Chapter 5

5

SKYE

M y heart was beating as fast as the blades over my head were spinning. I tried to enjoy the gorgeous views of the snow covered Ural Mountains, but my brain was too busy short-circuiting over what Dimitri had said.

I was barely suppressing the well of hysterical laughter bubbling in my gut, but the last thing I needed were Dimitri and Alexei thinking I was crazy, but I was seriously starting to wonder how hard I had hit my head in the explosion.

Magic was real. Elias had betrayed us. I had a brother. Oh, and I was a freaking princess and the heir to the first pack of shifters ever.

I bit down hard on my lip to keep from giggling. The sudden, hysterical urge caught me off guard and I was barely able to stop myself before it all spilled out.

Maybe I was still unconscious and this was all a dream. I would wake up any minute, next to Remy, and tell him about this batshit crazy dream.

Because if this wasn’t a dream? I was so far out of my comfort zone it was terrifying.

My head was killing me again. I rubbed my temples, feeling the prickly gazes of the two men sharing the cabin with me as they watched closely.

I looked up, my eyes catching on Alexei’s arctic blue stare. I gave him a half-hearted, thin-lipped smile.

Mollified, he gave me a nod and then cast his attention on the unconscious girl beside him. During one of the turns the pilot made when we were taking off, Tate had slumped against Alexei, who had made no move to lift her head from his shoulder. He had watched her with rapt fascination for several minutes until I cleared my throat.

At some point I was going to have to tell him the girl he was clearly crushing on already had two boyfriends and wasn’t looking to add to her harem.

My hands tightened on my thighs as the helicopter began its descent. I twisted in my seat to see out the front window, stunned when I saw we were headed straight for the tallest peak in sight.

Air whooshed out of me as the helicopter closed in on the mountain, and Dimitri must have sensed my panic because his hand touched my knee, grabbing my attention.

He was grinning like this was a ride.

Clearly, my brother was a psycho because we were about to crash all over the frozen Russian mountainside.

He held up a hand, his fingers splayed, and then he started counting them down.

When his hand closed into a fist, I looked back to see a portion of the mountainside was opening up. Snow fell in a cascade from the doors as they rolled open wide enough for the pilot to maneuver the helicopter inside and set it down.

“What the hell was that ?” I shouted as the blades slowed and the noise lessened.

Dimitri removed the headset he had used to communicate with the pilot and set it back on the hook above his head. “You should have seen the look on your face.”

“That look is called panic because I thought your crazy ass pilot was going to fly us into a mountain!” I snapped. My head whipped around to the pilot, who was shutting down the controls. “No offense.”

His dark gaze flickered to Dimitri, his mouth flattening into a thin line, before he turned around and ignored me.

“Relax,” Dimitri snorted, rolling his eyes as he unbuckled. “Dad would kill me if anything happened to you, and Petyr is one of our best pilots. He’s made this landing a thousand times.”

“A little warning would have been nice,” I muttered, searching for how to unhook the harness that belted me in place.

Alexei reached across and unhooked my buckle. “Your brother likes to play jokes. Not everyone gets them.”

“Who’s side are you on?” Dimitri asked him, shaking his head.

“The printsessa ’s,” he replied with a shrug of his massive shoulders.

“Don’t call me that,” I said with a deep sigh.

“Kiss ass,” Dimitri grumbled. He lifted the lever on the door and pushed it open. He jumped down and turned to help me.

I hesitated, looking at Tate.

“I’ll bring her,” Alexei assured me, already beginning to unhook her with nimble fingers.

I gave him a hard look. “Both of her boyfriends are friends of mine. And they’re probably going crazy worrying about her right now.”

He barely blinked. “That’s good to know.”

“She’s not looking for another boyfriend,” I said, wanting to be clear since Tate couldn’t speak for herself.

Alexei grinned, a dimple flashing in his left cheek that made him look utterly charming. “Sometimes the best things in life find us when we’re not looking.”

Touché .

I turned and let Dimitri help me out of the helicopter. When I landed on my feet, I looked around and my jaw dropped.

The room was huge, cavernous, and housed several other helicopters and an assortment of trucks, snowmobiles, four wheelers, and anything else you could need to travel up and down a mountain. The entire room had an industrial vibe, all metal and stone. A few people milled around, but they had all stopped and were now staring at us.

Alexei jumped down from the helicopter, Tate cradled in his arms. He barely jostled her when he landed.

“Alexei’s going to take Tate to her room,” Dimitri told me, nodding to his friend who immediately started walking away from us.

I opened my mouth to argue and took a step after my friend, not wanting to be separated from her.

Dimitri grabbed my arm. “You’ll see her soon. Right now, let’s go see if Dad knows anything about what happened yesterday at the Summit.”

Panic swept through me.

I needed to talk to Remy, or at least know where he was. When we were in the air, I had convinced myself he was fine. Everything was fine, and Dimitri had overreacted by taking me to his home for my own safety.

But now that I was about to find out for sure, my confidence was waning, and I was a wreck of nerves and emotions.

Dimitri came around in front of me and put his hands on my shoulders, bending his knees so we were eye level. “Remy’s going to be fine.”

My teeth ground together. “I know.”

I didn’t. My whole world could come crashing to an end in the next few minutes.

I swallowed, my hands starting to shake.

He gave me a careful look. “You ready?”

Not even a little, but I nodded, almost numbly, needing to keep moving forward. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

“ I s this entire place built into the mountain?” I asked, unable to keep the note of awe from my voice as we turned down another hallway. We had been walking for several minutes, even taking an elevator deeper into the mountain. I hadn’t seen a window, but the halls were well lit and painted soft shades of gray with white trim, the floors a beautiful marble with silver and black veins. Artwork even lined the halls, a mixture of nature scenes and people in a variety of mediums.

If I hadn’t noticed the sky wasn’t visible, I would never have realized we weren’t above ground.

“A couple mountains,” Dimitri conceded. “The pack settled here almost a thousand years ago. They lived in caves for warmth at first, then slowly started digging out and hollowing the mountains.”

“So, you guys never go outside?” That seemed really depressing. At least when things went shitty in Long Mesa, I could go outside and stare at the sky.

A smile curled his lips. “We go outside all the time, Skye, but this place provides safety. It houses over a thousand people.”

I pulled up short, my jaw dropping. “There’s a thousand shifters living here?”

He paused, turning to face me. “No, there’s two thousand people . We don’t just have shifters who live here. The Romani clan lives here, and believe me, they like their space. We also have a few humans here.”

“You guys live with normals?” I could feel my eyes getting bigger. “But humans can’t know about us. It’s like, rule one of shifters.”

He shook his head, almost amused. “Are you serious? Humans have been part of our community since the beginning. We’ve always had them here.”

“Huh.” I wasn’t really sure what else to say about that.

He jerked his chin and started walking again. After a beat, I hurried to catch up.

We turned another corner, and I was officially lost. I would never find my way back to the surface or where the helicopters were.

“This isn’t a prison, but living in the mountains and around them provides us with more security,” he continued. “People are free to go outside whenever they like.”

“How can you even exist like this?” I asked, glancing up at the high ceilings. “There’s no town, no food, no anything.”

Another smile. “We have a regular food and supply delivery system. Our medical unit is fully stocked. The closest town is also part of our pack. They’re only ten kilometers away from the base of the mountain. It’s more urban, and we have almost another two thousand people there. The Alpha house is in the center of town, but Dad said he would meet you here before we go there.”

Whoa.

“This pack has over three thousand members?”

“Actually closer to four,” Dimitri said with a grin, pulling open a door at the end of the hallway. It opened into yet another hallway and closed with an ominous click. “There’s a lot of outliers and lone wolves that also are part of the pack, but prefer a more solitary lifestyle. The town has a train station, which is how we get food and are able to travel around the country. But the closest metropolitan city is easily two hours away by rail, and we’re pretty self-sufficient here.”

My mouth gaped open in shock as I stopped walking and stared at him.

Dimitri stopped at another door and hesitated. “Do you need a second before we go in?”

My dad was on the other side of that door.

I knew it, felt it. I wanted to give the moment the gravity and seriousness it deserved, and under any other circumstance, I would need a minute or twenty to get myself ready for whatever came next, but my answers lay on that side of the door.

Remy lay on that side of the door.

“No,” I replied honestly, my mouth suddenly dry. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Okay.” Dimitri pushed open the door and held it for me as I stepped into the room.

Three people stood in the room, two men and one woman. The woman gave Dimitri a brilliantly wide smile and cut across the room to hug him.

My eyes zeroed in on the man casually sitting on the sofa, wordless watching. The other man stood behind him, his dark eyes curiously assessing me.

The man sitting lifted a massive arm and draped it along the back of the couch, his gaze practically black. His hair was a few shades darker than mine, and there was absolutely no missing this man was an Alpha.

And my father, Nikolai Dashkov.

His head tilted slightly, barely noticeable, as he watched me.

Dimitri stepped up beside me. “Dad, this is Skye.”

Pretty unnecessary introduction, but I had a feeling the gaping silence was grating on Dimitri as much as it was me.

My father still watched me quietly.

Fine, if he wasn’t going to start this, then I was.

“I need a phone,” I said, pretty freaking proud of how calm I sounded.

A single brow lifted at me, and I fought to stay calm as my frustration surged. Maybe starting off our first meeting with a demand wasn’t the best idea, but I wasn’t backing down.

“I need to find out what’s going on with my pack. My mate.”

A scowl darkened his face, his eyes narrowing.

I met his gaze, glaring back openly and not giving a damn if I was possibly offending this Alpha. Father or not, I wanted answers now . This man wasn’t my family. My family was an ocean away.

He still didn’t speak.

Everyone in the room seemed to be waiting in limbo, holding their breaths as they watched us face off.

I wasn’t amused at fucking all.

I looked at Dimitri. “He does actually speak , right?”

Dimitri’s green eyes cut to me, his expression warning me before he quietly said, “Skye, don’t.” This was the first time I had seen Dimitri look so serious.

My head swung back around to my father as he stood up, tugging at the cuffs of his white button down.

“Leave us.”

I wasn’t even sure he had actually spoken, but the door behind me opened and Dimitri left, followed by the woman and the other man. The door shut a second later.

“So, you can speak?” I asked archly, too pissed off and worried to care that I was poking an Alpha.

Nikolai took a step forward, pushing his hands into the pockets of his black pants. “She named you Skye.”

His voice was rough and deep, accented like Alexei’s. He closed the distance between us slowly, like he was worried I might spook and run.

When I squared my shoulders and stood my ground, he smiled.

The effect was transformative.

He went from surly Russian Alpha to actual person with a single smile.

He was easily six foot five, and had almost a foot in height on me. His biceps were the size of my thighs, his hands the size of my head. Everything about this guy was Alpha to the extreme.

“She named you after my mother,” he said softly, almost reverently. His eyes softened as he looked down at me.

That news caught me off guard and my brain struggled to play catch up. “Your mother?”

“Her name was Eskyla,” he replied. “I met your mother right after mine had passed away. I told her how I grieved the loss of my mother.”

Eskyla .

I swallowed down that information. “As much as I would love to take a trip down memory lane with you, I really need to call my pack. I don’t know what’s going on with them.”

He looked down, nodding slowly. “I understand your frustration, but right now I am awaiting answers myself. Answers that I should have soon. I have men looking into the explosion and trying to ascertain what happened to your friends and mate.”

“I need to at least call my mom,” I said, my hands balling into fists.

Another slow nod, but then he hesitated. “Until I know for certain what is going on back in your country, I must insist you wait a few more hours. It is what is safest for you.”

“I don’t give a damn about my safety,” I snapped. “I have friends and family that need to know I’m okay. And I need to know if they are okay.”

“You may not care about your safety, but I do, little wolf,” he told me softly. He turned and crossed the room, sitting back down and giving me an expectant look. “Why don’t you join me and we can wait together?”

I was going to scream. How could he not get it? I didn’t want to join him and wait. I wanted answers.

“I swear to you, as Alpha and your father, I will see you reunited with your pack,” he vowed. “But I need you to give me a bit more time before we decide the best course of action. While we wait, I might be able to give you a few answers to the many questions you have.”

God, I had a lifetime of questions.

But none of them mattered as much as finding out if Remy was okay.

“Please, sit down,” Nikolai said, almost gently. “I just found you. Protecting you is what I must do, but I would also like to know the daughter I never knew existed before two days ago.”

Something in his tone, in his words, tugged at a piece of my heart.

Taking a deep breath, I walked across the floor and sat down on the other end of the sofa, turning to face him with a heavy sigh. “Okay. What do you want to know?”