Moonlight Run

Twenty-Eight

Isa’s POV

I felt as if I may never stop shaking again after the unexpected encounter I’d had with Nikolai. Even now, twenty minutes later in the tub, I kept having to grab my thigh to keep it from twitching. I was blushing so much at the mere thought of what had just happened between us— or rather, what had happened between my legs. I didn’t know how I was ever going to look at him again without wanting to die from the embarrassment.

And, of course, I was completely without my phone and unable to text Pipa about the ordeal. 

There was a knock at the bathroom door and Nikolai said through the door. “I’ve got clothes set out for you in your room. Did you want me to bring them in there? I wasn’t sure where you wanted to change.”

The idea that he was concerned I may not want him to see me change now, after what had transpired just less than a half hour ago, was amusing to me and I laughed out loud at the thought. 

He opened the bathroom door and shot me a curious look. I sunk down into the quickly fading bubbles as he did. “You alright in here? Need anything?”

“I’m fine,” I squeaked. “How are you? Are you… fine?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Nikolai looked around the room. “s**t. I forgot to get you a towel. I’ll be right back.”

He closed the door behind him and I sighed, sure that this man held me in his hands like silly putty now. I would have to put an end to the constant blushing and squeaking very soon or he would know.

When he returned a few minutes later, he set the towel on a small stand to the left of the tub. 

“Temperature still alright?” he asked. “I wasn’t sure how quickly it was going to get cold, especially since…” he trailed off with a grin, leaning back against the bathroom counter.

“Yeah,” I bit my lip and nodded. “It was perfect temperature, actually. So I guess your timing is, um…” I gave the okay symbol with my hand and he laughed.

I quickly changed the subject. “So, Phoebe… she set all this up for you?”

“For you,” he said, crossing his arms. “I think she hopes that the two of you can be friends now.”

“Right,” I shook my head. “Now that she knows that I’m not a threat to her and Dimitri because she knows about you and I…” I scratched my head. “Sorry, what, um—” I bit my lip again. “What is this, you and I? I guess we should talk about that… and um, why does Phoebe know about it, exactly?”

Nikolai scoffed. “Isa, of course she knows. You can’t think Dimitri wouldn’t tell her?”

“But why does Dimitri know, and what does he know? Like I said… I’m not exactly sure what this is… whatever’s happening here between us, I mean.”

“Isadora,” he said sternly, coming over to the tub now, crouching beside me. “You know what this is. And you can deny it now, but I’ve known for weeks what you’re going to find out in just a few short days. And yeah, it didn’t make sense when we thought you were turning twenty, but now that we know the truth…”

I looked away from him and cringed, recalling the terrible truth I’d learned just a few short hours ago. But then I felt his hands on my face, turning me to look at his.

“We’re mates, Isa,” Nikolai said softly. “And that’s not something we need to hide from.”

I nuzzled against his hand and sighed.

He continued. “And really, given the circumstances that we know of… It’s the best thing for you.”

“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow, pulling my face from his hands. “You think you’re the best thing for me? Well, aren’t you confident?” 

He narrowed his eyes at me with a frown. “You know what I mean.”

“Right. Because you think if I’m paired with you that your father isn’t going to hurt me, or worse…” I shook my head. “Julius was way out of line for a lot of reasons, Nikolai. But he was right about one thing… your father would just as soon use me for the same reasons he was going to.”

“But I won’t. And I’m going to be Alpha soon—”

“Right,” I nodded again, standing from the tub and grabbing the towel. “Just as soon as you kill my brother.” 

I stepped out over the edge of the tub onto the adjacent bath rug and Nikolai groaned.

“Isadora, are we not both agreed that the best thing for you is if my father doesn’t find out about you until I’m already Alpha?”

“Yes,” I said, wrapping the towel around me. “But—”

“And we both know I can’t become Alpha until your brother is out of the picture… So if it is in your best interest for me to ascend as soon as possible, so that I can protect you, then—”

“There has to be another way!” I protested.

“WELL, THERE ISN’T! He shouted, his eyes flashing a dangerous shade of ice blue. I took a step backwards from him and gasped. He breathed heavily and looked down to his bare feet. He shook his head, “Dammit, Isa…”

Nikolai went to the door and stopped as he stood in the doorway, his back to me. “Even if he didn’t have to die… why would you want to spare him after everything he’s done?”

As I felt my chest racing and the tears building in my eyes, he shut the bathroom door firmly behind him. I heard him thud down the steps and slam my apartment door as he left, and then I burst into tears.

***

Nikolai’s POV

I hurried through the annex door and took the elevator down to the basement. When I emerged, Valric and Cyrano were there, waiting.

“Where’s Dimitri?” I asked aloud as they followed me down the hallway to the cells.

“He’s with Phoebe tonight.. You told her you’d give him the night off if she helped you—”

I ignored his statement, adding, “Get the keys to Maximus’ cell. Now.”

When the silver door flew open, I stepped inside. Maximus rolled over to see me and then grunted as he sat up.

“The hell do you want?”

“I want to make a deal,” I said.

He chuckled. “I’m not the one you should be making deals with, kid. Last I checked, you aren’t either.”

“Yet,” I said through gritted teeth. “As it stands right now, my father plans to correct that by putting an end to both of your lives tomorrow night…” I motioned to the cell to the left of us, which I knew held Julius. “But maybe that doesn’t need to happen.”

Maximus laughed. “And how do you suppose that?”

“Convince him to abdicate,” I said. “Tell him to do it for his sister. She couldn’t live with herself if—”

“You mean she couldn’t live with you if you took her brother’s life?” He raised a challenging brow. “I’m old, I’m not stupid, boy.”

I crossed my arms, swallowing hard.

“No, you’re not stupid. Which is why I believe you’d prefer to be alive than dead.”

“You know, Julius had it figured out…” Maximus shook his head. “If you’d just taken his deal… With your father gone, you could’ve taken your people from here, and still have been just as much an Alpha… It wouldn’t have mattered if it were just these two fellas there by your side,” He motioned to Valric and Cyrano, who stood behind me in the hall. “With her by your side as your mate? You could grow your own damn pack in a year’s time.”

“I would never do that to her.” I snarled.

“And why not? That’s what she was bloody well created for, wasn’t it? Tell me Petrova — the notorious pack purist himself — didn’t go out and bed himself a human for any other reason than—”

“Enough!” I shouted. “I don’t care if her scumbag father had plans for her. She’s here and she’s a good f*****g person who deserves better than that. Her brother and the woman she called mother should want more for her than that.”

“I hear mommy dearest won’t be wanting for much of anything real soon,” he challenged.

I shook my head in disbelief, refusing to reply to his comment. “Maximus, from my understanding, you were the first person to hold that baby girl in your arms when you pulled her from her biological mother’s stomach… Do you feel nothing, no obligation to care for the children you help bring into this world? Not even enough to want better for her than the terrible plans her father, and even her brother, had for her?”

Maximus looked down at his hands for a moment and sighed before he looked back up at me. “You forget that I held that boy in my hands first.” He motioned over to Julius’ cell. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”

I clenched my jaw hard and nodded, staring deeply into his eyes. “Then I’m going to enjoy watching you burn, Maximus.”

***

As we walked out of the elevator, Cyrano and Valric both had a number of questions.

“Did I hear that right?” Cyrano said first. “Marisol isn’t Isadora’s mom? What the hell?”

“No, she isn’t.” I said simply, heading to my former office.

“Well, who is?” He asked. 

I raised a finger to silence him, stopping in front of my father’s office. I opened the door. It was already empty. It was after nine now and I knew he must have gone to bed for the night. I went to the next room. Once Cyrano and Valric had entered, I locked the door behind them, motioning to the couch across from my desk. They both sat as I leaned against the desk.

“Everything I’m about to tell you stays between the three of us. Dimitri heard some of it. But I’m not even sure what all Isa knows yet, so as far as she’s concerned you know nothing; are we understood?”

The two men each nodded.

“Isa’s birth mother was a human.”

They both laughed. When they could see I wasn’t joking, they straightened up.

Valric spoke, “Respectfully, Nikolai… that’s not possible. Everyone knows that wolves who mate with humans just produce more humans… both parents have to carry the gene.”

“Except for the one day a year that legend tells you they don’t.” I said, going to the calendar that hung on my office wall to the right. I flipped it back to the month of April, my finger resting firmly on the date that read Easter Sunday.

“Easter?” he asked.

“Ostara,” Cyrano’s eyes narrowed skeptically. “Are you talking about the Ostara Conversion?”

“Oh,” Valric said. “Yeah, I knew that’s what he meant.”

Cyrano shook his head. “Nikolai… that’s a myth. And one that’s been twisted so much throughout history that I don’t think anyone could even tell you what the myth is anymore.”

I looked down at the ground. “Yeah, well. Ivan Petrova and that bearded asshole down in the cells figured it out.”

Ostara was the supernatural version of Easter. Like humans, we celebrate the occasion on the first Sunday after the first full moon that follows the Spring Equinox. We also had a big feast, even did an Easter egg hunt for the children. Unlike humans, we still very much stuck to the origins of the holiday; Ostara was the goddess of fertility, and our people took it very literally, with the after-hours celebrations continuing into the late night hours for many couples. 

But in our oldest lore, you can find a number of obscure references to the once-known Ostara Conversion; a ritual practice that was believed to allow wolves to turn humans on the eve of Ostara… without biting them. Given the symbolism of the holiday, most suspected that this involved mating with humans… but despite the best efforts of wolves well before my time, that never panned out. The humans would remain human, and any children born from the encounter were human, too. Eventually, the Ostara Conversion came to be dismissed as nothing more than legend.

“So Ivan managed to turn Isa’s mom into a werewolf?”

“No, Isa’s birth mother didn’t become a werewolf.” I hesitated, looking back and forth between the two of them as they exchanged confused expressions. “The Ostara conversion doesn’t turn humans into wolves… but when done right — and I mean at the right time, and in the right way — it turns out you can create more wolf pups, afterall.”

Valric furrowed his brow. “Plenty of wolves have tried that. All they’ve ended up with is children that don’t carry the gene.”

“Yes, and, according to Maximus, Isadora has at least two older human siblings that were the result of Ivan’s own trial and error… He got it right with Isa’s mom. It’s like I said, right time, the right way.”

He leaned forward in his chair intently, “So what the hell was the right way?”

I went to the calendar again. “Historically, we’ve always celebrated Ostara, or Easter, on the first Sunday after the first full moon that falls after the equinox, right? But when the first full moon happens on a Sunday, what do we do?” I asked them. The two men shrugged, having no answer. “We celebrate it on the following Sunday.”

I paused. “My point is that it’s a flex holiday, one we move around year-after-year with no real certainty of the exact date. But Ivan figured out that for the conversion to work correctly… it has nothing to do with the day we celebrate it… The Eve of Ostara is on that first full-moon.”

Valric and Cyrano nodded with understanding, but it was Cyrano who spoke again. “But wait, Isa’s birthday is in June. For her to have been conceived on even the true eve of Ostara… she would also have to be a Moonbeam. Do you mean to tell me that Ivan Petrova mated with a human woman while he was…” He shuddered.

“No!” I said, shaking my head. “No. At least, not according to Maximus. Ivan swore he was in human form whenever it happened. But for whatever reason, the resulting pregnancy replicated one of a Moonbeam conception— one that, in the end, took Isadora’s biological mother’s life because it was so rough on her body. Maximus suspects it’s got something to do with the power that Isa has.”

“Sorry, the power that Isa has? What power, exactly?” Valric asked.

“I was getting to that…” I sighed, sitting back down in the desk chair now. “When Isadora was born, Ivan had Maximus run all kinds of tests on her, to make sure she was as much a wolf as the rest of us. He took all kinds of samples, exposed them to all kinds of elements…” I tapped my fingers on the desk, thinking over my words.  “Maximus made a startling discovery about Isa’s blood… Isa’s blood carries the same venom that our canines produce.”

The council had long since banned the biting of humans, and when they did, they enacted the practice of venom-sac removal. It was something that all pack-wolves had done as adolescents, as soon as our adult canines came in. This prevented our venom from activating when we turned twenty-one, as it would if we had left the sacs untouched.

Cyrano gasped. “Holy s**t. So Isa’s basically a walking supply of that stuff?”

“She is.” I nodded solemnly. “And Julius planned to use her blood to create an entire army with her, just as we could suspect Ivan would have, too.”

Valric ran his hand over his chin several times before he spoke. “Why lie about her birth year? What was the point of that?”

“I can only guess that he didn’t want anyone else to figure out the circumstances of her conception. Maximus said they invented a lie shortly after her birth that Marisol was pregnant, and then the would-be mother and child were kept hidden from everyone, even the staff.” I paused. “But think about it… if someone were to become aware of Isa’s power, and then that someone knew her correct birthday… If they did the math backwards, factoring in the possibility that she was a Moonbeam…”

Valric nodded, understanding. “Then they’d know she was conceived on the true Eve of Ostara.”

“It’s a lot of lies to keep one little girl a secret.” Cyrano frowned.

Valric scoffed. “It’s a big deal of a f*****g secret. I mean, really, can you imagine how someone could use her? An endless supply of werewolf venom, which someone like Ivan Petrova would no doubt use to create more werewolves, or worse— sell to other packs so they could, too.”

“He’s right,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Isadora wasn’t meant to be his daughter, she was his product.”

Cyrano looked at Valric in shock, and then back at me. “That’s what Maximus meant then, when he said, with her by your side, you could just take two men, like us, and grow your pack in a year?”

I nodded. “Even if I had killed my father as soon as Julius asked me to, I’m sure he would have kept her from me at least until Tuesday —when she turns twenty-one, not twenty, mind you — when the venom in her bloodstream will activate.”

Cyrano asked quietly, “Do you think he really would’ve given her back if you had though?”

I scoffed. “I doubt it. I guess he’d said something to Isa… that if I didn’t make the trade then she would wish he had killed her instead. I figured he meant bleeding her out to create his army… But I keep going back to something he said to me, that night by the pier…”

“What was it?” Cyrano asked.

“He said I had until the next full moon to kill my father, and then I could have Isa. Now that we know she’ll be twenty-one this week, I know that means that on that full-moon in particular—”

Valric said it. “She’s gonna go into heat.”

I nodded. “Yeah, yeah she will.”

“So, what do you think he was going to do with her?”

I shook my head. “I guess I don’t know for sure, but… I don’t think he’d be foolish enough to let just anyone mate his sister knowing what’s in her bloodstream.” 

I clenched my jaw and swallowed. “The truth is, I wouldn’t put it past that motherfucker to sell her off to the highest bidder, or whoever he thought would be his strongest ally. I just know that whoever would have gotten their hands on her would have only the worst intentions for her, or even for any children she could have.”

“Holy s**t,” Valric said. “Well wait, if you really are her mate… do you think your children would be like her?”

“I hope it’s a trait that remains unique to Isadora. I worry enough now, imagining all the ways I have to keep her safe. Even just making sure I’ve entrusted the right people with the truth about her… I don’t want to even think about the lengths I would go in order to protect her children… our children.” I felt my heartbeat race as I said the words, and my first balled up in response.

“How can we help?” Cyrano asked.

“I know my father won’t share my thoughts on this. He would never look at Isadora and see anything other than a goldmine in her veins, just the same as Julius.” I sighed. “So I need you to help me maintain a believable lie.”

“Done. What’s the lie?”

“That Isa is not Ivan’s daughter… but the product of Marisol and Leon, instead… We suggest their affair started years before Ivan was unseated. We offer up the idea that Leon and Marisol were true mates and he had broken her bond with Ivan, and that’s why Leon died holding onto that lie in my father’s arms. That’s the real reason he unseated Ivan Petrova.”

Cyrano cringed. “Nikolai… I’m not sure Pipa’s going to be thrilled about going along with a lie that paints her recently departed father as an adulterer. And what happens if your father compels the truth out of Marisol when she wakes up from her hospital bed?”

“It was Pipa’s idea,” I said softly. “She’d do anything for Isa. Pipa says as far as she’s concerned, they’re sisters anyway.”

“And Marisol?”

Valric shook his head. “Cyrano… hasn’t anyone told you? Marisol’s probably not waking up from that coma. Whatever Julius did to her when he found out she drove Nikolai back into their lair — instead of Bianca? Well, he did a damn good job of it….”

I winced at his words, but they were probably true. Marisol’s brain activity was registering poorly on the infirmary’s monitors, and the outlook wasn’t good.

“Damn,” Cyrano said. “Has anyone told Isa that yet?”