I knew that. Of course Remy needed to know what happened from our new departure to the fact that Damien was trying to use me as some sort of twisted leverage. He also needed to know Tate and I were bringing an army with us.
An army of possibly psychotic shifters led by my maybe sociopathic father.
Freaking awesome.
Who didn’t want to wake up their boyfriend from sleep he desperately needed to unload that mess on his lap?
I considered just calling as I dropped into the corner of the sofa, the overstuffed cushions cradling my body. But I selfishly craved seeing his face.
My finger tapped the video chat function before I could talk myself out of it.
I bit my lip as I waited for him to answer. It took a few rings, but then his face appeared on the screen.
“What’s wrong?” he asked immediately, rubbing a hand down his sleepy face. He blinked, focusing his attention on me.
“We’re coming home tomorrow,” I said, starting with the good news.
His eyes went wide. “What?” His body shifted as he sat up in his bed. The phone dropped, giving me a tantalizing view of the hard muscles of his chest before he readjusted his grip.
I couldn’t resist licking my dry lips as arousal thrummed in my veins. God, I missed him.
“The storm is clearing out,” I clarified, clearing my throat as I pulled my mind out of the very dirty gutter it wanted to live in. “Nikolai said we can leave early tomorrow evening, so we should be back … I don’t even know. I think the flight is like sixteen hours or something. But we’re leaving tomorrow.”
“Thank fuck,” he whispered, his eyes sliding shut for a second. When they opened, the unspoken emotion in them left me breathless.
“In somewhat related news, I just watched my stepmother stab a man in the eye at dinner.”
There was a beat of silence before he yelled, “What?”
I winced. “He was a spy from an Italian pack.”
Remy’s gaze sharpened. “And are Italian spies a regular occurrence in Russia?”
“They are when the Italian pack is the pack that Norwood spawned from.”
His jaw tensed in fury. “God-fucking-dammit.”
“Yeah.” I sighed reluctantly. “They found out I was here. Norwood had them send someone to see if …”
Ugh. I didn’t want to finish that sentence.
“If what, Skye?” Remy demanded, his eyes burning.
“If I could be grabbed before I made it back to Blackwater,” I said softly. “Norwood wanted to force you to give up.”
His head fell back against his headboard with a thunk, the tendons of his throat flexing as he fought to control the rage burning him alive.
“I would have,” he admitted, looking at me. “Fuck, I totally would have.”
Fear prickled the nape of my neck. “Rem.”
“If they had you …” He exhaled hard. “I’d give them whatever they wanted.”
“No,” I growled, surprising myself. “Don’t even say that, Remy.”
“Skye—”
“No,” I snapped, cutting him off. “This is bigger than you or me. No matter what happens to us, you have to remember that.”
“You’re right. I know that,” he agreed after a beat. “But don’t ever put me in a position of having to choose between you and our pack, Skye. It’s you. Every damn time. It will always be you, babe.”
Tears burned my eyes. “Then let’s make sure we’re together so no one has to choose.”
“Deal.”
I sniffed, blinking away the tears crowding my lash line. “Besides, apparently threatening me while I’m in Narodnaya means you get turned into an eye-kebab.”
A shudder of revulsion rippled down my spine as I remembered Paolo falling over with the knife hilt protruding from his eye.
“Are you okay?” he asked me gently.
“I just want to come home,” I said brokenly, rubbing my forehead in exhaustion. “This place … It’s overwhelming as hell, Remy. I feel like I’ve learned so much, but I have so many more questions.”
“What happened with Elias?”
He gave me the pregnancy scare of a lifetime.
“We didn’t have time for many questions before Nikolai tried to kill him with a table,” I said with a frown. “Elias just seemed so resigned.”
“How so?” Remy’s eyes narrowed.
“Like he knew what he did was wrong, but he didn’t care?” I tried to put my finger on it. “He’s definitely helping Norwood, but it feels like there’s more. Nikolai is furious. He and Dimitri have both said Elias betrayed them. That they brought him here so he could learn what they were doing.”
“Doing with what?”
“I’m still not entirely sure how it works,” I replied slowly, thinking back. “It has something to do with a system Nikolai set up. They don’t have nearly the same issue with fertility as we do, and they have a lot more bonded mates. There’s a magical aspect to it that helps it work better.”
Remy opened his mouth to speak as someone knocked on my door.
“Skye? It’s Lulu. Can I come in?”
“What’s going on?” Remy asked, seeing my attention shift from him.
“Lulu’s here,” I said absently. I got up and moved to the door, opening it.
“Hey,” she said, twisting the toe of her boot into the floor as she gave me a hopeful smile. “Nikolai wanted you—Crap. Are you on the phone?”
I nodded at her.
Her eyes lit up. “Is that the mate? Can I meet him?”
My fingers clutched the phone tighter in response.
“Or not,” she said with a shrug, not offended. “I’ll meet him soon enough.”
“Excuse me?” I bristled at the implication.
“I just meant that I’m coming with you,” she explained, easing back a step so there was space between us.
I frowned. “Can you give me a second?”
“Take your time.” Lulu gave me a thin smile and moved back into the hallway.
I turned away from the door. “I need to see what she wants. Or what Nikolai wants.”
Remy’s eyes were hard. “What did she mean by coming with you?”
I mentally facepalmed.
“Nikolai wants to come with me to make sure I get home safe,” I started.
He nodded, fully on board with me having a protective escort home.
“But he wants to bring people from here, too, and their allies.”
“Why?” Remy’s voice hardened at the perceived threat.
“Norwood screwed them over as much as they did us,” I answered. “Nikolai wants to help us stop them once and for all.”
He mulled that over, the corners of his mouth pinched tight. “Do you trust him?”
I blinked slowly in surprise. “I … Honestly? Yeah, I do. My gut tells me he wants to help us.”
“Okay,” he agreed.
“Okay?”
“I trust you, Skye,” Remy told me. “If you think he can be trusted, then I’m with you. Just give me an idea of how many people we’re looking at so we can set up lodging and stuff. Katy, Larkin, and Ryder are handling that, so the more notice the better.”