Chapter 150 Caught

Chapter 150 Caught
❀ Maeve ❀

I winced at each violent stroke of the comb through my hair. Every action in the course of my dressing up had been violent, backed with annoyance.
Did these men even love me at all? Or was I being delusional?
How could both of them—Nikolai and Bastian—bear to stay away from me for almost twelve whole hours?
It’d been barely half a day since I’d been rescued from the clutches of a mad scientist, and both my mates were keeping their distance.
The wolf, because he was pissed I was fated to two men.
The vampire, out of guilt or whatever the heck else.
My eyes misted as I rouged my cheeks.
There were more important things to do than maintain a safe distance from their “toxic” hybrid mate, no?
The curse was still active. How I’d managed to control it so far was a mystery—one I could not depend on.
It felt like a ball of pressure in my chest, darkening and strengthening the more I suppressed it.
One day, it would blow. I wondered how much damage I’d wrought in such event.
I shuddered.
Not just that, we also still had the Crimson amulet to contend with.
Once those two afflictions were terminated, perhaps I would finally live a happy and fulfilling life.
Exhaustion sagged my shoulders as I studied my reflection.
I’d selected a gauzy dress of pale pink and put my hair up in a high bun. The fabric exposed a good deal of my neck, shoulders, and cleavage.
I wasn’t taking any chances.
I needed Nikolai to see me, and remember just why he’d been obsessed all this time.
It felt dirty using seduction as a tool for attention. But what choice did I have?
A stray thought suggested I confide in my adoptive mother, Gwen. But what would she know? And I didn’t even want her help anyway.
I readied myself to trace to Nikolai, using a skill I hadn’t yet mastered completely.
Tracing directly to him, wherever he was.
He’d done it at the cavern beneath this very fortress, and again at Graves’ lab.
If he could do it, then I should be able to as well.
Closing my eyes, I slowed my breathing, focusing my thoughts on the vampire.
His scent. His fiery gaze. The chill of his soft skin when he wrapped his hands around me.
Before long, the scent of eucalyptus and sweet blood flooded my senses—so thick he could’ve been right here.
It must be working.
Excitement racked me as I waited for that telltale feeling of lightness that signified I was tracing—
“Milaya.”
I gasped. I’d done it.
The voice had come from behind me, so I opened my eyes slowly, turning as I did.
My smile faded.
I was still in my room in IronWolf.
And Nikolai was standing in front of me.
The disappointment waned as fast as it came.
Nikolai was here.
All dark curly hair and porcelain skin. His muscles filled his coat wantonly, gaze searing me with its intensity.
Abandoning all decorum, I launched myself into his arms.
“There’s never been more perfect timing,” I murmured into the hug.
His throat bobbed above, his heart thundering an anxious beat.
“I have a question,” I said.
He tensed, then said, “Anything.”
“What will happen if we both attempted to trace to each other at the same time?” I asked with genuine curiosity.
His body relaxed, his tone playful. “We’d just discovered that talent even existed. I guess we’ll have to find out through deliberate research.”
He rested his chin on my head. I tightened my arms around his torso, aching to sink into his skin.
“Why did you leave me?” I blurted.
“Never,” he rasped earnestly. “I had to recover after a skirmish. Couldn’t let you see me like that. And I knew Bastian would be with you. Then I returned to Veilmoor to check on Drusilla; she’d been injured the day you were taken.”
I pulled back to look at his face, heart racing. “Injured?”
Drusilla, my aunt, was pregnant.
At my expectant, panicked expression, Nikolai shook his head slowly.
My breath left me in a rush, and I sat on the edge of my bed.
“The baby is lost?”
“Unfortunately.”
Oh no.
No. No.
I felt hollow inside, knowing it was my fault.
“It’s not your fault, Maeve. Vladis set it all in motion. And you ended him. I’m so proud of you.”
“I don’t want to be a killer.”
Looking down at me, he insisted firmly, “You’re an immortal. A queen. It is unavoidable. The only difference, what makes you better, is you don’t kill indiscreetly. Your victims deserve even worse than death.”
My chest choked up with emotion. “I killed an innocent. In Graves’ lab. I drained him.”
He sat beside me, his presence wrapping around me like a necessary blanket.
“That wasn’t your fault.”
“How do you know?” I hissed, tired of everyone boxing me in with expectations. “What if I enjoyed it?”
“You’re a vampire. Starved and tortured. Your body demanded sustenance and took it. You never would have without pressure. I know you.”
I wiped at my eyes, stemming the tears. “You don’t.”
Nikolai remained silent, waiting for me to continue.
“I have the wrath, Nikolai.”
His eyes darkened. “What?”
Nodding, I forced a smile. “Now we’re even. Now I can pay for what I did to you, it’s only fair.”
“No.” He gritted his teeth. “You’re guilty of nothing. I owed you a bond, safety, a connection. I was always yours to claim.” He ran his claws through his hair. “You were never supposed to get the curse, Milaya. No.”
I stared at him, astonished.
He was enraged at me being infected with the curse even while it raged within him?
I could never understand this male.
His lips thinned, gaze hot as he glared daggers at my vanity station. Whatever was going through his mind, it was devastating and desperate.
His body was tense with pent-up energy, teeming with an uneasy edge.
He looked so dangerous. So determined.
So sexy.
The hunger hit me with force, my gaze straying to his neck.
During the days we’d been separated, had he fed? And on who?
Searing jealousy overcame me. But the hunger prevailed.
I wanted to drink my mate. Not just to sate physical hunger, but an emotional one too. I needed to feel that bone-deep connection only my fangs in his flesh could provide.
Before I could express this, he suddenly faced me, lips parted to speak. But then he saw the ravenousness in my gaze.
He glanced down, and I followed his gaze.
My hand had slid to his thigh, my claws digging into his pants in a desperate clutch.
“You’re hungry,” he muttered, looking up at me.
I could only nod. My fangs had distended, his beautiful face doing things to my insides.
“Then take your due.”
Despite the visceral thirst in my throat, I moved slowly.
Leaning into him, I cupped his face tenderly.
“I missed you.” I whispered thickly.
“Not as much as I yearned for you.”
Our breaths tangled until my lips pressed against his, slanting, parting. His hand twined around my waist to drag me atop his thighs. I straddled him, sighing.
Then he deepened the kiss with a groan, spreading it to my cheeks, my ears, my neck. He whispered devotion in an old tongue I couldn’t understand.
My heart swelled and fluttered.
This was what I needed. This closeness. This love and passion.
I returned the favor, licking the side of his neck with long drags of my tongue.
Something grinded upwards between my thighs, grazing dangerously close to my sensitive bud.
Then I sank my fangs deep, jerking at the rush of rapturous blood. Nikolai squirmed beneath me, panting, tilting his hips slightly upward.
I felt it too, that hot flash of desire. So I rolled my hips on his hardness.
He hissed, clutching me closer—
“You fucking bastard,” a growl cut through my trance. “You… my mate… on my fucking territory?”
It was nearly impossible, but I dragged my heavy lidded gaze up—
To see Bastian standing in my room, trembling with pure, unadulterated rage.
My heart stuttered. 
Shit.