Taking Nicole (Vegas Mates Series)(#4) (10 page)

“Not without Kate,”
her wolf answered.
“We’ll both die if you fight the winner. The Council will execute us on principle alone.”

Kate will be here. I can feel it.

“Glad you’re so sure. Can we discuss the horny, arrogant jerks standing behind us?”

They won’t dare do anything with Aaron and Karl here.

“Again. Yay for confidence, but let’s get off this very private, out-of-the-way beach before they decide to abandon their honor.”

Fine.

Nicole turned on her heel and walked past all six men without a single word. Her feet punched through the sandy earth with purposeful anger. Her magick swirled and flared outward, letting all of them know to back off.

They got the hint. None spoke as she passed, and they only started up the path behind her once she reached the crest of the hill.

The Antipas palace—her gilded prison—sprawled across the landscape ahead. If it didn’t represent such a threat, she might actually appreciate its shining white walls and blue shingled roof. It was a villa fit for a king and queen. Instead, it housed her egotistical, maniacal grandparents. All the beauty of the countryside couldn’t make up for the darkness that dwelt within those walls.

***

Nicole stretched her arms above her head and twisted to her side. Light poured through the open curtains. Tempe had already been in her room. The smell of the female werewolf still clung in the air around her. Lena had been there as well. The faint scent of toast and jam wafted from the table across the room.

Peeling back the covers, she slid from the bed and padded across the soft carpet, situating herself on the cushions of the small couch in front of the coffee table.
 

She poured a cup of piping hot coffee from the kettle on the tray and added just a shot of cream and one spoonful of sugar. The cream swirled in the black liquid, lightening the color to caramel.
 

Lifting the silver lid, she sniffed the warm toast and strawberry jam. It was her favorite, but she had no appetite. Tonight was the ceremony. Time had run out. Kate had not shown herself and everything for the fight tonight was in motion. She had lain in bed last night, listening to all the servants scurrying around and readying the guests to leave.
 

The ceremony would take place at a private amphitheater owned by the Council. Tempe had already said all the wolf royal families would be in attendance, even the ones without suitors in the fight. Each of the eleven seats would be filled ... well, ten.
 

The seat reserved for Demakis would be empty. Now that her father had passed, it should’ve belonged to his brother, Phillip, but the Council had declared the entire Demakis family to be traitors. The seat was up for grabs.
 

Thus this damnable claiming ceremony.
 

She was proud her father and his siblings had taken a stand against the chokehold the Council seemed to have on everyone. If given a choice, she’d be standing next to them instead of marrying into the nest of vipers. If worse came to worst, perhaps she could subvert from within.
 

It was hard to believe this was her last day of freedom. The last day she would ever have before she left Aaron. Tears welled in her eyes.

Angry, she wiped them away and stood. Her footfalls were silent as she walked to her bedroom door and threw it open. Disappointment pierced her heart like daggers of ice when Karl’s blue eyes gazed down at her instead of Aaron’s brown ones.

“Where is he?” She bit her bottom lip to keep it from trembling.

“He’ll be back shortly. Just taking a moment with his sister before the rest of the house wakes.”

She gulped. His sister.
Of course. Here I am thinking to take advantage of him. Beg him for a few stolen moments, maybe a kiss. I’ve selfishly and conveniently forgotten why he refuses to touch me.

“It’s for the best. You’d never forgive yourself if something happened because you wanted one last moment with him.”

Her wolf was right. She’d die of grief if her actions caused harm to him again or his sister. She put on a good, tough girl attitude, but deep inside she craved what every woman wanted—someone to love who could love her in return. She didn’t want a lifetime of regret or loneliness.

“Oh.” Nicole nodded and closed the door.
 

It was wrong. Even selfish. But she still wanted him. She needed to feel him hold her. If Tempe came to get her before he did, she’d never feel his arms around her again. Never feel the bond between them flare with desire. Never feel him fill her completely and seal the mate bond. Never feel his mark on her.

“Damn it!” She growled, flipping the coffee table and its contents across the room. It smashed against the wall, leaving brown and red stains dripping down the white walls.

She ran to the wall and grabbed a framed landscape print and hurtled it across the room, relishing the sound of the shattering glass and crunch of the wooden frame. A vase on an end table was next. A glass candy dish by the door joined the remnants of everything else she could break in her bedroom. But trinkets and a painting weren’t enough. She hurled the chairs next, smashing them against the walls.
 

Her eyes scanned the room. The only thing left untouched was the bed. She screamed and lifted from one side, toppling the four-poster bed. The posts on the far side snapped and the mattresses fell to the floor with a thud.

Tears were next. Her knees gave way and the floor rushed to meet her body. She curled into a ball, hugging her legs to her chest. The emotions poured out of her like a rushing river. It wasn’t fair. She didn’t want to live like her mother had, slowly going crazy because she’d lost her true mate.

“You won’t go crazy. We’re all different. Just because Renata’s wolf couldn’t handle it doesn’t mean I’m going to turn into a psycho.”

I can’t do this … I need him. My body aches to touch him.

“I know, but it will pass. When another’s mark joins with your magick, it won’t be as bad.”

Why don’t you care? Why am I the only one flipping out in here?

“I care very much! Don’t you ever say I don’t. I just see the bigger picture and we need to make the best of the hand we’ve been dealt.”

So just give up?!

“We can’t fight an entire society!”
Her wolf’s voice roared in her head.
“We can try, but they will kill us. My survival instinct is stronger than my suicidal one.”

“I’m going to lose her tonight, Sasha. To one of those assholes. And that’s only if she doesn’t kill herself fighting against it.” Aaron leaned against the cold metal bars of his sister’s cage and sighed. Sasha’s soft nose nuzzled the back of his neck. He turned, looking into her soft yellow eyes. Her fur was dulled from malnutrition and she was very underweight, as were most of the prisoners here. Carlotta and Reginald only fed them enough to keep them alive. Their magick kept them from getting sick and dying.

Sasha purred and sat quietly, cocking her head to the side.

“There’s nothing left to do.” He glanced at the ground and then to his beloved sister again. He missed her smile and her twinkling blue eyes and long curly black hair. The sweet memory of her voice had almost completely faded from his mind. “I could try to run with Nicole, but they would hunt us down and kill us. And kill you. Kate, the witch I was telling you about, said she was coming, but no one has come. I’m not sure what she could do, even if she is a creator.”

Sasha nodded and stretched out on the bare cement floor of her cage. He stood, watching her tail flick back and forth. She’d been in this dank place nearly a century. Even if he was able to get her out, he wondered what would really be left of his sister. He could only hope that she and her leopard had a lot to say. If it’d been him in the cage, he would have gone insane. But she seemed calm. He’d seen several of the prisoners give up over the years. Henrick’s mother had been one of them. One day she stopped eating. No amount of pleading could change her mind. Three weeks later she passed away, breaking his friend’s heart.
 

It wasn’t fair. None of these people deserved this existence.

“Have faith in our creator, Aaron. If she said she was coming, she is,”
his leopard’s voice rumbled in the back of his mind.
“She will help. She is more powerful than any of these so-called royals.”

We’re losing our mate.

“Perhaps they will kill each other and none will be left to take her.”

Aaron scoffed at his cat’s optimism.
Sure.

“Aaron?” Karl’s voice called from the entrance to the cages. “You need to come. Now.”

His heart paused. Karl never sounded worried. He was a man of few emotions, but those five words held the weight of the world in them.

Aaron leapt to his feet and reached the entrance in moments.
 

Karl’s eyes were dark. “You shouldn’t have left her.”

***

“Nicole?” Tempe’s soft voice fell on her ears. “You have to shift back. We have to get you ready for the ceremony before Carlotta sees this.”

No.
She growled and tucked her nose against her stomach, not surprised she’d retreated to wolf form.
 

“Nicole Antipas. Get your ass off the floor and get dressed for tonight. Right. Now.”

Fury seethed through every part of her body at the sound of her grandmother’s angry words. Rage surged through her and she leapt to her feet, shifting in mid-stride. A scream of anger fueled by her magick propelled everyone in the room backward several feet, even her grandmother.

“My name is Nicole Demakis, you bitch! I hate you and your family and everything that has to do with your damned Council!”

Tempe gasped and crawled backward, inching her body toward the open bedroom door. Carlotta stood, mouth agape and eyes glowing gold with rage.

“I am your elder,” she roared, charging forward. Her hands lifted and she froze several arms lengths away.
 

The surge of magick was strong, but Nicole crossed her arms and withstood the blast. Her combined family lines made her stronger than her grandmother, and Carlotta knew it. It was why she’d gone to such lengths to hunt Nicole and her sisters.

All wolves had power through the magick that made them paranormal, but it came in varying degrees. As the daughters of two royal lines, she and her sisters all carried with them the strength of both families. They were warriors, stronger than any others in the pack. But none of them had been trained to wield the power. Fights weren’t won on battlefields any longer. They were won with money and weapons. Knowledge was power.

“I don’t care,” she snapped.

Something changed in her grandmother’s gaze. The anger faded and was replaced by a smile.

Shit.

Carlotta turned and walked away, stopping at the doorway where Tempe was crouching. She glanced down at the little wolf and paused. “Should I kill her now, Nicole? Or would you like it to be a precursor to your ceremony tonight?”

Tears ran down Tempe’s cheeks.

Anger boiled inside Nicole and she clenched her fists. It wasn’t fair. Anything she did would cost others their lives. Her grandmother wouldn’t hurt her. Just the people she cared about. She was just as much a prisoner in this place as they all were.

“Nicole, please,” Tempe whimpered.

“Well?” Carlotta’s voice dripped with satisfaction as she turned to face her again.

The rage faded to despair. Nicole dipped her head, staring at the floor. “I submit. I will not resist again.”
 

“Good. I hate getting blood on the carpet,” she replied, whirling and exiting the room with a flourish.

The woman was a damn lunatic. Everyone in my mom’s family is fucking crazy.

***

Aaron paused in the hallway and bowed his head as Carlotta rushed past. She didn’t stop and he released the breath he’d been holding after she entered the elevator and the doors closed on her.

He rushed to Nicole’s open door and froze. The room was trashed. Every stick of furniture was broken. Every decoration or piece of art had been smashed or shattered. His boots crunched through broken glass and he swallowed nervously. Even the bed hadn’t escaped the indoor storm. It lay halfway upside down with two of the posts snapped in half.

Royals were stronger than most shifters, but that bed had to weigh nearly a thousand pounds. There’s no way, royal or not, Nicole should’ve been able to lift it by herself.

“What happened?” His voice echoed through the empty room.

“Aaron?” Nicole’s voice called from the bathroom.

He waved off Karl and continued into the room, making his way carefully through the wreckage to the en suite bathroom. Nicole stood naked in the center of the room, her arms outstretched and her eyes cast downward.
 

Tempe was flitting about like a butterfly on crack. A beautiful, blue silk gown was rapidly dropped over Nicole’s head. It didn’t do much in the way of covering her nakedness, but it certainly made his dick stand up and take notice.
Damn
. Every wolf in that place tonight would want her, and there was nothing he could do.

“You mean nothing you will do.”
His cat corrected.

She would never forgive herself if something happened to Sasha and you know it. So just shut up.

Tempe wrapped several thin leather cords around Nicole’s torso, strapping the dress down just enough to hold her beautiful breasts in place.

Jewels were next. She draped a large strand of sparkling sapphires around Nicole’s neck. It snapped together with an ominous click that spoke to the finality of tonight.
 

The little wolf moved Nicole back and forth, checking the dress, checking the jewelry. Then Tempe hurried Nicole over to the vanity and pushed her down onto the white stool as if the Demakis royal female was no more than a ten-year-old child. Nicole meekly went along with everything. No smart comments nor snarky remarks were uttered from her supple, pink lips.