NIKOLAI
I had a half-dead woman in my arms and an itch in the back of my throat.
“Who is she?” Igor asked with an air of mischief I was accustomed to, and I turned to glare at the roguish-looking man with a smirk playing on his purple lips.
“I haven't the faintest idea Igor, prepare the horses, we’re going back to my Stone city castle.” I breathed over my shoulder at my best man, letting my eyes roam over the woman’s bare neck, the thin gold chain of a necklace caught my eye.
It was the same kind I had stretched in a tight ring around my neck. The kind the moon goddess had given me the night of my first wolfing.
My breath caught in my throat when I realized what it meant.
“Are you certain Nikolai? Your father would be quite upset,” Igor tempered with a hint of warning in his throaty voice that sent shivers down my spine.
Upset would have been putting it lightly for the King. My father would be livid, I could almost imagine him blowing a vein in his forehead when the concierge gave him the news.
“Anything to leave this dump Igor, the horses!” I hissed, glancing about my brother’s ornate castle with a measure of distaste I only reserved for the gutter rogues.
The woman moved in my arms again and I snapped my eyes away from her slender bodice, unable to dislodge the image of her milk-white breasts pushing noticeably through the fabric of her gown.
I could not deny the aura of attraction about her, the full, dark hair of her head that fell in tumultuous waves over her back, brushing the arch of her ass sensually.
I’d watched her break away from the side of the castle, running toward the gates at breakneck speed like a bat out of hades before they fell shut.
I hadn't even realized I’d been walking toward the maiden, not until she turned around and ran straight into me.
“Goddamn you Nikolai, you are a sucker for damsels in distress,” I breathed heavily, hefting the girl over my shoulder with little more than a grunt and mounting the horse, before settling her around me.
“My Prince,” Igor chastised, throwing me a dirty look before I stuck out my tongue at him.
“It wouldn't do to rescue the girl from whatever demons ailed her only to have her intestines stomped out when she fell off the horse now would it?” I tittered, and he shook his head for want of what to say.
The trot of horses gathered about us tighter as I ordered the gates open and watched the latticed nails creak upwards until it rolled out of sight and we set off, away from the brick castle.
“Greetings Your Highness!” The keeps men chorused, their bright smiles making the ball in my throat thaw slightly as we marched into the grand foyer of the Stone castle.
We got off the horse, and I released the woman gently to the cooing old maids who seemed all too happy to take her from my arms.
It was obvious the maiden had been abused, though to what extent I couldn't tell.
The thought made rage boil like chicken broth in the dark pits of my stomach.
I looked at the sketch on the white sheet again, the heat of the threads crowding around my eyes made my vision a pinhole as my wolf growled to attention, shaking itself out inside me.
My hands had begun to shake as I watched the nursemaids lay the girl out on the red-patterned foam of the gurney table as we stood around her inside the cool air of the cold room.
Would Toph dare to harm my mate so? To get one on me in his petty revenge circle?
Surely my brother was smarter than that? I gritted my teeth, ignoring the furtive looks my best man had been throwing my way since we set off.
I didn't have time for this, I didn't need a mate now, not yet.
The woman’s soft breathing at the crook of my neck made it hard to breathe as we marched over the gold-layered drawbridge that led into the castle.
“Your highness! Your Highness! Our returning troops just got word of a missing woman! The sketches are identical to the woman we brought back from your brother’s castle!” The stooge thundered suddenly, bursting through the double doors and I felt the line of my spine break and straighten.
I turned slowly, to see the short man harrying toward me with a missing warrant in his hand that I snatched hastily, splaying it out between my fingers as the itch settled back in my throat.
So that was why she had my brother’s scent on her? The smell of gunpowder and cocoa grounds had not escaped my wolf’s attention.
What the hell had I gotten myself into? Shit Nikolai, think!
I palmed the sore spot in my temples, feeling the veiny threads pulsing at the corners of my eyes, itching to take control, to destroy.
I couldn't let that happen. Not yet. I fisted the paper in my hands, the crinkling sound overshadowed by my gritting teeth.
“What are you going to do about her Nikolai? We can't hide her here for much longer! If your brother finds out, it will turn into a war!” Igor needled, the frantic rise and fall of his breaths making the warning sound strained in my ears.
“Silence,” I whispered, but the threat in my voice was enough to send everyone into a quiet hush as the girl’s breathing rose raspily in the quiet space as I loomed over her, searching her face for any sign of treachery.
It was then that the girl’s eyes flew open, the honeyed brown of her gaze glazing over a moment before they fixed unnervingly on me.
I watched as she opened her mouth, expecting everything but the shrill scream that followed.
RAYAIt had always been the same, my nightmares of the woman in the red hood with claws for hands and her bloodied fangs extended dangerously from her twig-thin lips.My mother had never said anything to me when she chased me through the fog, the crimson of her cape bleeding in and out of view until my breathing seized in my throat and I snapped awake.Again and Again, night after night up until today, when I felt the thud of my heart pounding into the soft cushion of a comforter I felt under my back as her words rang in my mind’s ear.“Run,” The woman had whispered when she’d suddenly burst through the fog to grip me with burning hands, her hot breath scalding my face.My mouth fell open as I peered into the empty sockets where her eyes should have been, before I felt the weight of my body shoot up, gasping and twisting awake as a chill clawed at the seat of my spine.“Are you alright miss?” A disembodied voice boomed so close to my ear that I let out a banshee scream, throwing my ha
ALPHA NIKOLAI“Fucking hell,” I cursed under my breath as I shut the door behind me, catching my bottom lip between my teeth as the ringing in my ears faded and I spread out the wrinkled paper between my fingers.Rays Banks, the daughter of a merchant tailor from the main city was wanted for absconding from the royal palace.I balled the paper in my hand, gritting my teeth as the implications ran through my mind.My brother was as merciless as he was ugly, but you would never tell from his dastardly good looks, the straight line of his spine, and the lopsided smirk that seemed to be permanently etched on the line of his bow-shaped lips.I knew how the village maidens daydreamed of him in the fields and farms, wishing for a dark prince that would whisk them from their sad little lives, up until he pressed the pointy tip of his sword at their throats.He would not give up easily, not without a fight. It didn't help in the least bit that I was spoiling for one.I cast my thoughts back to
RAYA BANKSI shifted my weight on the soft comforter of the bed uneasily. The longer the maid girl stood at the threshold of the silver-lined room, the more I struggled to clamp down on the urge to bite into my finger beds, the stretch of silence hanging like a maiden’s tits in the space between us.”Judith was it?” I croaked, managing to clear out the rubbish at the last syllable and affecting a measly charge of authority in the time it took the girl to look up and nod dutifully, staring at me through the heavily-lashed rims of her soulful eyes.I shifted again, glancing around the richly-dressed space and feeling like a brown-nosed donkey in a wedding dress as the unease settled like lead in my belly.“I’ll draw you a bath Miss, it’s almost time for dinner,” Judith voiced suddenly, startling me into what felt like a disembodied nod, grateful when she disappeared into the washroom and left me alone with my thoughts.Had Nikolai filed that under her list of duties as well? The though
RAYA“What the hell is that?” I coaxed, hardly trusting myself to breathe as I exchanged wide-eyed looks with the slack-jawed handmaiden.It had stopped almost as soon as it started, the shrill noise of a woman’s scream that felt like it was coming from outside our doors. My hands shook as they shot out to grip the cowl of the girl’s maiden smock, forcing her back into a squat as she rose to go.“No! Judith, it might be dangerous! We don't know what’s out there!” I whispered harshly, searching the twin black pools of her eyes that seemed to lack emotion. I would have thought the lady quite strange, if I hadn't heard the rapid thudding of her heart under my iron grasp.”I’m sure it’s not a big deal miss, these things happen sometimes around these here parts,” She started, and I blanched instantly, snatching my hands away from her bodice as she had just told me she liked her coffee cold and stumbling back into the tub, feeling the soap suds of the water flop and slosh about me.Not a b
NIKOLAIMy feet hit the ground almost noiselessly as I bounded toward the gates, feeling the dense calcium of my bones snap and twist as I shifted into my wolf mid-air, leaping up to the fire-lit cubicle of the Keep’s guard stations.“Y-Your Highness-” One of the hollow-cheeked keep guards exclaimed, lowering the spear gun he had spun to face me and adjusting the oversized helmet on his bald head with brown-rimmed claws.“Status report Baldy,” I growled, feeling the pool of drool gather on the sides of my law as I peered down the steep wall to see the large beige-furred wolf that was writhing and groaning outside the castle gates.I felt my brows furrow with concern as the guard launched a long spiel about how the soldiers had to trap the wolf in silver-wrought chains to keep it from biting off any more of the guards heads.I could tell it was agitated, throwing the triangle of it's head this way and that with deep, sorrowful groans as the silver bit into it's fur, leaving angry red w
ALPHA TOPHThe balls of my eyes shifted in my head restlessly as I watched the thin flaps of my father’s lips open and close with something akin to irritation.“You have to learn to get along with your brother Tophas, it's never been heard before in our history that the pack brothers are sworn enemies! This rubbish you have with your brother simply must stop!” He roared in his alpha voice, the red-rimmed balls of his eyes sending a shiver through my spine before I looked away.I hated that he called me Tophas, why the fuck couldn't he just call me Toph like everyone else?It was shorter even, easier on the tongue. A part of me knew already that it was to spite me, to show that he still possessed some sort of twisted dominance over me.“Do you understand me? There are issues we must attend to as a pack! Our legacy is on the verge of -” He started again and I felt something in me snap as I jumped to my feet.“Enough father!” I deadpanned, the clenched bell of my wrists shaking slightly
RAYA BANKSI gulped reflexively, taking a step back as the dark-haired man stalked towards me and the tower of the castle loomed behind us.”What are you talking about?” Prince Nikolai rasped, quirking one dark brow at me as he folded the thick mass of his arms over the toned abs of his chest.My eyes rested on the stretch of his muscles that stretched fairly against the skin under his rolled-up shirt sleeves before I swallowed, snapping my eyes away and feeling the beat of a blush creep up my cheeks.What was it I had been saying again? Lady Artemis! Why was it so hard to think when the man was around me? I could almost feel the pull of his wolf simmering beneath the surface, the dark power lurking in his restive gray eyes as the heat of his gaze raked over me.“I, I don't want to be any more of a burden than I already am, Your Highness, I'll take my leave, if it so pleases you,” I whispered, wringing my hands furtively as an odd look passed over the man’s face, and he inhaled a lon
ALPHA TOPHGone. The woman I had locked in the cellar was gone!How had a merchant’s daughter managed to break through the reinforced iron of the castle’s keep? It was remarkable. “Raya? Bloody hell woman, Are you in here?” I screamed, whirling on my haunches to peer about the room with my wolf’s vision, but she was truly gone.I threw my head back and let out a loud roaring howl, hearing the guards rush into the cellar and dance about the room, the tension in their coiled spring of bodies sending shivers of delight through my frame until I was unable to hold it in anymore.“Raya Banks, bloody whore, you shouldn't have done this,” I raged, barking out a harsh, demented laugh and turning suddenly to catch the guards exchanging dumb looks, instantly sending a surge of irritation bubbling up my throat.“Don't just STAND there you bloody fools! Find the girl! I don't care how you do it! I want missing posters in every state and city by fucking sunrise, you hear me?” I thundered, watching