Chapter 159 Nightmare

Nikolai

I forced my eyes to stay open as I swayed on my feet.

My vision was blurry. My forearm was one fire—not the kind I was immune to. It felt like it was on fire. It burned like hellfire. My whole body hurt.

The unusually huge snake that I was fighting was relentless. It didn't need oxygen to breathe and fire didn't affect it. Simply put, I was left to fight it with my strength and wit. Both of which had taken a severe hit. It was venomous and I could feel the poison spreading through my body every second and the pain I was feeling along with it. I could barely think straight. Hell, I could barely see.

But a fucking snake wasn't bring me down.

I am Nikolai Volkov.

And I need to get back to Ava. I need to beg for her forgiveness. I need to tell our children how much I love them. I need to go back to Jivan. I need to find a way. I need to do so many things.

The snake slowly started shifting into...a dark human-like figure. It was crouching and I could barely see anything properly.

No...it can't be. Snake-humans don't exist.

I rubbed my eyes. I was most probably hallucinating.

And then it rose to its feet. It's yellow eyes glowed and his snake tongue hissed loudly in warning before it began running towards me.

I let out a growl, ready to fight it to death. His death, not mine of course.

I extended my claws and began shifting into my wolf but I phased halfway but my legs couldn't hold me up and I fell down before shifting into my skin again.

I looked up.

I could see the hunger in its eyes. Hunger for my blood. For my life.

It was seconds away from me. It let out an ear-piercing hiss that kept ringing in my head.

The pain I was feeling in my body intensified. It hurt too fucking much. I could taste my own blood in my mouth. I had several wounds all over my body from fighting such weird creatures every day for so long. I was fighting death since a long time.

This was it, wasn't it?

The big bad alpha wolf brought down by a snake. I wouldn't be able to see Ava for a long time.

It let out another ear shattering hiss and then all I could see around me was light. A soothing gold coloured feathers.

"Dadda!"

My eyes snapped open and looked into the worried blue eyes of my daughter.

"Were you having a bad dream?" She asked biting down on her lip, reminding me of Ava.

I nodded. It was a nightmare. One that easily could've been my reality if Valerie and Fiyona hadn't found and saved me.

She wrapped her arm around me in a hug, "don't worry, Dadda, I'll save you."

"Thank you, Princess," I whispered, taking a deep breath. I looked at the clock. It was three thirty am.

These nightmares had become a recurring thing for me. But it was the first time when I woke Tori up. They were usually silent or maybe she was just a heavy sleeper.

"I always tell Mama when I have a bad dream. She makes them go away. Do you want to go and tell Mama?" She asked, her voice sleepy but caring.

I smiled, "no, baby, she must be sleepi—actually, yes." I had taken away a lot of Ava's nightmares. It was about time she did the same. And it was my touch that reminded her of our love and crack her ice. It was about time I started melting her.

She smiled and automatically picked up her blanket and Wolfie— the same one I had given Ava on her date but Tori had fallen in love with it and couldn't sleep without it. At least someone liked it.

As we walked to her bedroom, I began doubting whether or not this was a good idea.

Yesterday, I caught Valerie crying. She didn't say much so I just sat there with her till she cried her heart out. When she was finally feeling better, she looked at me with tears in her eyes and asked me if she was a good mother.

I told her that she of course was. There was no doubt in it. And then she looked so heartbroken that she started crying again. She didn't offer me any explanation but I had an inch that she had tried talking to Ava and it didn't go well. I suggested her to go to the Fatum Dimension for a while and spend some quality time with her parents.

She agreed, gave me a hug, thanked me for everything before calling Fiyona who took her home.

The Ava I knew would never hurt her mother, she would never make her mother cry.

My Ava would also not make me doubt myself on a daily basis. She wouldn't keep me at arm's length all day and only talk to me when it was absolutely needed. She would not make excuses to distance herself from me. She would not tell me that she hated me every single day. She would not accuse me of stealing Tori away from her. She would not purposefully cosy up to some man and kiss him in front of me again and again just to make me jealous and miserable.

Remembering all of this wasn't doing me any good. I needed to persist through the bad times and focus on the bigger picture. This hardship was temporary and the future was forever. What was love without a little hurt anyways? And Ava was worth it.

I gently opened Ava's bedroom door to find her sound asleep. I hesitated for a second, not wanting to disturb her sleep and face her wrath again. But Tori grabbed my hand and pulled me inside the bedroom, "go sleep next to Mama. She'll take all the bad dreams away," she whispered before climbing on the bed and lying down next to Klaus. It was a big bed. I assumed she had it custom made so our kids would sleep with her on it and still have plenty of space to move around. The four of us could fit easily. I walked over to the other side of the bed and hesitated once again.

She looked so peaceful. Her face glowed under the moonlight. Her lips were slightly parted and she was drooling a little. A small smile formed on my face. I love her so fucking much. Her long hair was pulled back in a braid. The hair tie she had used to secure it was slipping and I was sure it would come off before she woke up. A few curly strands had escaped and framed her face. I sat down beside her and gently pushed away a lock that touched her forehead.

She smiled slightly in her sleep and my heart inflated with love.

Sleepy Ava liked me.

I needed to take my chance. I needed to cease every opportunity.

"Sleep Dadda!" Tori whispered loudly. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight Princess." I whispered and then laid down beside Ava. As if I was going to sleep and waste these precious moments.

I turned to my side so I could look at Ava.

We were so close yet so far.

All I wanted right now was to have one good night's sleep. I hadn't slept well in so long. I just wanted to sleep like we used to. I missed the weight of her head on my chest. I missed the warmth of her body on mine. I missed holding her boob till I fell asleep. I missed her. Period.

She groaned something incoherently before her arm flailed out and rested over my arm. And then she scooted closer to me. She voluntarily moved closer to me. In her sleep but whatever! She wanted to be near me!

The tip of her freezing nose touched my chest—I wasn't wearing a t-shirt and then I froze.

I heard her heart rate pick up and I knew she was awake.

But instead of pushing me away and saying something mean, she looked up at me with her doe shaped electric blue eyes and blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice. And then she smiled softly.

My. Heart. Stopped.

"Am I dreaming again?" She mumbled, not taking her eyes off me.

My breath hitched. She dreamed about me? It meant she missed me!

I cupped her cheek, "no, Moya Lyubov. I'm here. I'm really here."

She raised a trembling hand and placed it over my chest, feeling my skin, my warmth, my heart.

She bit down on her lip. "You're real."

"I'm very real." I whispered, not wanting to wake up our kids.

"Let me use my magic on you." She stated but her tone was pleading.

I dropped my guard. There was nothing she asked that I wouldn't give. "Do what you want with me, Love," I kissed the top of her head.

And then in the next second, we were on the balcony of our bedroom.

"Do you know that this was the place I missed the most?" Ava said as she walked towards the edge. She covered herself with her arms and goosebumps spread across her skin.

She was cold.

I walked closer to her and took a chance by wrapping my arms around her tiny frame. She always said that I was warm and that I was her personal heater.

And surprisingly, instead of pushing me away, she leaned back against my chest, letting out a soft sigh, "actually this is the place I missed the most."

"I missed this place too," I held her tighter and pressed a kiss against my mark on her neck, making her shiver. This was my place. Holding her, making sure she is safe and protected.

It had been almost a month since I was back and I couldn't believe that it had taken me this long to win her back. I should've stopped being a pussy and fought harder a long time ago.

"How have you been?" I had received a report of everything that happened in the Kingdom a long time ago. But those were written words in a formal document. I wanted to know how Ava coped with everything and how she had been.

"I've been okay." She said but she didn't sound okay.

"And now tell me how you really have been." I spun her around so she was facing me. I caught her hands in mine, wanting to have some kind of contact with her.

"I wasn't okay for a very long time. I missed you terribly. And Klaus...he is a mini version of you. Looking at him, talking to him, seeing his little quirks felt like you were right here." Her eyes lowered. "And it made me miss you so much more."

"He's like me?" I asked in surprise.

She nodded. "Exactly like you. You'll know it when you see it. And I'm sorry for his behaviour...it's all my fault. When they were younger, I was...emotionally unstable. Even your name made me cry. And I guess he's just..."

"He loves you. He's protective about you and doesn't like to see you cry." I finished and she nodded. "I guess I can already see how he's an exact mini-version of me." I brushed away a stray tear from her cheek. "Don't worry about it. We'll be fine now."

"I hope so." She replied. "And all those uprisings and revolts started to happen. Max, Nat and Andrei were trying their best but I knew I needed to step in. I couldn't be the Queen and not do anything. But me trying to do anything just heated things up. I just...it was so hard. How did you make it seem so easy?"

"It was never easy. But I suppose you faced difficulties I never had to. Our society is male dominated and unfortunately women have always had to fight for their place. It's not fair but the good thing is that we are making strides towards equality every time a woman stands up for herself."

"Yes, that is true. Is that why you insisted saying you had killed Vasilik all those years ago?"

"Yes. It would've caused chaos if they had known their King had been killed by a woman." Vladimir and Sof had already been going through too much. They didn't need more to deal with at that time.

She didn't say anything for a while. We just stood there, taking in the peace that the canopy of stars above our head brought us. I finally felt like I was home. Ava is my home. But I could feel that there was a storm brewing in Ava's head. I waited for her to sort her thoughts out before she could bring it up.

"If you think about everything so much, if you plan for everything, why did you let this happen? You...you broke me." She pressed her lips together and her chin trembled. "Y-you broke us."

"I'm back now, telling you I'm sorry." I hurt her and I deserve the punishment she gives me. But she was hurting too which made it harder for me to watch. "Leave him, Ava. Choose me. Love me. I'll make everything okay."

Her eyes teared up all over again and then she sobbed, "please make everything okay again. Please."

I pulled her into a hug and held her tight against my chest. "Everything's okay, Love. I love you. I'll always love you."

"It was all too much," she cried. "I -I just..."she gasped, "It's you, Nik. It's always been you. I don't know how...why...Gabe...I'm sorry!"

I caressed her back. "It's okay, Moya Lyubov," tears rose in my eyes. She's back. My Ava is back. And she's mine. Finally. "Please don't cry. You have nothing to apologise for."

"I hurt you. So much. I-I'll always be sorry for that."

I pulled back and captured her lips in a bruising kiss. The sparks that passed through my body were more powerful, more potent than ever before. Ava trembled in my hold and then smiled in the kiss.

"Apology accepted." I smiled. "No more apologies now."

"Okay, Nik," she whispered, her still eyes on my lips before she raised on her toes and kissed me again. "I love you."

"I love you too."

And then we spend the entire night like that, in each other's arms. Talking and reminiscing about the past and planning and imagining the rest of our lives together.