Chapter Seven

The sun was hovering over the horizon behind Monica when she arrived home. Exhausted to the bone, her panther brushed against her skin. The beast had been the source of Monica’s unending sexual frustration. The damned thing had been filling her mind with images of a very naked and very well-endowed Nikolai all night. At this point, Monica’s insides felt wrung out. They ached for something she told herself would never happen.

At least, it shouldn’t happen.

Trudging through the house, Monica was prepared to throw herself onto her bed when she noticed her bedroom door was closed. It struck her as odd. Living alone, there was never a reason to close that door. She straightened her spine and scented the air.

Regina. She caught the smell of moss and ocean water floating through the air. But, also, she could smell Nikolai. Her stomach tightened. No matter how high she held her chin, she couldn’t keep it from quivering beneath the weight of the images her mind fed her. Back were the visions of Nikolai and Regina rolling together. The thought of Regina’s porcelain body thrown over Nikolai made bile rise in the back of her throat.

A small shadow sat in the hall, pressed against the wall. Monica couldn’t make out what it was until she stepped closer. The scent of Nikolai and Regina grew stronger until she could barely handle it. Her heart hammered while she crept closer to the shape. When she realized it was a small pile of balls, everything in her mind silenced.

It threw her for a loop. Where had the rainbow-colored balls come from? They made no sense. Monica only shook her head and looked back to her closed bedroom door. Jealousy stabbed her from the inside out. Regina’s scent prickled her nose with each passing moment.

She asked herself why she cared, but also wondered what they would be doing in her house. The panther growled at the thought of them using her bed. There was a prank war going on between Monica and Nikolai, but to fuck in her bed felt….Wrong.

Reluctantly, she opened the bedroom door. Expecting the musky scent of sex, Monica was greeted by the rush of balls. They bounced, in every color of the rainbow, across her floor. A laugh slipped out of her, filled with relief and a strange sense of joy. Nikolai and Regina had turned her bedroom into a knee-high ball-pit. Quickly, she shut the door behind her and waded into the room. Instead of flopping onto the bed, Monica threw herself into the balls.

She sank into the mess while joy made her heart light. There was only one problem. It was clear that Nikolai was plaguing her. She could barely think about anyone without him sneaking his way into her mind. If she was going to claim her spot beside Oscar, then she was going to have to get Nikolai out of her system. She didn’t think cold-turkey would work in this instance.

Chewing her lip, she rolled over and reached for the phone in her pocket. There was no way of knowing if she was doing the right thing, but she dialed Nikolai’s number anyway.

***

Brigid was back. Hitting a woman felt bad, but she seemed determined to tear his Pack apart so that it was only a matter of time before there needed to be an official challenge. Part of him wanted to say good riddance, but he knew that whichever fools she took, they wouldn’t leave his territory. They’d only continue to cause trouble.

He stormed out the front door intent on facing the woman when his phone vibrated in his pocket. The sight of the number on the screen made him pause. He was caught between the thumping of his heart and the fury burning in his stomach. Against his better judgement, he answered the phone and lifted it to his ear.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Brigid waiting for him. She walked around his truck, making eye contact when she broke his passenger side mirror, as if it were some sort of dominance display.

“I see I had a visit tonight,” Monica purred on the other end of the phone.

His stomach tightened, the flames of fury dampening at the sound of her voice. He let out the breath he’d been holding and even started smiling. He listened to the shifting of the balls, as if she were laying in them. For a moment, he closed his eyes and let himself imagine her doing exactly that. His bear stripped her of all her clothing and Nikolai’s smile spread a little wider.

“Only the best for you,” he growled. The bear wanted him to march past Brigid and into Monica’s house, so they could lay in the pit of balls together.

He listened to the shuffle of balls on the phone while Brigid grew impatient. While he watched, the shifter that should have been in his control stomped around to the other side of his truck. She wrapped her hands around his driver’s side mirror. Just as his lips parted to tell her to stop, he heard the crack of plastic and metal.

This time, his growl was threatening.

“What’s wrong?” Monica asked, urgently. He could hear the pain in her voice.

“Not you. Bit of an issue on my end.”

“Issue?” The balls moved, and he wished he could be those balls, rubbing and rolling against her body, over the width of her hips and the muscles of her legs.

“We need to talk, dickweed!” Brigid shouted at the top of her lungs. Nikolai was grateful he had little in the way of neighbors. “You’ve failed your Pack for the last time.”

“I’m going to have to call you back.”

Monica made a small sound on the other end. He hated hearing it, but Brigid needed to be dealt with. Any longer and she would start tearing apart his house.

Heart sinking, he hung up and tucked the phone back into his pocket. He promised himself he would visit Monica in the morning. He would explain to her what was going on and why it was probably for the best that they end this war. The thought of pulling Monica into the mess he’d made of his own Pack frightened him. She didn’t deserve to be a part of this.

Hands in his pockets, as if he hadn’t a care in the world while she destroyed his truck, Nikolai stepped toward her. Brigid’s spine was ramrod straight, her jaw tight, and her eyes filled with the promise of war. He wondered if that was what Spartan women had looked like in the days of Greek myth. If she hadn’t been standing against him, it would have been admirable.

“Your Pack wants you dead,” she declared, emotionless.

“Good for them,” he replied as if her words hadn’t cut through him. Was Nikolai going to be his father’s son and take them back with the fury of his fists? Or, would he become a new man, himself for the first time in his life?

There was no time to decide because Brigid went on. “If you won’t give us what your father promised, I know someone else who will!”

Nikolai held up two fingers. “Two things. One; what makes you or the rest of the Pack think you even need what my father proposed? Two; are you that person?”

“No, I’m not talking about myself. Not because I’m a woman, but because I know someone better fitted for the position of Alpha. You aren’t the only one with your father’s blood.”

While she hadn’t even bothered to acknowledge his first question, Nikolai’s world still tilted beneath him. He wasn’t the only one with his father’s blood? His parents had been mated, he knew that. They loved each other as only two horrible people could. From what he knew, and he should have known best, he was the only child to have come from that union.

“Whoever is trying to sell you something, I can promise they’re lying. My father only had one child. There’s no way around that.”

Brigid smirked. “That’s what you think. Men are so seldom faithful. You have an older brother and I’m starting to think we should have been following him all along.”

Nikolai laughed because it was the only thing he could do in the face of this news. It still hadn’t sunk in. It refused to sink in, the thought so outlandish. “You are welcome to leave with him. Follow him to some new territory. I heard there are some great, untamed spaces in the Nevada mountains. You could be the king and queen of Virginia City for all I care.” His voice dropped into a low growl that rumbled along the ground. “You just can’t stay here.”

Brigid stepped back from his threat, almost reflexively. The look in her eyes never wavered. They had their eyes set on Nikolai’s territory, on the coast, and maybe even Monterey or Santa Cruz. He rolled his shoulders back, making the decision that they wouldn’t get through him at all.

Even if this mystery shifter she was taking orders from was his brother, there was no way he was going to let them walk over him again. He was done with it. Nikolai would be his own man, his own kind of Alpha, from here on out.

“Leave.” He threaded the command through his words.

Brigid, still his shifter, jerked into robotic motion and staggered away. Once she was out of earshot, he let out a long breath. There was a war on the horizon. Perhaps it had been a long time coming. Perhaps he deserved this. All he knew was that he had a bit of soul-searching to do before it started.

Who was he?

Nikolai once thought of himself as a clever man. Now he felt like a fool. The idea of a bastard brother wasn’t all that unheard of. When he thought of his father, the idea became even more obvious. This was the voice that had been stirring the pot of dissent from a distance, a creature Nikolai had yet to meet.