Chapter 34

34

REMY

T he second I saw her face, my heart started beating again.

The moment she wrapped her body around mine, I could finally breathe again.

I wasn’t sure if Skye was shaking, or I was, but everything in me felt raw and cracked open. It was one of the few times in my life I could remember wanting to actually cry.

My hands hooked under her thighs, sliding to cup her ass, while I pressed a kiss to her throat right on top of the scar from where I claimed her was while the sun started to dip behind the treeline.

I found my voice first, but it sounded like I dragged it over gravel and broken glass. “Hey, baby.”

She lifted her head and I got a small glimpse of her emerald eyes before she kissed me eagerly, desperately.

I gave myself a second to get lost in the feel of her lips on mine, the way her body pressed against me, before I slowly set her down. My eyes moved past her to where a group of people were getting off the airplane.

Her hand cupped the side of my face, drawing my attention back to her. Always to her.

“Are you okay?” I asked softly. I had watched her break into a run, carefully scrutinizing every step to check for injuries as she got closer. Now that she was in my arms, it was all I could do not to strip her down and inspect every inch of her skin, and not just for injuries.

“I’m perfect now,” she replied, rolling to her toes and kissing me again.

I laughed, kissing her back for a second. “Are we good?” I questioned when she dropped back down. The group was almost all off the plane now and heading straight for us.

She looked over her shoulder. “Yeah. We’re good. They’re here to help us.”

Us .

The word cracked open something in my heart that had my arms tightening around her once more.

I forced myself to let her go. As soon as I did, Addie stepped in, grabbing Skye and hugging her.

Addie started crying, and I stepped around them both, blocking them from view. Rhodes and Michael stepped up beside me as Katy and Larkin stole Skye from her mother.

I looked around at the people standing with me. My council and my father’s had both come, along with a few extra guards. Some were with us and others were in the woods in case we needed them.

I wasn’t taking any chances.

I wanted to believe Skye’s dad was a good guy and her trust wasn’t misplaced, but I also wasn’t taking a fraction of a chance now that she was back with me.

Dante and Ryder had Tate crushed between them, a tangle of hands and arms as they kept her firmly between them. I met Dante’s eyes over Tate’s head, one of his arms wrapped around Tate, the other hand clasping Ryder’s neck. I hated to interrupt their reunion almost as much as I hated to stop mine, but the group was rapidly closing the distance. Dante nodded and started to extricate himself from Ryder’s and Tate’s arms.

It wasn’t hard to guess who Skye’s father was as the group approached. Everything about the man in the center of the group screamed Alpha. I watched him, from his dark hair that was the same shade of Skye’s to the cold gray glint in his eyes. Those eyes met mine and held, not challenging, but calculating. He was trying to get a read on us, on me , the same way I was eyeing him.

Skye pushed her way between Rhodes and me, slipping under Rhodes’s arm and hugging his waist.

He hugged her back for a second, relief stark in his eyes as he looked down at her for a beat.

“Hey, Skyewalker,” he greeted warmly, but there was no missing the slight crack in his voice. “We missed you.”

“I missed you, too, Rhodey,” she whispered, giving him one more squeeze before sliding her hand into mine where it belonged.

“That’s him, huh?” I murmured, watching Nikolai Dashkov walking at us.

“That’s him,” she confirmed, leaning against my arm, her head resting on my shoulder.

When he was only a few yards away, I took a deep breath and started forward, Skye at my side. We all stopped with a few feets separating us. Nikolai’s eyes kept drifting past me to where I was sure Addie was standing.

Skye had given her the heads up that Nikolai would be here, but I still felt the need to protect her after what she had shared with me. On the drive here, she had been a nervous wreck. I felt compelled to protect her if I could.

When Nikolai’s eyes narrowed, I knew Ryder was doing his job as we had discussed, using his large body to shield Addie from view.

“Nikolai, this is Remy,” Skye said, grabbing both of our attention. “Rem, this is... my dad.”

Nikolai’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second before he wiped the expression away and focused on me.

“Thank you,” I started, glancing down at my mate, “for taking care of Skye and Tate.”

A small, unreadable smile toyed on his lips. “Of course. And thank you for hosting us. My children think highly of you.”

Daniel—

No, Dimitri , stood to his right. He nodded at me.

“We’re a little tight on room right now,” I admitted, ignoring the burn in my gut at seeing the guy who lied to me and took Skye, “but we have two houses for you all to use for the time being.”

“We don’t need formal housing,” Nikolai replied. “We can make do on the ground just as easily.” The blonde woman to his left gave him an incredulous look for a second.

“Skye said you have more people coming?” I asked, quickly doing a headcount of the people in front of me.

“We do, provided you’re all right with that. We have another two hundred men that can be en route as soon as I call and check in with my beta.” He inclined his head towards me. “Again, only if you agree.”

I glanced down at Skye and she looked back, nothing but trust and surety in her gaze.

I looked back at Nikolai with a nod. “Good. If you can arrange to get them here, we’ll work out where they can sleep.”

“All right,” he agreed easily. “But I can assure you, my men are quite accustomed to sleeping outside. Their wolves prefer it, to be honest.”

“Whatever’s easiest,” Skye said, nodding. “Thank you.”

“Right,” Nikolai said smoothly. “You already know my son, Dimitri. This is my wife, Natasha.”

“Welcome,” I greeted evenly, skipping past Dimitri and smiling at Natasha.

“Are we done with the formalities?” she asked, looking briefly at her husband.

His smile tightened. “Depends. Are you planning to behave?”

My eyebrows lifted as Skye snorted, shaking her head.

Nikolai’s gaze met mine once more, his eyes sliding down to where Skye’s hand was tucked into mine. “I suppose we are family.”

“Exactly,” Natasha said brightly, stepping away from him and reaching for Skye’s other hand. “All this formality is stifling, Nik.”

“Mama,” Dimitri grumbled.

“I swear, Natasha,” Nikolai started.

Skye was fighting a smile.

“Is that her?” Natasha’s eyes widened as her voice dropped to a whisper. She craned her neck, looking between Rhodes and I.

Glancing back, I saw Addie had stepped around Ryder. She was pale, and I could see the way she was trembling from here.

“She’s pretty,” Natasha remarked, almost awed. She glanced back at her husband with a scoff. “Too pretty for you.”

Nikolai looked ready to strangle her, but he hadn’t told her to shut up.

“Tasha,” Skye warned, her eyes narrowed. She looked worried as he looked from her mom to her stepmother.

“Ryder,” I called, barely turning around, “take Addie back to the car.”

Natasha’s eyes widened, her hand fluttering up to her throat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean... Oh, hell.” She sighed, dejected, as Ryder led Addie back to the line of waiting cars.

“Are you pleased with yourself?” Nikolai asked sourly, glaring at her.

To her credit, Natasha didn’t flinch. She tipped her head back, meeting his glare with her own. After a beat, she relented, rolling her eyes and stepping back with an annoyed huff.

Nikolai turned back to me. “Thank you, Alpha.”

“Remy,” I corrected him, still not used to having the formal title of Alpha attached to my name.

“Remy,” he repeated. “One last matter to discuss. You have cells here, yes? For holding people under arrest?”

I frowned. “Of course.”

Every pack did, but I could honestly say that Blackwater’s were rarely used. We didn’t have a high crime rate, and the shit that did happen was usually handled by my dad. The last person who had been in one of those cells was Rhodes’s dad, and that had been over a year ago.

In one of his rarer moments, he took his drunk ass to the bar in town and got wasted. He’d gotten into a fight, and Dad had put him in a cell so he could dry out for the night.

I wasn’t sure why Nikolai felt the need to ask until I caught movement coming out of the plane.

“Fuck,” I swore, my blood running cold as Elias and then Linden were led down the stairs.

Skye’s hand tightened around mine. “It’s okay.”

“What the hell are they doing here?” I demanded, my gaze swinging from Nikolai to Skye.

She opened her mouth to answer, but Nikolai beat her to it.

“I thought you might want to question them yourself,” he explained, almost happily.

I glared at both of them as they approached. Linden met my stare defiantly, his mouth pressed into a grim line. Elias hung his head, looking like he was walking to be executed. He refused to look up.

Skye’s hand squeezed mine, dragging my attention away from them.

“Let’s get them settled and then we can all talk,” she said softly.

I nodded slowly, not liking the flicker of fear in her eyes. There was something she wasn’t telling me.

“Okay,” I said sharply. “We’ll get you all settled for the night. We can meet later tomorrow to discuss a plan.”

I motioned to my pack with my hand. “Will and Michael will handle your sleeping arrangements and take you to the houses we have ready. We’ll bring your luggage when it’s been unloaded.”

Nikolai smiled and started leading his people away to where Michael and Will stood.

I pulled my hand from Skye’s as Dimitri approached, extending it to him.

He paused in front of me.

“Thank you,” I started sincerely, “for protecting Skye.”

Dimitri nodded with an easy grin and shook my hand. “No problem.”

My right hand squeezed his as my left arm swung. My knuckles collided solidly with his jaw, snapping his head back. I let go as he stumbled backwards and went down, hard.

Everyone around us froze.

“Remy!” Skye hissed, moving to step around me and check on him.

I held her back with one hand as I glared down at Dimitri. “Take her away from me again and I’ll kill you.”

“Noted,” he muttered, rubbing his jaw. He winced as he touched the already swelling area and got back back.

Skye’s nails dug into my forearm as Dimitri joined the others getting ready to leave.

“Really?”

I looked at her. “Yes, really. And I really will kill him, or anyone, who takes you from me again.”

She sighed, but didn’t seem too upset by what I said. In fact, when her eyes met mine, all I could see was love.

Unable to resist, I kissed her again, hard.

It killed me to step away from her, especially when she rocked forward, her lips chasing mine as I straightened and looked back at my pack.

“You all know what to do,” I said, nodding that they were okay to leave. The cars carrying the Narodnaya pack members were already leaving.

Everyone slowly cleared out until only a few of us were left. Dante stalked away from my side, grabbing Tate and pulling her close as Ryder let Addie out of the car.

“Mom,” Skye breathed as she approached. “Are you okay?”

She was still pale, but nodded. “I’m fine, baby.”

“You’re welcome to go with the others,” I told her, not crazy about her going home to an empty apartment. “You can stay at the house tonight. Or stay with Zoe and Michael.”

“Actually I’m going to go pick up your mother,” Addie replied, her eyes darting around nervously. “Gabe’s insisting she get some sleep that isn’t the cot they brought into his room. I told her she can use Skye’s bed. The apartment is only a couple blocks from the medical center, so she’s still close by.”

“Thank you,” I said, truly meaning it. Addie had been invaluable lately between handling food for the workers and keeping Mom company at the medical center so she wasn’t alone.

“How is he?” Skye demanded, her worried eyes lifting to me.

“He’s doing good,” I answered, thankful it was the truth. “I promised him I would bring you by soon to visit.”

“We’ll give you a ride,” Rhodes said, wrapping an arm around Larkin’s shoulders.

“Actually,” Addie said, “if it’s all right, I’d like to run back. I could use some time to clear my head.”

“Mom.” Skye sighed. “Is that even safe right now?”

“She’s safe,” I assured Skye. “The borders are miles away and locked down tight, and there’s plenty of guards in the woods between here and town.”

Now that Brooks Ridge was with us, we had ample guards to make sure everyone inside the Blackwater pack territory was safe.

“It’s fine,” Addie replied firmly. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Skye moved away from me and hugged Addie. “Promise you’ll call if you need me.”

Addie released her with a smile, smoothing a hand down Skye’s dark hair. “I will. Don’t worry about me.” She turned and headed for the treeline.

“What now?” Skye asked softly, looking around.

I glanced around at my friends. My family.

“Now we hug you again,” Larkin declared with a beaming smile, pulling Skye into a crushing hug. It only took a second for Katy to join them.

After a second, Rhodes shrugged and wrapped his arms around all three of them.

I started to laugh.

“You know you want in on this,” Katy teased from over Larkin’s shoulder.

“You all have five seconds before I’m taking Skye back,” I warned them instead. My wolf was less than pleased with anyone except us touching Skye.

Four and a half seconds later, they let Skye go. She was back at my side, my arm wrapped possessively around her shoulder at the five second mark.

“Is there anything we need to know right now?” I looked at her.

“Yeah,” she replied seriously, but turned away from me and looked at Katy.

“I know where Maren is.”

Katy gasped and stepped back into Dante as he, Ryder, and Tate joined us.

“Are you serious?” Ryder demanded. “You found her?”

Skye nodded. “There’s a facility in New York she’s being held at.”

Katy’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of facility ?”

“The kind Damien is using to hold women and girls he plans to auction off,” Tate replied woodenly, leaning against Ryder.

“Auction off?” Rhodes practically choked on the words, horror etched on his features.

“They’re not being hurt,” Skye added, still looking unhappy. “But Damien has been keeping women and girls there. Linden told us about it.”

“You don’t think he’s lying?” I rubbed my jaw.

She shook her head. “No. And Elias confirmed it.”

“We need to go get them,” Katy said, her eyes flashing.

“We will,” I promised her.

“The only way we’ll get to them is to beat Damien,” Skye said. “It’s too guarded and too deep into Norwood territory to get to it on our own.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. “Tomorrow we’ll start making a plan. We’ll figure this out.”

Katy nodded, but huffed a little. “Okay.”

“You guys head back to the house,” I told them. “We’ll catch up with you tomorrow.”

“We will?” Surprise lit Skye’s face as she turned to me.

“We will,” I repeated firmly, almost daring her to challenge me.

Her gaze heated, and her tongue darted out, wetting her lips. It was all I could do not to throw her over my shoulder then and there.

Rhodes snickered as he led the others off. “You two kids have fun.”

“Don’t do anything we wouldn’t do,” Katy sing-songed as she walked away.

I had no idea what they would or wouldn’t be doing, and I didn’t really care.

The only thing that mattered was the girl in front of me.