Page 34 of The Red Room
SEVENTEEN
Nik only staresdown at the bar, anguish in his strong features. Viktor, somehow a real monster regardless of whether or not the moon is full, is applauded for his atrocious behavior while Nik is treated like some pariah in his own family.I thought I had issues with my parents.Knowing what I do now, I’m not quite sure I could even begin to compare all of the gripes I have about my childhood to Nik’s upbringing.
“So, does that mean Viktor will be the next alpha?” I ask, taking another sip of water.
He shakes his head. “No. As the firstborn I am next in line to lead the Vostik pack. Once my father is deemed unfit, I will take his place. Granted no one tries to challenge me for that right.”
I remember the cold glare in his brother’s eyes. How he looked at Nik as a rival and not his own flesh, blood, and well, fur and claws. No, Viktor was studying him like he was an obstacle. The same way he peered at the man Nik roughed up the other night. Not his brother, just something in his way. Questionsseem to form a picket line in my head, fighting for the chance to have their voices heard.
“Would Viktor challenge you?” I ask bluntly.
Nik smirks, though there isn’t happiness in his smile. It’s closer to remorse. “He hasn’t yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. We have been pitted against each other since he was born. Constantly fighting for my father’s approval. And when Viktor was able to transform two full cycles ahead of me … well, let’s just say he looked at Viktor a little differently from then on. The youngest wolf to ever shift. A prodigy.”
Something tells me those final words are not his own, but his fathers. There’s pain in his eyes. Pain and a heavy burden gnawing away at him. If he did challenge Nik for his birthright, what would Nik have to do? Fight him? Kill him? The thought of the brothers clashing is a terrifying one. Nik practically doubled in size when he changed, and I can only imagine how big and savage Viktor might become under a full moon. How in the hell do you fight off something like that?
“So, you weren’t bitten? If your brother and father are also—” I pause and bite down on my lips. I’ve seen the way he says ‘monster,’ and how the two-syllable word seemingly stabs at him like a silver crucifix. He still looks at me, ready to be called every form of monstrosity in the book. I won’t though. No one so gentle, so intent on my safety, could ever be in a late-night creature feature. Not even if he turns into something else I can’t explain. “You were born this way,” I say, leaving no hint of insult in my voice.
Nik takes a deep breath and nods. “Yes. My family has been cursed for generations.”
“How many … generations?” I murmur.
He sighs and caps the bottle of bourbon. “My great-grandfather was the first.”
“The first?” Is he telling me what I think he is? His bloodline, the Vostik family, were the very first things that went bump in the night? The first monsters under a child’s bed? The very real myth of something supernatural in this world? No. He can’t mean that. They must’ve been the first pack in Russia. The continent. Surely he couldn’t mean—
“Werewolf,” he says, his tone stiff and unwavering. “We were the first of our kind.”
I swallow the remaining water harshly, trying to keep it all in despite the surprise dribble spilling down my chin. If they were the first, how many more of them are there?
“My great-grandfather was known to be ruthless and cunning with his business venture, the only thing keeping bread on the table.” Nik points to the vodka bottle with his last name etched on the label. “And when a deal with another merchant went sour, he and his bloodline were cursed by those he wronged. Ancient magic. This penance would make the rest of the world see him for what he truly was under the full moon.”
“A monster,” I say before I can stop myself, my voice withering.
He nods and returns to the bourbon to its rightful place on the shelf. “Father said it was Grandad’s relentlessness both during and after a full moon that gave our family strength. Honor.” A scoff leaves his lips, and Nik holds himself against the bar, ready to smash the entire thing to scrap wood if I had to guess. “Viktor was his name. Viktor Vostik, the first werewolf. The first stain on my family’s heritage.” He shakes his head and begrudgingly glances in my direction. “And I have no doubt my brother will bring the same damnation to my family as he did.”
Damnation? How could Viktor possibly make it worse? He could fight Nikolai for the role of alpha, sure, but after that? What is he going to do? Slaughter entire cities? Start a war with humankind?
I bring my hand over the bar again and caress Nik’s arm. The touch ignites something terrible yet addicting as lightning strikes different parts of me. Every time I’m around Nik, every time our skin becomes one, a shock courses through me like a thunderbolt. There’s no warning, only the aftermath of this man, and me being the casualty ready to fall to my knees before him. God, I don’t know what it is that keeps me upright in this barstool. It’s not lust, and judging from the curse placed on his entire family, it isn’t holy. The seven deadly sins forgot an eighth, and that is Nikolai Vostik.
“So, he’s big?” I say, though scoff might be a better word.
Nik leans forward, taking my hands in his. “Bigger than any other in our pack.”
“And he might want to kill you.”
One side of his face lifts in a sadistic smirk. “Scatter each of my limbs across the city.”
“But you won’t let that happen.” I don’t know why I’m giving him this pep talk. I’m not sure he even needs it. He’s always so confident. So certain of the outcome like the world is a game of chess and he’s already three moves ahead. I can’t stop myself, though, and continue to spit out the first thoughts coming to mind. “And why is that?”
Nik grins fully, his eyes fixed on me. “I do not fear my brother, Natalia.”
A deep breath capsizes my lungs as he leans closer. Close enough to feel his steady breaths waft the hair away from my face.
“You. You are the only thing that makes me nervous,” he says and glances down at our intertwined fingers.
Nervous? I makehimnervous? Please explain how I, the woman ashamed of how she looks sitting down, could possibly make the gorgeous creature across the bar nervous in any facet. I stare at him, waiting for some kind of an explanation.
“But as much as I would love to spend all night talking about the failures of my family,” Nik says with a smirk, “it’s time to get you home.”