Chapter Four

NIKOLAI

I had a half-dead woman in my arms and an itch in the back of my throat.

“Who is she?” Igor asked with an air of mischief I was accustomed to, and I turned to glare at the roguish-looking man with a smirk playing on his purple lips.

“I haven't the faintest idea Igor, prepare the horses, we’re going back to my Stone city castle.” I breathed over my shoulder at my best man, letting my eyes roam over the woman’s bare neck, the thin gold chain of a necklace caught my eye.

It was the same kind I had stretched in a tight ring around my neck. The kind the moon goddess had given me the night of my first wolfing.

My breath caught in my throat when I realized what it meant.

“Are you certain Nikolai? Your father would be quite upset,” Igor tempered with a hint of warning in his throaty voice that sent shivers down my spine.

Upset would have been putting it lightly for the King. My father would be livid, I could almost imagine him blowing a vein in his forehead when the concierge gave him the news.

“Anything to leave this dump Igor, the horses!” I hissed, glancing about my brother’s ornate castle with a measure of distaste I only reserved for the gutter rogues.

The woman moved in my arms again and I snapped my eyes away from her slender bodice, unable to dislodge the image of her milk-white breasts pushing noticeably through the fabric of her gown.

I could not deny the aura of attraction about her, the full, dark hair of her head that fell in tumultuous waves over her back, brushing the arch of her ass sensually.

I’d watched her break away from the side of the castle, running toward the gates at breakneck speed like a bat out of hades before they fell shut.

I hadn't even realized I’d been walking toward the maiden, not until she turned around and ran straight into me.

“Goddamn you Nikolai, you are a sucker for damsels in distress,” I breathed heavily, hefting the girl over my shoulder with little more than a grunt and mounting the horse, before settling her around me.

“My Prince,” Igor chastised, throwing me a dirty look before I stuck out my tongue at him.

“It wouldn't do to rescue the girl from whatever demons ailed her only to have her intestines stomped out when she fell off the horse now would it?” I tittered, and he shook his head for want of what to say.

The trot of horses gathered about us tighter as I ordered the gates open and watched the latticed nails creak upwards until it rolled out of sight and we set off, away from the brick castle.

“Greetings Your Highness!” The keeps men chorused, their bright smiles making the ball in my throat thaw slightly as we marched into the grand foyer of the Stone castle.

We got off the horse, and I released the woman gently to the cooing old maids who seemed all too happy to take her from my arms.

It was obvious the maiden had been abused, though to what extent I couldn't tell.

The thought made rage boil like chicken broth in the dark pits of my stomach.

I looked at the sketch on the white sheet again, the heat of the threads crowding around my eyes made my vision a pinhole as my wolf growled to attention, shaking itself out inside me.

My hands had begun to shake as I watched the nursemaids lay the girl out on the red-patterned foam of the gurney table as we stood around her inside the cool air of the cold room.

Would Toph dare to harm my mate so? To get one on me in his petty revenge circle?

Surely my brother was smarter than that? I gritted my teeth, ignoring the furtive looks my best man had been throwing my way since we set off.

I didn't have time for this, I didn't need a mate now, not yet.

The woman’s soft breathing at the crook of my neck made it hard to breathe as we marched over the gold-layered drawbridge that led into the castle.

“Your highness! Your Highness! Our returning troops just got word of a missing woman! The sketches are identical to the woman we brought back from your brother’s castle!” The stooge thundered suddenly, bursting through the double doors and I felt the line of my spine break and straighten.

I  turned slowly, to see the short man harrying toward me with a missing warrant in his hand that I snatched hastily, splaying it out between my fingers as the itch settled back in my throat.

So that was why she had my brother’s scent on her? The smell of gunpowder and cocoa grounds had not escaped my wolf’s attention.

What the hell had I gotten myself into? Shit Nikolai, think!

I palmed the sore spot in my temples, feeling the veiny threads pulsing at the corners of my eyes, itching to take control, to destroy.

I couldn't let that happen. Not yet. I fisted the paper in my hands, the crinkling sound overshadowed by my gritting teeth.

“What are you going to do about her Nikolai? We can't hide her here for much longer! If your brother finds out, it will turn into a war!” Igor needled, the frantic rise and fall of his breaths making the warning sound strained in my ears.

“Silence,” I whispered, but the threat in my voice was enough to send everyone into a quiet hush as the girl’s breathing rose raspily in the quiet space as I loomed over her, searching her face for any sign of treachery.

It was then that the girl’s eyes flew open, the honeyed brown of her gaze glazing over a moment before they fixed unnervingly on me.

I watched as she opened her mouth, expecting everything but the shrill scream that followed.