Chapter Fifteen

Nikolai strolled down the street Caz had mentioned, hands in his pockets. He scanned the crowds for signs of his shifters. The process of rousting them from the strip of territory they had claimed was taking all day. He was getting tired of it.

Earlier, he’d found one shifter. The man had been leaning against a whitewashed stucco wall like a gangster. Nikolai had caught him immediately, not bothering to be civil even though they were in public. Before the shifter could run, Nikolai grabbed him by the ear and used the power of his voice to command him to go home.

One shifter down.

How many more had Alex pulled from Nikolai’s Pack? He scratched the back of his neck and tried to make a mental count. Brigid hadn’t defected, even if Nikolai wanted nothing more than to lump her dumb ass in with them. That left about three more shifters under Alex’s influence.

Yet, he couldn’t find a trace of them anywhere on the street. He was about to call Caz and tell him where he could shove his prank when a thought dawned on him. Caz wouldn’t screw with Nikolai. The two of them went way back, and they understood each other’s power. No, Caz’s warning hadn’t been faked.

If anything, Nikolai was starting to wonder if this wasn’t a distraction. His heart thumped inside his chest. His first thought was of Monica. He shook his head. Alex didn’t know where she lived. How could he?

What else could the deranged shifter have planned? Nikolai didn’t think Alex was the kind of guy to have anything up his sleeve. He wasn’t that bright. If anything, he was driven by the greed of his bear. While normally solitary creatures, bear shifters hoarded power like dragons of myth hoarded gold. The greatest form of power was becoming an Alpha.

Alex wanted that power. Or, at least, that was what Nikolai first assumed. He scowled, trying to think harder. Instead of scouring the street, he turned on his heel and made his way back to his truck. Alex was playing a different game. He might have wanted power, but it wouldn’t be the same kind of power the Alpha bears coveted. So far, Alex had found power in chaos.

The shifter his father had created through violence, because that was the only way to create a shifter, was now addicted to it. Violence and chaos was the power Alex’s bear drank. Nikolai threw himself back into his truck and raced out of Monterey, his heart racing wildly.

***

Monica watched, the heat singeing the tiny hairs on her cheeks. Her feet were glued to the spot as the world slowly tipped sideways. Nikolai’s house was on fire, crumbling to the ground with crashing sounds.

She’d thought she was running to safety. On instinct alone, she’d run all the way to Nikolai’s house. Instead of finding his open arms, she found a blazing inferno. Flames licked at the now black walls of the home he’d pleasured her in. They burst from the window he’d covered with a sheet of plywood.

Little by little, it crumbled beneath the consuming blaze.

It almost looked like the fire had climbed down the nearby hill, consuming the forest as if it were a natural wild-fire. Her heart flipped in her chest. This was no natural fire, she thought. This had been set on purpose.

Finally, her feet unglued from the ground. Her world tilted this way and that as she ran forward. The fire singed the tips of her hair. People shouted behind her, but Monica was focused on one thing.

Nikolai.

Fear chilled her from the inside out. She thought of him trapped inside, unable to escape. The fire was reaching toward the sky, arching from open windows as if to proclaim its conquest. It wouldn’t take Nikolai. Not if her life depended on it. Wood cracked and groaned before falling to the ground in a burst of flames.

Monica staggered back, instinctively throwing her hands over her face. How was she ever going to get inside? It seemed as though most of the house had already collapsed. There was no way anyone inside could have survived.

No, she refused to believe that.

Nikolai would hold onto life. He would fight to live, to return to her the same way she was fighting to get to him.

Gathering her resolve, she threw down her arms and moved to leap into the inferno. Just as she stepped forward, a set of arms wrapped around her middle. Both feet left the ground and the world spun until she was facing away from the fire. There was the sound of cracking and the boom of another fallen beam.

The man gripping her hissed in pain as they moved away from the conflagration Monica wanted to fight, but the voice behind her made her freeze.

“Nikolai?” she whispered.

“Might I ask you what you thought you were doing? This isn’t the next prank is it?” His voice wavered, unsure and even a little scared.

Her feet touched the ground, and she spun to face him. His lips were thin with worry, brows drawn together as he looked upon her. Hands ran over her arms, making sure she was in one piece. Before she could stop herself, she threw her arms around his neck. She buried her face in his neck, breathing in his scent even if it was now a bit smoky. Singed skin tickled her nose and she grimaced.

“You’re hurt.”

Nikolai only held her tighter. Monica wanted to pull back and check his wounds, but he wouldn’t let her go. His head touched her shoulder and his body shuddered.

“I know you hated that painting, but you didn’t have to burn my house down.”

Monica extracted herself from his arms to slap him in the shoulder. “I didn’t do this.”

He offered a thin and weary smile. “I know. I’m just trying to…make light of the situation, I guess.”

Monica swallowed and nodded. Together, they looked back at the burning mess that had been Nikolai’s house. They both knew who’d started the fire on the hill. Alex had intended for it to flow toward Nikolai’s house. He was trying to cut Nikolai down, chipping away at not only his foundations, but his spirit.

Monica reached and held his hand. Sirens blared around them, lights flickering in contrast to the light of the flames.

“I would say I won’t let him get me down, but I’m really going to miss that painting…oh, and my couch. I loved that couch.”

Monica laughed, yanked her hand out of his, and punched him in the shoulder. She was glad to have him here, whole for the most part. His wounds were probably already healing. A small amount of guilt crept through her, knowing that he’d been hurt grabbing her from the blaze she’d run toward.

If she hadn’t known about her feelings for him before, the fear of losing him had brought them to light. Monica loved him, fool that he was. More than that, she knew he was her mate. It was funny how she’d spent much of her life gunning to be the mate of the wrong Alpha. Their predicament meant she had some business to finish, a Pack to leave.

She swallowed. Would Nikolai take her into his pack, or would she have to love him as a packless shifter? As much as she wanted to believe he would take her in, there was still the possibility that he might not. What would the rest of his pack think? It was obvious that there was some unrest among them. Bringing a shifter from another local pack might stir the pot a bit.

“Let’s go get an emergency blanket from the firefighters and snuggle under it.” Nikolai grabbed her hand and gently pulled her toward the firetrucks. With a foil blanket over their shoulders, they sat on the firetruck and watched the men put out the blaze.

Nikolai fielded a few calls, assuring his more loyal packmates that he was indeed safe. They fretted over him, all offering a place to stay—even if that place was only a couch in some instances. He cast a sidelong look at Monica each time they offered and politely declined. Her cheeks warmed, knowing what he was going to ask her.

Both of them already knew the answer. All he had to do was wade through a homemade ball pit.