Mikolas (5 page)

“
Y
ou bastard
!”

“What the hell was that for?”

What was that for? Could he really be so dense? “What do you think it was for? For telling me I should take you to mate and it’s not a big deal because you’re going to die?”

“It solves your problems. You didn’t want to be mated. My guess is it’ll only last a matter of hours until the infection—”

“Then what, huh?” She shoved him. “Then you’ll ask your brother to take yet another of his pack’s lives?”

“Better me to die than him. He’s the Alpha. This is my purpose and my duty to the pack.”

“What about your duty to me? What about me? You expect me to deliver you to your death? Just like that?”

“If anyone could be pragmatic about it, Voshkie, I thought it would be you. If Ondrej Turns, I don’t know that I’ll be able to put him down. I’m just a Beta of a decimated pack. I may not be able to summon Alpha fire. But me, if it’s me who’s taken, my brothers will lose a brother, but the Orlaith and anyone else who could get in Ondrej’s way would be safe. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Voshkie’s chest was heavy, like she’d been trapped under a collapsed building. She couldn’t breathe. Her logical mind said that his way was the only way. But her heart, and the new voice inside of her screamed at the injustice.

“This is what we do. This is who we are. We protect. We sacrifice. We serve the greater need.”

“I don’t want to.” She felt like a small child who’d been told it was okay to turn out the light because there was nothing scary in the dark. But it wasn’t okay. It was the farthest thing from okay, and the monster in the dark slavered in the places the light couldn’t touch.

She saw now that she didn’t really have any choice in the matter. Whether she surrendered to the Mating Fever or not, Mikolas Tatsu was her mate.

“Shit, Voshkie. Who does? It’s not a sacrifice if you don’t mind losing whatever it is you’re asked to give up.”

“Why does it have to be you?”

“Who would you rather it be? Imre? Ondrej and your princess? You?”

“It is me. Don’t you see that?”

He pulled her closer and she wanted to fight him, but she knew even if she didn’t help him, he’d find another way. These moments with him now would probably be her last. So she went into his arms. She inhaled the scent of him, the way his body felt pressed against hers, and the godsdamn honor that made him the only mate she’d be willing to take.

“But you’re strong. You’ll survive it. You’re only part dragon. You’ll be able to take another.”

“I don’t want another, Mik.”

He looked down at her. “You say that now, but someday—”

Mik caught her hand before she could punch him again. “You’re not listening.”

“Stop hitting me.”

“It doesn’t even hurt.” She scowled.

“It hurts my heart.”

“I hate you.” Her words had no bite and she knew it.

“I know.” He rested his chin on the top of her head.

To her abject horror, she began to cry. Not the pretty little dainty lady tears she’d been taught that nice nymphs do in public, but big, ugly howling snorts.

“That’s the problem. I don’t hate you at all. Oh gods, don’t ask me to do this. Please don’t ask me to let you go. I need you, Mik. I need you more than I’ve ever needed anyone or anything. Fever or not, you’re my mate.”

“Voshkie, I’m so sorry,” he said softly. “You didn’t want this.”

“But I got it, and now I have to let it go.”

“I’m glad you see that it’s the only way. Krysanthe is an amazing female. She’s strong. She’s fierce. But she won’t survive losing Ondrej, and you won’t survive losing her. Not when you’ve sworn to protect her. So you see, this is how things have to be.”

“How are you so sure I’ll survive losing you?” Grief suffocated her, she could barely draw breath. Not that she needed it.

“Because that’s who you are.”

“I hate how honorable you are. How loyal. I hate it because I love it. It broke everything in me and now…” She took great gulps of air.

“I love you, too.”

“I claim you, Mikolas Tatsu, of the Drago Knights MC, to be my mate. You’re mine.” She hadn’t meant to speak the words. She wasn’t going to claim him or let him claim her, but she couldn’t imagine letting him go without knowing what this felt like—to claim him and be claimed by him.

“Are you sure?”

“I have to give you up, I’m not going to do that without at least knowing what it’s really like to have you.”

“Then Voshkie, of the Orlaith, I claim you.
You’re mine
.”

He nuzzled into her neck, his lips hot on her skin. She knew what he wanted. He wanted to mark her, to give her the bite. Krysanthe hadn’t accepted it and Ondrej hadn’t forced the issue. She didn’t want to be Turned.

Neither did Voshkie, but what she did want was this piece of Mikolas. She wanted his mark on her skin. She wanted to commit this moment to memory to keep it when he was gone.

It was unlikely a single mating bite would Turn her anyway.

And at this point, she didn’t give a fuck if it did.

She turned her head to the side and offered her throat to him.

With a low rumble from his chest, his teeth tore into her tender flesh. It was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. It was pain, but it was exquisite. It was pleasure. It was everything and nothing in between.

She dug her nails into his shoulders and clung to him, her hips moving against him of their own volition. Her skin was hot everywhere, and she knew the Mating Fever had struck again, but this time she didn’t want to deny it.

Voshkie cried out. “More, Mikolas. Give me more.”

He tore her clothes off with his claws, literally shredded them, and plumes of smoke curled up in the air.

“Are you breathing fire for me, dragon?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Take me in the gold.” She made short work of his leathers and wrapped her legs around his hips. “Remember how you held me up in the motel?”

He filled his hands with the rounded globes of her ass and he moved her at his will. Mikolas rubbed his cock just at her slick entrance. It was the most delicious of taunts.

“Are you paying me back for making you wait?”

“If only we had the time.” He kissed her mouth. “I’d take you here over and over again, make you scream my name until walls shattered. Then I’d do it just once more.”

Her sex clenched and she wanted—no, needed him inside of her.

But the sooner he was inside of her, the sooner this would be over. The sooner she’d have to let him go.

Gods, that made it sound like it was a gentle thing, this letting go. A wispy fey leaf on a soft breeze. That was letting go. This was something else. This was having him torn from her, a violent ripping, tearing out of something vital.

“Don’t think about it, Voshkie. Think about now. Be here with me.”

She clung tighter as if that could somehow anchor him there and change the future that had been written for them.

“I am.” She cupped his face and looked into his eyes. Voshkie let herself fall into him, allowed the connection he sought and let the floodgates open. There was no part of herself that would be hidden from him.

He stepped down into the swirling gold and even the cool flow did nothing to soothe the burn that had begun inside of her.

But it did bind them even tighter, linking them through the gold.

His eyes burned emerald and she didn’t look away from his dragon now. She met it head on and let herself love everything Mikolas, even his dragon.

For as much as this would hurt, for as much as it would feel like dying when he was gone, she was glad she got to know what being with him like this would feel like. Knowing what it was like to be loved by him.

She’d have no regrets.

“Do you still want this?” he whispered in her ear.

“Forever.”

Submerged in the liquid gold, his movements were slow and precise, making the sensations that much more intense. So when he pushed inside of her, it was cataclysmic. Knowing what it was like to join with her mate made her understand why no male could ever satisfy her. It had never been about the physical, it had always been about that deeper connection she’d been afraid to want.

About what only Mikolas could give her and about what she could give him.

They moved as one and with this deeper binding, she could sense his pleasure and knew he could feel hers. It was as if they were wrapped in silken cords and there was no way to tell where one began and the other ended.

It was bliss.

It was eternal.

He’d been so wrong. She’d never take another mate if she survived losing him.

Voshkie had always thought that being joined, being mated, that it took something from the female, but it had taken nothing from her in the moment. It had only built her up, increased her strength. Made her more powerful.

She tried not to think of how she’d have to surrender it all.

For the greater good, he’d said.

He was right, but there was part of her that didn’t give a damn about the greater good. It only wanted Mikolas and forever.

But with an army of ghouls, forever might not be on anyone’s plate.

Voshkie didn’t want to think about this. She only wanted to touch and be touched, she only wanted to drown in the now with Mikolas.

Only the now was over much too soon. Something burst inside of her and the pleasure ebbed all too soon, leaving their bond electrified in its wake.

He held her close.

“Forgive me for this, Voshkie.”

“I will.” She kissed at his neck. “After I’m mad for a century.”

His arms tightened around her. “I love you.”

Before she thought about what she was doing, she bit his neck hard, her nymph teeth much sharper than they should’ve been when they tore into his neck.

He breathed fire.

And when she pulled back, she saw that her bite stayed on his skin, healing with scars that seemed to be infused with gold.

“You’re mine,” she murmured against his skin.

The seconds ticked away and each one was a death knell.

That was when she decided this wasn’t the end. She wouldn’t allow it to be. She’d do what he’d asked of her, but she’d save them both.

She was Voshkie of the Orlaith. She could do anything.

“If we’re going to do this, we better get started. If the horde is coming, we’d best be prepared.”

Mikolas nodded. “That’s my girl.”

“You better be thinking about how you’re going to work this two Alpha thing because I’m going to do what you’ve asked, but I’m going to cure you, too. So buckle up, buttercup.”

He laughed, but there was no real mirth. The sound was tinny and false. “I’ll owe you a debt I can never repay.”

“There are no debts between mates.”

Mikolas kissed her again, hard this time, their mouths crashing together in desperation. When he released her, he said, “I’m ready.”

Voshkie swallowed hard and steadied herself before speaking. “I need to talk to Krysanthe. She doesn’t know about the dragon. Me. I have to tell her. Just in case.”

“I understand.”

After she’d dressed, she headed back up through the tunnels with Mikolas behind her. She knew all the nooks and crannies of Hidden Mountain better than the back of her hand.

It didn’t take long to find Krys’s cavern.

“Krys, I need to talk to you.”

Krysanthe looked up from where she sat, still stroking Ondrej’s hair. “Now?”

“Yeah.” She nodded and looked to Mikolas. “I’ll only be a minute.”

Krys got up from her perch and Voshkie led her to a side chamber. “What is it? What’s happened?”

“I have to tell you something. I probably should’ve told you a long time ago, but after what happened, I couldn’t tell anyone.”

Krys took her hands. “That’s okay. You’re allowed to have your secrets.”

“You know my mother was stolen by dragons and that’s why I hated them for so long.”

“Everyone knows what happened to your mother. It’s horrific, and I swear, even though I’m mated to a dragon, that if we find those responsible, they’ll still be punished.”

“I know, Krys. It’s just… my father wasn’t Orlaith.”

“What do you mean?”

“The dragon who stole my mother is my father. I’m part dragon.” The confession was both painful, but cathartic. It was like she’d just removed the chains that had been hanging around her neck and holding her low.

“That’s why you can’t seem to manipulate gold like the rest of us.”

“My power isn’t in gold, it’s in energy. I can manipulate the energy in gold. And that’s how we’re going to save Ondrej.”

“The energy from the infection.” Krys nodded. “You’re going to transfer it—no. You can’t do that.”

She took a deep breath. “Yes, I can. And I will. We—Mik and I—will.” Voshkie held up her hand. “Don’t. Please. It’s the only way.”

“Oh, Vosh. Is Mik…”

“My mate? Yes. And there’s more. See, even if we get through this, I’m not just any dragon hybrid. I’m an Alpha.”

“You suck.”

“What?” This was not the reaction she’d been expecting.

“You can fucking fly and you’ve been keeping it a secret all these years?” Krys was teasing. She was showing Voshkie that she was forgiven, that Krysanthe understood everything. That nothing had changed between them even though Voshkie had kept this from her.

She’d never needed her friendship more.

“I can’t fly. I’ve never shifted. But he can’t be sworn to two Alphas and I won’t ask him to choose me over his brother.”

“This can’t be the only way to help Ondrej. It just can’t. Ondrej would never agree to this.”

“Yes, he would. Because if Ondrej Turns as an Alpha it would be catastrophic. So many people would die. This way, only Mik—” she choked on the words. “The collateral damage is fairly low. That’s an Alpha’s job, right? The greater good? The hard calls?”

Krysanthe put her arms around her. “We’ll find a way, okay? I swear we will.”

“We’re out of time. We have to try the transfer now. Who knows how long it will take Ondrej to recover.”

Krys nodded. “You’re so strong, Voshkie. I couldn’t do this in your place.”

“That’s why it’s me.” She bit her lip. She understood, she’d always understood. “Like Mik says, this is what we do. This is who we are.”