Chapter 14

14

SKYE

M y brain was still turning over what Dimitri had told me as I closed the door to my room. I leaned against the door and looked around with a snort.

This wasn’t a room; this was a suite. It was almost the size of the apartment I shared with my mom in Blackwater.

After a second, I pushed off the door and crossed the room to the bathroom, going inside and knocking on the door that joined Tate’s room to mine. When she didn’t answer, I slowly pushed the door open.

Tate was sprawled on top of the bed, asleep.

My heart ached for her. It was obvious she had been crying, and she was still clutching her phone. I pulled a blanket from the foot of her bed up and over her body, tucking it around her as gently as I could without waking her up before going back to my room.

I closed the door on my side of the bathroom and pulled my phone from my back pocket before climbing up onto the bed.

Someone had made the bed while I had been at dinner, and I spied a bowl of soup, a bottle of water, and a bottle of ginger ale on a tray across the room. Natasha must have had it sent up as soon as we left the dining room, but even still, that was fast.

Probably more freaking magic.

I dropped my head back against the headboard with a thunk.

Everything was chaotic and messy. After holding it together for as long as I had, I knew I was rapidly approaching my breaking point.

I hit the call button on the phone, switching it to video mode.

The phone only rang twice before Remy answered. His face filled the screen, slightly grainy and shadowed in the dark of his room for a second before the light next to his bed turned on and I could see him fully.

The sight of his face, that gorgeous face that I loved more than any other face in the entire world, brought me to tears. Emotion swelled in me, choking me as my vision blurred behind a wall of tears.

“Hey,” he said softly, his voice sleep roughened and raspy. “Babe, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I managed to get out, forcing my emotions back down to a manageable level. “I’m fine.”

“Bullshit,” he replied tersely, his eyes narrowing as he sat up straighter. His dark gaze studied me intently, missing nothing.

“I just miss you,” I answered honestly. My eyes closed briefly, holding back a wall of emotional turmoil I didn’t want to throw on his already heavy shoulders. “I miss you so damn much.”

His shoulders relaxed as he leaned back against the headboard. “I miss you, too, baby.” His hand moved across his chest, absently scratching a gloriously bare pec. God, this man was gorgeous. Distractingly, mouth-wateringly, sinfully gorgeous.

And he was all mine.

There was no missing the way my wolf preened a little.

“Is everything okay?” he asked, and then he frowned. “How’s Tate?”

“She... I don’t even know, Rem,” I replied with a heavy sigh. “I told her about Luke, and she kind of shut me out.”

He nodded, lips pressed together in a tight line. “Sounds like Tate.”

“What do I do?”

“Give her space,” he suggested. “Tate’s always been a bit of a loner. The shit that happened with her birth parents, losing Luke’s wife... Luke was her family, her only family. Tate’s always been pretty private. Let her deal with her grief in her own way.”

“I wish there was more I could do.” I bit my lower lip, worrying it between my teeth.

“It will be better when she’s back here with Dante and Ryder,” he told me.

“But that won’t be for days,” I said, frustrated as hell.

A dark look passed over his face. “I know.”

“Any word on your dad?” I asked hesitantly.

He shook his head grimly.

“How are you doing?” I pressed softly.

“I’m okay.” His answer was instantaneous.

And a lie.

“Must be nice,” I drawled, giving him a pointed look through the screen. “I’m a wreck. I miss my family and my friends. I’m in a total new place, with my freaking father , and it turns out I have a brother. I just had dinner with them and my step-mother and her current sidepiece.”

His eyes went wide.

I kept ticking off all the reasons I was far from okay. “A man I trusted has apparently been keeping a file on me and spying on me. My uncle is currently locked in a cell somewhere inside a Russian mountain. But the worst part? The one person I want to be with is literally on the other side of the world.”

I gave him a pointed look. “I’m so glad that you’re okay.”

He exhaled hard, his eyes flicking to the ceiling for a brief second. “Sorry. I’m just so used to saying that to everyone because it’s what they need to hear.”

“I’m not everyone,” I reminded him.

“No,” he replied softly, his eyes warming. “You’re every thing .”

God, I needed to be with him so much it physically hurt.

“Talk to me, Remy,” I pleaded. “What happened after the explosion?”

“I was with Griff and Dante. We were talking about re-opening GPA. Kace messaged Griff that he had a lead on the guy who left Preston into the club that night, so we stepped outside of the meeting.” He rubbed a hand across his jaw. “We were heading back and... boom .”

Yeah, I remembered the boom , too.

“Dante and I went to look for you and Tate first, but we couldn’t find you. Your phone was still there, but I found this .” He reached off camera and when his hand came back into view, my necklace was dangling from his hand.

My shoulders sagged in relief. I had assumed it was gone forever.

He dropped his hand back to his lap. “We figured someone had taken you both, so we started looking for Dad and Luke. By the time we found them...” He shook his head grimly.

“Gabe’s going to make it,” I said fiercely. There was no other option.

Nikolai Dashkov might have contributed his DNA to create me, but Gabriel Holt was more a father to me than any other man had ever been. I couldn’t lose him anymore than Remy or Katy could.

“Norwood set off the bomb.”

I nodded. Dimitri had told me as much.

His expression darkened. “They’re going in and annexing other packs that don’t have Alphas now. Invading them and forcing them to join Norwood.”

“What?” My jaw dropped.

“They’ve already got most of the east coast packs, and now they’re moving towards the middle of the country. They have a strong foothold in the Southwest, too, since Long Mesa is technically with them along with a few other smaller packs.”

“They can’t possibly control that much land,” I murmured.

“Katy thinks it has less to do with the land and more to do with all the new females they’re now adding to their pack.”

My eyes narrowed. “Nikolai and Dimitri are questioning Elias tomorrow. I told them I wanted to be there when they did, and they agreed.”

He sighed. “Good. If you can find out exactly what they’re planning, it would help.”

“Who challenged you?” I asked suddenly.

“William Lodge.”

“Lodge?” My nose scrunched up. “Isn’t that—”+

“Ainsley’s dad,” he confirmed. “He’s butted heads with my dad a few times. I held a council meeting yesterday, and he didn’t agree with me running the pack.”

“He’s an idiot,” I said flatly.

“They’re scared,” he countered, trying to stay neutral. “I put Rhodes, Katy, Will, and Dante on the council with me. For now I’m trying to blend dad’s council with mine.”

“Dante?” I frowned. “How can you have someone from another pack? And with Luke... Isn’t Dante the Brooks Ridge Alpha now?”

“Dante and I talked about it on the plane,” he replied quietly. “I think we both knew Luke’s injuries were too severe. Brooks Ridge is isolated where they are. Dante abdicated his claim as Alpha and we merged their pack into Blackwater.”

Holy shit.

“It’s part of why Lodge challenged me.” He slowly, calmly told me about how he and the others decided that if Norwood was amassing their own army, then so should Blackwater. But, unlike Norwood, Blackwater was giving packs a choice. Blackwater would protect them before Norwood could take them.

“Rhodes and Will have been reaching out to local packs on the west coast, but I talked to Griffin last night. He’s thinking about merging with us, too.”

That would be huge. Griffin’s pack was Windale, and was one of the largest in the country. Combining them with Blackwater might give us the edge of Norwood.

“I feel so useless here,” I muttered. My eyes swept the room that was fit for, well, a princess.

“I hate that you’re not with me, but I’m also relieved you’re not here in the middle of this mess,” he replied with a grimace.

“This place is... Jesus, Remy. There’s so much I’m trying to wrap my head around. It’s like this weird mix of a dream and a nightmare.” I tucked a loose lock of hair behind my ear.

“But you’re safe?” he pressed.

I laughed softly. “Yeah. I’m safe.”

“I asked your mom about your... about Nikolai,” he corrected. “She said it was a whirlwind thing. Happened in the span of a few hours, and they didn’t really get to know each other.”

“Did she tell you that they were bonded?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yeah. She said she broke their bond, but didn’t elaborate much. And she knew he was from a Russian pack, but that was about it.”

I sucked in a deep breath. “Apparently it’s not just a Russian pack. Narodnaya is the first pack. Like, ever. This is where shifters started.”

His eyes flared widely. “Say what now?”

I nodded. “Yeah. It’s... Did Elias ever tell you about the first pack? Or how wolves were created? About Namina?”

Remy snorted, smirking. “Elias didn’t, but I’ve heard the story. We all have. It’s a fairy tale.”

“Except... it isn’t.”

His brows rose. “Skye, shifters are a genetic anomaly. It’s a mutated gene or some shit.”

“I thought the same thing,” I murmured, glancing down at where the silver bracelet had once been on my wrist. “But I’ve seen things here, Rem. Things that don’t make sense.”

His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“If I told you magic was real, would you believe me?” I held my breath, waiting for him to laugh.

He didn’t.

“Skye, I’ll always believe you,” he said honestly. There was zero judgment in his gaze as he watched me.

Sometimes I wondered what I had ever done to deserve this man and his complete and total faith in me.

“There’s a group of people here,” I said. “Romani? They can do things that don’t make sense.”

“Like?”

I glanced at my fireplace that was still crackling and roaring. It hadn’t died a bit since Lulu had left me hours earlier.

“When I was taken, at first, could you feel my wolf?” I asked, tilting my head to the side.

He frowned, his expression turning thunderous for a beat. “No,” he ground out. “It was like you were just gone.”

“Dimitri put this bracelet on me,” I explained. “It suppressed my wolf. I couldn’t feel her or your or the bond either. It was all just... gone.”

“That’s weird,” he allowed, still looking pissed off. Somehow I thought he was more pissed off about Dimitri touching me than he was my wolf being magically whammied.

“No, the weird part was the bracelet didn’t have a clasp or any kind of locking mechanism. It was like I had been born with it around my wrist. And that’s where it stayed until Lulu took it off.”

“Lulu?”

“She’s Romani. I don’t think she’s a big fan of DImitri either.”

“Get in line,” he grumbled.

“Dimitri’s not that bad,” I said, thinking of our conversation in the hall and how he admitted to covering for me with Nikolai.

“He took you,” Remy spat out vehemently. “He took you to another fucking country, Skye. And now you’re telling me he decided to give you jewelry, too?”

Oh, my God.

“Are you... jealous?” My jaw dropped.

A muscle in his jaw throbbed as he clenched his teeth. “No. Maybe. I don’t know. But I don’t like it, babe.”

“He’s my brother,” I pointed out. “Sort of.”

“Yeah, back up to the part where your dad is married, but his wife is openly having an affair?”

I shrugged. “I don’t get it either. Dinner was strange. Natasha, his wife, was openly with another guy, and from what I gathered, it’s not the first time. And Nikolai is totally okay with it.”

“But he’s the Alpha and she’s his mate?”

“Actually? He only calls her his wife.”

“Definitely weird,” he agreed.

I nodded, ducking my head as I yawned.

“It’s night where you are, right?” he asked me quietly.

“Yeah. It’s been a weird day. I’m wondering what this place looks like in the day because in the dark? Wow.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hang on.” I flipped the phone camera so he could see my room. I slowly panned the phone around the room so he could see how absurdly gigantic and ostentatious this place was.

“Damn,” he murmured when I turned the camera back. “It’s like a palace.”

I hesitated, thinking back to when Dimitri and Alexei called me princess. How Nikolai called me his heir.

“What?”

“There’s something else I didn’t tell you,” I admitted.

“Okay.” He didn’t look upset or worried. He just waited patiently for me to explain.

So I did.

About what Dimitri told me on the plane, how Alexei and even the pilot addressed me, and the way Nikolai seemed to assume I would willingly jump into the role of heir apparent of his pack.

Remy was silent after I finished spilling all of that, and something about his silence worried me.

He hadn’t flinched when I told him about the magic, he’d taken everything in stride about my sort-of abduction and Elias.

But now, I couldn’t get a read on what he was thinking.

“Say something,” I finally begged quietly.

He exhaled slowly. “Skye, it sounds like... like you have a choice to make.”

Okay, I hadn’t expected that.

My eyes narrowed. “How so?”

He looked truly conflicted. “If we’re getting this right, then you’re an alpha heir yourself. You would have every right to step into that role. To have your own pack.”

“My own pack in another country ,” I pointed out incredulously. “A country that isn’t even close to where you are.”

“I’ll support whatever decision you make,” he said, the sadness and resolve in his eyes gutting me.

“Get Katy,” I demanded.

He blinked. “What?”

“Get. Katy.” I ground out the words. “If you love me, get her.”

Remy moved off the bed and the camera bounced a little as he walked through his bedroom and across the hall. He opened Katy’s door and turned on a light, telling her to wake up.

I smiled when she told him to go to hell.

“Skye’s on the phone,” he said simply.

A second later, the phone was ripped from his hand. Her sleepy face appeared on the screen, her dark eyes huge.

“Oh, my God!” Katy’s eyes filled with tears.

“I need you to do me a favor,” I said, choking down my own wave of emotion.

“Name it, girl,” she said firmly, blinking back tears with that fierce determination I loved about her.

“Slap Remy.”

“Huh?” she frowned, glancing off screen where Remy was likely standing.

“He basically just told me it was okay if I decided to live in Russia forever.”

I heard her hand connect solidly with his arm and then she was yelling, “Are you out of your fucking mind?”

Remy grunted as she made contact again. “Jesus. Stop hitting me!”

Another slap. “I will when you stop being a self-sacrificing dumbass! Skye is getting her ass back here where she belongs!”

“That’s enough,” I called loudly.

Katy frowned at me. “He’s been under a lot of stress lately. Maybe he hit his head during the challenge.”

I tried, and failed, to hold back a smile. “Can I talk to him again?”

She glared at her brother. “I guess so.” Then she looked back at me. “But you better call me, too. I want all the details about everything, okay?”

“I will,” I promised.

“Good. I love you.”

“Love you, too,” I replied, biting my lower lip. The sting of my teeth digging into my skin held off the tears that threatened.

Remy took the phone back and headed back to his room.

“Don’t you ever do that again,” I said, my voice shaking with emotion. “It’s you and me now, remember? Your words.”

He swallowed visibility, but I could see the relief in his eyes. “Skye, I love you enough not to take away any of your choices. All I want is for you to be happy.”

“ You make me happy, Remy,” I insisted. “Don’t you get it? No castle or pack or title can make me feel as loved and accepted as you do. Unless you’re telling me you don’t want me—”

“Never,” he interrupted, his voice doing that rough growly thing that made me shiver.

“Stop trying to tell me what’s best for me, Rem,” I said softly, feeling cracked open and vulnerable as he studied me. “You’re what’s best for me.”

He groaned and dropped his head back. “I’m sorry, babe. I swear, everything is just so fucked up right now that I don’t know what to do next. I’m trying to make everyone happy, keep everyone safe, and it feels like nothing is enough. I can’t stop thinking about if Dad would make the same decisions that I am.”

“Look at me,” I said firmly, waiting until I had his eyes. “You’ve got this Remy. You know what to do, so stop second-guessing yourself. Your dad loves you, and you damn well know he will back whatever calls you make. You have an army of people who love you and are ready to fight with you, including me. This time next week, we’ll be together.”

Fire ignited in his eyes. “Promise?”

“If I have to swim across the ocean myself, yes,” I replied, knowing it was true. I would give Nikolai a week tops for the storm to pass before I set out on foot myself to get back home.

“Fuck, I love you,” he said roughly. “I miss you so much.”

Instead of the familiar surge of emotional turmoil I usually felt, I found myself smiling at him. Calm surety blanketed me. “I love you, Remy. We’re going to get through this together.”