Ava might not have welcomed me the way I had expected her to, but this is enough. I felt like my heart was so full of love, so full of warmth that a little more and it’ll burst. I’ve never loved anyone as much as I love my daughter. Not even Ava.
I love Niklaus too. I yearned for the day he would let me hold him like this. I would do anything to get in his good books.
“Because I missed you. All my friends had someone to call daddy. But Klaus and I didn’t. I want to make up for all the lost time. I don’t want to be away from you. I want to spend every day, all day with you, Dadda.” She mumbled.
“I’ll never leave you again, Princess.” I kissed her hair.
I turned around when I smelled Ava enter the balcony.
“You should only make promises you can keep,” Ava spoke, taking Viktoria from my arms and placing her down.
“Can I talk to Dadda for a second?” She asked her.
Viktoria nodded and waved towards me enthusiastically. “See you later, Dadda!”
“Bye, Princess.”
“Don’t say bye!” She shook her head. “Bye means going away, Dadda. I don’t want you to go away. I want you to stay with me and Klaus and Mamma and Gabe. Forever!” She wanted him too.
I gulped and nodded. Gabe. That’s what she called him too. “I’ll see you later.” I waved her away.
“Turn around,” Ava told me.
“What?”
“You are hurt. Turn around so I can heal you.” She repeated.
“I didn’t even notice it. It’ll heal in some time. What did you want to talk about?” I asked. Is she here just to heal me? Is this obligatory, or does she care about me?
“You might be the King and I the Queen, but that does not mean we need to rule together. Let’s divide the work. I’ll take care of the people and t-” the Ava I knew would have insisted on healing me before talking to me. And this definitely would not have been the topic.
“No.” I cut her off.
Her eyes flashed with anger.
“I will look after everything with your help. It’s not fifty-fifty. We both do the hundred percent together.” I’m not budging on this.
“No. I won’t do that.” She said firmly.
“Won’t or can’t?” I stepped closer to her, crowding her space.
Her heartbeat spiked, but she looked calm. “There is nothing I can’t do. I took care of our pack when you weren’t here, all on my own.”
Her smell assaulted my senses. I could see the pulse of her vein. Where my mark was still there. We are mates. And we always will be.
“Exactly. It’s our pack, Love.” I lowered my head and darted my tongue out, licking my mark.
She shivered. I could feel her body warming up. Not so cold anymore, huh?
“I’m back now. So there is no need to do everything on your own. We will be rulers together. We will be parents together.” My canines extended, ready to mark her again, to remind her who her mate truly is.
But I think that was the wrong thing to say because she pushed my back and glared at me. “We will never be together in anything.”
“We are together right now.” I stepped closer again. “We will always be together. Not even the Gods and Goddess’ wish will change that. Because I’m always going to be with you, Moya Lyubov.” She took a step back, and I took another step ahead. “Another mate is just semantics. I had one too. It doesn’t come in our way, and you know it. Our love is stronger than that.” She kept stepping back, and I kept stepping forward until we were back in the bedroom, and she had her back again the wall.
I placed my hands on either side of her head, and her breath spiked further. “No one can make you feel what I made you feel.” I lowered my head till our lips were inches apart. “Not even him.”
But I guess that was again the wrong thing to say because she ducked out from under my arm and backed away from me.
“You may be stronger than him, Nikolai, but he is much more of a man than you ever were.”
I think Ava has become a sadist.
I remained silent at that. Does she really think that? Does she really hate me that much?
“You really feel that way?” My voice shook.
She remained silent for a while, and then tears rose in her eyes. “Yes.” She whispered, and a fat tear rolled down her cheek.
A weight slammed on my chest, and it got difficult to breathe.
The bedroom doors opened, and Viktoria walked in with Niklaus, holding his hand, pulling him inside.
“See! I told you that the room is unlocked! It has two pools! Two! And an awesome view! And Dadda and Mamma lived by the ocean before. How cool is that? Dadda, show Klaus the ocean; he hasn’t seen it either!” Viktoria ran to the balcony.
Niklaus took one look at Ava’s teary eyes and glared at me. “You made her cry again?” He asked angrily. “Again? Really? She had finally stopped crying! Finally! Why did you come back? Huh? Why?” He hugged his mother and turned his face to glare at me, “You should have stayed dead!”
“Niklaus! No!” Ava gasped.
“It’s fine if he feels that way, Avalyn.” I forced the words out with a smile. “Unlike you, he at least has the guts to say it to my face.”
And with that, I slipped out of the room.