Mercy

Roza couldn’t understand the reason why she decided to come here. When she was pulled into her Alpha’s office, she imagined Nikolai demanding her Alpha to hand her over because that was what she expected from Nikolai. She arrived in the office to hear that it was not Nikolai who demanded her to be transferred to their territory, but Nikolai’s Beta.

Upon arriving, she could see how pale Nikolai looked. Dimitri told her that if she was here his wolf will sense her wolf’s presence and be able to slowly heal. Nikolai’s body was failing because spiritually his wolf was giving up. Roza could see that Nikolai hasn’t changed. He was still as stubborn as before. That was the only reason she could think of that made him walk out the cabin door that night.

Maksim was given to Dimitri’s mate to be taken care of while she tended to Nikolai. He woke up and for a moment she saw a flash of confusion flicker in his eyes before he fell back asleep. When she was finally alone, she moved to sit in the chair next to his bed.

“I hate you.” She whispered. “I hate you so much. You can’t die on me, Nikolai. You can’t have it that easy.”

She doesn’t know how long she sat staring at him but when she awoke, Nikolai was awake and staring down at her. She shifted in her uncomfortable position and grimaced at the pain in her back for sleeping so carelessly.

“What are you doing here, Roza?” Nikolai asked.

“You were dying.” Roza replied and glanced down at his hand. Nikolai wanted to pull her into his arms and never let her go, but the thought of her pushing him away — kept him at bay.

“Why do you care?” He retorted and she scoffed as she looked away from him.

“I don’t.” She responded and Nikolai felt a stab in his chest. He clenched his jaw at the pain.

The door opened and Dimitri’s mate Anna walked in with Maksim. His little eyes found his mother and a smile crawled onto his face as he let go of Anna’s hand and ran to his mother’s arms. Nikolai watched as his son buried his face in his mother’s chest for comfort and then looked up at him curiously.

Roza noticed the curious look on her son’s face and glanced back at Nikolai, who in turned looked at her. Nikolai waited to see what she will do. Will she tell the truth or will she lie? He wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t want their son to know who he was, but a part of him literally prayed for her to tell their son the truth.

“Maksim, this is your оте́ц (father).” Roza pointed at Nikolai and Maksim tilted his head slightly as he looked Nikolai over warily.

Nikolai held his breath. He didn’t know what to do. He was afraid if he asked to hug Maksim, the little boy would run away from him.

“оте́ц.” Maksim repeated what his mother said. He was still too young to understand what the relationship was, but shyly he was willing to see who the man on the bed was to him. He crawled onto the bed and sat next to Nikolai.

Nikolai gave him a soft smile before looking at Roza, who tore her gaze away the moment their eyes met. Sighing, Nikolai glanced back down at their son. Slowly, he began teasing his son. He was still very weak, but he could feel that his wolf was getting stronger with the presence of their soulmate and their pup near.

There was a knock at the door and they looked up to see a maid walk in with a tray of food. She handed the tray to Roza so that Roza can feed Nikolai. Roza’s eyes widened surprisingly as she completely forgot that it was custom for mates to feed each other once they find out they are mates. No other person can do it for them.

Nikolai could see the debate that was going through Roza’s head. She wasn’t sure if she should be the one to feed Nikolai and he was about to speak up when he saw Roza’s hesitant little hands went to accept the tray. The maid smiled and then curtsied before she left.

Roza carried the tray over and placed it on Nikolai’s lap as she moved to sit on the edge of the bed. Maksim by now had gotten distracted with the stuff in his father’s room and was jumping around and playing with his father’s items.

“Maksim.” Roza scolded.

“It’s okay. He can do what he wants.” Nikolai stopped Roza from scolding their son. To Nikolai, his son can destroy the whole room and he was okay with it because in his heart, he was happy to have them near and that was all he needed.

“You don’t have to feed me if you don’t want to.” Nikolai said. “I can try to feed myself.”

“I can do it.” She said without looking at him. She opened the bowl of fresh hot soup. She picked up the spoon and scooted closer to Nikolai’s body. Lifting up the bowl, she scooped a little of the soup into her spoon and brought it up to blow lightly on it, to cool it down before bringing it to Nikolai’s mouth.

He opened his mouth to allow his mate to feed him. His wolf was happy with the action. Their mate did not say no. The act of feeding your mate was intimate and the one on the receiving end always got the most satisfaction out of it.

Nikolai couldn’t tear his gaze from his mate even if he wanted. She wouldn’t look at him as she fed him but he didn’t care. He missed everything about her.

Nikolai could only take a few bites before he couldn’t take any more. His body was still so weak and eating too much was causing him to be a little nauseous, but not eating enough will also cause him to have a slower recovery.

He shook his head. “That’s enough.”

Roza hesitated. She knew he only took a couple spoonfuls and it wasn’t enough for him. She scooped up a little bit more.

“Eat, Nikolai. It is what will heal you.”

Nikolai wanted to argue and say it wasn’t what he needed. What he needed was to feel her close. What he needed was to feel her skin on his.

“I’m not hungry.” Nikolai rebutted.

She wanted to argue some more but she stopped herself. If he wanted to be stubborn then she wasn’t going to argue with him. Placing the spoon back onto the tray with the bowl, she lifted the tray up and placed it on the end table.

“Have you been here all night?” Nikolai asked.

“Yes.” She said. “Our wolves needed each other. My wolf being here is healing yours.”

Nikolai got the hint. She wasn’t here because she wanted to be. She was here because of Nikolai’s wolf and hers and it hurt to see her distinguish between her and her wolf. She was still clearly very angry with him.

“Roza.” Nikolai started and Roza shook her head immediately. It was as if she already knew what Nikolai was saying.

“нам нужно поговорить(we need to talk).” Nikolai told her.

She walked over to Maksim and picked him up. “Not now. I am going to take him in for his nap.”

Nikolai watched her leave before falling back onto the bed. He closed his eyes and as his body was still aching and weak, it wasn’t difficult for him to fall back asleep.