Chapter 22 Euphoria
❀ Maeve ❀
No.
Our stone hearth was gone. So was mother’s cherished chair, her hanging utensils in the open plan kitchen.
I took the stairs three at a time, my heart pounding, feeling like it would explode.
My room.
Empty.
It looked as if it’d been scraped bare. Prepped and cleaned for another tenant. My wall etchings were gone. The bed, my antique mirror.
My fingers trembled. I fisted them open and closed.
Open. Closed. It wouldn’t stop.
I pushed the window open to stare out.
Ashar prowled the yard, sniffing deeply, his large head sweeping side to side.
“Can you smell anything?! Please?”
His golden gaze snapped up to the window. He shook his head and pawed at the ground, whining.
If I had a wolf, I’d be able to communicate with him in his wolf form. Through a mind link.
I slammed my fist on the window frame in frustration. My eyes burned like hot coals in my head.
Just one day! I’d left her for just a day!
“Noooo!”
My voice echoed in the empty space. As empty as my heart.
Anything could have happened. She could’ve gotten attacked, killed, and someone else had rubbed their scent in this house in ownership.
In Blackbridge, the word of the strongest was law.
Another ragged scream tore through my throat. I clawed at my hair, sinking to my knees.
“Motheeer!”
Ashar’s wolf howled outside in response.
Tears streamed down my cheeks as I choked on tears. My vision blurrry, I surveyed my empty room again.
It wasn’t home anymore. Not to me.
A burn started in my chest, maybe my heart really was going to explode. The heat amped higher and higher until I slapped a hand to my chest with a pained bellow.
“Ahhh!”
The air thickened. A chill brushed over me, my skin pebbling with goosebumps.
“Maeve.” Said so quietly I doubted my hearing.
I was going crazy from a broken heart.
Hands roughly hauled me to my feet. I screamed, fighting to free myself, but the grip was too strong. My assailant spun me to face them.
“Quiet Maeve, it’s me.”
I caught a glimpse of his face before he pressed mine into his strong, snug chest.
The scent of Eucalyptus assailed my senses, calming me even as I wailed in his hold.
Lips pressed into my hair, a murmur, “I’ve got you.”
The ground fell away beneath my feet. A flash of dizziness hit me so strongly I slumped and would’ve fell if he hadn’t been holding me.
I closed my eyes until the uncomfortable feeling subsided.
When I opened my eyes. I wasn’t in my room anymore. Candles burned calmly on a candle holder, illuminating what looked like the room he’d taken me in. The room he’d taken my virginity.
He’d traced me.
Nikolai captured my chin in his cold hand, tilting my face up to his.
“You’re safe, Milaya.”
I stumbled backward. “I know I’m safe! My mother… she’s not there… Take me back!”
My head spun. Somehow, I was gripping the lapels of his cloak. “Take me back Nikolai!”
“She’s safe!” He said firmly, his hands gripping my heaving shoulders once more. “She’s okay.”
“How do you know?! Where is she? Take me to her this instant!”
His lips pressed into a thin line.
I gasped, disbelieving. “What have you done?”
“Done?” His brows furrowed. “Nothing. I wanted to see you, so I kept visiting your home. I knew you’d come for your mother soon enough…”
“And then what? What happened?”
His red eyes flashed, irritated that I kept cutting him off. But he wouldn’t understand. This was my mother. My life.
“Last night, while you were at the ceremony, a wolf took her.”
My heart stuttered.
Why did he inflect like that? Was he blaming me for leaving my mother to attend ceremony? I had to. He knew this.
More importantly.
A wolf took her. Why?
My breathing shuddered, loud in the serene space. I loosened my grip on his cloak, my mind firing every direction at once.
My gaze snapped up to his. “And you didn’t do anything? You watched a wolf take my mother, and you did nothing? Yet you say you care?!”
“She went willingly.”
“How.Do.You.Know? She might’ve been threatened!”
“It was a wolf she knew. She rode the fucking thing!”
I stilled. “W-what?”
He stepped away from me, going to sit in the feathered bed against the stone wall. He wiped a bone-white arm over his face. Only then did I notice his demeanor.
His normally pale skin was almost stark white. Deep, dark circles framed his glowing red eyes. The pillowy, soft lips I loved were tight and cracked.
I joined him on the bed, cupping his face in my hands. His skin was ice cold.
“What happened to you? Are you wounded?” I flicked my gaze over him but saw no injuries.
He shrugged away. “Your mother is safe. It’s the same wolf she returned with the night you were arrested. Sorin.”
He’d stayed long enough to hear the name that night? My heart warmed. He’d walked me home and stayed until he was sure I was safe.
But then, mother had left of her own violation?
My heart sank.
She hadn’t waited for me. And she wasn’t coming back, she’d cleaned out the house. Or had she secured her own passage into IronWolf?
“Did you follow her?” The hope in my voice was palpable.
“No. I left as I saw she wasn’t in danger. I had a lead to follow.” His eyes slid shut, as if he was resting.
Like a lightbulb, it clicked.
“When was the last time you fed, Nikolai? Is that why you’re… like this?”
His eyes snapped open, locking on mine. It was hypnotizing. His irises swirled, red veins forking over the whites.
“You’ve ruined me, Maeve. I hunger for no other blood but yours.”
Heat rushed over my chest and cheeks. Nikolai’s eyes followed the blush, his eyes sparking anew. With hunger.
I gently curved my arm around his wide shoulders, rising to sit across his thighs. He stilled, unmoving, like a predator unwilling to spook his prey.
Unbeknownst to him, this prey was hooked.
Bastian had been right to some degree. I did miss Nikolai’s bite. I’d missed him.
A pang of guilt made me pause, but I shrugged it off.
Bastian had called my efforts at bonding ‘underwhelming’ and ‘bland’. Maybe I ought to take one more lesson from my tutor to impress my mate.
With a finger under his chin, I pulled his face toward mine until my breath warmed his skin.
This beautiful, powerful male wanted my blood. Wanted me.
A feeling thumped in my veins, injecting me with confidence. Power.
I slid my tongue over his chapped lips, moaning when I felt how cold he was.
That wouldn’t do.
His lips fell open in trance, his hands gathering me closer against him. He needed, no craved my warmth.
Heart pounding, I pressed my tongue against his sharp fang in the middle of the kiss.
Blood burst out between our lips.
Nikolai shuddered, groaning with satisfaction. His grip tightened.
He sucked at my punctured tongue like the starving man he was.
Heat surged as our tongues tangled. We traded breaths, my moans and his desperate groans.
It wasn’t enough.
I pulled back to straddle him properly. “I need you, Nikolai… please…”
“I’ll take you, hard,” he cut in, my blood smeared all over his face, eyes wild, “I won’t be gentle Milaya.” He promised, or warned, I didn’t care.
His fingers were already rubbing my slick, probing my clit.
My head flung back in a scream. “Ahh! Yes yes… please.”
My dress fell aside in shreds. I dug my fingers into his flexing shoulders, peeling his clothes away. My finger brushed over a hardened nipple.
Gazes locked, Nikolai hissed, looking feral.
My heart stuttered.
Then he bit off two of his claws with loud snaps. Those two blunted fingers speared my core mercilessly.
I gasped at the intrusion, the fullness.
Ecstasy lashed my body, radiating from my core all over my body. I keened and kissed his face, his hair, his neck.
If I were a vampire. I’d bite him. Claim him.
Mine.
“Ya voz’mu tebya, ty moya,” he growled, grinding the heel of his fist on my clit harshly.
Wanton sounds escaped my lips.
Vision wavering, I hugged him tighter, writhed on his fingers, chased a feeling.
Euphoria.