Broken Wolf: Moonbound Series, Book Seven (9 page)

One of her half-dimples peeked out of her smile and she shook his hand. “Deal.”

Andrea bent over to grab her pants and he realized for the first time, she hadn’t been wearing underwear.

Had she expected him to fuck her?
Or does she not wear panties as a rule?

Either way, she was one unpredictable, fucking hot blonde bombshell, even under all that black hair and submissive acting. He couldn’t help smiling.

But as
Babushka
would say… he was in deep, deep shit.

V
adik sat
on the tufted gold velvet couch in Natalja’s apartment and rubbed his fingers across the material.

Andrea’s leg was close enough; he could’ve grabbed and held it. That was what he wanted to do.

But Natalja stood over them, caressing a red flogger with leather knots at the end of each strand, and pursing her lips at them. She’d been visibly unhappy since she’d discreetly dragged them away from the continuing Sunday meal.

“I can see you haven’t been practicing.” She smacked the head of the flogger into her palm and the heavy tendrils swirled angrily, thudding against the front of the corset top she wore.

“In our defense, we haven’t had much time,” Andrea said.

“There was enough time for fucking.” Natalja held out the
f
sound and landed hard on the
g
, staring at them both as though she awaited an explanation.

Vadik’s jaw dropped. “How did you—”

But she flicked the flogger at him, missing his face by perhaps an inch. “Wolf hearing. Plus, I’m not an idiot. You follow her out of a room. Fifteen minutes later, you come back smiling like a fool.”

Andrea snorted a laugh and covered her mouth with her hand. Natalja raised an eyebrow menacingly.

Vadik’s fingers somehow found their way on to her thigh and he scooted a bit closer to her, a protective streak flaring up in him. “You were the one who told us to deal with the…the thing.” He stroked Andrea’s leg through the heavy fabric of her jeans.

Less than an hour previous, that leg had been naked and hooked over his shoulder, and his face had been buried in her pussy. And he just wanted to do it again.

“I told you to face your emotions. Not fuck like bunnies.” She snapped the flogger out to one side and Vadik’s spine snapped with it. “You’re headed in to an acting job tomorrow that many pros couldn’t pull off. You have to be convincing enough as these people that a bunch of criminals will give you access to parts of the island that your friends couldn’t get to before.”

Vadik nodded, squeezing Andrea’s knee and scooting back to his position. He sat back against the couch and focused forward. She was right.
You can’t jump above your own head
.

Natalja quirked her mouth to one side. “That’s better. That’s more Ilya.” She touched the side of Andrea’s face with the flogger, a gentle motion. “And you, my dear. You have to stop making eye contact with everyone.”

A laugh started low in his belly. He was coming to understand very quickly that Andrea wasn’t the type of person to look away from anyone.

“Think of it like acting,” Natalja continued. “Your motivation is, you want to save these girls, right?”

Andrea nodded, keeping her head down.

“Then your motivation for
not being yourself
is to save lives. Any time you need a reminder to be Sasha, you think of those girls.” She settled the head of the flogger onto Vadik’s leg. “And you, why are you doing this?”

The question stopped his breath. His mouth opened to answer, but no words came.

Luther was a friend, and Vadik owed Luther his life.

But every passing moment he spent with Andrea, he found himself wanting to be on this mission
for her
. He wanted to succeed
for her
. He wanted to be strong
for her
.

He shook his head. “The same reason.”

Natalja’s eyebrow shot toward the heavens. “You want to save wolves from being tortured by a madman?”

“Yes.”

Her lips drew together and she considered him, leaning back, but pressing the flogger harder on his leg.

“Don’t lie to me.” She whacked him with the flogger and Vadik’s pulse raced.

“Well, it wasn’t about that at first, but I want to help.”

“What was it about at first?”

The flogger dug in to his flesh, bringing a sharp pain coursing through him. Flashes of the drug bust in Mexico City came, unbidden, behind closed eyes. Pictures of Luther’s face, hovering over him while his chest exploded in pain. They seemed far away.

Vadik swallowed. “Luther saved my life.”

Andrea’s inhale of breath was sharp and her fingers on his arm woke him from the memories.

He opened his eyes to see her worried expression, creasing lines on her face as she kept her head down and her gaze on some point on the floor in front of her. But her hand gripped him.

“I came because I owe Luther my life, but I’m staying because…” His tongue slid out to wet his lips. “Because I know I can help.”

Natalja withdrew the flogger and shifted her weight from side to side. “Look, this isn’t a test to see if you have the right motivation. Whatever drives you has to come from deep inside.” She pressed a closed fist to her rib cage. “It fuels you, like gasoline, and when you’re running low, it fills you up again. You’re going to need to know that when you’re on the island and the world is on fire.”

Andrea’s hand dropped from his wrist to slide into his hand, palm to palm, fingers wrapped around each other. She didn’t move her posture, but she held on to him like they were fused together.

He squeezed back.

“When you are Ilya and you’re Sasha, you have to think as well about why they do what they do. It’ll help you modify your behavior when appropriate.” Natalja took a few steps backward and sat on the plush paisley chair against the other wall of the narrow room. “Tell me, what is Ilya’s motivation?”

“He’s a psychopath,” Vadik said quickly.

Natalja’s head leaned to one side. “I don’t doubt that. But what makes him want to control Sasha?”

“You mean,
own
her, right?” Andrea’s voice was very much hers, not the
acting
voice she would have used as Sasha. “You don’t mean
control
. You mean
own.
”

“Explain the difference as you see it.” She sat back and crossed her legs, like a teacher waiting to be amused by a student’s reply.

“When they killed Ilya, Sasha thought we were going to sell her to someone
else
. She didn’t choose to be his
slave
out of some kinky desire to have someone else in control. She was a slave because he bought her.”

The air in the living room vibrated with their collective anger, but under the surface, like a river of lava under a hard shell of volcanic rock.

“So the Master-slave dynamic was not consensual.” Natalja sucked in one lip and chewed at it. “Well, that changes things completely.”

“How so?” Vadik leaned forward.

Natalja continued to consider, as though there was something moving behind her blank stare. “I have no experience with non-consensual Master-slave relationships. In fact, one of the bedrocks of the kink community is consent.”

He nodded. “That’s what I thought.”

“Okay, let’s try this, then.” She snapped the flogger and stood. “It may actually work in our favor that you’ve slept together, because you’ll tend to be more aware of each other’s movements and body language. But it’s important that we got to the true nature of their relationship. That’s going to change some of what we had talked about last night.” She snapped her fingers. “Stand. Both of you.”

Vadik obeyed and one of the leather dangles snapped at his wrist. He instinctively let go of Andrea’s hand.

“Good. You won’t be holding hands again for a long time.” Natalja took a wide stance in front of them. “Now, it’s going to be important to pay attention to this next exercise. I’m going to tweak a few things for this situation, that we would never do in a consensual relationship, but I think it’ll be important for us to recognize how Sasha’s fear of Ilya is going to make her act in certain situations.”

He squared his shoulders and moved his head as though he planned to consent, but he still wasn’t sure what he was consenting to. He felt the weight of the flogger being forced in to his hand, and he looked down at the strange object. Vadik met Natalja’s gaze and her brows rounded in compassion.

“I know this isn’t—”

The sharp blast of a ring cut the air. Andrea dug in her pocket and pulled out her smart phone. The screen held a picture of a laughing, bearded man with his arm around Andrea’s shoulders in a selfie.

Above the picture, the screen read,
Aaron
.

“Shit.” She gripped the cell to her palm. “It’s my brother.”

“Take it,” Natalja said, pointing toward the kitchen. “I’ll work with Vadik while you talk to him.”

But as she left his side, Vadik felt his attention go with her. He didn’t know how they were going to survive on the island, pretending to be two people who didn’t care about each other, with him acting like he only wanted to use Andrea to service his own needs.

Especially when he couldn’t even see a picture of her brother holding her without getting a little jealous.

He was absolutely fucked.

“
A
ndrea
.”

“Aaron, what’s wrong?” She slipped around the corner and into Natalja’s kitchen. She leaned against the chipped veneer countertop and sighed. Her brother was not going to make this easy.

“The alphas have activated the Rangers. They’ll be in Choaca by midnight tonight.”

Holy fucking shit!

She gulped down the angry snarl fighting its way out of her throat. She’d known they were considering it, but they’d acted without telling them. The team.

“We’re bringing you all home. Everyone is getting a call. I’ve booked you a flight out of Chicago and I’ll be picking you up tonight at DFW.”

Stall, Andrea. Say anything but, ‘I’m planning to role play as a slave and sneak onto a madman’s island with a human assassin who knows I’m a wolf to save women and children you’re choosing to ignore.’
“It would be closer if I flew into Houston.”

“You’re on flight 726 out of Chicago tonight. Your ticket will be waiting for you. I’m texting you the confirmation number.”

Her phone beeped a second later when the text came through.

“Everyone is being called home. Not just you. This has all gone far enough and no one is willing to risk your lives any longer.”

“I understand.”

“Good. I expect to see you tonight. Go get packed. Your flight leaves in two hours.”

Packed?

She swallowed a laugh. They hadn’t brought anything with them. Everything was back in Choaca with Alex, Hannah and Donovan.

“I’ll see you soon, Aaron,” she finally squeezed out.

Lying to him not only went against who she was, it went against the magick that linked them together as wolves. They were bound as a pack and she was betraying her alpha.

The wound created by this lie would not easily be healed—for any of them.

“8:47pm.”

“What?” The time caught her off guard.

“That’s when you land in DFW. I’ll see you then. It’ll be good to have you home. I’m sure your temporary manager at the bar will be glad to get back to her life too.”

She snorted. “Reyna is doing just fine at the bar. I talk to her most days.”

The door to the apartment opened and shut. Multiple sets of footsteps entered and she could hear Niko arguing with his sister in the living room.

Vadik poked his head around the corner and caught her gaze.

“I have to go, Aaron. Niko’s here to take me to the airport. Love you.”

“Love you too, sis. See you soon.”

She clicked off the line and made a beeline for Vadik. “What’s going on?”

He tipped his head toward Niko.

“Everyone’s getting calls from their alphas. They want us to go home.” Niko toed his black leather boot into the rug and glanced down.

“Are they going?” Andrea’s pulse raced.

Surely they hadn’t given up. Surely after everything they’d been through together the team wouldn’t just leave all those women and children at the mercy of whatever plan the alphas had concocted with the Rangers.

“Maggie has already talked with everyone, Andi. We’re in if you are. All of us. But it’s up to you and Vadik. You’re the ones taking the huge risk.”

Andrea looked at Vadik, and he inclined his head, nodding ever so slightly.
He was in.
“We’re doing this. And we have to go now or we won’t beat the Rangers to Choaca. Aaron said they arrive at midnight tonight.”

“Maggie was going to call Rain the second we knew you were still a go.” Niko grabbed the fluffy black coat from the chair by the door and tossed it to her.

Andrea caught it and slipped into the downy warmth.

Niko kissed his sister’s forehead and opened the apartment door.

“You two remember,” Natalja started. “Stay in character. No eye contact, Andrea. And Vadik, you have to keep your hands off of her.”

She nodded and followed Niko down the stairs with Vadik hot on her heels.

They had a plane to catch, and it wasn’t the one any of their alphas were expecting.