Bound to the Billionaire

Chapter Sixteen: The Bastard Pack

I could hear Nico on the other side, I could hear each gentle pull of air into his lungs. I knew what he was doing: controlled breathing. He had to know what I had done, and he had to be pissed. But it was too late for him to stop me.

"Dimitri," he said, and he drew the name out slow. I could hear the way his tongue clung to each syllable. The way he lingered on the 'D', the way the 't' rang out like the tinker of a bell. "Please let me in." He had a slow cadence to his words. It wasn't pleading. It was cold.

"I'm fine," I said, and I had to take a large breath to steady myself. The wolf rattled inside me, groaned, desperate for Nico's touch. Desperate to be with him. "I, I just need a second. That's all." The page in my hands crackled, it was so thin it felt ike it would fall apart against my skin. Like crisp, dried-up moth wings. A drift of dust fell to my thighs as I let my eyes slip over the faded script.

"My dearest Nicodemus,

We've been apart for so long. I've missed you desperately. Despite what you say about destiny and Our Goddess the Moon Mother, I know there has been a cosmic error. You and I are perfect for each other. I know you must be drawn to imagining our forces combined. You and I, we would be unstoppable. This little town could be ours. The world could be ours. Nicodemus, you are more than you could possibly know, and I love you."

Pain. Sharp and stabbing. It burst from inside my chest, this cloying thing that gripped me from the inside. I couldn't tell you why, I hadn't taken Nico as my mate and I hadn't wanted to. But that dazed shock, the feeling I'd been punched, hard--I knew. That wasn't my wolf. That was me. I wanted him, and it hurt.

But my wolf was also reacting, it snarled, snatched its jaws. I could feel him pushing up against me, the heat of his rage flushing my skin an angry pink. Adrenaline, foreign adrenaline, poured into my veins. Kill him. Kill that man, I could hear him say, kill him. I sunk down, the letter shaking, shaking in my hands.

"Dimitri, what are you doing?" There was something in his voice. A tremor. Of fear, of anger, I couldn't tell. I'd never heard it before in the cool gait of his speech, and I never expected I would. "Answer me," he said. "Dimitri, listen!"

A flurry of splintered thoughts crashed through my head with a hurricane force. Mine. Mine. He is mine. My jaw clenched and I braced myself desperately against the desk. Breathe in, breathe out. My wolf had always been this terrible thing to me, and when I'd hear him or feel him, I'd close myself off. Curl into a ball. Focus on my breath. Anything to still my emotions and the whipping of his angry thoughts. But I didn't want to do that now, I wanted to keep reading.

"I'll shift," Nico said, "I'll have to shift if you don't let me in. I need to check on you, I need to know if you're okay."

"I'm fine!" And it came out angry, it came out as a growl. I'd bitten down on the inside of my lip, bitten so hard blood had sprung up under my teeth. I was the man and he was the wolf. I was supposed to be in control.

But you're not.

"Do you understand me," Nico asked. There was a pause, and I heard Micah's friendly cowboy voice reduced to a distant murmur. But I couldn't stop reading. My eyes rushed across the words.

"How is your pack? The war between our families was imbecilic, I think. I am sure you don't agree, you're far too sweet and sensitive, but in the end I'm glad the hunters came for them I'm glad we can start anew. I want to start it with you. Our packs would be wonderful together, I know that. Together we would be frightful, and together we would scatter the others like birds. There would be no Bastard Packs."

Bastard Packs.

My pack.

The door exploded open and the desk went flying over my head. A whimper tore from my throat as I curled down, tight against the floor. Everything in me shook, and even my wolf was silent as I stared up at the beautiful creature whose shadow fell over. The wolf was giant, one of the biggest I'd ever seen. His fur, ink-black that glittered silky in the faraway light of the penthouse living room. And his eyes, big and golden.

I wanted to reach my hand into his fur, I wanted to touch him. He looked so soft. But instead, I only sat there, crunched, shaking on the ground of his master bedroom. "Bastard pack?" My voice shook. My hands shook. I wanted to stop shaking, but I couldn't.

I saw Micah's shadowy form behind the wolf. "It's not so simple," he said, "you have to let us explain." His voice, calm, his eyes ghostly in the living room light.

"The love letters? The bastard pack?" I was tired of not knowing how to feel. Of wanting him and hating him, instead of sleep I'd received this, whatever this was. Shock. Pain. I wanted to go, I decided. Danger or no danger, I'd been in plenty of danger before. What was the difference now? I was leaving. I stood up, eye to eye with the big wolf. "I'm okay, I need to leave."

"No!" Micah's face turned red, and those friendly eyes bulged for a second. There was a franticness there, and for some reason, it made me hesitate. "No, you don't understand. You've read the letters. If that pack would attack us, you don't think they'd attack you? A small alpha of the Redemption pack no less?"

Redemption pack. The way he said it, like it was some pitiful little thing, sent me reeling back. And to be fair, it was. The Redemption pack was small, broken, sad, yes. But mine. The remnants of my family. And everything be damned, if I was in danger then so be it. But I was going to be in danger alone, my pack was tucked away in the ritzy hotel, so it would be okay. I'd been in scrapes before. I was fine, I'd always been fine.

"No, I have to go." But it was too late. The wolf's jaws were already clamped delicately around my neck.