“Nikolai…” Dimitri said something but I tuned him out.
I looked at Avalyn. A pregnant Avalyn. My eyes teared up at her sight.
She lied to me. She should have told me. This was something the both of us should have talked about. Something that was our decision to make. Together. But she took that from me. She was going to take herself from me. She was going to give some tiny, poor version of herself to me who would kill her and then she would ask me to love that spawn of devil like I loved her.
“Niko-”
“Tell me you’re going to get an abortion. And you were waiting for me to get home.” This can be the only possible explanation. This has to be it.
Her face crumpled up as she cried silently.
For the first time in my life, I saw her cry and didn’t feel like I needed to help make her feel better. She betrayed me.
My entire family betrayed me.
They knew but didn’t tell me. They broke my trust.
Avalyn took a step in my direction and I backed up. She wanted to celebrate her birth when she was setting herself up to die. And her death would also be the end of me. This has to be a sick joke.
“Don’t fucking come near me until you decide to kill that murderer inside you.” My voice was low but threatening.
She flinched.
I whirled around to leave but Dimitri put his hand on my shoulder and stopped me. “Stop, listen to what she has to say. It-”
My jaw clenched and the next second, my fist flew to his face and I heard a resounding crack before he fell on the floor.
There were multiple gasps in the room. No one saw it coming.
“You are a poor excuse for a brother.” I spat. “All of you.”
And then I stalked to my bedroom and slammed the door shut behind me.
I sat on the bed, rested my elbows on my leg and clutched my head with my hands.
I talked to Avalyn every day. I face timed her whenever I got network. There were times when we would just remain silent and see each other do our work. Because we were busy but just craved each other’s company. We fell asleep with the other person on the phone numerous nights. She would send me pictures of things that reminded her of me, of clothes that she bought, random selfies of herself.
Not once did she tell me she was pregnant. Not once could she end me a fucking picture of her full body. Of her bump. And the damned fucking camera didn’t fucking cover her entire body. I never even got a hint of the pregnancy!
How could she do this to me? To us?
I have never felt this betrayed in my entire life. She knows that she will die giving birth to this… creature. She knows it. But she still kept it. And didn’t tell me about it.
“Nikolai.” Avalyn stepped in, tears streaming down her face. She closed the door behind herself and leaned back against it.
All I could see was her bump. It was very evident in this dress. It was mocking me.
Her hand came to rest on it and she caressed it. My eyes snapped to her. Her tears made me angry. The hurt expression on her face made me angry. What reason did she have to be hurt? She was consciously making this decision. She knew everything. She knew I would react this way.
I released a breath.
Being angry in such a situation won’t help. I need to think first, come up with a strategy to convince her to abort. Yes. I can do that. I have good persuasion skills. She’ll listen to me, abort and then everything will go back to normal.
She was silently crying as she stared at me. I don’t want her to cry. I don’t want to hurt her. I love her.
Fucking hell. Today is her birthday for Goddess’ sake.
The first one she will be celebrating in a long time. I need to turn today around and make this the best birthday ever. And when she’ll be very happy tomorrow morning, I’ll strike.
I took a deep breath and then released it.
I stood up and Ava looked at me with weary eyes when I closed the distance between us. I cupped the side of her head, my fingers weaving through her hair. I caressed her cheek with my thumb. “I’m sorry. I reacted harshly. I-” I gulped and then choked out, “I was not expecting it.”
She looked up at me and her eyes filled with tears again. “I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I know I should have told you. I tried. So many times. But I just-I couldn’t.”
“How did it even happ-” my eyes widened when the answer to my question popped in my mind. “That day, at the balcony. You had fever. And you smelled exquisite. More so than usual.”
“The doctors ran a full test. My wolf was getting weaker by the day because she was dying. And the heat came and it got too much for her to handle,” she whispered, her eyes lowered. “What’s why I was puking so much too.” I could see the pain in her eyes. She missed her wolf.
“Are you okay? Right now?” I asked.
She nodded, a small smile forming on her lips. “I am. I’m also extremely sorry, Nik. I just… I didn-”
“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” I shook my head, my gaze fixated on her delicious lips. I missed her. The intensity hit me again. And I couldn’t stop myself from capturing her red lips in a bruising kiss.
It was slow at first, I took my time kissing them, familiarising myself with them even though I hadn’t forgotten them at all. She bit down on my lip hard and I tasted her salty tears.
I wiped them away before breaking the kiss and then pushed my tongue in her mouth. She let out a moan. Her tongue instantly met mine, dallying and parrying mine with a vigour. I groaned at her taste. And just like that, the kiss turned frantic.
We couldn’t keep our hands off each other. My hands slid down her face and cupped her breasts. Moulding. Squeezing. Kneading.
She let out another throaty moan. “Oh fuck.”