Raining Kisses (The Opeth Pack Saga Book 2) (5 page)

The wind picked up, ruffling Nicholaus’s fur. He turned his head, then padded closer to Katarina and nuzzled her, careful not to send the wrong signals or otherwise indicate he’d be staying longer than promised.
Where are we staying tonight?

She whimpered.
You want to sleep tonight? I want my other lover back!

He snorted.
It’ll be easier if we go later, after we’ve had some rest. We’re all very tired. Not able to think clearly. We need to get her when we are at our best, okay?

Katarina whimpered louder and nodded.
Come with me then. Lukina can go to her house for the night. We don’t need her right now.

Ahem!
Lukina snorted.
I’m right here. And I am aware that my presence isn’t required for this ordeal. I have business to attend to with Ilona and Selene.

Go then, handle your business. Katarina and I will fend for ourselves tonight.

I will meet you two before you leave tomorrow.
Lukina nodded and trotted off toward her house.

Nicholaus looked at Katarina. Standing before her, he rose to his full height as a human and extended a hand to her. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s go get some rest. I promise you’ll sleep better tonight.”

She shifted and took his hand in hers.

He let her lead him down the street. “None of this looks familiar.”

“It shouldn’t. Józsi moved us just west of where we were staying. Said it was a tactical decision.” Her arm interlocked around his. “I’m really scared for Krystyna.” She huddled closer, the smell of fear and arousal drifting toward his nose. He hated the putrid scent of fear, but with Katarina, it smelled so much more delicate, like weeping flowers.

“It’ll be okay,
szeret.
We’ll get her back tonight after some rest. You need it if you’re coming with me.”

Katarina nodded again. “How easily you slip back into your accent.”

He hadn't realized he’d done that until she’d pointed it out. “I never had an accent.”

“You lie,” she ran a finger down his chest, “It’s cute. It means something.”

He growled, forced her to face him. They were not going to have the discussion about his return home unless it involved going back to Albuquerque, New Mexico. “Do not go down this path, Katarina. I am here to help you, and then I’m gone.”

She sniffled.

He gazed into beautiful green eyes, looking for that sparkle of life, of hope. “There,” he spoke softly before leaning into her. Against her, his body wanted nothing more than to give in to the war of his heart but his head screamed loudly. It had been so long since Nicholaus had taken a woman to bed, and none of them had compared to either of his lovers.

Katarina's posture softened in his hold. She tilted her head to the side, exposing the slender line of her neck, emerald eyes closed slightly. Her mouth parted, a pink tongue darted out and licked her lower lip.

Unable to resist just a taste, Nicholaus pressed his mouth to hers, savoring the sweet velvet, softness.

Katarina opened for him and bent her head to meet his fervent kisses.

Hands clasped around the back of his neck, his shoulders. Inhaling her earthy, musky scent, he kissed her again and again, claiming her mouth with his. Capturing her tongue, he coaxed her to into his mouth. He stroked her tongue with his, suckling and playing with it while running his hands over the smoothness of her slender back.

She moaned against his body, pressing herself into him. Breasts crushed against his hard chest, soft hips met his.

His cock grew hard beneath his pants. His pulse quickened. How he wanted to fuck her now in the middle of the street!

“No,” she pulled away from him, “I want you both to be present when we do this again.”

She’d read his mind. Not like it was difficult to picture what he wanted while sporting an erection he could drive through six inches of hard oak. He leaned forward, close enough to smell her, taste her lips again. “Are you sure?”

Katarina reached for him and ran her fingers through strands of his hair. She smiled weakly, nodded. “Yes. I am. My heart wants what it wants,
szeret.
I cannot change that.”

Nicholaus couldn’t ask her to anyway. She was right. If they were going to make love, it had to be all three of them. One kept his mind calm, the other kept his heart in check. Never in their relationship had they made love without all three of them. It was an unspoken rule.

Besides, sexual encounters with them would only entrench him back to a life he had no desire to lead.

Slowly, he released her but kept her hand in his. “Okay. Then let’s go back to your place.”

She led him by the hand down the street until they came to a brown cottage. “You used to love our home,” she whispered in his ear.

“I always loved the fact that I could sneak in when your parents were asleep.” He grinned, recalling the memories from his childhood where he'd snuck out of his bedroom and into theirs. With wolves, mated lovers often shared rooms in a brother/sister fashion only without the incest. While they were not biological sisters, they were raised as such until personality differences began to develop.

She clasped his hand tighter. “We used to spend so many nights up late talking. I missed those days when we got older.”

His pulse reached his throat. Yeah, she’d want to go down memory lane, irritating him further. This would end up in a fight if she continued this line of discussion, so he said nothing.

“Fine.” She tried to retract her hand.

He almost let her, but the contact felt so comforting. Nicholaus couldn’t remember the last time he’d had this connection with anyone. Humans certainly hadn't given him anything. “You look tired.”

“Thanks.” Again she tried to pull away.

He wouldn’t let go. “You’re going to take me to bed with you?”

“You can sleep on the couch.” Katarina shoved the wooden door open and let him in first.

“Bullshit. You shared a bed with me last night, why not tonight?”

“Because…” She didn’t finish her sentence.

“Aha! You couldn’t finish your thought. I’ll hold you tight and promise not to let anything bad happen. Okay?”

“Yet you're sending me mixed signals. You at first appear harsh and unfriendly when we show up, then you turn like this and go back to your sweet, innocent self.”

How easily he had slipped from his antisocial tone indeed.

“I have no idea how to answer that unasked question, Katarina.” Truly, he didn’t. Speaking to her, his accent, his choice of words, all seemed like rote once he’d set foot on Hungarian soil. Hell, even before that, Nicholaus offered comfort with ease and found his old world tongue returning.

Damn it. This wasn't good. If he stayed too long, things would only be more difficult when he pulled the plug from them both and returned to America.

His home.

Clenching his fists, he growled and strode away from Katarina.

“You’re…”

He glared over his aching shoulder. “What?”

“Tension is pouring off you in waves, vehemence and hatred. Why do you hate what we are, Nicholaus?”

“I don’t. I just don’t like me very much. I’m not…look, I was happy when I was alone. I was able to live a life free of the duties and responsibilities I had here. I didn’t have to bother anyone with my being around.”

“But you shucked those and your heritage for a lie you believe to be true.”

He stopped himself from responding, his temper already had his skin warm and his fists clenched. Nicholaus crossed his arms over his chest, narrowed his eyes at her and counted to ten. Very slowly.

Katarina reached for him, her hand didn't quite touch his skin though. “You…”

She looked like she’d burst into tears at any moment. For a second, he relaxed his posture, his shoulders tightened. Her smile hadn't quite reached her eyes, nor had her skin the same gleam it normally did. In fact, if he had to guess, she’d grown weaker.

“You don’t know what you did for me, do you?”

She’d punch him in the gut repeatedly with that question, wouldn't she? He knew better than to answer her.

Katarina blinked, cocked her head to the side. “I bet you know what you did by leaving us.”

He tried hard to avoid her penetrating gaze but the daggers she shot at him struck his heart. Of course he knew what he’d done, but this was still the best for everyone. “You'll never understand me, Katarina. I promise.”

“I understood you when you were here. What changed?”

He clutched her by the shoulders and held her at arm’s length. God damn it, touching her made things even worse for him. “I learned the world was harsh and I had to grow up.”

“I like the other you.”

The way she spat the words out made him almost cringe. Even his Katarina—no, he couldn’t think of her as his anymore, could be cruel. “See, even you realize this truth.”

“Fine.” She crossed her arms over her chest and straightened. “At least tell me you have a plan for rescuing
my
lover.”

Yeah, she was going to continue to push daggers into the wound he’d tried hard to keep closed. “No, I have no idea right now. You two pick me up without so much as even a clue where to begin. You tell me I'm to come here and fucking do this thing with this new Alpha, show of strength and all that, except he’s not here. Then you tell me only that the Turks are involved and they’re making inroads into a third fucking world country as far as the rest of us are concerned, and expect me to come up with a plan on the spot?”

She gasped and fear raced across her face.

“You’re right to be afraid. I told you I’d help and I will. But have you or anyone else scouted anything around here? Know or tracked her scent?”

“No one has been able to focus on anything. The truth is, our pack has grown weaker in the last few months since our new Alpha took the reins. He’s trying to help us but others are more resistant to what they perceive as a foreign dictator.”

“Is he a dictator?”

She shook her head. “No, he’s…” She bit her lower lip, “forcing us to do difficult things in order to survive and rebuild. He hasn’t a clue how to lead, he tells us but knows we need structure, cash and a means of making a life for our pack, and ourselves rather than just surviving. He’s ordered the males who stayed to find jobs as humans. Money will flow into the pack and a society will be set up with what he says are fair laws. The women are to be protected and trained back in the old ways while our witch studies the ancient texts about prophecy.”

“Fuck prophecy.”

“Indeed,” she spoke dryly, “you've said that before. But it’s destiny that brought us back together. You cannot deny that.” She stepped closer, extended a hand to once again make contact.

Nicholaus straightened his posture, puffed out his chest and looked over her head. He could and would. “Bullshit. This is not destiny, it’s a favor. I owe you at least that much.”

Shrinking back, Katarina sniffled. “You’ll…”

God damn it. Once again, the pull of her energy in his mind coaxed him to let her rummage around and poke holes in his defenses. Well, poke at, rather. The walls he’d built up to protect against magic went into place long before he'd left the pack, just shortly after the murders.

She sniffled again. “I can heal you if you’ll let me.”

Not wanting to go all holistic healing shit, Nicholaus turned away. He forgot how easy she was to upset and wondered for a moment why the goddess decided to hate Katarina.

She had to if she put such a delicate, beautiful flower with a weed like him.

Her sniffles grew into full blown sobs. “You don’t even love me enough to acknowledge my help.”

His pulse raced, heart thundered loudly against his chest. No magic could control him while the rage built inside, made him start to see the world in a red hue. He hated when anyone picked at him, tried to push through the walls he’d thrown up to secure the world from his demons. “Fuck, what the hell do you want, woman?”

Then he stopped, inhaled a deep breath and stared at her.

“Look, I’m here and as long as I am here, I will protect you both. We’ll get her back, okay?”

She wiped her eyes and stepped back from him. “You have a home here, Nicholaus. You have a place here in our hearts. Whatever you see in your head is wrong.”

“How do you know that? How can you be so certain, Katarina? Because I can’t be. And I should know me. I am,” he knew it’d sound ridiculous, “me. Not you. I’m in my head all the time. It’s a dark place, turned out even darker after the incident I shan’t speak of. So how can you be sure I’m not what I think I am?”

“Because my heart tells me your truth,
drágám
.”

“And Krystyna’s?” He already knew the answer. In this stage of the game, he was certain she’d reject him too, once she found out who and what he really was, if he ever let that demon out of the bag.

“She…” Katarina turned her head away.

Of course Krystyna would hate him. She would show it too. Between the three of them, her foul temper had landed her in more trouble than not, while Katarina wouldn’t waste time or words on hateful things. It often led to her crying on Nicholaus's shoulders. “I thought so. It’s time for bed.” He glanced out the window; night had descended rapidly on the village. The moon would hang high soon, his lupine senses attuning once again to the time difference and humming energy of the land beneath his feet. Yes, things all around felt familiar, and that thought alone scared him.

“I didn’t think so. Listen, do you have any idea what happened?”

She looked away, cast her eyes downward. “No.”

“Anything out of the ordinary happen around here except for the obvious?”

“Other than Józsi forcing the males into the city and tourist parts of this area for work, no.”

Shit. That left him with nothing really. He sniffed the air couldn’t scent her, but he did pick up the bitter smell of lies. Katarina wouldn’t mislead him, would she?

No. Never. She didn’t have it in her to be the type of creature who misled people.

He let the thought go for a moment while he looked around. Yup, same old dirt roads and village style architecture. Nothing had changed.

“When again was the last time you saw Krystyna?”