Hagen’s P.O.V

I’m already gasping for air by the time my eyes open, placing me back in my current bedroom instead of the one in my dreams.

A second ago, I’d been screaming so much my throat felt like it was being shredded by the shards of glass piercing my wet fists, and now I was here, back in my room with— I glance to the side and still when I find him sound asleep beside me.

With his hand on his chest and his lips sealed shut, Nikola breathed low as he slept, each breath just as measured as him. Any other time, seeing him sleeping like a vampire would’ve been comical, but now, with the edges of my dream still so close to the surface, the sight of him made me shudder out a slow, shaky breath.

I didn’t know if the relief was because he was still asleep or if seeing him confirmed that I was here with this version of him and not the one in my dreams. Fuck. I tear my gaze away, blinking several times as I try to settle my mind within the present.

That was a long time ago, and it was over. It was over. Nikola wasn’t like that anymore; he’d changed— said sorry. It was over.

I force my eyes to close and try to fall asleep again, but my heart is still beating too fast for that. I try to breathe slowly instead, to do some of Peter’s meditation tricks, but each inhale fills my lungs with his scent, and it’s all too much. Without warning, my body cages up, allowing panic to take me by storm as I sit up, pulling the sheets back with trembling fingers.

Moving quickly but quietly, I slip out of bed and head into the living room, where everything tilts and sways. I shake my head, trying to clear it. I just needed some space right now, and then I’d be fine, and this horrible ache plaguing my chest would go away.

But putting space between Nik and I felt like tearing apart the very fabric of our slowly mending bond— wrong and painful, which was confusing as hell when I knew going back would only make things worse. I just couldn’t be close to my mate right now, not when his scent made all sorts of contradicting emotions rise within me.

These days, Nikola’s scent made me feel happy and safe, but before, it’d made me feel scared… and though it didn’t anymore, after that dream… I shake my head hastily, trying to brush it all off, but that doesn’t work because, of course it doesn’t.

We were apart but barely. There were traces of him all over this place now, and it was more than just the addictive aroma of leather in the air. It was in the way my counters glistened, cleared since all my cups were either washed or in their rightful homes. And then there was the complete lack of clothes on the floor because, for once, they were folded away properly.

All his changes meant that there were parts of Nikola everywhere, even when there wasn’t a physical piece, and though I was learning to like it, right now, it was almost suffocating.

My ears twitch just as my phone vibrates atop my coffee table, the sound jarring in the otherwise silent night, and I rush to grab it before it can shake its way off or, worse, wake Nikola up. I answer immediately, not needing to check the name because I already knew exactly who it was, and that had relief already flooding me.

“Hagen,” Josey groans tiredly. “It’s three in the fucking morning. Why are you freaking out at three in the fucking morning?”

Something breaks or pulls together– I don’t fucking know. All I know is that the moment Josey’s grumpy voice crackles over the line, letting me know I’m not alone, something inside of me eases. The world stops spinning like a merry-go-round, my heart stops pursuing a drumming career, and my eyes fall shut as I release a heavy sigh.

“H-Hey,” I manage, lips already tugging up. “Who says I’m freaking out?”

“Hagen, please. I feel like I just did a hundred jumping jacks, and I sure as shit didn’t, so…” she curses under her breath, and I hear sheets ruffling, “what’s going on?”

Josey and I didn’t have any of the stereotypical twin stuff, like finishing each other sentences, having the exact same food palette, matching clothing accidentally or on purpose, and fuck, we didn’t even look that identical. But we did have a connection that went beyond anything we could explain.

If one of us was exceedingly happy, then the other knew it. If we were uncontrollably upset, the other felt that too, and if we were really scared or sad, the other always knew— no matter how far, no matter what, we knew. But knowing was one thing; doing something about it was something else, and I couldn’t ever thank Josey enough for always doing something about it.

“Had a bad dream,” I reply while I rub at my eyes, “got a little freaked out.”

“Bad dream like radioactive spiders take over the world—”

“Josey, please don’t bring up the spiders.”

She chuckles gruffly, “Or, bad like your mate?”

My heart clenches as fresh misery makes me falter. “The latter,” I admit in a mumble, and I can almost hear her nod. Glancing towards the room, I listen for any sign that Nik might be awake but find none. I knew he could be pretending— Goddess knew I had for the few nights he’d been like this— but I was too tired to care.

“What was it?” she asks carefully.

I blow out a tired breath as I drag myself to the couch, trying to find the courage to say the words. “That day with the shower,” I reply as I drop down, but despite all my efforts, I still find myself shivering uncomfortably.

I didn’t like to think about that day– in fact, I usually tried to pretend it didn’t happen because of all that had happened, especially afterwards. But some things were still clear as day, as if they’d just happened, like dad’s angry blue eyes and the sound of Josey’s mirror shattering to the floor.

She’d gotten that giant fucker for our thirteenth birthday after begging for it for months. I never understood what she loved about it, I mean, it was just a mirror— an obscenely massive, ordinary mirror, but Josey was smitten with it. She got it eventually, and she treated it like her baby, saying it was her “dream mirror” and that she’d have it with her for the rest of her life. Then that day, she’d smashed it to pieces without a second thought.

“Did he—”

“No,” I dismiss quickly before she could even think something up. “He hasn’t done anything like that or even—” I shake my head. “Nik’s been great, really really great.”

“Okay,” she replies, and I can hear her relief. “Then what happened?”

“So fucking much,” I mumble as I remember it all.

It’d been a few days since the incident in the kitchen, but it felt like it was yesterday with the way nothing had happened since. We woke up, we ate, we did something, and then we kind of danced around one another as if we didn’t know what kissing felt like.

For all of Nikola’s insistence that he wanted more, he actually hadn’t done anything, but I wasn’t complaining. I’d agreed, but honestly, I needed the space more than I knew how to express.

“Wait…” Josey starts, voice dropping low. “Did something happen between you guys?”

“No, not really–” I start out of habit, but that was a lie, and I didn’t lie to Josey, so, “I mean, we um, kissed.”

“YOU DID WHAT?!?!”

I hold the phone away from my ear, wincing as it rings from Josey’s sudden screech.

“You trying to blow my fucking eardrums out, Jo?”

“I just might!” she snaps, apparently wide awake now, any and all exhaustion gone from her voice. “You guys kissed?! You and Nikola?!”

“Yeah,” I mumble, curling up a little as I keep my eyes pointedly away from the kitchen. “…Twice.”

Josey tries to say words, she really does, but it just comes out as a jumbled, slightly alarming compilation of sounds that don’t make any sort of sense. “Hagen… Hagen, wait, wait, wait, wait… You’re telling me… that you kissed Nikola— Nikola — twice?!”

I swallow, “…Yeah.”

“Holy shit!”

“I know.”

“Holy shit, Hagen!” she repeats, sounding more manic.

I squeeze the phone a little tighter, “I know!”

The line remains quiet for a few horribly long seconds, with both of us just sitting there freaking out. I hadn’t really allowed myself to freak out about it, since last time I had, Nikola had a panic attack, but now with Josey on the line, it was like it’d just happened, and all those feelings were right back on the surface.

The seconds continue to tick, and I worry that I may have made my sister mute, but then Josey carefully whispers, “…How was it?”

“Josey,” I groan, bringing my knees up so I can hide behind them, but that does nothing to stop the heat from warming up my chest.

“No, you gotta share. If you kissed him once, I wouldn’t ask, but twice?!” she huffs out a breath. “For you to kiss Nikola twice, it had to be good.”

It was. Fuck me, it had been so fucking good both times, even though they’d each been so different. The first time on the counter was like an explosion. It was like we were two fuses that had been burning for weeks and finally reached their ends, and once we did, we just combusted. It was raw and unhinged and primal in the best fucking ways, and then the second time— Dear Goddess, the second time…

“I love you.”

The second time had been sweet. It was like hot chocolate on a snowy day, like Christmas morning, full of innocence. It’d been slow and passionate, like the type of first kisses you see in movies– the ones that are never real, except it had been then. Nikola had made it real.

“Damn, it was good,” Josey confirms with a snicker. “I knew I felt happier than usual a few days back.” I squirm, not sure how to take that bit. “Then I was freaking out, but I thought that was just cause I, unfortunately, saw Pop’s bare ass cheeks.”

I snort, “A– that’s disgusting, and b, that freaking out bit might’ve been what happened after.”

“What happened after?” Josey presses, any teasing forgotten as her tone turns serious.

My fingers squeeze at the back of my neck, trying to ease some of the tension there, but it hardly helps. “The first time we k-kissed, it was intense. We sort of lost it… on the kitchen counter—”

“On the kitchen counter?!” she chokes. “Hagen, you dirty—”

“But then,” I continue quickly, not wanting to get into that with her, “it was a lot really fast and I freaked out.”

“Shit,” she mumbles. Shit was Josey’s favourite word.

“Yeah. I ran, just needed space for a second, but there’s no such thing as ‘space’ between us right now. I mean, you know how I am. I need to just—”

“Hide in a dark corner sometimes,” she supplies and I nod quickly, even though I wished it weren’t true.

“Yeah, but me running freaked him out. So, Nik was freaking out cause he thought I didn’t want it, and I was freaking out even more cause I did. Then we were both freaking out and I was a second away from having a panic attack, but then he was having one— literally had a panic attack— and you can’t really have a panic attack when someone else is having a panic attack—”

“Holy shit,” she curses again and I nod even more.

“Yeah. So, I had to calm him down ’cause he was losing it real quick, and then…” I sigh, fingers digging deeper into my skin. “We talked about it later, and then, we ended up doing it again.”

“Having a panic attack again?”

“What? No. We k-kissed again,” I mutter, my entire body turning to flames.

I didn’t let myself think about the fact that Nik and I had now kissed for more than a minute. It sparked too many confusing emotions within me and I couldn’t deal with them when he was always just one step away. So I just sort of kept them in a box, pretending it wasn’t already bursting at the seams with all the other shit I shoved in there.

“Fucking hell, Hagen,” Josey declares in a rush. “I mean… fucking hell.”

“I know,” I groan, rocking a little as I nibble on my finger. “I know. I don’t know what’s going on, Josey.”

“No shit. I thought you guys were taking things slow?”

“I did too, but then I realised that the whole fucking world thought my mate was hot as fuck and I realised that I really, really didn’t like that, so—”

“Wait? What?!” Josey exclaims, making me wince again.

I sigh, “Let me start again.”

Taking my time, I walk Josey through the events of the last few days, from the moment I’d woken up to after the panic attack when I’d had to pick Nik up bridal style and tuck him into bed, and then spend the next three hours trapped in his arms.

“Good Goddess and the fucking plains,” Josey breathes out once I’m done. “You jealous is something I can’t even imagine. You’re like… not the jealous type.”

“I know,” I reply. I was always the ‘chill boyfriend’ in all my relationships. I just didn’t get jealous, but maybe that was because of how short they’d all been. “It was like a demon took over me. It was fucking insane.” I was still avoiding Max’s numerous messages for a reason.

Josey snickers, “To be fair, I think I would’ve snapped too. I mean, if I was with my mate— Goddess forbid they exist— twenty-four fucking seven, and all this shit was going on, I’d lose it.”

“That’s the thing,” I all but sob. “We’re always together, and I mean, it’s great, we get along, but even the most normal mates spend time apart, right? Even if it’s just for an hour.”

“Yeah, dad and Pops don’t spend all their time together, and they’re like obsessed with one another,” Josey supplies and my eyes practically bulge.

“Yes, exactly. Exactly that. Mates spend time apart, but we’re together all the time, and it’s already a lot, and now Nik’s saying he needs more—”

“Wait, more?!” Josey exclaims, and I can just picture the frown digging into the space between her brows.

“Not like that, but like—” I sigh, trying to get the right words together. “He’s been giving me space to adjust, listening to my rules, but after what happened, he says he can’t handle us being apart when we’re in the same space all the time. So he said either we try for more between us, or he puts the barrier back up and leaves.”

“So why don’t you guys just do that? You’re not ready for more between you, so shouldn’t he leave and you guys can go back to seeing each other on dates?” I don’t reply, forming words suddenly impossible as my face becomes a thousand degrees hotter. “Uh, Hagen?”

“I… don’t want him to go,” I mumble quietly, but it still sounds so loud in the otherwise noiseless apartment.

Josey doesn’t reply immediately, and I know instantly that she’s probably sitting up in her bed with her mouth hanging open. “Oh, Hagen.”

“I like him here, okay,” I half-whisper, half-groan. “We have fun and yeah, it’s all a lot, but I’d rather him be here than not at all.”

And that was the truth. I liked being around Nikola, liked spending time with him, and I even liked when he kissed me, even though it freaked me the fuck out if I thought about it for too long. I just liked having him around, and I wasn’t ready to give that up.

“But—” she starts only to pause and sigh, “fuck me, this sounds like a shitshow.” It was. “You guys can’t be having panic attacks every time you kiss. And you having dreams after, like some nightmare? Have you guys talked about that stuff yet?”

“No,” I reply, wincing as she sighs, “but we do talk, Josey. It’s not like we’re just trying to pretend nothing ever happened. It’s just there’s so much from before and so much happening now that if we spent all our time talking about it, we’d get nowhere.”

“So, what? You’re doing it in pieces?”

“I guess,” I shrug and shake my head. “I don’t know. I just know that we’re both trying our best, but it’s a lot. This whole thing is a lot.”

“Yeah,” she agrees in a quiet murmur. “I bet it would be easier without the mate awareness– that shit is crazy.”

“You’re telling me.”

“I thought it would’ve been done by now, or stopped or whatever. Shouldn’t it have?” she asks. “It’s been like a week since he moved in, right? I swear this shit is only supposed to last a few days.”

I frown, “I mean, yeah, but we were apart before so maybe it takes longer. We haven’t tried testing it or anything.”

To be honest, I didn’t even know how that part worked. Like how did you even know? I figured it would be a feeling thing, like one day you’d just feel something give way in the bond and you’d know it was over, but maybe that was naive.

“Well, maybe do that, and in the meantime, I can ask dad about what his and the old man’s situation was like?”

“Yeah, that would be great, Josey,” I reply, feeling myself sinking deeper into the couch. “Thanks.”

“No problem, but Hagen, are you going to be okay?”

I falter for some reason, as though I’d never been asked that before when she made a point of asking me if I was okay every time we spoke. “W-What do you mean?”

“Are you going to be okay?” she repeats, slower this time. “Nikola’s changed, I know, and I know you like him like this, but this all sounds like more than you signed up for, so… are you going to be okay?”

Why was that question so hard?

I wanted to say ‘yeah, of course’, or ‘we’ll figure it out’, or something else positive like that, but I didn’t know how.

With the connection growing between us, I believed in Nikola and me. I believed that we were both giving this our all, but we had been since our very first date, and it seemed like every time we took a step forward, something pulled us back by five.

Truth was, I had no fucking clue what was going to happen, but I was in too deep to back out now.

“Yeah. I’ll be fine.”

———————

When I climb back into bed, I’m no longer fighting for air, or against my demons— ha. I flop down onto my side of the bed with a sigh, my body melting the second my mattress swallows me like a marshmallow. I yawn, peeking over at Nikola who was just as I’d left him, taking slow deep breaths and sleeping like a mummy, but he looked a little different.

I stare at him a bit longer, trying to spot what it was until I notice the way his throat bobs and his arms tense a little.

“Are you—” I squint. “I know you’re awake.”

Nikola remains still for a minute as if contemplating continuing his pretence, which was silly because he was literally holding his breath now.

A chuckle escapes me, “Nik, you’re not breathing.”

Grey eyes flutter open as Nikola sucks in a deep breath before he glances over to me, looking like someone who’d just been caught red-handed. But I can only smile as he shifts slightly, trying to find a comfortable way to look at me while still lying on his back.

“I wasn’t eavesdropping,” he states very quickly. “I felt your distress, and it woke me.”

I nod, knowing I’d done the same in his case many times. “Sorry,” I mumble as I turn on my side to look at him. “I just needed to talk to Jo for a bit.”

“That’s fine,” he replies, giving up his attempt at peace and turning onto his side as well. “I did not listen. I erected a sound barrier between us to give you some privacy.”

My heart does a backflip in my chest, but I play it cool with, “Thanks. I appreciate that.”

Nikola nods, making some of his hair slip free from his braids, and he swipes it back quickly, frustration making him huff as he starts his attempt at getting comfortable again. I bite back my snort as I watch him squirm, tossing and turning until he’s practically fighting with the night air.

It takes a minute, but eventually, Nikola manages to lie on his side without his hair or anything else obstructing his vision. He sighs with relief before he settles his grey eyes back on me, and my heart literally skips a beat.

It wasn’t so dark that I couldn’t see him, but for some reason, his eyes seemed brighter than everything else, like there was a small light just behind them and staring into them hypnotises me.

I blink rapidly, trying to break the trance as I force out an awkward laugh, “Hey.”

“Hello, Hagen,” he replies and then his lips twitch. “It’s Nikola.”

There’s no reason why my heart should take off as fast as it does, no fucking reason why my toes should curl and I have to fight to keep myself from giggling like a fucking schoolgirl because he said four words. But those four words were enough to make me laugh and fucking blush, because they’re perfect.

“It’s been a while since I heard that,” I admit, and Nik shrugs a little.

“We don’t text anymore, so there’s hardly a chance, but—” his smile grows just a little wider. “I’m glad I could make you laugh.”

I’m going to fucking kill myself! UGH!!! — Zyair interjects with a slurred swoon.

Zyair had been weird(er) ever since the kiss. From the moment Nik’s lips had pressed against mine, Zyair had been a fucking mess like I’d never seen before, and then he kind of passed out, and now he was like a drugged-up puppy.

I hoped he’d get a handle on himself cause I couldn’t deal with him clocking out every time Nikola kissed me. If he kissed me again, which was still up for debate. I mean, it could happen any second, but he hadn’t touched me since that day, which was fine— welcomed even, I just thought when he said—

“Hey!” I say a little louder than I meant to, making Nikola startle. “Sorry. But you– ugh… why don’t we go for a run?”

“A run?” Nikola blinks at me as though the words were foreign and he’d never heard them before.

“Yeah, a run,” I repeat, lips pulling into a smile on their own when he blinks three more times, trying to make my words compute.

Glancing behind him, Nikola checks his phone for the time before he looks back at me with horrified eyes, “Hagen, it’s five thirty-six in the morning.”

“Yeah, but we’re both up now. I’m not sleepy anymore and you’re awake too, so why don’t we get out there?”

“For a run….” Nikola deadpans.

“You’re the one who asked if we could, remember? You said, ‘If you’re up to it, I was thinking we could go for a run’, and I said, ‘yeah’, and then you said, ‘I need time to prepare’.”

The confusion clears from Nikola’s expression within an instant, and his eyes narrow, “Are you mocking me?”

“I’m not mocking you.”

“I think you’re mocking me,” he states, brows twitching a little closer.

“I am not mocking you,” I promise, even though I had dropped my voice a few octaves for that last part. “Stop trying to distract me. What’s the verdict? Yes or no for the run?”

Nikola frowns, looking like a lost lamb as he glances from me to the bed, and then back to me, his gaze showing his utter distress.

“What? You still not prepared?” I snort, but Nikola misses my teasing completely.

“No, I’m not,” Nikola replies seriously. “I was going to prepare a route, so there would be no chance of us coming to harm.”

“I run out here all the time,” I reply with a shrug. “We’re good.”

“That’s not good enough for me.”

Of course it wasn’t. I chew on my lip, thinking for a bit. “Alright, let’s head back to the pack then,” I say with a grin. “If you can muster up the spell to get us there, we can run safely there, no prep needed.”

Nikola seems to catch the jab that time as his grey eyes harden into a steely glare, but there’s no real irritation behind it, only amusement.

“Okay,” he says, pushing the sheets back and sliding out of bed.

I sit up, a little stunned, “Really?”

“Yes,” Nikola replies, stretching his arms out above his head and making the hem of his shirt track up, exposing hard muscle beneath.

I basically jump out of bed, tearing my gaze away from him as I step over Knots carefully. He was still snoozing and I didn’t want to disturb the guy. Joining me at the foot of the bed, Nikola pins his gaze on me, a slight challenge flaring in them, one that makes my competitive spirit gallop.

“Are you ready?” he asks, magic sparking between us as his scent swirls around.

“Yup,” I reply, with a nod. “One of us has to be prepar—”

Earth magic sweeps over us, spreading through my body in a flash as it latches on and yanks me from my bedroom to the woodlands of our pack. I’d been teleported a million times before, but this time, a rush of electric energy sizzled beneath my veins, like raw magic unleashed.

“What was that?” Nikola asks, head tilted to one side. “Sorry, I didn’t get a chance to hear that last part.”

This smug bastard. I glare up at him, but he just smirks, the closeted asshole.

(A/N – he ain’t the only one closeted here, Hagen hehehe *snicker snicker* (also, just a joke, Hagen’s figuring shit out lol))

“Alright, home sweet home,” I say, taking a look around and indulging in a greedy lungful of our pack air. It’d always smelt like pine and lemons to me, like my dads, and those traces were still there, but with Damon and Will in charge now, the lands had a sort of peaceful aura all about, covered in some flowery blend that smelt just like them.

“Which way do you want to go….” I trail off as I face Nikola again, except he’s no longer standing on two feet. In the span of what had to be a second, he’d shifted, and now he stood on all fours and I could only stare.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen Nikola shift. I’d always made a point of staying away from him, especially on pack runs, so I hadn’t known that the small brown wolf I could barely remember had become this.

He wasn’t as big as Damon or Dad, and he certainly wasn’t as big as Jayson, but his wolf was taller than most. Tall and surprisingly lean. Where I’d expected muscle, I found muted strength beneath his fur that was lovely on its own. It was a mixture of browns, like the tones in his hair, and though it was mostly dark, I spotted all the variations with ease.

Stepping forward, Nikola keeps his eyes on me while he paces a little before me, head bowing in a silent invitation to join him. I swallow, heart lurching as the reality of what we were doing settles in, but I don’t let myself overthink it.

I call on my shift, letting the process flow through me like water until I find myself looking at a sharper world with keener senses and then— Nik comes quickly, nuzzling me with an eagerness that makes me release a chuff of surprise, but he doesn’t stop.

Circling me, Nikola rubs his body against mine, ruffling my fur and evoking fresh sensations as our scents blend together. It was easier to scent as wolves, and in no time, I could hardly tell us apart, only sensing that we were here together and that we were close.

I press into him once I find the courage, facing his request tentatively before I slip back, meeting excited, wide eyes. I chuff, laughing inside as I do it again, nuzzling him a little this time until Nikola purrs his pleasure.

Spirit alight, I jump back with his scent all around me and nod towards the woods. I take a few steps and then Nikola eagerly follows, ensuring we’re side by side. We don’t run, not quite. We keep a gentle and measured trot that lets me enjoy the quiet but waking woodlands and my mate.

I’d thought we’d be sprinting through the woods, but we were too focused on each other to risk anything faster, which was fine with me because running under the parting night’s sky with Nikola felt a lot like our first date, when he’d taken me to a different planet and showed me things I’d never dreamed of. This brought all those wonderful emotions flooding within me and I couldn’t get enough.

We nudge one another playfully, Nikola more than me, but he still has the audacity to look shocked when I nudge him into a tree. That gets me a playful bite to my ear that I return with a bite to his, which quickly turns into a game of who can get the last poke in. But I don’t think Nikola’s doing it ’cause he wants it, because when I look into his eyes, all I see is joy and so much love I almost trip over my own feet.

Heart nearly bursting, I pick up the pace just enough so that I wasn’t focusing solely on my mate and the things he was making me feel. It’s not long before the tension that had been caged inside me since last Monday begins to ease, letting me unwind as my mind fixates only on the wet earth beneath my feet and the cold breeze slipping through my fur.

I’m so caught up that I don’t notice Nikola’s parting at first, taking a new path and putting space between us that I suddenly find unnerving. I follow close behind before he has to glance back, running after him as he moves through the woods with liquid grace.

Nikola’s wolf moved just like he did in all other things– with confidence and measured strength, and he was beautiful to watch, so beautiful that I almost ran into a tree… several times… but I made it! Somehow, I was still in one piece without any scraps or bruises when Nikola led us up a rocky path near the outskirts of the pack lands, climbing higher and higher until we reached the top just as the sun began to breach the distant horizon line.

Eyes growing wide, I stare ahead, mouth agape. I knew there were many wonderful lookout points all around the pack, and I’d heard time and time again how amazing the sunrise could be if you caught it, but I’d always either fallen asleep every time my dad tried to take us out, or I’d never gotten out of bed at all.

I wished I did now that I was seeing the expanse of the pack and the lands beyond before me, all the rich and wonderful trees that were still outlined by thick sheets of snow. The sky itself was clear, not a cloud in sight, allowing it to be painted in varying strokes of pink and yellow that were growing deeper/fiercer as the sun climbed.

Moving forward, Nikola steals my attention as he shifts with ease, bringing himself back on two feet that prod the edge carefully. He keeps checking for whatever before he seems satisfied and sits down. He looks back then, meeting my gaze with a quiet, but hopeful smile and he offers his hand to me.

Zyair swoons, and fuck it, so do I. I shift faster than I knew I could, stumbling forward so quickly I almost fall, but by Goddess, I don’t. I manage the last two steps to Nikola without looking like a complete ass, and once I’m within reach, I let my fingers slip over the offered palm.

Nikola’s long fingers wrap around mine without hesitation, causing warmth and fresh sparks to ignite between us as he leads me down to sit beside him. My heart pounds against my chest as I fidget, getting comfortable with my hand still in his.

I stare at our fingers, can’t fucking look away. It wasn’t the first time Nikola held my hand, but this time, something about it felt so real— so fucking visceral that I just kept staring at the way my fingers fit in his, and the way he held onto mine as if he’d never let me go.

“You’re missing the sunrise.”

I force my gaze up and to the sky, trying to pretend I wasn’t literally burning beneath my skin and my fingers weren’t becoming alarmingly slippery.

“Yeah, sorry,” I mumble, keeping my gaze pointedly ahead.

Through bated breaths, I watch the sun as it rises and brings new life to the skies, but I can hardly focus on it. It was beautiful and all if you were into clouds and shit, but Nikola was seated right beside me, so close his warmth overwhelmed me, like his scent. And I could feel his gaze on me, like his magic— like all of him, and that just made the sunrise pale in comparison.

“You’re not watching either,” I comment, daring a glance his way as heat works its way up my spine.

I catch the way Nik’s brows lift just a little before his lips spread into a soft smile, “Well, I brought you here to watch it. I had no intentions of doing the same.”

I swallow, but my throat was quickly becoming too tight to do even that, let alone breathe with Nikola looking at me as if he were a second away from kissing me again.

“Okay, I guess,” I mutter, looking forward again.

Soft lips brush against my skin making me jerk, but I don’t have a second to overthink it as Nikola’s free hand palms my face, turning me towards him for more. I melt against him, receiving each of his gentle kisses upon my cheek without protest.

My fingers clench, squeezing his, and he grips my hand even tighter as he lathers gentle kisses down my jaw until I sigh and shuffle a little closer.

I can’t help it and Nikola doesn’t try to stop me, only pulls me nearer until he’s tugging one of my legs over his, and then both. I groan as his hand comes around my waist, digging into the flesh there like he did with my thighs.

Distantly, my brain short circuits knowing I’m practically sitting in his lap, but I couldn’t move even if I wanted to. Nikola’s grip was unrelenting, keeping me in place while his lips leisurely traced my jaw, making newfound pleasure erupt inside of me.

I lean into every kiss, shivering when his stubble scrapes along my skin. I should’ve hated it, but I didn’t. I loved the sensation, loved the firmness of his body as I wrapped my arms around him. A growl rumbles within his chest as he tugs me into his lap fully, making my blood boil as fresh desire rouses within me.

Biting my lips, I stifle my sounds, or try to, but embarrassing whimpers escape me, though I don’t hate them as much when each one sparks a groan from Nikola that makes my pants tighten.

“Mhm,” he hums with one last parting kiss to the corner of my lips that makes my breath hitch before he pulls back. His eyes are glowing like mine, and he’s panting too, but when he looks at me, it’s with the most endearing smile. “Let’s watch the sunrise.”

Despite myself, I frown and almost glare at him as I shift, “W-What?”

“That’s what we came for,” he reminds me, pushing the hair from my face and damn him, that distracts me just a little. “Come on, stop pouting.”

I glare at him, all desire evaporating as I push away from his chest, “Fuck off. I’m not pouting.”

“You are not pouting,” he agrees as he catches my wrists, holding me firm. I pause my quest for freedom as I pin my narrowing eyes on him.

“Are you… mocking me?”

Nikola sends me a shit-eating grin that lights up his entire face and my heart struggles to keep beating. “Of course not,” he chides, pulling me against his chest like I weighed nothing. “Now come on, let’s watch.”

I don’t fight him this time, even though I should, and I don’t even try to wiggle out of his lap. No, I just stay put, locked against him and dutifully staring ahead at the stupid sun. Not that I hated watching it— I had nothing against the sun doing it’s thing, it just… it wasn’t nearly as bright as Nikola’s massive grin, and right now, my mate smiling was the only thing on my mind.

——————————

Is our boy Hagen… 👀 starting too… fall?????

Thoughts?????

Thoughts on Hagen’s call with Josey?? Their conversation??? The impromptu run and Nik being fine as hell, as usual???

All I gotta say is, Nikola… babe, the kids miss you 😌 lmfaoooooo

If you enjoyed this update, please do leave a comment, sharing any and all thought!! I wanna hear them all!!

Progress is being made, and I already know what’s coming in the next few chapters and I’m so fucking excited!!!!! AHHHHH!

Next up on the update roster is a Patreon extra, maybe the Peter one.

Until next time,
Byeeeeeee Humanssssssssss