Page 131 of White Wolf

Nikita loved her for that tenderness. Among other things.

Then Pyotr was there with a glass of cold water.

Kolya, and Ivan, and Feliks stood over them, a human wall. And a shield.

“You alright, puppy?” Ivan asked, more than a little worry in his voice.

Sasha looked at all of them, their faces, and slowly awareness returned to his eyes. He was still shivering and pale, but he knew them. “Is he…?”

Nikita refused to look over his shoulder. “Let’s worry about you right now.” He couldn’t get them – their pack – out of the room fast enough.

~*~

When the fog in his head finally cleared, Sasha realized that he was afraid. Very much so. In the midst of the invocation, an unnatural calm had come over him.

Yes, a voice had said in the back of his mind.This is your place, this is your task. You were built to serve.Some part of him, deeply suppressed, had railed against the idea. But the fog had rolled in, obliterating thought and feeling, until he was nothing but a tool, awaiting his vampire master’s pleasure.

When Rasputin’s eyes opened, he’d felt a pull in his chest, something awful and relentless, and he’d fought it. It had taken every ounce of his strength to stagger back from the table and sink to the ground, but he’d known he had to do it. He’d known he couldn’t allow himself to fall into the awful urge to bend his head, and show his neck, andsubmit.

He was the alpha, and he didn’t submit.

Now, a little ways down the hall in an empty exam room, Katya’s fingers gentle and cool against his skin as she bandaged his hand, the foggy sense of resistance was giving way to outright fear.

He glanced at his surroundings. Shelves full of beakers, test tubes, and stoppered bottles of unidentifiable liquids. Boxes of bandages and gauze. He sat on a table, and Nikita stood beside him, one hand braced on his shoulder, holding Sasha up.

His mouth felt full of cotton when he spoke. “What happened?”

Katya tied off the bandage and secured it with a safety pin. Her expression was careful when she met his gaze. “Do you remember cutting your hand?”

He nodded, and then winced, because the movement sent pain arcing through his skull. “I know I woke him up. I just. It’s fuzzy.”

She traded a look with Nikita.

Nikita said, “Did he hurt you?” His tone was that of the protective big brother Sasha had never had, and he sagged sideways, leaning into him, whimpering before he could check the impulse.

Nikita’s arm went around his shoulders.

“No,” Sasha said. “I’m okay. It was just…strange.” He straightened, not wanting to appear weak, wanting to be the strong pack alpha, but Nikita’s hand lingered on his shoulder, and he was grateful for that. “He’s really awake?”

“Yes, and they’re all making a big fuss about him,” Katya said. She frowned to herself as she stowed the leftover bandages.

“Sasha,” Nikita said, looking at him critically, “what happened to you?”

“I don’t really know,” he said, because he wasn’t sure how to describe it in a way they would understand. “It was – he wanted something from me, I could tell.”

Nikita looked alarmed. “Wanted what?”

“For me to submit to him.”

Nikita’s brows jumped.

The door opened and Ivan stuck his head in, expression grim. “The old fucker wants to see Sasha. Hey, you alright, pup?”

Sasha took a deep breath. “Yeah. I’m coming.”

His legs didn’t want to hold him, but he made it down the hallway. The door to the lab was propped open, and assistants in white coats bustled in and out, talking to one another under their breath. The area buzzed with the busy excitement of a kicked anthill.

Dread began to build in Sasha’s stomach, dark and heavy as a stone, making him vaguely sick.

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