Chapter 187

Nicholas

“Nicholas… You are my fated mate.”

Anna’s words felt like a knife of ice piercing my heart. What the fuck was happening? I’d known Anna for years. We’d spent months at one point sharing a bed, meeting in hotel bars and drunkenly fumbling in the dark. It was fun, but…

Not once—not a single goddamn time—had my wolf stirred for her like this.

Yet now, standing before her with the Blood Moon rising high above us, something primal and ancient stirred inside of me. My wolf seemed to recognize… something in Anna. His mate.

Slowly, I turned back to face her. She stood still, waiting, her white dress billowing gently in the night breeze. She was beautiful, I’d always recognized that—tall and graceful, with smooth pale skin and eyes that seemed to catch every flicker of light.

But tonight, under the Blood Moon, she was luminous. And the way my wolf responded to her presence was unlike anything I’d ever experienced, even with Kayla.

I moved toward her, drawn by a force I couldn’t explain or resist. “Are you sure?” I asked thickly. “You really feel it?”

Anna’s eyes shimmered in the moonlight as she nodded. “I never felt it before,” she said. “But tonight… Tonight I knew I had to come to Nightshade territory. I felt pulled here, like something was calling me.”

She took a step closer, close enough that I could catch her scent—something floral and sweet that made my wolf strain against my control. “And now I know why. It was you, Nicholas. It’s always been you.”

I stood frozen, caught between conflicting instincts. I loved Kayla, I was committed to her, I had chosen her as my mate, my wife, the mother of my child. But my wolf… my wolf surged toward Anna with a ferocity that shocked me. The two halves of my nature, usually in harmony, were suddenly at war.

Anna reached out, her slender fingers brushing against mine. The contact sent a jolt through my system, a current of heat and recognition that made my wolf howl. Before I could stop myself, I wrapped my fingers around hers, the contact feeling right and wrong simultaneously.

She stepped closer, her body now just inches from mine. “Come with me,” she murmured, her eyes never leaving mine. “We need to be alone.”

I knew I should refuse. Knew I should extract myself from her grip, go find Kayla, explain what was happening and figure it out together. But my wolf was too close to the surface now, pushing against my human control with relentless determination.

Stupidly, I let her lead me away from the bonfire, away from the center of the Revelry, into the darkness of the forest beyond. I was vaguely aware of eyes watching us go, of whispers following us, but they seemed distant and unimportant through the haze.

The forest embraced us. The sounds of the Revelry faded behind us, replaced by the rustle of leaves and the occasional moan or gasp from other couples who had sought privacy among the trees. The Blood Moon filtered through the canopy above, casting patches of red light across our path as Anna led me deeper into the woods.

We passed several pairs locked together behind trees and bushes, newly discovered mates consummating their bonds under the sacred light of the moon. One couple had fully shifted, their wolf forms twining around each other. Another pair were completely naked, the woman’s legs wrapped around the man’s waist as he thrust into her against the trunk of an ancient oak.

The air was thick with the scent of arousal, heady and intoxicating. My wolf pushed harder against my control, demanding I claim what was supposedly mine.

But… It should have been Kayla here with me. I knew that, wanted that, wanted her far more than I could ever want Anna, and yet I couldn’t seem to pull away.

Anna finally stopped in a small clearing, bathed in the crimson glow of the Blood Moon. She turned to face me with a soft smile. Her hands came up to my chest, fingers tracing the painted symbols that adorned my skin, smearing the careful designs.

“I’ve waited so long for this,” she whispered, leaning in to press her lips against my collarbone.

The touch of her mouth against my skin should have ignited desire. Should have confirmed the mate bond my wolf seemed so certain existed between us. Instead, it felt… wrong. Deeply, fundamentally wrong.

I loved Kayla. I wanted Kayla. This wasn’t right.

I stepped back, breaking contact with Anna. “No. I can’t do this,” I said firmly, regaining control over my wolf with every ounce of willpower I possessed. “I won’t betray Kayla.”

Something flashed in Anna’s eyes then—surprise, anger, and something else I couldn’t identify. “Nicholas,” she said, her voice different now, lower and somehow compelling. “You can’t deny what’s between us. Not tonight, beneath the Blood Moon.”

She stepped toward me again, and this time when her hand touched my chest, I felt a strange numbness spread through my limbs. My back hit the trunk of a tree, although I couldn’t remember stepping backward. I tried to move away, to push her hands off me, but my body wouldn’t respond.

“What are you doing?” I demanded, fighting against the paralysis that had suddenly gripped me.

Anna smiled, but it wasn’t the smile I remembered from our past encounters. This was cooler, more calculated… foreign. “What I should have done years ago,” she said, her hands moving across my chest, down my abdomen. “Claiming what’s mine.”

I struggled against the invisible force holding me in place, but it was like my limbs were encased in concrete. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t a mate bond. This was something else entirely.

“This isn’t how mate bonds work,” I growled. “What the fuck are you doing to me?”

She laughed softly. “So suspicious, Nicholas. Maybe it’s just the magic of the Blood Moon. Maybe it’s just fate, finally having its way.”

Her hands moved lower, and I jerked against the invisible restraints, panic rising in my chest. I tried to call out for help, to shout Kayla’s name, but my throat closed as if gripped by an unseen hand.

Magic. This had to be magic of some kind. Not the natural, sacred power of the Moon Goddess and the mate bond, but something twisted and wrong—a perversion of what should be sacred.

Kayla. I needed Kayla. She needed to know—

Anna’s fingers traced the waistband of my trousers, and alarm bells screamed in my head. This wasn’t happening. I wouldn’t let it happen.

I reached for my wolf, for the raw power that might break whatever spell Anna had cast, but found my connection to him strangely muted. Not gone, but dulled, as if we’d become separated. I could feel his primal arousal, as if he had become so consumed with Anna that he had lost all logic and restraint.

No. No, no, no. This wasn’t right.

Something was very wrong.

Desperate now, I reached not for my wolf but for the mate bond I shared with Kayla. It wasn’t a full bond—not with her lack of a wolf—but it was real. More real than this.

I focused on that bond, on the thread that tied my soul to hers, and pushed everything I had into it.

“Kayla!”