Broken Wolf: Moonbound Series, Book Seven (6 page)

That embrace had solidified the attraction in her mind and heart. Her magick was reaching out for him right in front of her eyes. Shimmering iridescent waves embraced and flowed around his entire body. He couldn’t see it, but she could.

It hadn’t been there until just now. Just before Natalja stopped the scene.

“Missions that go wrong are the ones where there’s more at stake than there should be.”

Andrea cocked her head up and glanced at him from beneath an unfamiliar bank of black side-swept bangs. He sounded like Rain.
Gods, that makes me Nora.
In the end, Rain and Nora had been stronger together than when they tried to fight and stay apart.

Did she want that with Vadik? He was human. A stranger, and a mercenary from what Luther had shared. He was a hard man with a broken past who killed for money.

Just because Fate thought they might be a good match, didn’t mean she had to go for it… She shook her head. The only problem was that she
did
want it.

Badly.

“A mistake when Adrian first meets us will cost us more.”

Vadik’s brown eyes narrowed and he ground his teeth. Even his pulse sped just slightly.

He was fighting this with everything he had.

“When we go to this island, we are partners, soldiers in a war. Not fuck buddies.”

Andrea internally winced. She opened her mouth to respond, but he kept on going.

“If I’m constantly thinking about tasting your nipples or fucking you, I won’t be as effective as I will be if we keep this
thing
non-sexual.”

She straightened her shoulders and squared her body to meet his. A huff of air escaped through her mouth and she drew her lips into a tight line. He’d meant to come off sounding like an asshole. And he’d accomplished just that.
Fine
. She didn’t usually, but she could give it as good as he could.

Andrea reached for the zipper beneath her neck and yanked it all the way down to her waist. “You know what? I’m not an idiot. You might think because I’m blonde, and I get cold in this freakish weather, and because I have a southern drawl I’m incompetent and stupid.”

His eyes followed her hands like she’d magnetized them. He licked his lips before shaking his head and meeting her gaze again. “I don’t think you’re stupid,” he whispered.

“Well good, because I’m not. I didn’t trust you when we first met, but I do now. I have to, I know that now. Without you, we don’t have a shot in hell of saving anyone on that island, and I mean to save them
all.
” She grabbed the edges of unzipped suit and pulled them apart, freeing her breasts from their tight confines. “So I’m willing to do it whichever way you want. You can touch and feel and taste my breasts and the rest of me like I know you want to. I sure as hell would like you to choose that option. But, if you want to keep the Master-slave
thing
emotionless, then I’ll do that too. But Natalja’s right. You have to decide.”

Come over here and touch me. Please.
She closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath. Her entire body hummed, desperate for him to touch her again.

Anything. A simple caress. A graze of his hand on the small of her back. She’d only ever felt this way over one man before in her life, and she’d resigned herself that she’d never let her feel this way again.

But according to Maggie, Fate had other plans for everyone on this mission. So far, Maggie and Fate had been spot on.

“You can have me,” she breathed. “Just say yes.”

“No.”

Her heart dropped into her stomach.
No?

No.
Well…that just wasn’t going to work for her anymore. Not after that fucking trust fall shit. She was the queen of making sure everyone around her was comfortable and happy.

Daddy used to call her a peacemaker, but peace wasn’t what burned in her veins and deep in her belly right now. Andrea had lost a chance at love once before because she’d been afraid to fight for what she wanted. Because she’d waited too long.

Making the same mistake twice was unacceptable.

The door burst open and Natalja walked inside. She glanced at Andrea’s bare breasts and smirked. “Progress, people, yes. But I’m afraid we’ll have to pick this up tomorrow. Niko’s here to pick you up. Team meeting ASAP, he says.”

Vadik crossed the room, leaving her to follow him.

Fine, be that way.
She tucked her boobs back into the tight plastic body suit and zipped up, before hurrying after them both.

He wrapped her in a heavy coat before they exited the building. Magick surged through at his touch, sending licks of desire coursing through her veins. Andrea shuddered, trying to shake it off. Now wasn’t the time.

“Thanks, sis. I’ll bring them back tomorrow,” Niko said, giving his sister a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“It’s Sunday, Niko, so I’ll see you at Babcia’s.”

“Come on, guys.” Niko pointed toward the SUV and hurried around to get into the driver’s seat.

Andrea slid into the passenger seat, ignoring Vadik’s grunts as he threw the bags from their shopping into the back. “We’re doing more with Natalja tomorrow?”

Niko put the vehicle into gear and nodded. “Maggie wants everyone to meet at the hotel, tonight.”

“What happened with Dr. Lee?”

His brows drew together as he glanced back at Vadik. “He said the same device that killed Faye, killed Sasha.”

“So she was from the island?” Andrea asked.

“We don’t know yet.”

Vadik’s door closed and Niko pulled away from the curb. Tension lit the air like a Christmas tree.

Andrea crossed her arms and settled into her seat and tried to ignore the ice waves coming off him.

He wanted her, and she knew it. He would learn not to fight it. He had to.

V
adik set
the shopping bags on the bed in the hotel room Niko had given him the key card for. His duffel from the plane waited there, as well. Somehow, the morning he’d left Russia felt like another life.

He’d boarded the plane in Irkutsk days ago, slept as much as he could, wandered around the Frankfurt airport, and tried to beat the jet lag by sleeping on the last leg to Canada, but he was feeling it.

Between Andrea’s boob stunt and the jet lag, he felt like he was buzzing on some weird drug. It was barely supper time in Chicago, but he could have passed out and slept for days.

At least they’d gotten him his own room.

A knock on the door, and Vadik opened it, steeling himself to see Andrea again. Instead, Niko’s smiling face greeted him.

“We’ve got pizza in Maggie and Luther’s room. She wants to discuss the island, if you’re up for it.” He passed him a bottle of water. “And stay hydrated. People think because it’s winter, they don’t have to—”

“I’ve lived the last ten years in Siberia,” Vadik said. “I get it. Thanks.”

He followed the mobster to the end of the hallway, drinking from the bottle and relishing the cold. What he really needed was a snowbank to jump in. Freeze everything. Stop his brain and his blood from trying to push him toward Andrea.

Niko knocked on the big, white double doors. They opened quickly into a bridal suite that belonged in the Siberian wasteland. Everything was at least a century old, the carpet was black with white flecks in a pattern he was sure he’d seen in this little place on Lake Baikal. The bed was small for a king—he wasn’t even certain it
was
a king. The bedding was dark red, and almost blended in with the carpet, and all the wood was that reddish brown that seemed to dominate his early memories.

He had to take another drink of water and center himself. The nostalgia was strange and palpable, and he needed to wash it away.

The greasy smell of American pizza centered him. He looked around the room and found Maggie and Luther huddled around a table on the far wall, opening white cardboard boxes. Vadik’s stomach rumbled.

Another knock on the door, and Niko opened it. Andrea and Dani breezed in, both ignoring him. Thankfully, Andrea had changed clothes, although she still wore the big black coat.

He’d be saved from looking at her breasts anymore. He needed to stop looking at her breasts. Thinking about her breasts.

Niko shoved a paper plate into his hand that was heavy with slices of pizza. Vadik devoured the first slice, almost without tasting it. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was until the first bite.

Babushka’s
proverb floated into his mind.
The appetite comes during the eating.
The hunger he’d felt in that room, staring at Andrea’s ass, returned with the saying. He put down the plate and cleared his throat over the low hum of conversation in the room. “I need to sleep, so if we could talk about the plan for tomorrow?”

“Right,” Maggie said, putting down her plate and clapping her hands together. “Well, let’s get started then. Everyone take a seat somewhere.”

The chairs were quickly filled up with Niko and Dani and Luther and Maggie, and the only place left was the bed. Vadik sat on the edge, nearly all the way to one side, and Andrea claimed a place on the opposite edge.

“Since the two of you weren’t on the plane with us,” Luther indicated the bed. “I don’t know how much Niko told you. But Dr. Lee examined the girl, and he found the same markers they found in Faye.” He exchanged a nervous glance with Maggie.

Vadik turned to Andrea. “Who’s Faye?”

“She was a girl we rescued,” Maggie said, with a deep sigh. “From the island. But she died on the island. They took her body to study, since, like Sasha, there were no obvious signs of why she died.”

“They think she was on the island, then?” Andrea took a bite of her pizza and settled down into the coat.

Was she still cold?

Vadik was tempted to scoot across the space between them and take her in his arms. She was cold too much. He could warm her up.

Stop
.
Look at Maggie. Not at Andrea
.

“That’s what Dr. Lee thinks.”

Dani shook her head. “I still think it’s bullshit they want us to abort the mission. Whether she was from the island or not.”

“But if it was really a failsafe, like we think it is,” Maggie said carefully, “Then it would probably have affected Sasha when she came on the island, which means Andrea might be in more danger because she won’t have the device—whatever it is—in her to manipulate.”

“If they can even manipulate them,” Niko interjected.

“Except if we turn the failsafe off, then it won’t affect anyone, right?” Andrea put the pizza down on the bed between them. “We have to do this.”

Her voice had an edge to it that he hadn’t heard since the plane. Something was breaking down inside Andrea, he could tell, and his stomach lurched at the thought. He wanted to do something to stop that happening.

But what could
he
do? Vadik was nothing to her. And in a few days, they’d never see each other again. Why did he care so much about her state of mind?

Leave it be, man.

Maggie opened her mouth, then closed it. She looked at Luther and shook her head. “We just don’t know for sure.”

“He would have to have a failsafe,” Vadik said. “If I’m a crazy rich guy, and I’m keeping people on an island against their will, and they escaped once before, then I’m paranoid it will happen again. So I’m going to make a way for myself to escape with them if I have to. Take a week of bread before you step out the door, as—”

Luther’s smile went wide. “As
Babushka
would say, yes. See, Mag? Someone was listening when I talked.”

“We all listen to you, babe.” Maggie patted his leg. “Although, I have no idea what the bread shit meant.”

“Always prepare for the journey you might have to take.” Vadik passed Luther a heavy glance. He wouldn’t say aloud that they both knew the kind of man Adrian was. But he knew Luther understood. Psychos were always prepared.

“He’s right, y’know.” Andrea’s voice was quiet, her eyes down and unfocused, like she wasn’t really present.

Vadik almost reached out for her, but clenched his hand instead.

“Yeah, there has to be a failsafe.” Niko pounded a fist on his knee. “And we have to find it.”

“Okay,” Maggie said, looking around the room. “Let’s put all the cards on the table, then. The alphas want us to close down the mission. Vadik, this may not make much sense to you, but none of us have ever disobeyed a directive from our alphas before.”

He smirked, memories of boot camp assaulting him. “Trust me, I get that.”

“He was in the Russian army,” Luther whispered to Maggie. “Until he went to the dark side.”

“So I get chain of command.”

“This is still a big damn deal.” Dani stood from her chair across the room and shifted her weight from foot to foot. “We’re taking a risk, especially because the alphas gave us a direct order this time.”

“We talked them out of it last time.” Niko reached for Dani’s hip and his hand settled her. She glanced down at him with a smile on her full lips.

“This time, there’s no talking them out of it.” Maggie leaned forward. “I can do some research on Sasha, and Luther, you can look at the schematics of the island we found, thanks to your friend. See if we can find the location of the main power station. That’s the only way we can shut it off.”

“It’s a radio frequency, we think,” Luther said, with a glance at Vadik. “Dr. Lee thinks that’s the only way it could be triggered by someone’s distance from it.”

“Yeah, when we had Faye with us, it was like she was fine and fine and fine, and then she was just dead, with one step too far.” Maggie’s eyes glazed and Luther reached for her. She smiled at his touch. “We think that was what happened with Sasha, too. That there was something in Petrov’s body, or some piece of jewelry or phone or something that put out a frequency, and she’d be fine when she was around it.”

Vadik felt Andrea tense on the bed beside him and cast her a sidelong glance. She was crossed and closed and had made herself small. He wanted to touch her, to relax her, the way the other couples seemed to be able to do.

Only we’re not a couple
.

No, they weren’t. And they needed to stay that way.

He sat on his hand. “But wouldn’t she have known about it?”

Maggie shook her head. “We don’t think so. Faye didn’t seem to know, or she wouldn’t have agreed to come with us. And the rest of them never would’ve allowed her to potentially be taken off the island, if they all knew.”

“So he has basically a bomb planted in them, and they could die at any minute, but they don’t know it?” Vadik grunted and leaned back on his hands. They sank into the soft bed. “What a psychopath.”

“We need to get those girls—” Maggie began, but a loud ringing sound interrupted her.

Everyone looked around the room, and Andrea finally jumped to her feet. She dug in her jeans pocket and pulled out a phone.

Her brows folded together. “It’s Aaron.”

“Your brother?” Niko asked.

She nodded and pressed the phone into her jacket. “I have to take it.” She walked across the room with long, graceful steps.

Maggie caught her arm as she walked by. “Don’t tell him, Andi.”

“I won’t.” She swiped at the phone and stepped through the door.

Vadik felt the same pull to follow her that he had when they’d walked by her hotel room on their way to his.

He didn’t like the flood of emotions that seemed to wash over him whenever Andrea was around, and he certainly couldn’t afford not to be master of his own thoughts any more.

“
A
aron
.”

“Andrea. I spoke with the Toronto alpha. The body has been taken care of. No one will find it. When will you be home? Dr. Lee wants to call in the Black Rangers, and I have to say I agree with him.”

Stubborn man.
“Aaron, they don’t have all the information. If they go in, those people he’s got captive will die. There are children on that island. How could you go around us like this? We’re the ones that have been living this nightmare. We deserve to have a say in how it ends.”

“Y’all aren’t soldiers. It wasn’t right of us to expect so much of you. You’re our family. Brothers. Sisters. Sons. Daughters. This is over, Andrea. Come home.”

She drew a deep breath. The urge to capitulate, to do whatever it was to make her brother happy flooded her thoughts. She couldn’t bear the thought of angering her him, of causing contention between them. But this—this mission—was more important.

Those women and children on that island deserved a chance at a normal life. If they didn’t get on there and turn of that fucking failsafe, Adrian would kill them all. Deep down in her gut she knew that’s what would happen. He’d kill them all before dying himself.

There wasn’t another choice.

“We’re visiting with Niko’s family in Chicago. We’ll be home soon.” The words left her mouth without hesitation. Angry tears burned in her eyes. She’d never lied to her brother before. To her alpha. “Aaron.”

“Yeah, sis?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, sis. You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s been a roller coaster ride. Tell Adam and Allan I said hi and that I love them too, okay.”

“Andrea?” Aaron’s voice took on a gravelly texture.

“I’ll see you soon. I miss home. It’s really freaking cold here.”

That comment sealed the deal. Aaron chuckled over the line. “You never did like the cold. See you soon, sis.”

“Bye.” She tapped the red button on her phone screen and let the tears fall. She leaned into the hotel wall and breathed in and out. Slowly. Methodically.

A warm sensation of magick embraced her and she turned to face Vadik. He’d followed her into the hallway.

“We’re doing this. We’re saving those people.” She wiped the trailing moisture from her cheeks.

He nodded. “You don’t have to convince me.”

“You’re going to have to be cold and unfeeling. You’re going to have to not stare at my breasts.”

Vadik nodded again.

“But tonight, we’re not going to be that way. Tonight we’re going to do everything we’ve wanted to do since we met.” She hustled forward and grabbed his arm. “Come with me.”

“Andrea, we can’t.”

“Yes we can.”

She pulled her room key from her back pocket and opened the door across the hallway from Maggie and Luther’s.

Vadik’s closeness stoked a fire inside her body and she wasn’t about to regret never taking this chance with him. Anything could happen on that island. Hell, shit could happen anywhere. Andrea yanked him through the open door.

“You’re stronger than you look.” His eyes were wide, surprised that she’d been able to move him.

The door fell shut behind them, and Andrea released his arm, pressing him up against the closed hotel door with her body.

He forced himself to retreat as far as he could, making his body one with the warped stained wood of the door.

She peered up at him the semi-dark, letting her wolf rise to the surface. She could see the golden glow of her irises reflected in his dark ones. His body tensed for a second.