[ARYA]
"He heard us, Natalya. He heard us, and he thinks we are plotting against him. Why did this become so hard, Natalya?" Arya cried out to Natalya.
Her heart was sore with pain.
She had caused her mate so much pain, but what else could she do? It wasn't like she could walk up to Nikita and make him understand what was happening.
Natalya couldn't either because then the good doctor would have been arrested for false claims.
"Hey, I thought that was the plan?... You… You're crying?" Natalya asked, shocked. She had never thought the day would ever come when a woman cried because of the excellent doctor, and that too when they barely had any encounters.
Natalya wanted to think that Arya's tears were fake, but one look at the werewolf princess, and she knew the woman wasn't faking it.
"No, Why would I cry for the good doctor?" Arya said as she hastily wiped her tears. She hadn't realized it yet, but her tears weren't the typical colorless forms that anyone's tears always took.
No.
Arya's tears were silver, very rare tears because she was a particular wolf. Wiping them hastily only made her beautiful face glow with silver.
For the first time, Arya missed her mother and father. Her parents would always know how to make things work. Maybe she really needed to go back home; besides, it had been eight years since she returned home.
"Your tears—"
"It's nothing. I wonder if the doctor is okay," Arya tried changing the subject, but from the looks of it, Natalya Volkov wasn't buying it. She needed more to work with.
****
Arya had walked into the Pavlenko household barely ten minutes ago when Nikita showed up. His coming home after the incident at the hospital just didn't make sense, and now he was here? The house looked like shit, thanks to the favor Natalya had done for Arya.
Arya knew Nikita would be curious about the state of the house, which is why she had decided to test for herself if the doctor did care or he was just there to figure out what in all hell happened there.
She wanted to know if all that had been pretense. Even though the Pavlenko companies were about to be seized, all of his silence. However, when Nikita walked in and just greeted Natalya, Arya knew this was it.
He was so close to the edge that one wrong move, the good doctor, her mate, the man who was supposed to be her other half, would plummet either into depression or he would get lost in all the madness.
What the hell was she supposed to do with that? It didn't help that she had gotten disturbing footage of what had happened to the Pavlenkos or rather the possibility of what happened.
When Arya Knight had stumbled upon the footage of Yelena and Dazai Pavlenko, she never thought it would be so severe. It was clear that they were creating something, and it had been way too essential for them too.
As she had watched it, she realized that shit was about Yuri, or rather the cure that the doctors were working on for their son. This could only mean that they needed to make their son better.
Arya's heart had broken for the good doctor at all that happened, but then she knew that was the only way. So she had someone send the memory card to Nikita earlier. She knew the doctor wouldn't care about it, which is why they had put up the front.
A dismantled Pavlenko house and talking like they didn't care was harsh, but it was the only way for her to get Nikita to see what was happening. She knew he was fighting a lost battle, and he would give up soon.
Arya had to fuel his anger, his distrust in everything. Arya Knight was determined to give her mate the purpose he needed. This was the only way she knew to fix her broken mate. Nikita didn't know it yet, but this woman was determined to be there for him.
If, after all this, he didn't care for her or love her, then she would go back home and accept whichever mate her parents had chosen for her. She wasn't scared of anything; after all, she was the first feal alpha of the moonlight pack.
She knew she had responsibilities, by all that could wait; besides, her parents had been doing a pretty good job of taking care of their people. She still got a year to get Nikita fixed and ready to go with her.
Hopefully, she wouldn't fail.
"Who is the doctor to you?" Natalya asked, her face stern, like Caella would always get whenever she reprimanded Arya. The only difference was, she wasn't Caella.
"No one really," Arya said, and Natalya rolled her eyes before handing the wolf princess tissues to wipe the silver remnants off her face.
Whoever this woman was, she either had to be too obsessed with Nikita or valued Nikita. But then, she didn't look like the kind of woman to go around obsessing over boys. There was something to this woman, and Natalya was determined to find out.
"If we're going to be working together, the least you can do is tell me who you are and why you care about the doctor so much," Natalya said as they both sat on the floor. The living room was still unkempt, so there was no point going there.
"You won't believe me even if I tell you," Arya sighed sadly, making Natalya frown. Surely it couldn't be as bad as the Pavlenko children and family dying in the crash, right?
"Try me," Natalya said, trying to make Arya laugh. Arya looked at Natalya and wondered if the woman could really handle her truth, and she would probably call animal control on her, but then Natalya was right.
Right this moment, they were clearly the enemies of the Pavlenko household. If they were to do this, they needed to have each other's backs. They needed to know what was good and bad for them, and they needed to know what their enemies would possibly look like.
Then again, the little alpha princess here hasn't really gotten so many enemies, save for the people she had interacted with in the spy business. However, it was worth a shot.
"Promise me you won't freak out," Arya said, and Natalya just laughed.
"You sound like those kids in movies who want to tell their friends that they're werewolves," Natalya said lightly, making Arya look at her. Was this woman really sure that she could handle whatever Arya was about to show her?
"Okay fine, I promise, just don't eat me in case you're a monster. Damn, you'd be a beautiful monster," Natalya laughed heartily.
"Here goes nothing—" Arya began before telling the Pavlenko housemaid of everything, from her running away from home, to her knowing Nikita was her mate, to the bond they shared and to her speculations.
Arya told Natalya of her desire to bond with Nikita naturally like a man would a woman.
And by the time she was done, she was ready for Natalya to report her to the police or even call animal control. Hell, she expected Natalya to throw her out of the house of finally ring the alarm.
However, Natalya just pulled her into a warm hug.
"I'll help you get your mate, child... I'll help you."