Before he clenched his fists, Katarina lifted her head.
In an instant, the air calmed, Lukina’s energy waned and things returned to normal.
Surely this was Katarina’s healing power.
“I'm sorry.” Lukina drew out a sigh. “I’m just so frustrated.” She closed her eyes, let her shoulders relax, then faced Nicholaus. “A rival pack is waging war against us, Nicholaus. They’re trying to throw the Hungarian wolves out of our lands. They’ve succeeded already by overtaking a few of the smaller packs on the outskirts of the country and have decided to move inward.”
“Do you know who is leading them?”
She shook her head. “No, not a clue. We know it’s a bunch of Turkish wolves and that the night I left to come back for Józsi and Ilona, they ransacked the village Krystyna was healing in. They kidnapped her and a few others who were loyal to Kiba.”
“Kiba’s dead now. It shouldn’t matter.” He rubbed his chin and breathed out a sigh.
“Right. But we’re a new pack now with Józsi coming into his true position.”
Nicholaus rubbed his chin. “So what now?”
“We need you to come back with us and assume your position beside Józsi.”
The blood in his veins turned to ice. He stiffened, jerked back against the couch and felt like he’d been punched in the gut. No. Not again. That was not the fate he'd had in mind for himself. Quiet retirement among the humans suited him better than being the one responsible for more blood being spilled. “I don’t understand. You can’t mean…”
“You have a gift. You used it to protect your lovers once. You can—”
“I used it to protect them, but I had to deal with the aftermath and fall out. Do you know what it's like being an outcast? Because you did what supposedly came natural to you? We’re killers and aggressors, Lukina. That is our nature.”
“And we’re pack mates and a family. That is also our nature.”
Katarina’s words stunned him into silence.
“You don’t have to,” she sniffled, “If you don't want to but…”
He didn’t want to hear this shit. Not after what Lukina was asking of him.
“You don’t have to come back and slaughter an entire hoard, that’s what I’m saying,” Lukina cut into his thoughts. “We need all the males we can get to help. Józsi as Alpha is doing the best he can but he’s only helping us build and gather resources while we go out and find the lost members of this pack. Some of you didn't leave by choice.”
“You say that as though my leaving was a bad thing.”
Lukina glared.
He looked away, turning his gaze on the mountains in the distance. At this hour, the urban hip hop club was shut down and their neon blue lights had been turned off. Street lights remained the only way humans could see. His wolf’s vision trumped humans and allowed him to see into the mountains. He sighed, unable to fathom the consequences of what Lukina asked of him.
“Has the pack not solidified under Józsi's rule to become a force again?”
Lukina shook her head. “He’s having trouble adjusting, going through mood swings, addictions, time differences and relearning the cycle of what it means to be a wolf. Something some of us will never forget.”
He didn’t miss the bite of her words. Nicholaus narrowed his eyes. “Go on.”
“So yes, we have a new, non-crazy Alpha but he acts erratically sometimes. No, before you ask, he’s not sick. He’s not adjusting well.”
Józsi never wanted the position of pack alpha?”
“No. But he can't fight fate.” Katarina lifted her head again and met Nicholaus’s gaze. Her green eyes burned with desperation, pleading with him to ask more questions.
”No,” he sighed heavily, rested a hand on the back of Katarina’s head, “I suppose no one can in the end, can they?”
She shook her head. “It’s all you have to do. Come home. No one is asking you to use your gift, just give us one more able body in search of Krystyna.”
The syrupy softness in her voice made his heart pound. Imagine that, after all this time.
Not like he’d ever forget.
She batted her eyelashes.
Air fled his lungs at the simple gesture. Yes, she would use her body to pull him; all the women of the pack did that with their true mates. Nicholaus fought the urge to swallow, lest he show fear and renege on his vow to avoid pack politics.
Her hand slithered up his chest, fingers spread.
Warmth flooded his chest, spread throughout each limb, including the one currently cradled beneath her belly and his pants. “This isn’t fair, Katarina.”
“Neither was letting us go, but you did it anyway.”
Even she could hold onto spite. Tilting his head, Nicholaus closed his eyes, let himself succumb to the comfort of her power before it sunk into his body. He saw the fertile lands of Hungary, the smell of Lake Balaton on the wind. Then he saw the village and the faces of those who feared him after he’d slaughtered her family in cold blood. He’d heard the screams from her brother and father, his teeth remembered the feel of soft flesh filling his mouth along with their blood.
The eyes of those lecherous men vowing revenge on him kept him awake at night. And now they stared back at him, wicked grins across their distorted faces.
Laughter, maniacal and high pitched, echoed through the night.
“You’re the one who could be the downfall of our entire race if we let you ascend to your position and impregnate them. We do what we do to these girls out of protection.”
“Never!” Nicholaus found his voice though his throat was parched. He remembered very clearly rushing Katarina’s father first, then things went dark.
Nothing, not even the pale moonlight shining brightly could erase that memory.
Then, the vision was gone, returning him to see Lukina standing in front of him, glass precariously held with two fingers while her eyes were closed and she drew in steady, slow breaths.
“You’re seeing something incorrectly again, aren't you?”
He looked down at Katarina, felt, rather than saw her body curl into his.
“I'm seeing nothing.”
“Fine,” she sighed. “Come home, please?”
Nicholaus closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. Her ability to make him function when he didn't want to kept him going after he’d murdered her father and brother. She had been the calm to force his hand, make him get out of bed daily. At least until he stopped visiting and decided to make haste to America. “What can I do that others cannot?”
“You have more power and physical strength. You have a distance from the events we do not. Józsi would trust your word, drágám. You would be able to help steady him and provide us with one more pillar of strength. Józsi needs that, as does the pack.”
Nicholaus blinked and waved a hand beside his face. “Let me get this straight. You want me back to help rescue Krystyna and stabilize a pack that has turned its back on me? Fuck that shit.”
“It didn’t turn on you. It feared you.” Katarina’s soft voice cut through the red he began seeing.
“You’re right. They did fear me. Then they ostracized me. So I did the only responsible thing I could.”
Lukina walked back toward the kitchen, brought back a whiskey bottle. She refilled all three glasses, “You don't get it, do you? They didn’t fear you; they feared the unknown. Your behavior was no longer consistent because the change forced you to fucking grow up!”
Katarina moved, rolled to her side and cuddled closer. “You only needed—”
“Skip it.”
“Fine.” She huffed and reached for the now full glass. Bringing herself to a sitting position, Katarina took a sip of the whiskey, wiped her lips with the back of her hand, then faced Nicholaus. “You are going to remain hard, aren’t you?”
He didn’t reply. What was there to be said? The choices he’d made in life were the ones best for everyone else. Prophecy be damned!
Of course it w
ould have helped him to know what fate he was truly avoiding by living a solitary existence. Without the large details, he could only remove himself, thus keeping his mates safe from the danger of his rage.
He’d done well too. Only lost it a few times and his opponents happened to be other wolves.
Well except for that one man.
He didn't kill him though.
But still, the potential for overwhelming violence to his mates had been removed by his relocating to Albuquerque.
Ultimately, he thought he was removing the threat to his lovers, but he guessed not. “What happened after Józsi took over?”
Lukina planted herself in the thick leather chair beside the couch. “After Józsi killed Kiba and returned back with Ilona and I, we put him through training. He made the choice to bring in an interim of three of our strongest to rule, but that proved a mistake. Those wolves were lecherous, traitors. He had no choice but to banish two of them.”
“The other?” Nicholaus knew where this was headed.
“He killed first.”
“Nicholaus, you look shocked. Why?”
He glanced at Katarina and saw his reflection in her eyes. Indeed he looked stunned, though he shouldn’t have. Their species wasn't all flowers and candy canes. They were wolves. Bred by the Goddess, designed to hunt, kill, eat, fuck, and repeat until death.
“We’re not monsters, Nicholaus. Those who would do harm for bad reasons are the monsters.”
He shook his head, “I know. It's just…”
“Just what?” Lukina leaned forward, crossed one leg over the other. “You can’t even face your mates with any of the shit in your head. Why are you embarrassed?”
He stiffened, clenched his teeth and glared at the little redhead. She’d grown more emboldened with age. How irritating. “You would do well to end this now, Lukina.”
“Or what? I laid into Józsi and you’re not my Alpha.”
“No but you would do well to remember you’re a guest in my house. And I can throw you out now if I so choose.”
Katarina set her glass on the table before them. She looked at Lukina, “Please save your vendetta for later. We need to catch flies, not burn bridges, sweet wolf princess.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, Lukina huffed and leaned back into the plush chair. “I’ll hold my tongue out of respect for you, but your mate has his head up his ass.”
What the hell was he supposed to do now? Obviously Lukina had a grudge, not that he could blame her. There were a few other mates missing from the pack, but mostly the males had fled responsibility out of—well who knew truly? He had his reasons.
Swallowing his pride, Nicholaus leaned back, forcing himself to relax. How he felt like a prisoner in his own home was beyond him, but once the wolf princess showed up on your doorstep, regardless of time, it meant shit needed doing. “Fine, what is the minimal I can do?”
“Your gracious offering is most generous,” Lukina snorted.
“I have a life here. I live here. Outside the pack, away from all that.”
“Yeah, you ran. I get it. But we need you.”
He turned his head. “No one needs me.” The words came out more or less a low whispered growl.
Katarina slid down the length of his body, pressed her breasts into his thighs. Then, she looked up, set her hands on his legs and pulled him to her. “I’ll always need you, szertõm.”
Again, comforting warmth surrounded him and his skin lit up with the colors of their combined aura.
He closed his eyes, not caring to see their auras blend. It’d be one more thing to drag him back to a life he couldn't live with.
“Have you truly grown that complacent, Nicholaus?” Katarina’s thumb traced circles on his thigh.
He shook his head. Complacent wasn’t the proper phrase, more like didn’t give a damn. But his body language should have made that clear. “I told you, I washed my hands of that shit years ago.”
Chapter 2
Lukina blinked, pursed her lips together in a thin line and ran a hand through her fiery red hair before lifting her chin up. “Are you going to tell me you have no interest in saving that which is yours?”
His eyebrows shot up. “What do you mean that which is mine? I left everything behind twenty-five years ago. I have nothing.”
Katarina’s teeth dug into his thigh, her canines puncturing flesh.
He looked down at her. “Ouch, god damn, that hurts! What did you do that for?”
Raising her head, she parted her lips but said nothing. The sadness in her beautiful eyes tore at his heart. Of course he knew why she bit him.
“You left us both behind.” Katarina reached up and moved strands of dark hair out of his face so she could see his eyes. She smoothed her palm against his cheek. Tears had started streaming down her cheeks again. She sniffled. “You threw us away.”
He shuddered against her touch, confused by how she could still offer him comfort when he was clearly doing the opposite to her.
“Why?”
He forced himself to relax against her palm, glanced out the window at passing cop cars and pedestrians. “I did what I had to do.”
Katarina sat up, took his face in hand and made him look at her. “Why did you leave us?”
“I told her not to bother with this, Nicholaus.” Lukina sipped her drink and refilled her glass. “I made her promise me that she wouldn’t start interrogating you.”
Katarina looked up from his thigh. “You know how it is, Lukina. Your lover left you too. Why?”
“Something is wrong with the males of our pack in that they all feel the need to migrate away from happiness.” Lukina crossed her legs and leaned forward. “The males are real bastards.”
Nicholaus squared his shoulders. He couldn’t disagree. “Your other lover, Józsi, agreed to come back, did he not?”
“He did, after much pleading and begging. He had to realize for himself what not playing his part in our world would mean. And now he’s our Alpha.”
“You refuse to do the same.” Katarina began sobbing again. “You promised us both when we were younger that we’d grow old together and have a life. Then you disappeared after you saved my life. Why Nicholaus? I only seek to know why.”
His throat swelled and breathing became difficult. Her tear filled words cut deep into the wounds he thought he’d closed a long time ago, exposing them to fresh agony all over again. His heart thumped against his chest but he managed to make himself feel calmness in the dim light of his apartment. “Pour another, Lukina. And ask for my good whiskey next time. I don’t give a good god damn what your status is, you're still a guest.”
“And you’re still a rude host.”
He snorted.
Katarina reached out to block the top of his glass. “You’ll come back with us?”
He nodded and Katarina retracted her hand.
Lukina poured him another round. “Really, we shouldn’t do this. If we do, we’ll spend more time trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with you stupid males and less time rescuing Krystyna.”
Her words drew a sigh from both him and Katarina.
“All right. But you,” Lukina narrowed her eyes at him, “will answer me some day. You can’t turn your back on the Opeth Pack forever. Someday your responsibilities will catch up to you, Nicholaus. Better now than later when you’re too old to be of any real use.”
He scoffed at the idea that he’d ever be too old for use. Clearing his throat, he looked back at Katarina.
Katarina lifted a hand to his bare chest. “Are you going to help rescue what is ours?”
He couldn’t resist her, not that sweet mouth or those gorgeous sea green eyes. Her mouth opened partially as if to say something else, but no words came out.
How he wanted to shove his tongue down her throat and ravish her, claim her as his once again. Her inviting mouth begged him, the rise and fall of her breasts against his thigh aroused him even more.
“Your body wants to help m
e,” she peered down at his crotch.
Lukina giggled. “We are very sensuous creatures, drágám.”
He moved his robe to cover himself more, took Katarina’s hand in his and held it. Glancing into her eyes, he nodded, though he knew he was signing his own death warrant. “I’ll come back with you to find her.”
For a moment, a flash of joy passed through Katarina’s eyes, making them sparkle. Then, she closed her eyes and yawned.
“Come to bed with me.” He held out a hand.
Pushing herself off the couch, she stood to her full height. Raising her arms above her head, she stretched her arms and legs, squatted and yawned, pushing her breasts outward against her top.
Nicholaus’s mouth watered and his cock grew painfully stiffer. He’d have to have her soon if she was going to continue to do things like that. His eyes traveled down the line of her body, roaming over every curve and crevice.
“You can share a bed with me. There’s plenty of room. Lukina,” he turned to face her, “you’ll--”
Lukina stripped down to a spaghetti strap top and panties on her way to the bed. “I’ll be waking us up in a few hours.”
Sighing heavily, he resigned himself to the fact that she wasn’t going to move from where she lay. “Okay. Fine.”
Standing to his full height of six-foot four-inches, he stretched. Out of the corner of his eye, he swore he saw Katarina lick her lips. He let his robe fall open more. Just a little more, to expose a rippled six pack and broad chest.
Katarina’s fingers brushed against his arm before she took his hand and tugged him toward the bed.
“Come on,” she yawned. “I’m anxious to get to sleep. We had a late night.”
With a nod, Nicholaus let Katarina fall into his embrace. His mouth hovered dangerously over her ear. What he wouldn't give to nibble down the line of her neck until he stopped at her pussy and plunged his tongue in. But not tonight.
Not ever. “Igen.”
The two crawled in beside Lukina, Katarina snuggling closer to him. He threw an arm over her ample bosom and pulled her into his body. Finally she had warmed.
Raining Kisses (The Opeth Pack Saga Book 2) Page 3