Page 55 of The Red Room
“Five minutes before taxi,” the pilot shouts over his shoulder, adjusting the knobs both on the ceiling and the center console of the cockpit. They never look me in the eye. No, they usually glance downward whenever they address me. I’m sure that’s my brother’s doing. He has a habit of scaring the ever-loving shit out of any humans unfortunate enough to cross his path. I can’t blame them.
I nod absentmindedly and give another tug on the chains for good measure, ensuring they are tight enough to keep me in place. Soon, the cockpit door will shut, lock firmly, and the plane will start moving toward the small runway of this uncontrolled airfield, eventually taking a gravity-defying leap into the skies. I’m not sure what will happen when we land at the airport my father built with the permission of the Russian government. There might be some wolves waiting for me if word has gotten out I laid waste to our stateside transport houses. They won’t be able to stop me, though. None of these pups are stupid enough to get in my way.
“Are you …” the pilot says apprehensively, staring only at my feet and the chains at my chest. “Are you locked in?”
I give them another hard pull, showcasing that I can’t break free if I want to. They may be less than enthused to take me on a last-minute trip, but now I’m the one fighting annoyance. We’re wasting time. Time I don’t have if it means getting Courtney back safely. If I can’t … I’m not so sure a piece of Natalia will ever heal. I won’t let it happen, though. This is a risk I’m not willing to take.
The man nods and slides the cockpit door to a close slowly. When the latch finds home, a lock clicks into place. Then another. And finally, the hard click of a dead bolt. The pilot’s heartbeats haven’t eased at all, and unbeknownst to them, I can hear every word of vitriol they spew so effortlessly.Fucking monsteris what stands out the most. Natalia didn’t have to say it for me to know what she was thinking when I stepped out of that SUV. I’ve never seen her look at something, at someone with such … disgust. Maybe she is right. Maybe I am nothing more than an apple landing too close to the Vostik family tree. A bloodline of atrocities breeding more unimaginable creatures. And if Viktor has his way. If he ascends to lead this pack as the alpha.God help us all.
“Nikolai!” A voice comes from the tarmac, fighting the building winds in the valley. It’s familiar despite the panic and exhaustion accenting each syllable. “Do not leave.”
The jet door rips open, and Dimitri rushes inside, practically falling to his knees and gasping for breath. He uses the walls to keep upright, fear trampling his face. I try and stand from the seat only for the chains to lose slack and leave me in a tighter and more uncomfortable position than before.
“She’s gone, Nikolai,” he sputters out, drawing a deep breath and continuing, “She left through de window. I should’ve stopped her. I should’ve—”
“Zamedlyat!” I shout, my once calm heartbeat coursing cursed blood to each of my bound limbs. Veins emerge on my straining arms and wrists. The beast I only feel when the moon is at its peak claws at my insides, ravaging every part that still ticks human. This thing, this monster I’ve kept at bay for so long is begging to be unchained. It howls to be unleashed.
“Where. Is. She?”
Shame tenses his face, and the man I’ve known my whole life, the one person I’ve trusted with mine, can’t even manage to look me in the eyes. “I failed you.” Dimitri kneels and lowers his head, exposing his neck the way we’re taught to yield to the strongest in our pack.
Low, ominous snarls travel up my chest and overpowers the jet engines filling the airfield. It’s the wolf inside me. The animal I swore I’d never be. My entire body constricts, tightening from the pain, the fury … the power.
I writhe against the chains again, this time finding give. There’s only one place she would go. One place Viktor would be bold enough to lure her. Anger surges within me, and after one final thrust, the metal shackles burst into pieces and scatter across the galley. Metal clangs off the walls and windows, ringing like windchimes on a storm-beaten porch.
I stand, immense heat radiating from my skin ready to burst from the seams. Taking a calming breath, I step toward Dimitri and place my palm on his shoulder. He doesn’t flinch. No, he only stiffens, ready to accept death if I so choose. “You could never fail me,moy brat.” My brother.
“I don’t know where she is, Nikolai,” he responds, his voice somehow lowering.
There’s something unnatural building in my chest. It’s nothing like the change I’ve felt during countless full moons. My body doesn’t just twist to give way to the beast, but bends, almost stretches. I am not the wall in its way but the foundation. Two halves becoming whole.
“I do,” I say, fighting the snarl in my throat as small fractures appear along my wrists. I know where he is. Where he’s been this whole time. Viktor anticipated every move. Knew I’d go looking for Courtney at the transport houses, the same buildings I chose across the city. Each of them far enough away from Völk to ever have a missing persons search party come knocking at our doors. He knew exactly what I’d do from the moment he told me Natalia was next onhislist. That my pet was getting in the way of the pack.His pack.This was all an elaborate plan. A game to take me out of the picture so I wouldn’t interfere.
“The red room,” I growl. “They’re in the red room.”
Viktor has her. He has taken my Natalia. And now, my brother has to die.
THIRTY
Nik
The RPM gaugeof my motorcycle redlines. Smoke billows. The engine, the entire chassis of the bike trembles as if it fears the monster I’m struggling to keep contained. It seems the training I’ve done the past few years has certainly paid off. Who knows what would’ve happened to Dimitri if I hadn’t locked myself up each day and embraced the rage simmering inside me. My oldest friend. More of a brother than Viktor’s ever been.Moy brat.Funny, I’ve never shared these words with my own flesh and blood, but with Dimitri, I’ve said it more times than I can count.
He begged to come with me, of course, but after all the pain my family’s put him through, I can’t let Dimitri risk himself yet again for my mistakes. Letting my little wolf come back to Völk night after night? I should’ve known what I was exposing her to. The danger I put her in. I’ve seen the lengths my brother will go to see himself named alpha of the Vostik pack. His cunning and oftentimes cruel behavior. This is all onme. Everything that has happened since the minute I first saw her, ismy fault. But there’s a part of me that knows I can’t fight my need for her any more than I can ignore the wolf ripping my body apart when the moon sits high in the Los Angeles skyline. I am truly cursed.
No matter how many times I convinced myself it was the last time I’d see her, how many times I swore to let the stupid fucking idea ofusgo … there she was, oblivious to how dangerous she really is to me. The way I salivated at her scent when following her distinct trail through the city. How it riled the wolf inside me into something unbelievably feral. The taste of her lips. Her body. When she is nearby, every ounce of good judgment I possess rips away as easily as my own flesh during the most excruciating shifts.Humans don’t mate the same way we do, I’ve been told since I was a child.Manipulated to believe humans were nothing more than our food source. While human vows can be broken, a wolf will die before they turn on the one they run with. And the things I feel for this woman, this human woman I’m running with now … are endless.
I ride through the streets, revving the gas to its breaking point while dodging cars and anything else stupid enough to get in my way. There’s too much traffic for a straight shot to the club I oversaw the past two years, despite never feeling any ounce of ownership over my own success. No, it was alwayshisclub. The pack’s club. It didn’t matter how much money I added to the nest egg keeping the estate lights on thousands of miles away. If there weren’t sacrifices for the hunt, well, I’d be lucky to leave my father’s study without another scar to add to those that will never heal.
There’s no telling what I’ll be walking into when I get there. Viktor’s won over our pack who swore to follow me, even the ones that have been here from the beginning. They might see his strength. His savagery. But something they have never seenfrom him is restraint. And tonight, with Natalia’s life hanging in the balance, it’s the last fucking thing these traitors will see from me.
I veer off to the side streets, passing what pedestrians and cars I can, skipping every red light across the way. Pain surges up my spine, landing somewhere high on my back. Searing agony boils in my stomach like a kettle, steaming what few human parts inside of me remain. I don’t know how much longer I can fight it. I’m not sure I’ll even make it to Völk before setting some unchained creature loose on LA. I take in what small breaths I can, hoping to ease the lava building in my gut. Sweat beads down my forehead and cheeks despite the cool night air wafting my unkempt hair behind me. Viktor cannot haveher. She. Is. Fucking. Mine.
My brother. My father. This is their doing. My last surviving blood save for those bitten on Vlad Vostik’s orders. Removing her from me is what they thought was best for the pack. To rid me of the one thing keeping me human. Keeping me tame. They don’t want that. No, they loathe the idea of someone tainting their perfect fucking bloodline. My job is to follow orders and sit when my owner demands it. And for the past few years, I did.
Völk.I helped them build this club from the ground up. Oversaw everything from the beginning. A front. A farm. We are the first werewolf pack to successfully take hunting abroad. No more treaties like the one my grandfather made with Khrushchev to keep his citizens out of werewolf claws. No more raids on our family’s compound in silver Kevlar vests with enough ammunition to mow down our entire pack. There’s one thing my brother or father didn’t count on, though. Something I never even considered.
Her.It isn’t just the scent I long for the way some of the addicts we’ve taken plead for their next syringe. It isn’t the wayshe challenges me with that irresistible fucking smirk. How I’d love nothing more than to sink my teeth in those magnificent thighs despite the looming threat of turning her into something I’d never wish for anyone. It is all of these things and so much more.It’s Natalia.My little wolf. The name I say when sleep won’t come easy. Who I wait to visit my loft for another unexpected visit. If there is a god, then I really am damned. Not for what happens to me under the glare of a full moon, but what this woman does to me.