Page 37 of The Red Moon

I nod, pursing my lips to keep the novel-sized list of questions I want to ask from coming out all at once.

“Your abilities will reach their peak the first time you turn,” he says, seeming to sense my unease. “That’s why they wanted to know when you were bitten.”

I sigh. “Because then I’d be dangerous.”

Nik places his hand on mine, and how the ties don’t melt off from the intense heat radiating from him is beyond me. “You’ve always been dangerous. Maybe it’s just time for the rest of the world to see it, too.”

I stare down at the floorboards, fighting back a grin. I don’t have to look in the rear-view mirror to know my cheeks are bright red, just like I don’t need a wolf’s hearing to know he’s telling the truth. He broke into his family’s compound and killed members of his own pack to save me. Was even willing to kill his own brother had Viktor not yielded. This is what he’s always meant when he called me dangerous. His home. His birthright. His life. He’d sacrifice it all for me, and god, I have no doubt in my mind that I’d do the same.

Two soldiers lower themselves to the front seats without a word and follow the other cars away from the airfield. In the distance, a series of lights block out the stars from what I can only assume is the Duval den. I don’t know how big this pack really is, but after the way they swarmed us at the airfield, I think it’s safe to say Nikolai chose them for a reason. He said we needed numbers, and so far, they haven’t disappointed. Even if it meant him held at gunpoint and chained up in the back of their car.

“I need to tell you something, Natalia,” Nik says, his features softening. “The reason this pack wants me dead.”

One of the men in front peers over his shoulder but turns around with disinterest. I’m not sure if he can’t understand Nik or couldn’t care less what he has to say.

“The Vostik bloodline is the oldest of the cursed. Throughout the years, my family has made it a point to turn those with power in different parts of the world for control. The Duval’s were once considered royalty in France, and after they were turned, they quickly rose to be the second strongest pack known to our kind.”

Nik takes a breath and continues, “This created tension between Clément and my father, who sees himself as the one true alpha above all others. Disagreements about the survival of our kind turned into arguments, and to my father, his leadership was being challenged by a pack he considered beneath him. He wanted Duval out of the picture, but there was no telling how the other packs might react to this kind of betrayal. Vlad needed a way to be sure the Duvals would always swear loyalty to him and the Vostik alphas that followed in his footsteps. If he could combine the two families, he would force Clément’s hand.”

I stare at him in disbelief, every word like a cruel gut punch ripping away what’s left of the air from my lungs. “Combine the families how?”

He exhales a heavy breath and glances in my direction. There’s a noticeable amount of concern in each glowing eye, as if he knows what he says next will change everything. “By forcing me to marry the heiress to the Duval pack. Clément’s daughter.”

TWENTY-FIVE

NATALIE

Great. Not only am I able to hear things from miles away, but now I’m also hearing things that can’t possibly be real. Him. Arranged to marry some wolf from another pack? I’d laugh if I wasn’t the least bit concerned that the curse also causes hallucinations. These zip ties must be cutting off the blood flow to my brain. I adjust my combined wrists, giving the veins in my forearms reprieve. “Uhm. Say that again.”

Nik glances at his chains for a moment, running a finger along the rough edges. “My father forced me into an engagement with the heiress⁠—”

“That’s enough,” I cut him off. I’m not imagining it. No, I think if anything, my hearing is too fucking good. The words don’t just flash through my head but chisel into my goddamn skull. Engagement. I swallow every bit of bile inching up my throat, take a deep breath, and stare at the lights in the distance. “Let me make sure I understand this correctly. To unite the two packs, your father decided it would be best for you to marry the alpha’s daughter.”

“Yes.”

My heartbeat thumps wildly in my ears, blocking out the sounds of the car. “As in a wedding. Vows. A three-tier fucking cake with a little bride and groom on top.”

Nik rubs his temples, the movement rattling the chains and gaining the attention of the soldiers up front. “We don’t do those kind of ceremonies⁠—”

“Answer the question, Nikolai,” I shout, and both of the men face forward in an instant. “Are you engaged?”

“I was.” His jawline tightens, and if I had to guess, his teeth are ready to crack from the pressure.

“What do you mean was?”

For the first time in minutes, Nik brings his eyes to mine, each golden iris glowing brighter than the spotlights in the horizon. He turns to face me fully, brow drawing serious. “I was engaged to marry into the Duval family, but before the full moon of what should’ve been our union … I left. I couldn’t bring myself to be my father’s pawn anymore. Not with everything he’s done. My decision severed the bond of our two packs, and after such an insult to his bloodline, Clément promised my father if I ever went near their territory again, he would kill me himself and send my body back in pieces.”

“That’s how you knew they wouldn’t kill you at the airfield.” I peer at him, listening to his heartbeat instinctively. There isn’t a jump or skip, it’s steady. Calm. He’s telling me the truth. I know he is, even if it’s the last thing I want to hear.

Nik nods. “The price on my head is too high to let one of the pups in his pack go through with it. I dishonored him. His family. And as the alpha, my death must come from his hands. Anyone else doing so would be seen as weakness.”

It’s bad enough Viktor and his father want him dead, but now there’s a different alpha here that wants to kill him, too? Am I missing something? Why would we travel thousands of miles to ask for help from this pack?

“There’s still something I don’t understand, though,” I say in a hushed whisper. “After everything that’s happened, what makes you so sure this Clément won’t do what he promised?”

Nik’s voice lowers. “Because I have something he wants.”

We veer to the right and down an unmarked road, the rough gravel and dirt shaking everything inside. Nik keeps his hand on my thigh the entire way. The lights I saw from the airfield shine in full effect now, not small dots in the distance anymore but giant spotlights illuminating everything fifty feet from the concrete fence line.