Emma nodded. “That’s why Nexus helped me escape. I promised her our research staff would do everything within their power to find a cure before she became a maddened werewolf. The good news is no female has turned crazy werewolf monster. Although, she worries it might still happen.”
He stared toward the path they had just climbed. “The only way to find out if Nexus escaped is to return to Saskia, alone.”
“And if she didn’t and you end up dead?”
“Emma, I vow to get you out of here, but coming up here and waiting for her to find us is foolish.”
Nik had a point. Yet, she had stayed behind to rescue him. Was it for nothing? “There has to be another way.”
“Don’t worry. Saskia will not kill her mate.”
Emma bit her lower lip. “So you gave her the mating bite?”
“I tried.”
“Huh?”
“Apparently, it didn’t work.”
“I didn’t think it would since you obviously don’t love her.”
“It didn’t work because my heart belongs to another.”
Emma raised a brow. He must have bonded with a she-wolf, perhaps years ago, but remained apart. “Hmm. Someone from your past?”
“No. Someone from my present.”
Her heart sunk. That’s it. Someone back at the LIA or from his territory. Why do I hate her already when we can never be a couple? “Back home?”
Nik laughed. “You are jealous.”
“I’m not…just…”
Nik lifted her chin. “It’s you.”
She struggled to find the right words. “Not possible. I don’t carry the Stallo gene.”
“I know, but tell that to my wolf. He chose you. The mark on your neck is a mating bond.”
Emma touched the small indent along her neck. “No werewolf can take an ordinary human as a mate, only as a pet, and that’s not an option.”
Nik frowned. “You would rather belong to Rylee?”
“That’s just a formality. So I can be part of the pack.”
“There is a first time for everything.”
“After the change, without a pack, you probably forgot the number one lycan rule.”
He shook his head and swore in Russian before answering, “No, I decided it was a stupid totalitarian rule.”
Nik sounded like a Bolshevik, out to overthrow the czarist class. “But you are an alpha and you must choose an alpha mate.”
He laughed. “Like Saskia.”
“Of course not. There is a perfectly good lycan dating site.”
“I hear you rejecting me, but your heart says otherwise.”