SWNOVELS Chapter 44 - Nikolaos
The second I set my eyes on the blood-soaked baby on Mia's chest, I found myself kneeling at her bedside. This is my heart split into two people, my entire life in front of me and I knew at that moment that I would kill anyone who tried to hurt them.
A burst of pride shot through my chest, chasing away all the bad, all the shame and doubts that I would be a good parent. In its place stood steely determination and a fierce, overprotective love I have never felt before.
Did my father not feel this when I was born or was it only reserved for my brother? Did my mother feel the same love and pride shining in Mia's eyes? How could they not feel this way about their own children? How cold do you have to be to not love the little person you helped make?
“Would you do the honor, Alpha?” Lilah asks me as she holds up the umbilical cord. I don't even have to think twice, forgoing the scissors and using my teeth as Knox feels immense pride for using him to bite through the cord.
I wipe the blood from my mouth, turn to my Luna, and pepper kisses against her hair. “So beautiful; I am so proud of you,” I say, drinking in her relief and swallowing her happy tears. “You did well, vasilissa mou.”
She tries to swallow down a sob and I draw my forehead to hers while laying my hand on Ares. The instant, fierce love I feel for this little one nearly knocks me out cold and I swallow down the emotion threatening to spill over my cheeks.
“Can you help me up, please?” Mia asks me when Lilah takes Ares away. “I can feel the tears have healed, I just need to clean up before I give Ares his first feed.”
My heart drops. “Tears?”
This seems to make her blush and she nods. “I tore quite a bit trying to push him out, but they've all healed now,” she says, stunning me even more. I knew what went into giving birth, but hearing how it hurt her just breaks my heart.
My lips are a thin line, but I pick her up and carry her to our bedroom. I place her in the shower and help her wash the blood and mucus away. I don't use any perfumed body wash since Ares needs to get used to her scent, and when we're done, I dry her off and wrap a fluffy nightgown around her waist while throwing on a pair of sweatpants myself.
All through this, she wears a blissful smile and I can feel the contentment radiating through her mark.
“That was my first thought, but one of my eyes inside the Incest Mansion says Josef hasn't been there at all. It's starting to fucking worry me, Niko; there's no way he's an insignificant player in all of this.”
Anger pierces my heart when I think about how much I trusted Josef and how much I wanted to help him. I put him next to the most important person in my life and he nearly took them both from me.
“I need Descry to go out with Ghost to do another sweep of the perimeter; there's no fucking way he's just disappeared without a trace. Either he's outside my territory, or somewhere inside it,” I growl as uneasiness sets in my heart. “You know what they fucking say about loose strings.”
“They can unravel even the greatest masterpiece,” he says with disgust, clenching his jaw. “How the fuck did he slip under our radar, Niko? We trusted that fucking rat and he betrayed us!”
“Nothing hurts you more than family,” I say, leaning back and biting the pad of my thumb. "Speaking of which, we need to decide when to get the selection of wives down.”
Maxim visibly shudders. “I can't believe you want me to fucking marry someone I don't know,” he says, shaking his head. “But whatever is good for the pack and whatever will strengthen our alliances.”
I nod. “It's our way of life, brother; we marry for nothing but love until we find love.”
I hate doing this to Maxim, but I have to do it for the good of the pack. There have been too many exiled in the last few weeks, I cannot afford to fuck this up now that I own the second-largest territory.
“That reminds me-" My words are cut short when a terrible sense of fear grips my heart and I leap to my feet, knocking my chair over. My hand goes to Mia's mark on my neck and it's burning hot... that's when I hear it.
Mia's heart-wrenching scream.
Maxim pales and we both run out of the office, my heart clenching when I see Panzer and Armata looking at me with fear in their eyes. I burst through the bedroom door and see Mia screaming and pulling at her hair while staring at the bassinet.
She turns her head to me, tears shining in her eyes as she leaps from the bed. “He's gone, Niko! Ares is gone!” she cries out, punching my chest and I grab her wrist to gently hold her sobbing frame against me.
There's a different scent in here, something I cannot place but something I know so well.
“Who the fuck came in here?!"
I hear Maxim ask the two Gammas behind me as I walk towards the now empty bassinet... but it's not exactly empty...something is laying where my son should be, and it feels as if someone has stuck a hot poker through my heart.
“The doctor came, Beta Maxim! She said she needed to check up on Luna and she has been in before, so we assumed it was fine!”
Lilah, that's the scent I'm smelling. But why...why would she take my son and why would she put this in his place?
Maxim walks towards me and freezes when he sees the thing laying in place of my son; the anxiety coming from him shoots through me and I feel his hand on my shoulder.
“Niko...is that-"
“Yes,” I simply answer, my hands trembling as I pick up the spiked leather collar my mother used to make me wear.