Taken by Nero Wolf (Magnificent Beasts Book 2)

by Ana Calin

  “You were close, you and Sullivan. He told you secrets. You were the first to know about his affair with Christie, weren’t you?”

  “Yes, and I also knew he loved Arianna, even years after they broke up.”

  I nod, looking down at his hand as it makes its way over mine on my thigh. “Can I tell you a secret?” I purr.

  “Anything.”

  “I always thought Arianna should have gotten back together with Sullivan.”

  “Really? You don’t like her Wolf? I thought it was you and Janine Kovesi who introduced her to him.”

  “Yes, but here’s another secret—we thought she’d just have her fun, and then dump him. We never thought she’d fall for him, we were certain she wanted someone of substance for a long-term relationship.”

  “Speaking of affairs and relationships that one takes seriously.” He bends for the bottle of wine at his feet. “It’s not easy for me to mention this, because of etiquette and all, but since we’re sharing secrets—Wagging tongues say you’re having an affair with the mayor. Is it true?” The suspicion in his tone cuts.

  “And whose tongue has been wagging with that rumor? No, let me guess—Paola Valdez’s. I’ll have you know that she’s the one sleeping with Nero. I caught them myself yesterday.”

  Theodore grins, as if he’s got me exactly where he wanted me. “Is that why he acted like a mad beast today, during his meeting with the Council? Because you caught him with another woman?”

  I swear the sky has just come crashing down on me. “Say what?”

  “He hadn’t shaved, his hair was messy, and his eyes bloodshot as if he’d been drinking since morning.”

  I swallow, my voice cracking. “I’m sure he’s just worried I might go around telling people about him and Paola. Like I said, I caught them fucking on his desk.” But I’m afraid my face betrays the truth.

  “That’s a good theory, and I’d even fall for it. If your father hadn’t called me, awfully distressed, telling me his daughter has fallen in love with the mayor.”

  The world starts to spin with me.

  “Then there’s Ramses,” Theodore says, sipping his wine like a gentleman, but I can sense the fury rising in him. “Who told me that Nero got in his way when he tried to get close to you. And that he suspects the mayor has an obsession with you.” His eyes pierce mine.

  I stutter with the glass of wine in my hand, not knowing what to say. I feel stupid, sitting here with this man, thinking I had him in the palm of my hand, when in truth he was only leading me on to expose me like this.

  I place the glass of wine on the stone edge, feeling mortified, naked. This went terribly wrong, and I’m sorry I came here. I should have listened to Janine, and left this in the hands of the werewolves, helping them only with my counsel, not by taking action.

  “I should probably leave now.”

  But Theodore grabs my hand. “There’s no leaving now, Princess. You came here to use me, milk me for information and, were I just a little more stupid than I am, I would have fallen for it.” His face changes with every word, turning mean, spiteful. “You wanted to play with my heart the way the mayor played with Paola’s. But you’re not as powerful as he is, Princess. He’s a werewolf, he attracts women like a magnet and they are helpless against his charms. But you. You’re just a pretty pussy, the likes of which I fucked dozens. There’s nothing special about you, you’re not good enough to make me lose my head.”

  His words feel like slaps on my face, but not because of what he says about me. “You know about werewolves?”

  His face warps with an ugly grin. As if on cue, the bushes start to rustle, and all the muscles in my body flex as my brain puts me in the fight or flight mode. And when men with ghost-like pale faces begin emerging from the bushes, I’m sure I’ll have a heart attack.

  I retreat towards the manor as they advance, Theodore standing in place, watching the fear in my face as they start to shift. Their skin cracks, shredding and revealing slimy tissue underneath. Their human appearance shreds along with their clothes, humanoid worms rolling out from that cracking shell, transforming into human-sized serpents, forked tongues flicking out of their mouths.

  I scream and cover my face, making myself small by the manor wall, certain this is it.

  It’s true what they say. Your life runs before your eyes like a movie when you think you’re about to die. This is the first time I’ve seen serpent shifters with my own eyes, but I’ve heard enough about them to know that, when they make an entrance, it’s because they’re set on a kill.

  But just as I hear one of them hissing really close, a metallic sound whips through the air, and slime hits the back of my hand. Somewhere in my head I know one of the serpents has been killed, but it’s not enough to make me look up, not until a strong hand grips my wrist.

  My eyes meet Nero’s, his golden irises alight with focus.

  “Get out of here, fast,” he says, but then a female voice resounds behind him.

  “And where do you suppose she can go, Nero?” It’s Paola Valdez, joining Theodore. Has she been in the gardens all along? Have she and Theodore planned this whole thing? “This manor is full of serpents, she’ll only land in their hands.”

  Nero shields me behind him, a leather jacket stretching over his broad back.

  “What is it, Nero, love?” Paola mocks, but I can hear the hurt in her voice. “You wonder how the serpents got into this town despite your wolves’ all-around surveillance?”

  I grip Nero’s leather jacket, keeping my body plastered to his, my breasts pushing into his back, but I peer around his side.

  Paola Valdez, dressed in a black outfit like some kind of mobster queen, prances on her high heels toward us, while Theodore watches from under his unruly eyebrows.

  “Well, you missed one very important detail—serpents are creatures of the earth. They dig holes and tunnels in the ground, this is how they emerged directly into the basement of this manor. You never thought about checking the underground, have you.”

  Nero doesn’t reply, and I don’t note a change in his body either. His big muscles are flexed, ready to fight, which shows he’s sharply focused. But by now I know he’s so skilled at hiding his emotions that he could be terrified out of his skin, and no one could tell.

  She wants to say more, but Theodore steps in, looking like he can’t wait to show me how wrong I was about him.

  “You thought me so stupid to believe you’d want me, Princess? An extravagant beauty like you, wanting an old fuck? How stupid must a man be to believe the show you put up?”

  “Look at them, the lover birds,” Paola says full of bitterness, watching Nero and me. “He protects her with his own body, because he would be nothing without her. He imprinted on her, and he was desperate to keep it a secret in order to keep her safe.”

  My heart jumps, and my eyes shoot up at Nero. Is this true?

  “And she looks at him like he’s a god, wanting him with all she’s got,” Paola continues, full of resentment. “Let me tell you something Princess, now that you’re about to die, along with your lover—I came on to him the other day, but his cock was slack like a rag in my hand. Only when I prompted him to think of you did his body react, and you know why? Because you’re his mate. He’s deeply in love with you, Princess, you can die knowing that. The moment I realized that I put my hand between my own legs, and moaned to get you to barge in and catch us, make you think you were just one of his many conquests. But die knowing he wouldn’t be able to fuck another if he wanted to. To him, you’re the only woman in this world with a pussy.”

  Pieces of the puzzle come together in my head, the last one being the unbeatable proof he imprinted on me—the feelings I have for Arianna’s children. As a werewolf’s fated mate, I became part of the family, part of the pack, and I feel the family ties in my flesh. This is the best explanation for the way I feel about those two baby angels.

  ‘What about the sex drug?” Nero asks, his voice deep, masculine and even,
as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening here. “Did you have Spikes put it in her drink, Theodore? If, like you said, you fucked dozens like her in your life and she’s nothing special, why go to such lengths to get her in your bed?”

  Theodore’s face draws. Explain that, sleazy bastard.

  “Yes, Theodore, why?” I even manage a provocative smile.

  “Oh, don’t feel too good about yourself just yet,” he spits. Something slithers under the skin of his neck, and I grip tighter to Nero’s jacket. “It was Sullivan’s idea, and you have to admit it was brilliant. What better way to lead the werewolves to extinction than to corrupt their fated females? Fuck them and maybe even get them pregnant with serpent babies. And I wouldn’t have fucked you alone, Princess.” He enjoys saying this, I can tell. “It would have been a gang bang and, with a little luck, you would have gotten pregnant.”

  My stomach constricts, and I want to puke, but I don’t get to. Nero shifts, springing out of his clothes, his fur sprouting and his body enlarging into the big black beast that looks like a devil, making all the serpents around him shrink back. Even Paola looks up at him like she’s just seen a nuke. She takes a step back and stumbles, falls, and hits her head against the stone edge where I sat with Theodore before.

  As for Theodore, he gawks at Nero with a mix of fear and admiration. He surely didn’t expect the alpha werewolf to be so big, blocking out the light from the high terrace window behind us.

  “I’ll be damned,” he whispers, but then his face disappears inside a big black ball with deadly sharp fangs.

  The next thing I know Theodore’s body sways before my eyes, wriggling from between the beast’s fangs until it drops on its knees right in front of me. Blood gushes from the bone and muscle in his throat, and I scream as I realize what just happened.

  “Jesus, Nero, you bit his head off!”

  “That’s where he belongs, dead, at your feet,” he says in his beastly voice, then shields me behind his big wolf back, facing the other serpents.

  They seem afraid of him, surprised as well, as if they never met such a werewolf before. He’s the Alpha of his pack, big, scary and apparently particularly cruel. Two serpents try to attack him, but he bites one’s head off while he’s still in the air, while stabbing the other with claws that shoot like knives out of his huge right paw.

  The pierced creature falls to the ground with gushing wounds, in which moment I think of Wolverine and his adamant claws. That’s exactly how Nero’s claws flashed out of his fingers.

  The other serpents make to withdraw, but they bump into other wolves, their growls stirring the night. Damn, they stalked here from the woods so quietly that I didn’t even sense their presence. Their fangs glint in the moonlight as they open their snouts to bite whole chunks out of the serpents’ bodies.

  I can’t watch this. It’s a massacre. I cover my ears to protect from the serpents’ desperate rattles, pushing myself against the wall. I’m aware of Nero always around me, but he doesn’t fight anymore. He just watches like a wolf god. Only those who make it by his soldiers, proving themselves dangerous enough, get to approach and fight him. But every time all it takes is a swift Wolverine-like claw to kill even the best serpent fighters, the whipping sound of his emerging claws cutting through the air.

  I don’t know how long it is until the fight is over, but I know that serpent slime trickles down my arms. Gore must be sticking to my leather outfit, as it is on my shoes, but at least I don’t feel it.

  When the wild movement does settle down and I can make some sense of the chaos, the first thing I see is Paola Valdez’s rigid face with open eyes, a pool of blood under her head.

  “God, she’s bleeding heavily,” I shriek, hurrying over. But there’s nothing I can do, she’s gone, her big dark eyes fixed on the last image she saw before she fell—Nero in his wolf form.

  “She always wanted to see me shift. Too bad it had to be this way.” There’s sadness and regret behind Nero’s words.

  He helps me up to my feet, and I look at the serpent bits and pieces scattered around, slime splashed over the tiles. He says something to me, but I no longer understand. Overwhelmed, I faint in his arms.

  Nero

  IT’S BEEN DAYS SINCE the massacre at Theodore’s manor. I made sure there’s no trace left of it, as if it never happened, but it stayed in Princess’s mind and heart, and I’m afraid it changed her forever. I’ve been trying to talk to her ever since, but she’s been avoiding me, and my impatience is turning into despair.

  I promised I would give her space, but these days have felt like an eternity, and I’m worried she’s learning to live without me. I can’t let that happen, and since she won’t return my calls I drive like a mad man to her father’s manor, caution he damned.

  The butler opens the door. After a stiff greeting I sidestep him, stalking directly to the drawing room, to the tunnel that leads to her room. But I run into her father, sitting in his wheelchair right in front of the fireplace, blocking my way. He’s a forbidding presence with a lot of energy despite his handicap.

  “If you’re here to see Princess, forget it,” he decrees.

  “Why?”

  “Why? You’re a playboy that only uses women. I won’t let you do to my daughter what you did to Paola Valdez.”

  I won’t take any more of this shit. I fought an army of serpents for this woman, driving them away from Darkwood Falls. I won’t let anything come between us again, no matter what.

  “Listen, Lord Skye, and listen carefully because I’m only going to say this once. There’s nothing you or anyone can do to keep me away from Princess. Theodore Fritz tried to come between us, and look what happened to him.”

  “That’s right. What happened to him?” He doesn’t know, because my team cleaned the whole scene. Officially, Lord Theodore Fritz disappeared without a trace and nobody knows why. But I might as well give Princess’s father a hint.

  “He had to leave Darkwood Falls,” I say darkly. “As will anyone else who will ever dare stand between Princess and me again.”

  “Are you threatening me?”

  “No, I would never hurt Princess like that, threatening her family. You’re as sacred to me as you are to her. I just want you to know that what I feel for her is real love, Lord Skye. I know you don’t trust me, but believe me when I say no one will ever feel about Princess the way I do. I’m not here to ask you for her hand in marriage. I’m going to marry her with or without your blessing, and I will protect her. I will drain my own blood to the last drop if it means keeping her safe. But I’ll never leave her, no matter what, and there’s nothing you can do about that.”

  Charles Skye is speechless. I can sense he wants to talk with me some more, but I’m burning to see Princess, so this conversation will have to wait. I walk around him to the fireplace, opening the tunnel, and he doesn’t try to stop me.

  I walk into Princess’ room without knocking, too desperate to see her, and find her naked, just gotten out of the shower. She has a towel wrapped around her body, and her phone in her hand. I stalk to her and take her in my arms, crushing her to me, and she doesn’t try to resist it. Her eyes roam all over my face as if she’s starved for the sight of me, but there’s more to the look in her eyes. It seems she’s just gotten some shocking news.

  “I just talked to Janine. She said you sent one of your brothers to protect her, and she doesn’t understand why. He’s acting weird, not letting her go anywhere without him.”

  “The serpent we kept alive to tell us about his masters’ plans said the serpent shifters will try to impregnate more women of Darkwood Falls. Luckily most of them live here, in town, which we’ve got secured, but Janine is a business woman, always on the move. She’s exposed, and she’d make one hell of a catch for the serpents. She needs protection. I got a bodyguard for your mother as well, I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Of course I don’t. But for Janine you sent Conan. I mean really, he’s a humongous beast. He’ll scare all her su
itors away.”

  “Which is probably for the better. But I didn’t come here to talk about Janine and her new bodyguard. I’m here for you.” I press her to my body. “How long are you going to keep punishing me, Princess? Why prolong this pain, why keep rejecting me?”

  Her caramel eyes are bright with need and longing. I tower over her, touching her sweet face. By God, the simple feel of her skin on mine is enough to set me on fire.

  “I’m not rejecting you,” she whispers, wedging her palms between us to create some distance. I can sense it’s because she can’t control herself around me. I scent her creaming pussy, her hormones running wild, she wants me as much as I want her.

  “It’s just that, it’s not easy for me after I saw you kill those creatures like that. You’re a killing machine.”

  “And I never denied that. Princess, I never lied to you. I couldn’t do that even if I wanted to. I always answered all your questions in honesty, even though I might have avoided the complete truth here and there, simply because I wanted to protect you.”

  Her face changes to show the pain she’s accumulated. God, I don’t want to imagine what she’s been going through these past days, locked in this room and trying to cope with everything that happened.

  “Protect me? The same way that Conan now protects Janine, and that other guy protects my mother? That’s not only protection, Nero, it’s also a new form of confinement.”

  I tighten my powerful arms around her, forcing her to stay, not giving her any more space.

  “Even if that protection weren’t necessary, Princess, I’d still be constantly around you, stalking you. You will never be free of me. My love for you is deep, but also obsessive, possessive, compulsive. You’d have to kill me to get rid of me. What happened at Theodore’s, I’d do it all over again if I had to, I’d bite anyone’s head off if they ever threatened you like that.”

  “Theodore,” she breathes, her eyes lost, and I know she’s replaying what happened in her mind. “How could he defy you like that, I can’t stop wondering. He wasn’t a stupid man. I mean, you’ve been an Alpha for many centuries, he should have expected you’d be prepared for the situation.”