“Oh my god. How can this be? What am I going to do now?”
“The only thing that you can do. You will find Nikolai and you will give him this.” Adrian reached out and handed her the old book she had noticed on his desk earlier.
“What is that?” she asked, throat gone dry and aching. So much had happened to her in the past week. She wasn’t sure how to react.
“It is a memoir, written by Alexi Balovski, Brianna’s late uncle. It is an account of the many werewolf packs he met with on his travels throughout the world. In it, Nikolai will find all the answers to all the questions he may have regarding you, your change, and the mating bond between the two of you. There have been other such marriages between werewolf and human—I myself am a product of such a union.”
“Then Brianna is a werewolf, too? How can that be, without Nikolai’s knowledge?”
“She is not a werewolf, Julia. Her mate is not an alpha and therefore cannot possess the venom necessary to infect his mate with the genetic material that instigates the change. As far as I am aware, only the strongest of alpha males—a born leader—can change his mate into a werewolf. I suspect it is an evolutionary maneuver intended to keep the stronger bloodlines pure within the race.”
“You say you are a product of a werewolf and a human…how did your mother react to her change?” Julia was almost too afraid to ask.
“At first she was angry with my father for changing her. In fact, she didn’t speak to him for nearly nine months—the entire time she was pregnant with me. But she didn’t change fully into her wolf form for almost two years so she had time to grow accustomed to the idea. I don’t know how long it will be before you change, it is different from person to person or so I’ve heard. But my mother was never in any danger. My father eased her into the life of a werewolf with gentle patience. She once told me that had she the choice to do it all over again she would have made my father envenom her sooner in their courtship.” He laughed, obviously pleased by the memory. “I don’t think you should worry overmuch. I know you will be frightened at first, but I have a feeling you will make an excellent alpha female in Nikolai’s pack. But first you must find him.”
“How? I have no idea where he could be. He hasn’t called me or come by the hotel. And if his family has no idea where he is, I’m out of ideas.”
“Your lupine senses are awakening, and if I’m not mistaken, the sense of smell is the first to be magnified in a human. Do you think perhaps you can hunt him by scent? Cast your face to the wind and see if you can separate his signature smell from those around you. I assure you, that if he is still in the city—and I am certain that he would not stray far from your side—you will be able to track him.”
“I…I’ve smelled him on more than one occasion the past few days. But I was sure it was just my imagination,” she whispered. Dare she hope? Dare she give such a wild idea—hunting him for goodness sake—a try?
Why not? She was out of options. If what Adrian said was true and she was changing into a werewolf, she needed to find Nikolai. Sooner rather than later.
“If you are able to lock onto his scent, it will lead you to him.”
Julia sat, trembling in her seat, thinking. It was a long time before she spoke, but when she did it was full of conviction. She had come to a decision. She would stick by it.
“Tell me what I must do.”
* * * * *
Julia meandered about the grounds of the park, wondering if she hadn’t completely lost her mind. She raised her head to the wind, keeping in mind the crash course in tracking that Adrian had given her before they had parted company a little over an hour ago, and caught a faint whiff of Nikolai’s elusive scent. Where he had seemed to be in front of her but a moment ago, he now seemed to be behind her. It was enough to drive her crazy, this expedition into the park. Alone. At twilight. Searching for a man who quite probably would be really unhappy to find her here.
Grrr, she had no idea what she was doing!
Julia was pulled forcibly from her thoughts when an arm came and wrapped itself around her neck. A menacing voice grated into her ear.
“One sound and I’ll cut your throat, girlie.”
Great, this was all she needed. Strangely enough she felt no fear, only aggravation, so her words were perhaps a little more flippant than they should have been under the circumstances. “Give me a break mister. I have no money for you to steal so why don’t you just go find something else to amuse yourself with, hmm?”
“If you don’t have money, perhaps you have something else of value that I can take.” He laughed and Julia almost gagged as the fetid smell of him washed over her. She knew instinctively that she didn’t smell his physical scent so much as his emotional one. He was a truly disgusting piece of filth, her attacker.
Perhaps it wasn’t wise to tell him, but she did, in lurid detail.
Another man stepped from out of the shadows and trees just ahead of her with a smirk. “Oooh, I like ‘em feisty. How ‘bout you, Davey?”
“Oh yeah, you know I do,” said the man at her ear. He released a vulgar sound of vile enjoyment and sloppily licked at her neck and ear.
Julia shuddered in disgust and pulled free from her attacker with surprisingly little effort on her part. “Back off, guys. I’m not in the mood for it,” she growled out, stepping back several paces into the camouflage of the trees.
“What a little Amazon you are. I’m going to really enjoy this.” The man who had held her rushed at her suddenly, clearly intent on running her to the ground.
Julia saw the scene unfold with an odd sense of calm. It was as though the two men moved now in slow motion, allowing her to time her movements to theirs with little effort. The first thug came upon her like a rampaging bull, knife arm raised in a threatening manner. Julia merely struck out at his arm, seeing her movements as though they were exponentially faster than those of her attacker. There was a crack as her hand struck his arm and quick as a flash the man was on the ground, cradling his arm and crying like a baby. White bone protruded from a bloody gash in his arm—she had fractured it with nothing but a casual swipe of her hand.
Oh lord…what had she done? She’d never hurt another person intentionally before and certainly not to such a severe degree.
“Goodness! I’m so sorry. Are you ok?” she asked, clumsily moving to his side in her distress.
But the other man, her second would-be attacker, had no such concerns for his partner. He came upon her and in her preoccupation he managed to strike her a blow to the head with his booted foot. Julia fell like a stone, feeling as though a thousand shards of glass had exploded in her brain. She howled out in pain, a wild, animalistic sound that would have frightened her and her attacker both, had they not been locked in combat.
The man came down on top of her, striking blows to her face and ribs with a look of fierce satisfaction and glee on his face. Julia, dazed from the blows, did the only thing she could while shielding her face from further damage, and struck out with her feet. Her attacker went flying into the air like a rag doll, landing several feet away from her, sputtering with his own pain and rage.
The man stumbled unsteadily to his feet after several moments and looked at her with an expression of horror. “What the hell are you, lady?”
Julia was too far gone in her pain to answer him. She only had thoughts of getting away, far away, and licking her wounds…both figuratively and literally. She wondered how she could get away without him catching up to her, bruised and battered as she was. But she needn’t have worried—the man forgot all about her in the next instant.
A roar split through the clearing, loud enough to be heard throughout the corners of the city that lay beyond the park’s borders. It was a sound of pure, unadulterated rage, the likes of which few humans had ever encountered. Julia looked up to see a large, dark form somersault through the air, coming to land lightly in front of her in a protective crouch. Her attacker screamed loud and shrill upon looking into the face of her
savior, obviously getting the fright of his life. He turned to take flight, leaving his partner in crime still lying in agony on the ground behind him.
Julia’s savior leapt high, somersaulted twice in the air, and landed squarely in front of the fleeing man. The light of the risen moon caught his face and glinted off his ice blue eyes and brilliant white fangs, revealing his fierce, wild beauty.
“Nikolai!” Had there ever been a doubt in her mind that it was he? All her worries and fears fled as if they had never been. Her mate would take care of her now…there was nothing more for her to fret about. She knew instinctively that all would be well.
Nikolai paid her little heed, intent only on the man who had dared to raise a hand to harm his mate. He bared his fangs in another fierce roar and lunged at the criminal, sinking his teeth deep into his throat. Julia cried out at the sight and stumbled to her feet, rushing on unsteady legs to his side.
“Stop it, Nikolai, you’ll kill him!”
Her mate only growled around his mouthful of flesh and sinew, and burrowed his jaws deeper into his prey.
“Please, Nikolai. Don’t do this, it’s not worth it. Let him go.”
Nikolai jerked away, revealing that he had yet to break the skin of the man’s throat. “He hurt you! How can you defend him?”
“I’m not defending him, I’m defending you. You don’t want to have his blood on your hands, Nikolai. I know that you don’t. After all these years of hating yourself for killing those hunters that attacked your brothers, do you think you have it in you to take another life in anger like this?”
“How could you know about that?” he asked in a shocked cry.
“You told me about it, back at my apartment when you were rambling. You told me how those poachers hunted your brothers for their fur, how you chased after them and barely managed to save them, how your brother Jarus sustained grave injuries to his leg from one of the trap the hunters had set. You killed those men to protect your brothers—you had no other choice—and you’ve hated yourself for it. But now you do have a choice. You don’t have to kill this man for hurting me. You’ve scared him senseless…let that be enough. Let him go.”
Nikolai was unearthly still for several endless moments, clearly weighing her words in his mind. It seemed hours had passed before he stirred, and full night was upon them. The man beneath Nikolai was beyond them, having passed out during the attack, and Julia was grateful for that much at least. One wrong move from the man could have triggered Nikolai’s deadly instincts and perhaps cost him his life.
“You are right, love. You are right,” he murmured and rose from his crouch over the fallen man. “Are you terribly injured? Do you need a doctor?”
“No, I’m fine. Just a little bruised, but other than that I’ll be okay. How about you? Are you all right? I haven’t heard anything from you…I’ve been so worried.”
“I am sorry. I have never been far from you, love. But I cannot trust myself around you. I left you to protect you from me.”
Julia led him away from the two fallen attackers, deep into the wooded area of the park. She wanted as much distance between them and the men as possible, in case Nikolai changed his mind and decided to finish what he had started. He was about to get a blast of her temper and she didn’t want to see how he would react with those vermin near at hand to take out his aggression on.
When they were a safe distance away Julia turned and let him have it. “Just who the hell do you think you are, leaving me hanging like that? I thought something terrible had happened to you, that you were in danger, or at the very least unstable because of your change. And here you are, fit as a fiddle and acting as if you did the most noble thing you could think of by leaving me!”
Nikolai flinched at the volume of her voice, which was indeed loud—had he but known it, her voice was louder now than any human’s could have been—and raised his hands in a gesture of supplication and surrender. “Please forgive me, Julia. I did what I thought was right at the time. I knew that you would be hurt, I will not lie, but I promise you that it is nothing compared to the pain you would have felt had I lost control. I was afraid I would kill you. I had to leave.”
“But you didn’t leave. As you said, you’ve been near me all along. What difference does it make if you are with me openly or in secret? You’re still around me just the same.”
“I know. I am ashamed to admit that I could not leave you completely. But at least this way there is some distance between us, allowing you some safety should I become more beast than man.”
“Tell me something. Do you feel bestial around me now?”
“Well…no, actually. I do not.” He seemed surprised to realize it.
“Have you felt agitated at all since that day when you bit me? Even the least bit out of control?”
“No,” he murmured with a frown.
“Don’t you wonder why that is?”
“I admit that I have not given it much thought until now. I have been too busy following you, seeing to your safety.” His eyes blazed fiercely as he continued. “And that reminds me. How do you think it made me feel to see you strolling off today with Adrian Darkwood? Did you not for one instant think how that might hurt my feelings should I discover it?” His voice was rising, growing more and more angry by the second.
“Adrian Darkwood and I met as friends. And you should be glad we did, too. He’s the one who told me how I could find you. Here, he gave me this to give to you.” Julia reached into her purse, which luckily enough she had managed to keep on her person during the tussle with the muggers, and pulled out the book Adrian had given her.
“What is it?”
“It’s a book, a diary of sorts, written by Brianna’s uncle. It has a lot of information about werewolves in it—real werewolves—that he encountered during the travels of his life. You were mistaken in thinking yours was the only werewolf pack, Nikolai. According to this man, there are hundreds more like yours.”
“But how can this be?” he breathed in wonder, taking the book from her with unsteady hands.
“There’s something else you should know, Nikolai.” She wasn’t sure how to break the news to him so she rushed headlong into the explanation as best she could. “I am turning into a werewolf. That bite you gave me…it’s done something to me. Adrian says you’ve infected me with…werewolfitis.” She laughed at herself, thought it was a weak sound at best.
“Adrian knows of this? You told him?”
“Don’t get all bent out of shape,” she said in exasperation. “He told me actually. He knew just from meeting you that you were a werewolf, and he knew that we were mates that night at the party. He knew that this would happen between us, and tried to help me understand it a little.”
“How could he know so much about this?”
“Because he’s a werewolf, too. And he’s spent his whole life learning from Brianna’s uncle about other werewolf packs throughout the world. The Living Forest group is comprised of people like him, studying ancient forests and the creatures within. Werewolves, wereleopards, and goodness knows how many other shape shifting species. There are countless others like you, living in seclusion in the forests and rainforests of the world. Adrian says it’s all there, in that book, if you care to read through it.”
“I cannot believe it. It is as if everything has changed in my view of the world. And you…you say you are changing? Becoming like me. I do not know what to say.”
“Say you’ll love me, no matter how furry I may get when the moon is full. Just as I love you.” There, she had said it. It hadn’t been so hard after all.
“Julia…you will always have my heart. And if you are going to be a Bodark like me, I will be happier than I can admit in words. There is so much that I can share with you as a wolf. So much I can teach you…show to you. I dare not believe such a miraculous thing is possible.”
“Believe it. You have to. I’m already changing. I broke that guy’s arm back there and all I did was swat it away. I’m stronger
, that’s for certain. And I can hear things better, smell better. In fact, I tracked you by scent all the way out here.”
“I led you here. I was angry about your meeting with Adrian. I wanted to confront you…ask you if you still cared for me. Perhaps find a way to be with you. If only for a little while.”
“We can be together forever, Nikolai. That is, if you’re all right with that.” She couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy. She’d never professed undying love to another person before tonight.
“What about your school? And your life here?”
“I have no life here without you. And school doesn’t matter to me so much as it did before I met you. In fact, since you bit me, I’ve been doing some pretty incredible work. I think I’ve reached a new height in my potential. I’m thinking about hiring an agent and making a name for myself on the open market.”
“Would you live with me, in my homeland? I would live here if you asked it of me, but I must admit that I do not like it here.”
Julia laughed, feeling all of her uncertainties leave as if they had never been. “I don’t like it much here, either. I’d love to live with you, Nikolai. You’ll have to teach me Russian, of course, so I can blend in with the natives.” She laughed again.
“There is much that I wish to teach you…Russian being the least of them.” His eyes burned with a sudden fire.
“Hey, don’t look at me like that. We’re miles from home, so don’t tease. My libido can’t take that look just now.”
“What does the location of your home have to do with anything?” he leered comically.
Julia laughed, but felt a thrill to her toes when he lunged playfully for her. She managed to dodge him, once, twice, and then turned on her heels to run, laughing all the way. Behind her, Nikolai gave a mock howl and sprinted after her. For half an hour they chased each other around the park, playfully tussling when they caught up with one another, growling and yipping like young cubs. Then, breathless, they collapsed in a copse of young trees, looking up at the sky as they held each other and calmed.
Bitten: Moon Lust 2 Page 16