Chapter 66 Wolf Bride
❦ Nikolai ❦
My body floated in and out of being.
Residual terror from nightmares bled into consciousness, and I roused to stinging pain that flared with every degree of awareness.
I peeled my lids open to see an unfamiliar ceiling above me.
A dark, matte green canopy, with lighter green tufts of curtains gathered around the large bed.
The bed was soft, too soft, and light spilled from a burning hearth at the foot of it.
One deep inhale told me I was in Lilith’s room.
Damned Lilith.
I tried to rise with my right hand before I remembered the fucking wolf had ripped it from me.
Scowling down at the thick swath of bandages over the stub of my shoulder, I gently prodded it with my left hand.
I moved carefully, trying not to constrict the left side of my chest.
That blasted arrow had nicked my very heart.
Damned Bastian.
He was lucky I’d been weakened from prior battles and drained. I’d have ended his life tonight.
I was dressed in only a pair of my easy brown pants, and I gritted my teeth at the thought that Lilith had undressed me.
The door opened with a soft draft.
“Oh look. You’re awake,” Lilith said, her voice soft but full of mischief.
“Why am I here? Where’s my bride?” I demanded.
She parted the canopy curtains with one tap of a button, letting the whir of the mechanism fill the silence.
When the curtains were finally tucked away and nothing separated us, she sighed.
She bit her lower lip, gaze roving over me shamelessly.
“You awaken, and you don’t even thank me for saving your life. You were about to be ripped apart, roasted in sunrise, before I returned for you.”
“It was your job to return for me, knowing I was weakened and couldn’t trace. Don’t make me ask again for my bride’s location.”
Her eyes flashed before she hid the hurt.
I stifled a grunt of annoyance.
As a fellow victim of Drusilla’s insatiable appetites, Lilith had also been drained to death. Drusilla had decided she liked the wicked mortal enough to turn her, gifting her crimson vampire powers.
Lilith was a crimson by turn, not by fate. She couldn’t bear heirs or contest for the throne.
She’d hounded me romantically ever since. And I’d denied her every time.
She just didn’t do it for me.
My bride, on the other hand, with her colorful blood and sensual heat—
I sat up, swinging my legs over the bed.
“Where is she?” I asked again, my tone curt.
“In your chambers. I’m surprised she’s not screaming the castle down this instant.”
“Why would she be screaming?” I asked, even though I already knew.
I’d forced her hand, bringing her to Veilmoor by force.
Lilith shrugged. “Something about freedom, and… hunger.”
I froze. Hunger?
“I agree with not letting her out of my chambers, but why would she be hungry?” I asked slowly, dampening the alarm rising in my chest.
Lilith smiled, an innocent, wicked curl to her lips and a glint in her eyes.
“I also thought the first face she should see while imprisoned should be yours.”
I made a mental check of my injuries. I was almost completely healed, my arm had already grown into a stump—
“How long was I unconscious?” I asked through gritted teeth.
Lilith’s voice was coy and challenging when she said, “Four weeks... give or take.”
My healing heart stuttered. My jaw dropped in disbelief.
“You locked my young, starving bride in a room for A MONTH?”
Lilith met my eye. “Well, you didn’t forbid me from starving her to death.”
I lunged off the bed, striding toward the door. My shoulders and spine twinged, causing more annoyance than pain.
“The regent orders your presence.”
I slowed.
“I was just coming to deliver her summons. She is quite anxious to see you,” Lilith finished, satisfied.
As my sire, Drusilla could sense my state of health, my death, my presence within the castle.
She must have sensed I’d awakened.
And if she summoned me now, then I had to go to her this instant.
My feet rooted to the floor.
A month.
She’d be alone, terrified, thinking I’d abandoned her.
On the other hand, going to Maeve before Drusilla would signal the very thing I needed to hide from her—
that my bride took precedence.
“Feed her,” I growled to Lilith. “Don’t touch her. Don’t talk to her. Just feed her and leave.”
“Yes, sir.” Her amusement grated on my nerves.
I traced without a second thought. The distraction made me stumble before Drusilla, her back to me on her moonlit patio.
My tracing ability had been restored.
I bit back a bitter curse. I could’ve traced to my bride before coming to Drusilla in record time.
Crimson vampires connected by blood could trace to the exact location of others within their immediate bloodline.
The night wind rustled the long train of Drusilla’s teal dress. I snapped my attention back to her.
She turned slowly, flute hanging in a deceptively soft grip.
“Regent,” I deferred with a strained bow.
My heart literally ached.
“Nikolai, my dear, dear friend,” she said in that breathy voice.
She turned fully, her flushed porcelain skin awash in the golden glow of the lamps. Moonlight streamed behind her, providing a silvery backdrop.
Frozen in her late twenties, Drusilla was comely, her face lovely and entirely non-threatening.
Until her fangs shot out and her red gaze blazed.
“I came as soon as I woke,” I injected, smoothing her ego.
“Yes, the whole thing is unfortunate. Lilith said something about losing your tracing ability?” Her eyes widened.
“It only just returned. I’m glad for it.”
“Oh, good,” she said.
Her hand rose slowly, tilting the flute toward her lips.
I braced myself.
“I got a lead on the mortal, but was attacked by a Lycan. Weakened. Starving.”
“Whyever were you starving? Lilith said you brought back two. A fledgling vampire and a wolf. Plenty of fodder, if you ask me.”
The urge to teach that loose-mouthed vampire a lesson simmered.
“Yes.” I drew my shoulders back. “I found my bride.”
Her eyes lit up. “Oh, so you couldn’t drain your injured human bride. I do congratulate you on finding your heart’s beat.”
I hesitated only a moment before adding,
“The wolf, is my bride.”
I held my breath.
The world seemed to quiet.
Drusilla’s lips thinned, red forking over the whites of her eyes.
The flute shattered in her hand.