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  Crescent’s eyes glowed, his wolf near the surface and coming out to play. In another second, he’d shift and both he and Zara would be dead in an instant.

  “With conditions.” If he was going to die, he’d make sure he was the only one.

  His opponent growled. “What conditions?”

  “Whether you win or lose the challenge, you never see, touch, or even scent Zara again. You will leave her and her family alone forever.” Niko might not have his wolf anymore, but he was surprised to discover he still had his alpha voice.

  “I don’t have to agree to shit terms like that. A seer will be very helpful to me as Tzar. No.”

  “Then there will be no challenge.” And he and Zara were going to have to run for their lives.

  Zara stepped between the two of them, her eyes glowing with a bright white light. “The challenge will take place on the eve of the new moon. Only then will the Tzar take his rightful place upon claiming the woman before you as his true mate. All of wolfkind will bow to his reign.”

  Denial Ain’t a River, Sister

  Dog gone it, why couldn't she hold it together for just a few more minutes? Niko was just about to get the two of them out of this nightmare. Her mind was already playing tricks on her. Every other word she heard was wolf, or pack, or wolf pack. She couldn't even follow what they were saying anymore.

  When Ramsey Crescent appeared, she wanted nothing more than to stab him in the eyeball with the pen in her pocket. It was filled with red ink, and she'd get so much joy seeing his blood mix with the color of correction. If that made her truly insane, then so be it.

  Then all the other wolves... or whatever they were in reality, had popped up, surrounding them. Niko wasn't freaking out that a bunch of drooling wolves were snarling at them, so they must not be there. When she looked at their glowing red eyes, she couldn't tell if they were wolves or men. They were both at the same time.

  Okay. They must be Crescent's lackeys. They were outnumbered, so now was not the time to get away with killing their leader. Besides if she took him out now, she might not find out the status of the other women, and she certainly wouldn't be able to save them.

  Zara needed to be more deliberate with her plans to take the Crescent crew out and save the women. She'd almost made the mistake of acting irrationally, which would not only have gotten her dead, but Niko too.

  He didn't deserve that.

  She gripped the handle of the car door tight in her hand, trying to listen, praying she'd catch Niko's signal to yank it open and jump inside. It was the only thing grounding her. The blood was pumping through her ears so loudly. She took slow yoga breaths just to keep from screaming at them both to shut up and leave her alone.

  “You want an alpha’s challenge against me to claim the throne of Tzar of the Wolves?” Niko's voice changed into something she'd heard before but didn't want to admit to herself when or where.

  “Yes,” Crescent hissed like the snake he was.

  “I accept.”

  “No, Niko. What are you doing?” Zara whispered under her breath. She didn't understand what he was agreeing to, but she knew deep down from her toes to her nose that he was in danger. “This is a bad idea.”

  Crescent’s eyes glowed. No, no, no. The hallucination was taking full hold. Soon she wouldn't know what was happening around her at all. Please, no. She tried breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth. She reached for Niko, but he'd stepped away from her.

  She needed him. He grounded her, not the stupid car.

  “With conditions.” She heard Niko's voice, but through a fog.

  His opponent growled. “What conditions?”

  “Whether you win or lose the challenge, you never see, touch, or even scent Zara again. You will leave her and her family alone forever.” Niko’s voice rang with power, and it almost pulled her back to reality.

  “I don’t have to mah mah mah maaaah maaah mah mahh maaaaaah.” Crescents words faded and didn't make any sense to her.

  Zara's vision tunneled and tingles raced across her skin. The vision was going to hit hard.

  Niko spoke again, and Zara couldn't breath, couldn't see anything but white light. If she didn't know better, she'd think she was dead.

  Don't go into the light. Like she was going to heaven anyway. Not with the plans for murder in her heart. Well, if she was going to hell, at least she wanted to commit the actual crime that would send her there. Right now, that wasn't looking likely.

  Great. Now Niko knew for sure she was not normal. That would be the end of that relationship... Fine... Whatever. It wasn't going to go anywhere anyway. Or if it was, she would have to put an end to it before she led Niko down the path of destruction with her.

  Once again, her brain was being a dickhead. Her body moved of its own accord and words came out of her mouth. None of which she had any control over. She only barely understood the words in her own voice. Something about a challenge and a claim and a mate.

  The scene in front of her was clear as a quiet morning after a snowstorm.

  Her skin throbbed, but in a warm and comforting way. Niko towered over her from behind, one hand in her hair, holding her tight. A flutter moved through her chest and down, down, down, settling in her lower belly. Her mouth watered, and she licked her lips. She longed to touch him, but her hands and arms wouldn't move.

  They were tied to a wooden chair in front of her. With red roped tied in a gorgeously intricate knot.

  "Your soft luscious ass takes the paddle so well, solnyshka. Shall we see if your spanking made you wet and ready for me?"

  "Yes, please." Was that her voice, husky and trembling with need?

  "Good girl." His hand skating across her sensitive skin, barely touching her, making the glow of her hot flesh prickle and tingle.

  Zara whimpered, not wanting him to tease her anymore. She needed him. Needed him to take her, make her come, make her his. "Please, Niko."

  "Are you sure? I won't be gentle with your body this time. I will take you hard, make you come on my cock, make your body and mind mine."

  She swallowed past the need choking her and nodded her head, so ready for him.

  He touched his lips to her ear and whispered darkly, "Say it, Zarenity. Say you want to be mine. Say you want me to make you mine."

  "I'm already yours, Niko. I--"

  Niko growled low and pushed her head to the side. He licked the skin between her throat and her shoulder, sending spikes of pleasure through her so sharp she almost came on the spot. She held back knowing he wouldn't want that, but she wouldn't be able to for much longer.

  His lick turned into a scrape of his teeth and then--

  "Zara? Zara? Solnyshka, sweetheart, can you hear me?"

  Zara blinked and shook her head. "Niko?"

  "Thank the Goddess. I thought you..." He squeezed her to his chest so tight she could barely breathe. But in a good way. It was nice being so close to him. But breathing was nice too.

  "Nee Koh. Can't. Breathe."

  "Sorry... Sorry." He released her from the tight hold he had on her, but he kept her in his arms.

  "Niko, dear. If you don't let her go, Doc won't be able to look at her and make sure she's okay." Selena's voice filtered through and Zara turned thirty-one flavors of blushing.

  All Zara could see was Niko's t-shirt in front of her face, but if his mom and the town vet were here, there was a good chance a whole slew of other people were too. Which meant they weren't in the street in front of her house anymore, and they'd all been witness to her having a very naughty fantasy about Niko.

  She buried her face in his chest willing her cheeks to return back to a normal shade before she had to face anyone. Maybe Niko was the only one who'd seen her mentally break. She peeked one eye open.

  Nope. Her sister was here along with her boyfriend, and Gal, and Max, and Selena and Doc. Hail, hail, the gang’s all here. Great. Just great. They were probably going to want to send her back to the hospital now. Before she tucked her
face back into her hiding place, she glanced around just to make sure they weren't already back on the psych ward.

  Plush, expensive furniture, a piano, and a tasteful chandelier. Definitely not the loony bin. It had changed a little since she'd been here in high school, but she'd never forget Niko's parents' front room. He'd brought her home.

  "Zara, is it okay if I check you over? You were out for longer than I'd expect. I won't touch you if you don't want me to, but I'd like to check your pupils." Doc's voice was always so calm and collected. That's probably what made him great in emergencies.

  She wasn’t sure what a veterinarian would know about mental disorders in humans, but what did she know? She'd gone to law school. Maybe cats and dogs and parakeets suffered from maladies of the brain too.

  Doc approached slowly and pulled out a small pen light. She did her best to keep her eyes wide and blank, but ended up blinking more than usual. He finished with her eyes and while she waited for the spots to fade he looked the rest of her over, keeping his promise not to touch. "When you were...gone, did anyone ever...bite you?"

  "What? No." Something niggled in the back of Zara's mind. A memory, or the snippet of one?

  Doc nodded, and Selena took his place. "Lapochka, what did you see?"

  Blush. Selena was a cool mom and all, but there was no way she was telling anyone about the very naughty fantasy she'd had.

  "Zara?"

  "I don't know what you mean." If she didn't go to hell for contemplating murder, she would for how many lies she told.

  Selena didn't let up. "In your vision. Did you see who becomes the Tzar?"

  No visions here. Not a single one. No hallucinations or fantasies either. Time to deflect. "Of Russia? I think they have an elected government now, don't they? Is Putin trying to become Tzar? Doesn't he have enough power? I don't watch much news these days."

  Selena tapped her fingers on her leg and then leaned forward. "No, dear, not of Russia. The Tzar of Wolfkind."

  Wolfkind. She said it like mankind or humankind. Zara's throat went thick, and she wanted to scratch and claw at it. Wolfkind wasn't a thing. Not in real life. Only in her visions. Only in her mind. Her very broken mind.

  The room went silent as if they were all waiting for her to laugh hysterically and start flinging her own poo at them.

  Niko stood and took Zara's hand, pulling her to her feet. "I think Zara's had enough for tonight. She needs to rest."

  Several voices rose up in protest, but he gave the room a death stare, and they all went silent. That was fine by her. Niko wasn't wrong. She was exhausted. "Can you take me home now?"

  "No, you're staying here, and I'm not letting you out of my sight." He dragged her from the fancy front room and toward where she knew the family's bedrooms were. "Crescent may be a power hungry grandstander, but he wouldn't dare invade the Troika pack house. You'll be safe here."

  Zara frowned at his phrasing but she followed him down the hall to his room. The same room he'd had in high school. The same one she'd lost her virginity in. He thought this was going to be safe? Safe for who?

  Niko finally let her go and shut the door behind them. He took a deep breath and placed a hand flat on the door, bowing his head, not looking at her. Zara already didn't like where this was going. Niko had never been nervous to talk to her before. So whatever he was trying to work up his nerve to say wasn't going to be good.

  Still facing the door, he said, "Solnyshka, I understand you don't remember much about your kidnapping, but I know you recognized Ramsey Crescent tonight."

  See, not good. She wasn't going to deny she knew who that bastard was. She never could lie to Niko. "That man is a beast and needs to be stopped."

  He turned, and his face reflected exactly how angry she was inside. He looked almost scary. "I agree with both of those things, but he's a different kind of beast than you think. Those wolves you saw tonight, they weren't just trained animals."

  That she wasn't going to admit to. Nope. No. No way. Why would he even say that? "I didn't see any wolves."

  "It's okay. You did see them, and they weren't just wolves. They were... I am... was..." Niko stalked closer to her and Zara backed away. "Fuck. II don't want to scare you."

  She bumped into a wooden chair. One that looked way too familiar. She swallowed and took another step away. "You already are."

  Niko held out his hands, palms up. "I promise you are always safe with me. I would never do anything to hurt you. In fact, I can't."

  Oh, he could definitely hurt her. He already had. It had taken a long time to recover from a broken heart. She wasn't entirely sure she ever had. "Can't what?"

  "Never mind. There are things I think you already know, but your mind is playing tricks on you because it's too unbelievable."

  Oh God. If he only knew. Wait. Did he know?

  "I promise what I'm about to tell you isn't a joke, and if you search your mind, you know that werewolves are real. The Crescents are wolf shifters, yes, but so is my family. My parents, Max, Kosta, a good third of the residents of Rogue too. We aren't monsters like in the movies, we just have an ability humans don't."

  Zara's heart and lungs turned to rock and spots danced in front of her eyes. She wanted to yell and scream that he was lying, that he was wrong but she couldn't. Not because her limbs and jaw and throat didn't work.

  Because she knew he wasn't lying. She knew.

  Werewolves were real.

  She'd been kidnapped by them.

  Suddenly, she felt cold. So cold. When she finally took a breath again, her muscles rebelled against the intake of oxygen to her blood, and her legs went out from under her.

  Niko caught her and lifted her up into his arms like a princess. He carried her to his bed and carefully set her down. "It's okay, solnyshka. Everything is going to be okay. No one is going to hurt you. You're safe."

  Her teeth started to chatter, and her whole body trembled. Zara wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed fast and hard across her skin to warm herself back up, but nothing was working.

  Niko ripped the blankets back, sat on the bed, pulled her into him and covered them both up. "Shh, shh, shh. I've got you. You're safe, Zara. Shh, don't cry, baby."

  Until he said it, she didn’t realize tears were running down her face. She laid her head on his shoulder and let the sobs take over.

  Those bastards had taken her, right from her own home. They'd thrown her into an isolated room afraid and alone, and they'd terrorized her with what she'd thought were horrific visions of monsters. But it had all been real. Every fucking moment.

  She cried for the life that had been taken away from her, cried for the years of worry that she was batshit crazy, cried for the woman she'd wanted to become and hadn't out of fear. Zara cried until there were no more tears. Slowly, she let her memories sort themselves out, and, while she didn't understand everything, she thought that, at least from the past month, she knew the difference between reality and what her mind was trying to protect her from.

  It was all real.

  All of it.

  Which meant her mission to take down Ramsey Crescent and save those women was even more imperative than ever before. She was not going to let that man, wolf, whatever he was, hurt anyone else for his own self-interest. That included Niko.

  Niko crooned sweet nothings to her, and rocked her in the warmth of his arms, until she finally quieted. They stayed like that for a long time, until dawn's early rays poked through his window shades.

  "Niko?"

  "Yeah?"

  "You can't go to that challenge." She had a really bad feeling about what would happen if he did.

  Niko held her tighter and tucked his chin into the crook of her neck just like he used to all those years ago. "I don't have a choice. Even if I hadn't already accepted the challenge, this is the best way for me to serve my family and to keep you safe."

  "What if I ask you not to go?" Not that it had worked before.

  He straightened up and turned her chin
so she had to look at him. "Did you see something in your vision that you don't want to tell me?"

  "Yes, but not about the challenge." Being wrapped up in Niko's arms, in Niko's bed, with that damn chair staring at her for the past few hours, that little scene had played in her head a few too many times. It had felt all too real, and she didn't want to admit that she wanted every little bit of what she'd seen to happen for real.

  He raised one knowing eyebrow. "Can we talk about that instead?"

  Zara tore her chin away and looked as far away as possible. "I don't think so. I'm still trying to understand what this whole vision thing means. I've been having them for so long, and I thought I was crazy. Like literally. I'm still not sure that I'm not."

  "How long?"

  She wasn't ready to answer that. "What if I go with you to the challenge? You've already made the condition that he can't touch me either way. Will he honor that?"

  Either way, she had some planning to do, and a whole lot of questions for Galyna and Heli about what killed werewolves. It couldn't be as easy as a silver bullet.

  A rumble came from Niko's chest that sounded an awful lot like a growl. Except this one didn't scare her. She liked it. Weirdo.

  "You're not going."

  How could she explain this so he'd understand? "Niko. You've always been strong and confident, so I don't expect you to understand how devastating having all of my own power taken away from me has been. I need to find a way to take it back."

  "I understand more than you think, solnyshka. Much more than you think."

  The way he said that, something about the sad dark tone of his voice made her think of the white wolf and bloody snow.

  Sacrificial Wolf

  Niko sat at the end of the bar nursing a beer. Yes, he was having beer for breakfast. While his brothers were freaking out at him, he might as well relax, because they weren’t going to change his mind.

  Max hadn’t stopped pacing since Niko had told him about Ramsey Crescent’s plans. “You should have talked to me before you agreed to something so fucking stupid.”