, but he wouldn’t let her go. His head touched her shoulder and his body shuddered.
“I know you hated that painting, but you didn’t have to burn my house down.”
Monica extracted herself from his arms to slap him in the shoulder. “I didn’t do this.”
He offered a thin and weary smile. “I know. I’m just trying to…make light of the situation, I guess.”
Monica swallowed and nodded. Together, they looked back at the burning mess that had been Nikolai’s house. They both knew who’d started the fire on the hill. Alex had intended for it to flow toward Nikolai’s house. He was trying to cut Nikolai down, chipping away at not only his foundations, but his spirit.
Monica reached and held his hand. Sirens blared around them, lights flickering in contrast to the light of the flames.
“I would say I won’t let him get me down, but I’m really going to miss that painting…oh, and my couch. I loved that couch.”
Monica laughed, yanked her hand out of his, and punched him
in the shoulder. She was glad to have him here, whole for the most part. His wounds were probably already healing. A small amount of guilt crept through her, knowing that he’d been hurt grabbing her from the blaze she’d run toward.
If she hadn’t known about her feelings for him before, the fear of losing him had brought them to light. Monica loved him, fool that he was. More than that, she knew he was her mate. It was funny how she’d spent much of her life gunning to be the mate of the wrong Alpha. Their predicament meant she had some business to finish, a Pack to leave.
She swallowed. Would Nikolai take her into his pack, or would she have to love him as a packless shifter? As much as she wanted to believe he would take her in, there was still the possibility that he might not. What would the rest of his pack think? It was obvious that there was some unrest among them. Bringing a shifter from another local pack might stir the pot a bit.
“Let’s go get an emergency blanket from the firefighters and snuggle under it.” Nikolai grabbed her hand and gently pulled her toward the firetrucks. With a foil blanket over their shoulders, they sat on the firetruck and watched the men put out the blaze.
Nikolai fielded a few calls, assuring his more loyal packmates that he was indeed safe. They fretted over him, all offering a place to stay—even if that place was only a couch in some instances. He cast a sidelong look at Monica each time they offered and politely declined. Her cheeks warmed, knowing what he was going to ask her.
Both of them already knew the answer. All he had to do was wade through a homemade ball pit.
Chapter Sixteen
Instead of sitting in the car outside Oscar’s, Monica threw open the door. She held her head high, even if there were smudges of paint smeared on her cheek and soot in her hair. Nikolai was speaking with his Pack, so she decided to use the moment. This was the end of one thing and the beginning of another. She only hoped she had the courage.
Her True Alpha Mate Page 11