Mikolas Read online

  “Maybe Dezo was always a throwaway—the pawn. Maybe Ondrej was the end goal the whole time,” Voshkie said.

  “How could anyone know that my father would get the dragons to escort me?” Krys asked.

  “Maybe it was never about you. Maybe you were just in the way when you started talking peace with Borgia Remus,” Mikolas said.

  “So we know that Remus is at war with other wolf nations. They’re at war with the Woolvens, with whom you have an alliance. Is Blake Woolven the kind of bastard that would sacrifice one of his own as a rallying cry to war?” Krys searched his face.

  He’d met the wolf, spent time with him and his pack. They were fierce, but Blake Woolven was an honorable wolf, even though he played up his playboy image in the press. “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Who else is on the field with this kind of power?” Krysanthe asked.

  “Peter Breslin,” Ondrej murmured.

  Mikolas nodded in agreement. “We were just talking about this the night that we lost Jakob. You know he’s Turned and has an immunity to silver. It was the Rommulus Alpha’s mate who did it. That’s why the werewolf nations are at war. The Council voted even for and even against to punish her with death. And he’s been raising an army. Maybe a ghoul army. With an Orlaith Princess under his control, he’d have almost endless assets. Especially if he manages to take the mountain.”

  Voshkie sat on the edge of the pool. “Our spies tell me there’s a price on his head and his sister, Lenore has taken the contract. They also say she’s mated to Luchataine. We always assumed he was a myth. I mean, in all my time at the front, I never saw anything remotely representing a wolf that old or powerful.” Voshkie shook her head. “You know how stories grow. Supposedly, I can bring golems of gold to life to do battle for me.”

  Mik eyed her. “You mean you can’t?”

  She gave him a soft smile and it was the kind of expression that made him want to haul her over his shoulder and drag her back to a cave and keep her and that smile just for himself.

  He turned his mind from her to Ondrej and he saw that his brother was breathing more regularly and those dark tendrils he’d seen under his skin had faded.

  “Give us a moment, Krysanthe,” Ondrej managed.

  “Ondrej,” the princess began.

  “Drago Knights business. I’ll be fine.” He sounded like he was anything but fine.

  Voshkie stepped up. “Krys, come on. We need to talk alone anyway and it can’t wait.”

  Krys pressed her lips together and reluctantly stood after she made sure that Ondrej could hold himself up.

  He locked gazes with her and he saw she understood everything, even his gratitude.

  Pride surged in his chest at her strength, her intuition, and the way she supported him. They were already acting as one unit. A twinge of grief flared when he thought about how they’d have to murder this thing growing between them. It could never be allowed to breathe in the world. She didn’t want it and he couldn’t betray his brother. Not even for her.

  Voshkie led Krysanthe out of the chamber.

  Ondrej sat up then, all pretense of weakness gone.

  “My new voice is silent when she touches me, and it makes me weak and sick to silence it. It hates her.” Ondrej cocked his head to the side. “It hates you, too. So much hate, my brother.”

  “What can we do?” For a brief moment, Mik wasn’t sure if it was Ondrej looking out through his eyes or someone—something else. Whatever this was that Ondrej said hated.

  “Let me say goodbye to her tonight.”

  His meaning was clear. He wanted Mikolas to do for him what Ondrej’d had to do for Jakob.

  So many emotions surged within him, and his heart screamed no. But his dragon wanted to breathe fire at this thing within his brother, wanted to burn it out like an infection because he recognized after it had its way with him, it would be his brother no more.

  The part of him that was beta of the Drago Knights MC knew what would benefit the pack. What was left of it.

  He let his heart speak, which is why he would never be a good Alpha.

  “What if we tried something else first?” Voshkie had transferred immense power between them, had boosted it. If he could get her to agree maybe if they couldn’t eradicate the infection, she could transfer it to him.

  Ondrej nodded. “Your gold nymph has power, doesn’t she? Something not wholly nymph. I felt it when she took your hand.”

  He wouldn’t betray her secret. Only saying, “Yes.”

  “We’ll try it, if she’s willing. There’s a rage in me now that’s bigger than this infection. I’m so angry about everything. I can’t leave Krys, I don’t want to put my responsibilities on your shoulders. I—”

  This was what he didn’t want to show Krys. It’s wasn’t his weakness, but all the heavy things that came with his strength. The weight of responsibility he didn’t want to put on his mate.

  “Brother, I’m with you.” Mikolas clasped his shoulders. “Whatever it takes.”

  “If there was any other way…” Ondrej swallowed hard.

  “If there’s any other way, we’ll find it.”

  “Is Voshkie your mate?”

  Mik knew the question was coming and he dreaded the answering. “It’s not meant to be.”

  “That’s not an answer, brother of mine.” Ondrej chided him gently.

  “Yes.”

  “Then it is meant to be. What’s the problem?” Ondrej’s tired eyes searched his. “I want to know you and Imre won’t be alone.”

  “I won’t be.”

  “Why don’t you want the mating with her? Just tell me.”

  “It’s not my secret to share, Ondrej. And that’s part of the problem. She would put me at odds with where my loyalties lay.”

  “Your loyalty is to your mate. If she’s truly your mate, she won’t ask you to choose.”

  “She didn’t ask. It’s complicated.”

  “Uncomplicate it. You want her, she wants you. Don’t damn both of you to being alone.”

  “I won’t choose her over the Knights.”

  “Then make her one of us. Make her a Knight. I’d be proud to ride with her.”

  Ondrej was offering him everything he’d have wanted, if only Voshkie wasn’t an Alpha.

  “Think it over, Mikolas. We don’t have much time.”

  “Let me talk to Voshkie about my plan. We’ll worry about the rest of it later.”

  “What if there is no later?”

  “She knows how I feel. I’m not one to hide my feelings from a female or my brothers.”

  Ondrej clasped his arm. “No, we never the sort, were we? I love you, Mik. I’m proud to have been your brother in all ways.”

  Mikolas pressed his forehead to Ondrej’s. “And I, as well. Honor before gold. Loyalty before gold.”

  “Brotherhood before gold,” they said together.

  “I’ll get Krysanthe.”

  Mikolas took one last look at his brother and feared that it really would be the last time he’d look at that body and know in his bones that the creature there was his blood, his family.

  Ondrej nodded and there was so much in that single movement. It was acceptance, forgiveness, fear, hope… it was everything.

  He found Krys and Voshkie just outside.

  “He’s ready for you.”

  Krys put her hand on his arm. “You can save him, can’t you?”

  “Yes, come hell or the hordes.”

  She smiled at him softly. “I know you will. You needed to hear yourself say it. I have faith in you.”

  Mikolas wished he believed half as much as Krysanthe did. That’s what was so special about the princess. It wasn’t her golden skin, her hair, or her ability to transmute anything other substance into gold.

  It was her ability to transmute fear into hope.

  “Voshkie, can we go somewhere private to speak?”

  The warrior nymph met his gaze. “Yes, I know a place.” She took his hand and led him
deeper into the mountain. Through more twisting turning hallways, damp passages, and down carved stone steps into a room that was similar to the one they’d just left, but the gold water flowed more slowly, as if thicker—heavier.

  “This is my lagoon. This is where I come to heal. To rejuvenate. Sometimes, to hide.”

  “So earlier, that was the princess’s? Is that why it helps Ondrej?”

  She nodded. “In this place no one will hear us. So what’s your plan to save your brother?”

  “Do you know what happened when you took my hand in the pool?”

  “I’m not sure. Some kind of energy transfer. Like what happened when Ondrej gave himself to Krysanthe to keep her from hurting herself.”

  Mikolas nodded. “Did you know what you were doing?”

  She put a hand over her mouth. “Oh gods, Mik. No. Don’t ask that.”

  All the tender things he felt for her welled. “You don’t even know what I’m going to ask.”

  “Don’t I?” She pressed her lips together. “You’re going to see if I can transfer his sickness to you.”

  “Maybe you do after all.” He took her hand. “Can you do it?”

  “They are mated.” She shook her head. “We’d have to—”

  “It would only be for a little while, Voshkie. Then you’d be free.”

  He wasn’t expecting the fist to the gut that almost doubled him over.

  Chapter 5

  “You bastard!”

  “What the hell was that for?”

  What was that for? Could he really be so dense? “What do you think it was for? For telling me I should take you to mate and it’s not a big deal because you’re going to die?”

  “It solves your problems. You didn’t want to be mated. My guess is it’ll only last a matter of hours until the infection—”

  “Then what, huh?” She shoved him. “Then you’ll ask your brother to take yet another of his pack’s lives?”

  “Better me to die than him. He’s the Alpha. This is my purpose and my duty to the pack.”

  “What about your duty to me? What about me? You expect me to deliver you to your death? Just like that?”

  “If anyone could be pragmatic about it, Voshkie, I thought it would be you. If Ondrej Turns, I don’t know that I’ll be able to put him down. I’m just a Beta of a decimated pack. I may not be able to summon Alpha fire. But me, if it’s me who’s taken, my brothers will lose a brother, but the Orlaith and anyone else who could get in Ondrej’s way would be safe. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  Voshkie’s chest was heavy, like she’d been trapped under a collapsed building. She couldn’t breathe. Her logical mind said that his way was the only way. But her heart, and the new voice inside of her screamed at the injustice.

  “This is what we do. This is who we are. We protect. We sacrifice. We serve the greater need.”

  “I don’t want to.” She felt like a small child who’d been told it was okay to turn out the light because there was nothing scary in the dark. But it wasn’t okay. It was the farthest thing from okay, and the monster in the dark slavered in the places the light couldn’t touch.

  She saw now that she didn’t really have any choice in the matter. Whether she surrendered to the Mating Fever or not, Mikolas Tatsu was her mate.

  “Shit, Voshkie. Who does? It’s not a sacrifice if you don’t mind losing whatever it is you’re asked to give up.”

  “Why does it have to be you?”

  “Who would you rather it be? Imre? Ondrej and your princess? You?”

  “It is me. Don’t you see that?”

  He pulled her closer and she wanted to fight him, but she knew even if she didn’t help him, he’d find another way. These moments with him now would probably be her last. So she went into his arms. She inhaled the scent of him, the way his body felt pressed against hers, and the godsdamn honor that made him the only mate she’d be willing to take.

  “But you’re strong. You’ll survive it. You’re only part dragon. You’ll be able to take another.”

  “I don’t want another, Mik.”

  He looked down at her. “You say that now, but someday—”

  Mik caught her hand before she could punch him again. “You’re not listening.”

  “Stop hitting me.”

  “It doesn’t even hurt.” She scowled.

  “It hurts my heart.”

  “I hate you.” Her words had no bite and she knew it.

  “I know.” He rested his chin on the top of her head.

  To her abject horror, she began to cry. Not the pretty little dainty lady tears she’d been taught that nice nymphs do in public, but big, ugly howling snorts.

  “That’s the problem. I don’t hate you at all. Oh gods, don’t ask me to do this. Please don’t ask me to let you go. I need you, Mik. I need you more than I’ve ever needed anyone or anything. Fever or not, you’re my mate.”

  “Voshkie, I’m so sorry,” he said softly. “You didn’t want this.”

  “But I got it, and now I have to let it go.”

  “I’m glad you see that it’s the only way. Krysanthe is an amazing female. She’s strong. She’s fierce. But she won’t survive losing Ondrej, and you won’t survive losing her. Not when you’ve sworn to protect her. So you see, this is how things have to be.”

  “How are you so sure I’ll survive losing you?” Grief suffocated her, she could barely draw breath. Not that she needed it.

  “Because that’s who you are.”

  “I hate how honorable you are. How loyal. I hate it because I love it. It broke everything in me and now…” She took great gulps of air.

  “I love you, too.”

  “I claim you, Mikolas Tatsu, of the Drago Knights MC, to be my mate. You’re mine.” She hadn’t meant to speak the words. She wasn’t going to claim him or let him claim her, but she couldn’t imagine letting him go without knowing what this felt like—to claim him and be claimed by him.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I have to give you up, I’m not going to do that without at least knowing what it’s really like to have you.”

  “Then Voshkie, of the Orlaith, I claim you. You’re mine.”

  He nuzzled into her neck, his lips hot on her skin. She knew what he wanted. He wanted to mark her, to give her the bite. Krysanthe hadn’t accepted it and Ondrej hadn’t forced the issue. She didn’t want to be Turned.

  Neither did Voshkie, but what she did want was this piece of Mikolas. She wanted his mark on her skin. She wanted to commit this moment to memory to keep it when he was gone.

  It was unlikely a single mating bite would Turn her anyway.

  And at this point, she didn’t give a fuck if it did.

  She turned her head to the side and offered her throat to him.

  With a low rumble from his chest, his teeth tore into her tender flesh. It was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. It was pain, but it was exquisite. It was pleasure. It was everything and nothing in between.

  She dug her nails into his shoulders and clung to him, her hips moving against him of their own volition. Her skin was hot everywhere, and she knew the Mating Fever had struck again, but this time she didn’t want to deny it.

  Voshkie cried out. “More, Mikolas. Give me more.”

  He tore her clothes off with his claws, literally shredded them, and plumes of smoke curled up in the air.

  “Are you breathing fire for me, dragon?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Take me in the gold.” She made short work of his leathers and wrapped her legs around his hips. “Remember how you held me up in the motel?”

  He filled his hands with the rounded globes of her ass and he moved her at his will. Mikolas rubbed his cock just at her slick entrance. It was the most delicious of taunts.

  “Are you paying me back for making you wait?”

  “If only we had the time.” He kissed her mouth. “I’d take you here over and over again, make you scream my name until walls shattered
. Then I’d do it just once more.”

  Her sex clenched and she wanted—no, needed him inside of her.

  But the sooner he was inside of her, the sooner this would be over. The sooner she’d have to let him go.

  Gods, that made it sound like it was a gentle thing, this letting go. A wispy fey leaf on a soft breeze. That was letting go. This was something else. This was having him torn from her, a violent ripping, tearing out of something vital.

  “Don’t think about it, Voshkie. Think about now. Be here with me.”

  She clung tighter as if that could somehow anchor him there and change the future that had been written for them.

  “I am.” She cupped his face and looked into his eyes. Voshkie let herself fall into him, allowed the connection he sought and let the floodgates open. There was no part of herself that would be hidden from him.

  He stepped down into the swirling gold and even the cool flow did nothing to soothe the burn that had begun inside of her.

  But it did bind them even tighter, linking them through the gold.

  His eyes burned emerald and she didn’t look away from his dragon now. She met it head on and let herself love everything Mikolas, even his dragon.

  For as much as this would hurt, for as much as it would feel like dying when he was gone, she was glad she got to know what being with him like this would feel like. Knowing what it was like to be loved by him.

  She’d have no regrets.

  “Do you still want this?” he whispered in her ear.

  “Forever.”

  Submerged in the liquid gold, his movements were slow and precise, making the sensations that much more intense. So when he pushed inside of her, it was cataclysmic. Knowing what it was like to join with her mate made her understand why no male could ever satisfy her. It had never been about the physical, it had always been about that deeper connection she’d been afraid to want.

  About what only Mikolas could give her and about what she could give him.

  They moved as one and with this deeper binding, she could sense his pleasure and knew he could feel hers. It was as if they were wrapped in silken cords and there was no way to tell where one began and the other ended.

  It was bliss.

  It was eternal.