DARINA“You can sleep, Darina. I will stay here until Nico comes back. I just hope he won’t be too angry with us.” Katherina sighed. Sal went back to the mansion to wait for Nico to come home from the party.I felt like crying, but it hurt too much. “I won’t let him punish you or Sal, it’s all me.” I managed to say.Katherina pressed my hand softly. “He won’t hurt you, Darina.”Yeah, maybe not just yet, I thought, but stayed silent. I was woozy from the pain medication, and I closed my eyes and fell asleep.Katherina’s startled yelp broke through my slumber. I pried open my swollen eyes to see three men dressed in black barge into the room. One closed the door and stood with his back to it.“Who are you and what do you want?” Katherina jumped up. She ran around the bed to reach for the bell to call a nurse.“Not so fast, Doll!” The largest of the three grabbed her by the waist, stopping her from reaching for it. She screamed and he backhanded her. She fell next to my bed. I moved a tr
Nico moved closer to the bed, looking at me and frowning. He grimaced. “You are so bruised. I don’t know what to do with you, Darina. You could have killed yourself.” He helped me to put my arms through the T-shirt, careful not to touch my injuries.“You said you needed me?” I asked. “For what reason, Nico? Just to be your plaything? Your slave?”He opened the covers, and I climbed in under them. I sighed, laying back onto his pillows. They held his masculine scent, and it calmed me somehow.“You are more than that,” he said, but he turned away from me. “Do you believe in soulmates, Darina?” he asked, with his back still turned to me.“What? I have never thought about it. Why do you ask?” Surely, he didn’t think…? No, that would be ridiculous.“I’ll explain later. You need to rest, and I must speak to Salvatore.” He changed the subject. I watched as he changed into running shorts and a tank top, discarding his suit on the chair. “Sleep. I’ll join you later.”He turned off the light an
NICOSo much blood. Why was there so much blood? I licked the wound and it closed, but it still seeped blood. Was she too weak? I should have waited.“Darina?” She lay still, corpselike in my arms. “Darina, talk to me, dammit.” I placed my cheek against her nose. Her breathing was shallow and her heartrate slow. I picked her up and moved her to my bed.“Sal! Come to my room. Now!” I shouted into my cell phone. Moments later he knocked on my door and I let him in.He took one look at my face. “What the fuck did you do, Nico? Is she dead?” He rushed over to her, turning her head to look at the wound on her shoulder. “Did you bite her? Oh, fuck! Is she going to turn into a werewolf like you?”I growled at him, he had to move away from my mate. “No, I marked her. I don’t know why the mark is still bleeding and she won’t wake up.” I was near to panicking. This was exactly why I didn’t want to do it in the first place. I didn’t know what would happen to a human being marked. If she died, I’
DARINA It must have been a nightmare, or I must have hit my head harder than I thought. I didn’t see Nico’s face change. No, I couldn’t have. “Darina, how do you feel?” Nico asked. He was on his knees next to his bed, holding my face. The last thing I remembered was his teeth sinking into my neck. I slapped his hands away from me. “Get off me!” My body was on fire. I had a weird taste in my mouth, metallic like blood. Blood? A strange man sat at the foot of the bed. “Who the hell is this?” I drew Nico’s large T-shirt down to cover my legs. “Dr. Anthony Miller, Miss.” The man smiled at me, “Glad I could help.” “Help? Nico, what’s going on?” Sal stood by the door “Come here, Darina.” Nico held out his arms to me. I shook my head. “You bit me!” I grabbed my neck where it met my shoulder and frowned. There was no blood and no pain. In fact, I’ve never felt better. My body didn’t hurt at all. “I’m not going to hurt you.” Nico said softly. “Can you remember what I told you?” “No, n
I fell asleep in Nico’s arms, faintly aware that he was covering me with a blanket on his bed. My body was exhausted. Waking to the smell of food and his musky scent when he wrapped me in his arms, I opened my eyes to find his mouth on mine, demanding, taking.“Nico…” I gasped. His touch had me wanting more.“About time you woke up. You need to eat. You’ve been asleep for more than a day.” He frowned, “I was getting worried.”“I am starving.” I sat up against the pillows, wrapping the blanket around me to cover my nakedness. I saw his eyes flash yellow for a millisecond. He didn’t like it when I covered myself from his view. But I was still not used to it.He took out a shirt from his cupboard, passing it to me and I put it on. I sniffed the material, inhaling his scent. I saw him smile briefly. I sniffed the air. There was such a lot of different smells. I’ve never noticed it before.“Your senses will feel overwhelmed in the beginning, but you’ll get used to it. Come.” He held his h
Nico held his hand out to me where I lay panting at his feet.“Come, I think I know what will make you feel better,” he said. He opened my bedroom door, letting me through. “Get dressed. I will wait for you.” He went back into his bedroom.My mind was a mix of emotions. I have never felt like this, the rage, the need to hurt, to kill. It was an explosive emotion. I wanted to lay into Nico, to tear into his flesh and taste his blood. It scared the shit out of me. But when the red wolf claimed mine, she melted under him and I experienced her desire for him so intense, so wantonly primitive. The she-wolf lay sleeping at the back of my mind, her energy spent.I felt ashamed of myself because it was how Nico made me feel every single time, he touched me. Even when he basically raped me in the kitchen. He was cruel and angry, and he wanted me to feel his hurt. It hurt him when I said I wanted to leave. That part of me wanted him to hurt, it made me feel good to see it in his eyes. He deserv
NICOI couldn’t stand it any longer. She needed the power exchange but then it sent me over the edge. I felt like a fucking coward, screaming like that. Shame and disgust filled me. I had no patience with weakness, not even with myself.Twelve years agoThey were constantly fighting, Mother and Constantin. He was in a foul mood and drank more than usual that night. I was fourteen at the time, my wolf hadn’t even surfaced yet which made me basically human.I was busy cleaning up in the kitchen, as usual, when he hurled an empty glass at my head.Mother was on him in a flash, and they started up again, hurling insults at each other until he slapped her, and she ended up in a bleeding heap against the counter. I snapped seeing my mother in that state and went for him. My mother was my whole life. She had always protected me from him, from all of them.But I was no match for a two-hundred-and-fifty-pound angry werewolf. He swatted me away like a fly. Then he dragged my mother by the hair
DARINAHe left my door unlocked. Also, the adjoining one between our bedrooms.“You can come and go as you want, just don’t leave the premises. You have to promise me, Darina.” He said, as he got dressed.“Okay. Thank you.” I said.“Come here.” He called to me, and I went to him. “Where is the choker I gave you?”My hand went to my neck. “The doctor must have taken it off. I didn’t get it back,”“No matter. I will give you another one.” He opened a drawer and I noticed there were different types of chokers – leather ones, velvet ones and some that resembled dog choke chains. I raised my brows, feeling more than a little concerned.“Why? Is it important to you?” I asked, frowning. I didn’t understand half the stuff he did, or why, and I was afraid to know the answers.“Which one?” he asked, pulling me toward the drawer. “Choose. You can pick a different one every day if you want. To suit what you wear.” He grinned at me.I shrugged, if it made him happy… I picked a white lace one that