Mate
Nikolai’s POV
I quickly lay back down when a sharp pain tore through my head as I tried to stand up. I was aware that my abdomen stung and that I was sweating. I could remember being stabbed with silver. With difficulty I tried to remember the events of the past few hours. I remembered going on that mission to save those people, meeting a strange man, and getting battered by the Monhowl pack.Content © provided by NôvelDrama.Org.
My heart thumped as I thought of the freed werewolves. The strange man had claimed to know where my safehouse was and then I had had no choice but to trust him. I needed to check and make sure they were really safe there, and not just enslaved to a different master.
Turning with difficulty, I faced the other presence in the room. Margaret, the Healer of the pack, sat up straight with a panic stricken expression I could not understand.
“Alpha, thank the goddess you’re awake,” She said, bowing.
I observed her carefully. She looked relieved to see me awake, but I could sense how disoriented she was feeling. As she made to move toward the door, I stopped her. “Stay.”
She nodded, shuffling back to her position.
Almost immediately, I felt another presence walk into the room. As the form of a young woman approached my bed, I realized that I had not been dreaming when I noticed a woman looming over me as I drifted in and out of consciousness.
As my eyes captured her ice blue ones, I froze.
‘Mate.’ My wolf whispered from inside me. I felt my heart begin to beat rapidly in my chest.
When Elle died, it felt like my wolf did too, in the sense that I had sort of lost my connection with my wolf. We never communicated anymore, although I was still conscious of him.
When my eyes fleeted back to the young woman, I decided that I had never seen a more beautiful creature. Her black hair cascaded down her back and hung to her waist. When her full though small lips parted in surprise, I felt a fire race through me and all I wanted was to take her right there and then.
When she raised her right hand to tuck a stray hair behind her ear, my eyes flew to her bruised wrists. A realization began to dawn on me and still I denial, my eyes raked her in one sweep. The ragged white dress, the pale complexion, the bruises. The fear on Margaret’s face.
I let out a deafening growl, jumping up from the bed and clutching her by the throat. “Who did this?!” I roared, turning to Margaret.
“A-alpha,” She stammered.
Tearing my gaze away from her for the meantime, I faced the girl. “How dare you lay your filthy hands on me?”
I could feel the anger and disgust run through me as I grabbed her, ignoring the shock and fear in her eyes. As I got to the basement, I shoved her to the floor.
“Who the hell do you think you are?!”
“I-I didn’t-”
“Silence!”
The tear that trickled down her cheeks only infuriated me.
“It seems like you’re forgetting where you are,” I hissed.
She kept her head bowed, shaking from head to toe. I yanked a fistful of her hair, forcing her to look up at me. “You have just a few days to live, and if you’d like to keep bringing your execution date forward with this stupid behaviour of yours, I will gladly oblige.”
I pushed her backward into the wall, mind linking Elyan to return to his his position. I met him scurrying in at the door. I grabbed the front of his shirt in anger, bringing him closer. “If something like this ever happens again, I’ll cut you up in pieces and toss you in the ocean.”
I marched back up to my room, mind linking the rest of them. They were already seated there waiting.
“What the hell was that?” I asked.
Annalise spoke first. “Alpha, I knew you wouldn’t like it but it was my idea t-”
“To the fucking point, Anna!”
She apologized, nodding. “You were stabbed. The silver was beginning to seep into your blood. And the Healer couldn’t do much. I had seen the girl heal little Jeremy by the use of herbs so-”
I stared at her, astonished. “Jeremy? You let her touch Jeremy?”
“It wasn’t like that,” She defended. “She was just trying to help him. I suggested that we give her a chance, you were dying, Nikolai.”
I glared at her. She knew I hated it when anyone called me Nikolai. “I would’ve healed on my own. You do know why she’s here in the first place right?” I asked, the anger slowly being replaced by pain.
They all bowed their heads and kept silent.
“I’m sorry,” Anna finally said.
“I don’t give a shit about your apologies. This is why I need Drew around. Drew would never do something so stupid or thoughtless.”
I saw her cheeks redden. “It might interest you to know, Nikolai, that I’m trying my very best. And who knows maybe if you actually started paying attention you would see that.”
I watched Colton nudge her arm sharply. He was warning her to back down. They knew just how quickly my rage could escalate. But I knew my cousin better. Annalise would not back down now. I could see the growing anger and defiance in her eyes.
“Get out!” I barked.
Giving short nods, they all shuffled out. Annalise glared at me for a few more moments. “I have no idea who you are,” She spat, finally exiting and banging the door behind her.
I tore at my hair when I was finally alone. The memory of my wolf speaking a while ago still scared me. Maybe I had been imagining it all. She couldn’t be my mate. That couldn’t be. I had just been hallucinating.
The pain in my abdomen finally taking a toll on me, I plopped down on my bed and tried to somehow erase today’s memories out of my mind.