Moonlight Run

Sixteen

Nikolai’s POV

“Dimitri, this is really not the time.”

“I just heard you stand there and admit you’ve been seeing her, Nikolai.”

I snapped. “I didn’t mention Isadora.”

“Don’t bullshit me. You didn’t have to; I saw you in the rear view mirror last night, Nikolai… stroking her hair, fretting over her on the drive back.” He crossed his arms. “Until a couple weeks ago Isa was invisible to you. Now you’re all over her at training— and don’t think I didn’t know she was around when I saw you on the side of the road Friday morning. You forget how long she and I were together? I know she’s the wolf I saw running with you.”

Given the nature of having to shift and the nudity that was involved, doing so infront of a member of the opposite s*x was perceived as an intimate affair. For that reason, single wolves and she-wolves did not usually run as wolves together. I cringed as I offered a reply, “Dimitri, we made sure to turn around when the other one—”

“Are you kidding me with that bullshit?” He took an intentional step towards me. “You could at least spare me the indignity and tell me how long you’ve been f*****g her”

“I’m not.” I said through gritted teeth. “If you must know, we’ve only just kissed.”

Dimitri scoffed, stepping away from me towards the fireplace adjacent to us. He placed a hand on the mantle, and pinched the bridge of his nose with the other. When he spoke, his voice was calm, almost pleading. “End it, Nikolai. I need you to end whatever this is before it goes any further. Do it for me.”

“Dimitri, I…” Sighing, I sat down in one of the red armchairs. “I’m sorry, I can’t do that.”

“Can’t or won’t? She’s not of age yet, there’s no reason for you to even entertain a relationship with her.”

“But it was okay when you did?” I threw my arms in the air. “I don’t have a reply for you that you’ll like, Dimitri. There are things at work, my father being one of them, that would make putting space between Isadora and I altogether unlikely at this point.”

His face contorted into an expression of fury and confusion, and he took a seat in the armchair across from me. “Your father… he encourages this relationship?”

I nodded. “He does. He knows there are still those in this pack that would challenge his rule; those who would have preferred to have Ivan Petrova, or even Leon, still in charge.”

Dimitri said simply, “And a union between you and Isadora rectifies that because it brings her family back into the line of succession?”

I nodded. He continued, “I get why that would appeal to him, I do. But as of tonight you are your own man, Nikolai. You don’t have to do things the way your father wants you to anymore. If you intend to name me your Beta, then isn’t my advice worth as much salt, if not more, than his?”

“Your advice is always welcome… so long as it is not given based solely on your personal feelings.”

He narrowed his eyes at me now, leaning forward in his chair. “You know, I would follow you into the gates of hell, right? …But if you pursue this— that’s the end for us, brother.”

I bit hard on my lip. “You have Phoebe, and you’ll be married soon. Tell me why you care so much?”

“Because,” Dimitri hesitated. “Isadora will always be my first love, my first anything, do you understand? How would you have felt if I’d dated Becca? There are boundaries you do not cross, and this is one of them, Niko.”

“And what if she is my mate?”

“Ya know what, sure. If next year, when Isa comes of age, she turns out to be your mate? Then fine. Even I can’t argue with fate. But until then, have the decency and respect for me to keep your god damn hands off of her.”

“Or what?” I rose from my chair suddenly. “Where’s your respect for me right now, Dimitri? Tell me what you’ll do if I don’t. I dare you.”

He was up from his seat in an instant and took a step towards me. Dimitri never was one to back down from conflict. Truthfully, it’s one the many things that would make him a good Beta. He laughed as looked into my eyes. And I saw his brown eyes turn gold. He was ready to fight over this.

“Ya know what…” He laughed. “I don’t have to do anything I haven’t already done to get my point across, Nikolai. I know how she still feels about me, and all I have to do is turn on the charm. That ‘first love’ kind of connection— that doesn’t go away, not for girls like her. She’s sweet that way.” He chuckled menacingly. “You say you haven’t slept with her yet? Then you have no idea how sweet. But I do. I can still taste her on my—”

My fist made contact with his jawline before another word could leave his mouth.

I felt the heat rise up out of me and I closed my eyes, as I projected my words clearly. “Dimitri, you will never speak another word of your history with Isadora again. She is not yours. And you’ll stay away from her.”

He was crouched on one knee now, wiping the blood from his mouth. He barely looked up at me and as the compulsion registered with my every word, he winced.

In the next instant, my father reappeared in the doorway. “Twice in one day, Nikolai?” He glared at me, and then to Dimitri. “Need I remind you, you are to refrain from using compulsion until you have Ascended.”

“But father, I—”

He raised his hand to silence me. “No lies, no excuses. You know I can sense when you use it.”

My father looked back to Dimitri. “Dimitri, leave us. Go clean yourself up before the luncheon, boy.”

“Yes, sir.” He said, rising to his feet. He didn’t look at me as he exited the room.

My father waited until he had closed the door behind him before he spoke again, stepping around his desk to take a seat. “Do you even have a Beta now?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.” I admitted.

“Well, let him cool off for the moment. Perhaps have a word with him after the luncheon. In the meantime, I would consider backup options. You can’t have that kind of insubordination in your inner circle, Nikolai.”

“Understood, father.”

“For what it’s worth,” he began. “I find it shameful that boy would even concern himself with the girl, now that he is engaged. I think you handled his disrespect far better than I would have.”

I opened my mouth to thank him, when he continued. “But, onto the matter that brought you here… It’s time we talked about Becca Rivera. I owe you that much.”

I straightened up my shoulders in reaction. “So you were listening when I was with Isadora? Dad, that was a private—”

“When you Ascend tonight, Nikolai, and you’ll begin to come into the last of your gifts. And you’ll understand that each has a unique purpose that will help you keep this pack running as smoothly as possible. I will not be shamed for using mine. Hearing and knowing everything that goes on in this pack has helped us more than you can imagine.”

I bit my tongue, only nodding in return. My father’s enhanced hearing capabilities were renown in our pack. There was little he didn’t know about. But the idea that my father was using his abilities to read our thoughts while I was sharing such a vulnerable moment with Isa was unsettling. I suppose I should have known better than to take her into my office, knowing he was sitting in his own office just a few yards away.

My father cleared his throat, motioning to the chairs.

“Becca Rivera came to me after the two of you broke up, very much under the impression that you had done so at my insistence. The girl had deluded herself into believing that because you truly loved her — and I can’t say for sure if you did, I never could tell — that you still wanted her, even if she wasn’t your mate.”

My father wasn’t wrong there. The decision to end things with Becca had been mine. Nevertheless, she’d said the same thing to me.

“Yes, she expressed as much to me more than a few times.” I sighed. “She was in denial, dad; she was certain that you were behind my decision to part ways with her, even when I told her otherwise.”

“You know, I liked the girl well enough. I believed once that she may have even made a fine Luna… right until she came crawling into my office after your breakup, reeking of desperation, begging me to permit you to be with her again. I told the girl, I’m not keeping you from him, darling, fate is. And then her desperation took a turn…”

“How do you mean?”

“The girl offered to ‘do anything’ if it meant she could have my blessing. So I tested the limits of her impetuosity, and her loyalty to you, my son.” His eyes narrowed, and I understood what he was implying.

“Dad… you didn’t?”

He leaned back in his desk chair, and swung his crossed legs onto the side of his desk. “Nikolai, all that girl did was prove she didn’t deserve you. A better woman, one that truly loved you? She would have walked out that door the moment the subject was on the table. Instead, she threw herself on it,” He motioned to his desk, and I backed away.

I swallowed hard, feeling the rage building up. “What happened after?”

“You know what happened. The girl was unhinged, and tried to lock you in a basement with her while she was in heat. That’s what happened. She was clearly unstable on top of being unloyal. Bullet dodged, I say.”

“So you just, what— had your way with her and sent her out the door?” I scoffed. “You’re telling me you didn’t say anything to Becca that would have led her to snap like she did?”

My father rolled his eyes. “I threw her clothes at her and told her that she shamed the Rivera name… her family, they’re good people, you know? I said she certainly didn’t deserve my son’s last name either. And then I had her removed from my office.”

I felt gutted by my father’s revelation. “Dad… can you really not see how that—”

“And I’m sorry for that, Nikolai. I should have compelled her to stay away from you when she left.”

“No, dad! You shouldn’t have slept with her to begin with. The moment she suggested it, all you had to do was end it there. She’d already proved her disloyalty with the offer. Making her go through with it only benefited you— what more of a lesson could she have possibly learned from what you did?”

“Shame is the greatest teacher,” he retorted.

“Funny, I wouldn’t think you would be familiar with the concept of shame, since you don’t seem to have any.”

Before he could respond, I was out the door. I began to feel the searing pain in the back of my head as I made my way down the annex hallway. I could faintly hear his voice in the office, and I knew was trying to order me back into the room. But I dug deep and found the resolve to keep my feet moving forward, until I was far enough from him it could not affect me.

“No more,” I decided.

***.

Isa’s POV

I had locked the door to the bathroom nearest to my bedroom, and was standing atop the toilet across from the sink, so I could see the full view of my midsection in the mirror above the vanity.

Not one single bruise remained. I hopped down, reading the text from the library book I had flipped open on the bathroom counter, and reread it again for good measure.

“Two true mates, regardless of age or bond, could heal each other’s wounds with their affections.” The next two paragraphs went on to provide detailed historical accounts.

The first mentioned a she-wolf who had shared a sired mate-bond with another, but then was critically wounded. Her true mate, who had been paired with a woman in a nearby pack, was brought to her to save her life. His touch and his kiss pulled the woman from her critical state, and she went on to live a full life. When he was on his deathbed many years later, she did the same for him. The two otherwise lived out their lives separately, with their respective sired mates.

The second paragraph was a more well known story of Aurora and Philip Perrault— two wolves that were believed to have been the inspiration for the mortal’s popular tale Sleeping Beauty. Aurora was the daughter of an Alpha within her own pack. Philip was the son of an Alpha of another nearby pack. At only 16 and 18 they still had several years left before they would feel the pull of their mates. Unfortunately, Aurora fell comatose after a near-deadly encounter with wolfsbane given to her by a witch with a grudge. After some time asleep, her family feared she may never wake up and chose to have a sort of memorial service for the girl, expecting that she would pass soon.

The story tells that distinguished Alphas from all over the region came to pay their respects to the family. But when a young Philip saw the girl sleeping in her casket, remembering the story of Snow White and the prince’s kiss that awoke her, he kissed the girl. Witnesses saw her move in response and encouraged him to do it again, and again, marveled each time as she seemed to stir awake. Eventually her eyelids fluttered open, and the girl was alright. The families stayed close, and when Philip had come of age, he began to feel the pull to Aurora that she also came to experience as her own birthday approached. They were mates, after all.

Throughout time stories like these had popped up in our history, but the important details remained the same: only true mates could heal one another in this way. Everyone who had been healed by their mate described the sensation as cool and tingling as the ailment would heal, returning to normal only when it had. It is said that the mate’s scent changed when injured, too. The affected party would smell eucalyptus on their mate. The working theory was that it was an evolutionary survival tool, one that helped help those who were sick and injured find their mates when they needed to be healed.

I shut the book, processing the information as I slumped onto the toilet lid, folded over on my knees. I was playing out the scenario between Nikolai and I in my head from every angle, until a knock at the door snapped me from my thoughts.

“Isa?” Pipa’s voice came through the door. “Isa, are you in there?”

I stood up and closed the book shut, then unlocked the door before sitting back down.

“Hey,” she said. “Do you have your phone? I’ve been texting you.”

“Oh, no, sorry.” I explained that I’d left it back in my bedroom.

“Where have you been all afternoon?” She asked with concern. “We should start getting ready soon. Dahlia and Lily are coming by my room and I’m going to do their hair and makeup, too. Did you want me to do yours?”

“Um, I don’t think I’m going, Pipa. My ribs are still hurting,” I lied.

She laughed. “I’m pretty sure attendance is mandatory.”

“For the Ascension ceremony, yeah. But I didn’t think that applied to this obnoxious ball that Phinease is throwing?”

“No, I’m pretty sure it applies to all of it. Besides, if I’m going, you’re going. Like I said; mandatory.”

I groaned. “Pipa, I don’t even have anything to wear.”

She opened the bathroom door and motioned me out. “Grab your book, nerd. I’ve got you.”

“Fine… just, let me go grab my phone from my room first?”

“Oh, now you want your phone. But when I need you? You don’t care about having your phone around.” She teased with a grin.

I rolled my eyes at her, and told her I’d meet her in her room in a few minutes. After I stopped by my room I shoved the book in my nightstand, making a mental note to go return it to the parlor library later. My phone still sat on my bedspread. I looked at my notifications screen.

There was a message from Nikolai.

“I spoke to my father about Becca. I don’t know what to say for his motives, but I promise my intentions are honest, Isadora. They were with her, too.”

He had sent the message not too long after we had our exchange in his old office. I began to type back a response, typing and then deleting again, struggling to find the words to express my concerns to him, when another message came through from him.

“It would mean a great deal to me if you would join me at the party this evening. I hope we can talk more, maybe over a dance?”

I could feel my heartbeat racing again. I deleted everything I’d just typed, now even more unsure what to say. If I said No, I risked offending the man who was meant to be my new Alpha… possibly even my future mate. I shook the latter thought from my head. If I said yes, I was consenting to allow this to go further, as far as making our odd relationship, or whatever this was, public. And I knew I wasn’t ready for that yet either.

I decided not to reply. If he asked, I would say I’d simply not had my phone around while getting ready. Yes, that seemed like the best move.

I was so focused on this situation, and getting over to Pipa’s room, that I hadn’t even bothered to check my other texts. If I had, then I would have found, apart from Pipa’s unread messages, that a third set of important texts were waiting for me.

But I wouldn’t see those until it was too late.