shuhaige
Chapter 47 - Nikolaos
Chapter 47 - Nikolaos
“Kneel, dog.”
Two words spoken in my mother’s voice and the dormant memories come hurtling toward me at full
speed. I can clearly feel the lick of the whip on my back, the cigarettes put out on my skin, the way her
dagger separated my flesh…
And the guilt coursing through me when one of her clients brought my body to climax.
/“Get to your feet, Nikolaos! You cannot let her win!”/ Knox urges me, but his voice becomes fainter and
fainter until I can see his mouth moving with no sound coming out.
Shameful thoughts keep me prisoner even as I hear Mia call to me, begging me to get to my feet. But
how do I tell her these thoughts are like silver chains holding me down and forcing my submission?
How do I explain that I can clearly remember - no I FEEL everything I went through at her hands?
I thought I was over the fear; I thought Mia’s love had pulled me out of the depths, but I was so, so
wrong. My soul is still ruined and my mind is still trapped in the past. Right now, I am not the Alpha with
the second-largest territory… Now, I am nothing but a slave to my mother’s commands.
The scent of blood is like a cigarette burn to my memories and I feel someone pulling me to my feet.
“Come back to me, Alpha. I’m getting the revenge you should have gotten a long time ago.”
Her soft voice makes me blink, and when the last of my past images fade away, I am looking into the
wide, determined eyes of the one person who loved me even through my shameful past.
“M-Mia?”
Her smile is like a sliver of sunlight forcing the darkness out of my mind, but then she lets go of me and
turns me around. The sight I am greeted with is a bloody trail leading to the crawling figure of my
mother.
I suck in an unsteady breath, not used to seeing my abuser weak and on her knees. That’s where she
put me, that’s where she loved seeing me….so what’s going on?
“This ends tonight,” Mia says, then she walks over to my mother and grabs her by the hair before
pulling her over to where I am standing and forcing her head down.
“Apologize to him and mean it,” Mia growls. I glance at Mia and see nothing but steely determination in
her eyes as she threatens my abuser. This won’t work, though…I know her well enough.
My mother laughs unsteadily, then she peers up at me and grins. “I will not apologize for what I did,”
she starts and I feel Knox stir. “Why lie about something I so thoroughly enjoyed taking part in-”
Knox takes over my consciousness and I allow our combined anger and hurt to make the decision I
couldn’t make so long ago. My fist slams into the center of her chest, and I grip her heart tightly in my NôvelDrama.Org owns © this.
hand.
Her eyes are wide as she looks up at me with horror, her nails clawing at my forearm. “Nik-”
I won’t let her say my name or she’ll taint it too, so I rip out her heart from her chest and sink my claws
into her neck to behead her. Seeing her in the position she has constantly put me in does nothing to
quell the fury building up inside of me.
She took my son; both Lilah and my aunt need to suffer this fate.
“Nikolaos,” a soft voice akin to a summer breeze, caresses the fringes of my anger, and Knox’s snarls
become low. “I am so proud of you, my love.”
Proud of me? This voice…it’s familiar, it’s warm…it’s my Mia. I blink and the anger fades away; when I
glance down, I see what I have done and I suck in a breath.
“I…I killed her,” I say while my heart beats painfully in my chest and I place a hand over it, trying to
level my breathing at the same time. “Mia, I-”
She touches me and I can feel the pride emanating from her. “You’re an Alpha; don’t you dare kneel to
anyone again,” she scolds me, but somehow I know it’s meant out of love.
I am about to ask her what happened when I was out of my mind when the sound of an infant’s piercing
cry stopped me short. Mia’s smile drops from her face and she rushes behind me; that’s when I
remember Ares.
I spin around to follow her, but what I see shocks me to my core; both Lilah and my aunt are dead.
There’s blood and gore everywhere and when I look at Mia again, I see the blood on her hands and
forearms.
Did my little Omega do all this? Did she rampage while I was hiding behind my memories?
/“They’re all dead; scout the scene for anyone else and kill them,”/ I order over the mind link before I
walk to where Mia is sitting with her eyes wide.
She’s whispering in Ares’ ear, rocking back and forth with a look of utter shock on her face. I get down
on my haunches and touch her cheek, causing her to peer up at me.
“You did well, Mia,” I say with nothing but pride swelling in my chest. “You protected us when I couldn’t.”
She shakes her head and I watch as a lone tear slips down her cheek. “I killed them… Niko, I murdered
someone!”
It takes me a few seconds to realize Mia is not in shock because she’s holding Ares again, but because
she killed two pieces of shit who deserved it.
I sit down behind her and wrap my arms around her shaking body. “These three can’t be seen as
people, Mia. If you didn’t act when I failed you both, we would be laying in their places with Ares
halfway across the country to experience everything I went through.”
This makes her snap out of it and she turns her head to face me with glistening eyes. “No! No…Ares-”
“You did well, my love,” I say, kissing the side of her head. “You protected your family and pack when I
was unable to. There is no reason for you to feel guilty for killing these cunts; you should be fucking
proud of it. I know I am.”
Her bottom lip trembles and it pisses me off that she feels guilty for killing them. But then again, this is
my Mia we’re talking about - she’ll feel bad for stepping on a bug by mistake. I get to my feet and scoop
them up into my arms, just as I see Maxim walking towards the container.
He takes in our bloodied frames, then his eyes widen when he sees all three dead women.
“Three getaway vehicles were found a few yards from here with a clan of warriors and something else
you need to see,” he says. “We’ll talk about it later, for now, we’ve killed the warriors and the Gammas
are bringing the bodies here.”
“Burn them all,” I say with no remorse and Maxim gives me a nod of his head before walking inside the
container. I think of nothing else as I place Mia and Ares in the backseat, then keep quiet as I drive like
a bat out of hell to get my family home.
Mia feeds Ares on the way, but I know she is drained from all of this. She lost a lot of blood through
giving birth, had less than an hour’s sleep after, and still fought to get rid of our enemies. The
adrenaline rush has passed, so dead on her feet doesn’t even come close to how she must feel.
I glance up occasionally to watch her, and after she burps Ares, I can see her eyes threatening to
close. Luckily we’re a block from home and when I stop the SUV, I grab Ares from her and help her
inside.
“You need to go clean up, kardia mou. I’ll watch over Ares,” I tell her when we walk up the stairs to our
bedroom. “I promise I’m not going anywhere, okay?”
She nods and offers me a wan smile. “Thank you,” she says and walks towards the bathroom while I
tend to Ares.
I strip off the clothing he wore and replace them with clean ones, then I check his little diaper, clean him
up, and put him back into his bassinet after changing the blankets. An hour after he was born he
already had an adventure without even knowing; I’d rather that not happen again.
I run the back of my thumb over his cheek and smile; the reality finally sets in that this is actually my
son. He didn’t exactly have the most conventional conception, and his parents aren’t the most normal
couple, but he will know and feel that he is loved.
Mia walks out of the bathroom wearing nothing, and when she goes to the closet, I see the scars on
her back have healed completely. I grit my teeth thinking about the way my mother whipped her with
the same modified cat ‘o nine tails she used on me so long ago.
That bitch tried to shame my Luna while I did nothing but fall head-first into my memories.
When she comes out of the walk-in wearing one of my t-shirts, I run over to her and wrap my arms
tightly around her tiny body. “I am so sorry, Mia,” I say while listening to her heartbeat.
She holds onto me and lets out a long, painful breath. “You have no reason to apologize to me,
Nikolaos. That wretched woman used the trauma she inflicted against you; and since you haven’t truly
dealt with it, it came back. There’s no reason to blame yourself-”
I break off the embrace and frown at her. “Mia, I left you to fend for yourself. You could have died!”
Smiling, she cups my cheek and kisses my lips. “And yet, here I am. We’re Alpha and Luna, my love; if
you fall, I have to be the one to rise, and vice versa. You didn’t choose a weak woman who constantly
needs your protection, you know,” she says.
Yet again I wonder why the Goddess blessed me with someone like her.
“I love you,” I say, meeting her lips with a soft kiss. “You’re an amazing woman, Mia.”
She kisses me back and smiles against my lips. “And I love you, my Alpha. But I think you have some
unfinished business to tend to.”
The smile vanishes from my face and I raise a questioning eyebrow at her. “I do?”
She nods and says, “I caught some of the chatter over the mind link; Maxim is waiting for you in the
office with something quite odd.”
Maxim did say there was something I needed to see, but right now my responsibility lies with Mia and
Ares. “It can wait-”
“No, it can’t. Place Panzer inside here and Armata outside and I’ll be fine to sleep, then go to see what
your Beta has,” she interjects with a bossy tone I find incredibly sexy. She must see the desire on my
face because she rolls her eyes. “Mind out the gutter, Alpha!”
I can’t help but chuckle before planting another kiss on her lips. “Please, get some rest. I’ll be back
soon.”
Sighing, she walks over to the bed and falls down. “I have every intention of sleeping for a week
straight, thank you very much,” she says before crawling under the covers. I give her another look of
longing before I leave the bedroom.
The Twins walk towards me and I give them their instructions. “No one goes in there, not even Maxim,
without my say-so,” I remind them and I see them visibly flinching at their previous fuck up.
When I walk into my office I see Maxim holding up the severed heads of my mother and aunt to a
bloody, kneeling figure. His eyes flicker to me and a grin slips onto his lips before he kicks the man
backward.
My eyes fall on the man as he cries out in pain, then rage has me in its grip. Arms constrict around me
and hold me back from tearing out Josef’s throat and Maxim walks towards me, placing his hands on
my shoulders.
“Before you give him the death he so rightfully deserves, you need to hear what he has to say,” he
says, and I frown at his reaction. Maxim is a kill-first ask-questions-later type of warrior, so what does
Josef know that might help me?
I nod and Divan releases my arms and I walk over to the bloody lump before pulling the fucker to his
feet. “Speak and you might just get a swift death,” I say and he must know I am lying.
No one deserves a swift death, much less this cunt.
Josef’s eyes scan the room, dread seeping into his scent when he sees the calm in my eyes. Knox is
just about ready to murder, but I manage to keep him in place.
“Melodiya and Mariyah,” he stutters, saying the names of my mother and aunt. “Are the daughters of
Evalina and Demitrios Karras. Mariyah is - was, my real mother. She is the one who sent me here to
spy on you for the Karras Elders, and my real father…is Mischa Popov.”
I have to take an actual step back to absorb this news. Josef is my half-brother - his father is the man
who had Bastien’s mate killed -Mikhail’s fucking father- and the Elders put him here to spy on me.
“Why did they want me and Mia dead?” is the only question out of my mouth as my hand goes to his
throat. “Answer.”
I feel him swallow deeply before he answers me. “B-because they wanted to put Mikhail in charge,” he
says what I already suspected and my claws slide like a knife through butter through his throat.
The sound of blood gurgling at his throat makes me roll my eyes and I breathe out a long sigh.
“Get this cleaned the fuck up. I am going to have a long shower and sleep next to my fucking Luna.
This,” I say, gesturing to Josef in his death throes. “Will be dealt with when I can think clearly.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Maxim and Divan answered and I walked out of my office and back to Mia. After I shower,
I climb into bed next to her - my head didn’t even hit the pillow before sleep dragged me under.